Owlspotting

The Romanian railway company CFR has launched a campaign to ban smoking on trains beginning September 1. All ash trays have been removed and people caught smoking on the train will be fined. Tickets will say: “No smoking on the train.” In the official release CFR (a state-owned beast) doesn’t mention anything about setting up […]

Two of my former professors at the journalism school in Bucharest, George and Bradut, have been chronicling the admission exam that is taking place this week at FJSC (1, 2). Over the years I’ve given much thought to this exam and whether it could be made more relevant. At the end of the day, the […]

It’s not easy to translate English-language movies into Romanian. Doing subtitles is bad enough as way too often cultural references and certain phrases hit a brick wall when meeting the translator. But even worse is the translation of the actual movie title. Sometimes, the translation reflects the title (which happened in the case of “Inside […]

Yes, the rumors are true: Romerican stopped in Targu Mures and for those 20 or so hours, time stopped as well. While I am sure he will offer a much more revealing review of the hostilities, allow me to preview what he will have to say by permitting you to indulge in some unrevealing words […]

It has been said for centuries that wine is the Holy beverage. I have seen people getting trashed on wine (both on red and the less holy white) and there wasn’t much saintly stuff to report about them. They kept stumbling on their way out of the bar, taxi drivers continued to try to scam […]

I had coffee with a friend today and we somehow ended up talking about akward social moments. She mentioned being in elevators with strangers and all those seconds that seem to strech forever before the doors open and you can return to your personal space. I realized during our chat that many of the social […]

…and will return Aug. 25.

Do you have your balls on you? You do? Then charge ’em and slap ’em on because you’ll need them powered up for this parking adventure. There are few things that happened to me since I returned home that have made me as mad as this. It happened twice last week when I was cruising […]

The Placebo concert in Romania was supposed to be a landmark musical event in Romania–proof that not only “dead” bands make a stop in our country. But the Placebo concert was a weak affair. The organizers did a horrible job planning the event–it took two hours to have people trickle in through one entrance, like […]

Elle wrote this article about Romania after visiting for the first time in december 2004. It originally appeared here. Romania is a filthy, foul-smelling, burnt-out pit, with beggars and thieves lurking in its every piss-soaked alley and behind its every news camera, state bureau and cash register. Anyone who would even think of visiting, much […]