Abrud

I don’t really know what does Malev holds against me… every time I resign to fly with them, something wrong happens… I am now in Romania, more precisely in Abrud, a small village in the Alba County, lost in the middle of the mountains and no many things to do. Well, this is exactly why I am here: because a group of young people decided to do something about it and created a youth resources centre, which will hopefully offer non-formal learning opportunities for the youth of this place. But getting here wasn’t easy and my first visit to Romania will certainly remain unforgettable. To make a long story short, let me just tell you that I was supposed to fly through Amsterdam and Budapest to Cluj. It all started in Amsterdam. The boarding of the flight to Budapest was complete, the push-back truck had already brought the plane to its taxiing position, and everything seemed to be ok until the captain started to go back to the gate, informed that there was a “technical problem” and asked everyone to leave the plane… Once all the passengers did so, we were informed that the flight would be delayed until further notice and that there was another flight to Budapest 150 minutes later. After a lot of yelling and difficult bargaining, I was granted a (business class) seat on that flight, which was also delayed, and all of this made that I landed in Budapest three hours later than I was supposed and therefore missed my connection to Cluj… I still had to find a hotel to spend some hours before a driver came from Cluj to pick me up and drive me by car to Abrud, where I arrived after an eight-hours-long trip through the worse Hungarian and Romanian roads ever… Now, I’m writing this text in the recently opened Youth Resources Centre “Cert”, right in the main square of Abrud. I won’t be able to post it now, because the internet connection is not working in the whole area around Abrud, courtesy of Romania Telecom… This morning I went for a site visit of the Rosia Montana Gold Corporation (this deserves another post, some other time) and will leave in a few hours to Cluj. I am really looking forward to it, not only because everyone tells me that it is a very beautiful town, but also because I will hopefully get the chance to see my brother, who is in an Erasmus exchange there. Moreover, I hope to be able to see a different face of Romania. Until now, I have to confess that I’m having a hard time realising that I am actually in the European Union… And, I promise, I will start a boycott on Malev!

PS - Now I'm in Cluj, in a very nice hotel which offers free Internet access!