My life on this, and other, enchanted isles
August In the village of Enlaka in Hungarian-speaking Romania you feel you should whisper it’s so quiet. Feeling like a benign alien, unable to communicate.Like an advance scout for the tourist massive. Not many English visitors get this far. Most are Hungarians wallowing in the loss of their historic homeland. The deep rustic Hungary they no longer […]
Read More Enlaka1,800 kilometres of rail travel from Transylvania to London by train. Enter a trance state – addicitve – as Europe roles by. From crumbling platforms and clapped out second hand trains in Romania the trains progressively speed up and the economy solidifies into prosperity. The edge disappears. The golden fields unspool into the mountains and […]
Read More Transylvania to London by TrainIn World War Two the Nazis took to building massively re-inforced ‘Flakturm’ vertical bunkers in the sky as anti-aircraft citadals to protect their premier cities – including Vienna. With walls feet thick it would have taken a series of direct hits to dent them. Wien got four of them. They are imposing brutalist sheer concrete cliffs with balconied […]
Read More Inside the Bunker – the jungleDon’t think the Nostalgia villa was taking guests but I would recommend the Anna Villa. One of the most traditional wooden Villas still standing and open to guests. Very friendly and welcoming host. The dis-used Hotel Transylvania is not taking guests anymore. Though you could wander around it. Creepy like The Shining. I heard a […]
Read More Borsec part two: places to stay – or notBorsec (Borszek) was once the most fashionable and elegant spa resorts in the Austro-Hungarian empire. It’s clear clean air, it’s magnificent position in the fairytale Carpathian landscape, and the reputation of its waters – led to the development of a leafy garden resort of bath houses, restaurants and pavilions, as well as 72 elegant beautiful […]
Read More The gentle ruination of a spa town called Borsec – part oneI dreamt I was on a bus as it went down and down a long tunnel deep beneath a hill. Down into a cavernous saltmine. And when I got there, there was hundreds and hundreds of people down there. Playing table tennis and badminton. Eating picnics. There were sandpits, swings and helterskelters…
Read More I had a strange dream…Like many Romanian cities, in Oradea the atmosphere is relaxed and the economy is on the up. But Oradea’s ghosts at the table are the Synagogues. Recent travels in central and eastern Europe have brought home the holocaust in a way that somehow I wasn’t expecting. You know about the camps but visiting cities where […]
Read More Oradea Part ThreeIf you are visiting Oradea you can stay at the (very) faded original Art Nouveau ‘Park Hotel’ for a handful of lei…
Read More Oradea Part TwoThe city of Oradea in Northern Romania has the most exuberent and extensive surviving Art Nouveau cityscape in the former Austro-Hungarian empire. This last extravagent flourish of belle epoque has survived not just in the main square but out into the side streets. The anti-glamour of the eastern bloc flat blocks mass and glower at […]
Read More Oradea Part OneBus station cafes are not renowned for their imagination or attention to detail – and they don’t usually make many design concessions to the mode of transport their customers departed and arrived on (unless its some faux references to Greyhound buses). However in Szekelyudvarhely (Ordorheiu Secuiesc) which is in Szekely Land in Translyvania in Northern […]
Read More Cool bus station cafes of Central and Eastern Europe: an occasional monograph
Enchanted Isle 