Problem solved

May 18th, 2010

In one of my older post I have written about my trip to Slovenia. I also mentioned a fine that I received from the Hungarian Police. Well, so far I was not able to pay that fine for various reasons. Since I pretty much passed the deadline for paying (30 days) I did not do what I can do.
Hungarian Police
I searched different posts on the internet about what there is to be done. There are different views about this, most of the people did not pay the fine, because they thought the Hungarian police will not be able to track Romanian cars/citizens. Well, I did a simple check: I wrote an e-mail to the Hungarian police dept. of the county where I received the fine (Zala county), asking for info on how to proceed and if there is any additional fine for being late.

Surprise, surprise, they have replied in a quite polite way, describing exactly what I have to do, what I have to complete in order to successfully pay the fine. They even sent the ID of the fine, which I have to use for paying (which I eventually found on the ticket I received also, so they CAN track you). They did not mention any additional charges, so I guess I can simply pay the original fine as they indicated.

So, in conclusion: The Hungarian police CAN track you. If you are unsure on how to pay your fine from outside Hungary, send them a mail, they can help you 😉 .

—==[#18]===—

Posted in Hungary, Travel | 3 Comments »

A Transylvanian Hotel

May 17th, 2010

When people abroad hear about Transylvania, the only thing coming to their mind is…. you guessed, Count Dracula. Many people do not really know where it is, and others, who do not confuse it with Pennsylvania, might even think it is not real. Well it is real, and it seems like the Dracula myth is also real. Count Dracula’s castle really exists: and I have been to it 🙂 .
Hotel Castel Dracula
Of course I am talking about a theme hotel where our company organized a team-building event (survivor camp) in Bistrita-Nasaud County, in the mountains of Bargau, at 1116m height. The hotel is actually called: Hotel Castel Dracula because it is a hotel built like a castle.

It is only a three star hotel, but we did not go there in search for luxury or ergonomics. It has decent rooms, service and a multi-level restaurant. Everything is functional, and quite modern I might add, apart from the decoration and furniture which imitates a more castle-like environment. There is also a multi-level bar in one of the towers of the castle, where there is a small pool table for those who enjoy the game. The food is also great, just be careful what you order, things tend to be quite similar in the restaurant…

The surrounding area is also very nice. If you are not there for skiing, then it is an ideal place for hiking. The fresh air and the greenness of the fields combined with the bluish mountains which sometimes gets covered with clouds is really amazing.

And of course what is the most interesting part? For 2 RONs (50 cents) you can request permission to enter Dracula’s tomb. Of course only with a guide, because you never know what is lurking down there. It is not very professional, but it is not for the timid at the heart either. Rest assured, that it is a hell of an experience 😀 .

I have uploaded some photos to my Picasa account.

—==[#17]==—

Posted in Romania, Travel | Comments Off on A Transylvanian Hotel

Desperate moves

May 10th, 2010

… are done by something that cannot think rationally anymore, by something that is just doing actions for the sake of doing it. Well, our government is desperate right now. Among the several intentions of getting more money into the state treasury they had the idea of increasing taxes and the VAT, because of the push of the IMF.
Desperate moves
Well in the end they chose the lesser evil by trying to eliminate all unnecessary personnel from state owned institutes. Economically speaking: great move, less output for the same results. I was really starting to feel something is going to change… well of course the bad news are coming after: there might be some additional measures taken if the first actions do not have any effect… How can one announce plan B, if plan A is not yet in execution? Is plan A that bad? It is good to have a plan B, but why was it announced? No… Plan A is not intended to work. Simple. So what is in Plan B? I’ll present just a few nice ideas:

Introduce taxes for bank deposit interests – I did not really have bank deposits, from now on I will surely not have one. With interests for deposits dropping at a staggering rate, I really do not know how deposits will increase. Since deposits make up a quite large part of the money that banks use, then this is surely going to be beneficial for the banks, which are always the engines of the economy in any country.

Introduce taxes for food tickets: Then what is the point having them? Screw all the companies who are living out of this, we do not need them anymore: again a bunch of people jobless… nice…

Introduce taxes for programmers: One of the leading industries in Romania was the cheap and good quality software development. Well, it might not be cheap anymore… or if it still will be cheap, then the programmers are going to get it, their salary will drop. At this point I have to note, that many of the programmers in our country started off as black market workers: it is not going to be hard to get back. Now the state gets some money off programmers through the companies themselves, from now on that might be lost too…. again, nice move.

All these among the considerable reduction of pensions and salaries in state owned institutes is really going to be a huge boost for the people who will have to cope with the ever increasing prices. We are on top of a nice slope towards future Hoovervilles.

I know that for some countries these measures might seem obvious: in Germany for example there are much higher taxes. But then again Germans are not Romanians. We are different people. Laws should not be copied from other countries. For once it would be nice if laws would be introduced to suit our needs and would be adapted for us. After all, a country is not a country due to it’s government: a country is made up of the people who live in it, the real recovery can only come from them and this is NOT HELPING…

—==[#16]==—

Posted in People&Society, Romania | Comments Off on Desperate moves

Light Festival

May 8th, 2010

Honestly when I was told that there is going to be a “Light Festival” in the central park of Cluj, I really thought they were talking about laser shows and a spectacular light-parade. Then, I was told, there is only going to be candles… now how spectacular can that be? Well pretty spectacular 🙂 : I have never seen the central park like this. There were thousands of small candles lit in small paper-boxes on the alley borders. It really looked magical.
Light Festival Cluj
There were a total of 8000 candles in the entire park and for 2 hours (21-23) the park lighting was turned off (apart from the lighting around the lake) letting only the candles illuminate everything. Although the place looked good, it was a bit crowded. Because of that, I was not really able to see anything of the street performers who were making a fire-show.

The event is organized by a national organization called “Cercetasii Romaniei” (Romania’s Scouts), who organized this event the first time in 2004 in the central park from Cluj, lighting 200 candles to remind people of the beauty of the little things in life. Since then the event has been organized each year, now it has been extended to 12 cities in the country.

I was not able to do any usable photos (apart from the ones I used to make the picture for this post), so no photos about this event… sorry.

—==[#15]==—

Posted in Cluj, People&Society, Romania | Comments Off on Light Festival

A baroque castle

May 1st, 2010

…well the ruins of it actually. But still it was an interesting place to visit. And again I have begun talking about the subject, without first presenting it. So: what is the subject? The subject is the Bánffy Castle from Bonchida, a small village near Cluj. The construction of the castle started in 1437 and was finished in 1543, but it was still standing until WWII. The castle had a mixture of renaissance and baroque style. It was owned by the Bánffy family who also had a palace in Cluj.
Banffy Kastely
So, how to get there? Well if one starts off from Cluj, then the main road towards Gherla has to be taken. One has to pass Jucu (Nokia) village and from then it is basically a straight road until the crossing of the entry road to Bonchida (Bontida). At the entry to the village there is a huge map of the area and one can easily spot where the castle is. Now this was a nice surprise: at last something that is easily found. The entry fee is 2RON (50 cents), so it is a bargain 😉

A lot of people do not know about the castle, simply because it does not mean much to the local population and it’s touristic potential is barely being scratched. But there is hope: the castle is being slowly restored after signing an agreement between the Romanian Ministry of Culture and “Institute of Historic Building Conservation” from Great Britain and The Office for Hungarian Cultural Heritage Protection (I hope I translated it right). The restoration works have been under the high patronage of Prince Charles of Wales who has visited a number of times the construction works.

What is sad: this is only one of the numerous castles and fortresses which have been destroyed after WWII and under the period of the communism. I have visited several countries and admired the abundance of cultural heritage sites. These are the backbones and pride of a society: something to fight for, something what gives you the necessary power to move on. Much of this is completely lost in our country. We have a lot to work until we can get things right, but as this example shows, nothing is lost forever…

Picasa photos here.

—===[ #14 ]===—

Posted in Cluj, Romania, Travel | 1 Comment »

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