RAOC Gazette - page 9
Image details
| Corps | RAOC |
|---|---|
| Material type | Journals |
| Book page | |
| Chapter head | |
| Chapter key | |
| Chapter number | |
| Full title | RAOC Gazette |
| Page number | |
| Publication date | 1978 |
| Real page | |
| Colour | No |
| Grey | No |
| Early date | 1978 |
| Late date | 1978 |
| Transcription |
An East European Experience By Jacqueline Davies ON our return journey by car to England, after a two year loan appointment in Iran, we wanted to travel back via Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia in order to see for our- selves how the Communist half lived. People who inquired of our travel plans said that we would never be given permission to drive through those countries. We applied for clearance in March and to our amazement and delight, three weeks before our anticipated departure date the necessary documents arrived. There then began a frantic round of Embassy visiting to get visas and the local currency. The staff at the various con- sulates could not have been kinder or more helpful. At last after many farewell parties we said a very sad farewell to our friends and Tehran. Our first evening was spent in Tabriz with friends, I managed to find time to visit a silver shop and bought a locally worked silver rice server. At the Irano—Turkish border early the next morning chaos (as usual) reigned. A local doctor in- sisting I be vaccinated against smallpox , . . . unfortunately, he had run out of the necessary form, did I by any chance happen to have one! It all proved too difficult so it was forgotten. We had an uneventful journey through Turkey, despite the fact Turkish elections were to be held at the end of the week, and trouble was expected. Since our last journey through Turkey their roads had improved enormously with many new stretches, one section which passes within two kilometres of the USSR: we could see the Watch Towers and the ubiquitous fence which extended in both directions as far as one could see. We found on reaching Istanbul that a small vibrating noise which had been with us since Tehran, had grown to worry- ing proportions. Having put the tent up and had a good nights sleep, David was up at a very early hour to find a Volvo garage; a small cross link universal joint needed replacing cost- ing us £30, this was the only repair needed on the whole trip. We spent the next four days being tourists; we visited the Blue Mosque, the impressive and massive Saint Sophias Mosque begun around 326 AD: The magnificent Topkapi Palace over- looking the Golden Horn, with its large old trees, antique clock collection and famous Harem. We bought leather sandals, Turkish Delight and endless postcards. The covered Bazaar is enormous, with many gold and fur shops, I was very tempted with one Turkish carpet but David asked me to remember the Persian ones I had bought, and eventually (and unfortunately) common sense prevailed, Next stop was Greece where we spent six idyllic days shopping, and drinking ouzo, sunbathing, and drinking ouzo, in fact it took a great deal of willpower and ouzo to drag our- selves back into Turkey to cross the Bulgarian border at Edirne, We were both a little apprehensive about the whole ad- venture as the last few kilometres went by, we had heard so many dire warnings, perhaps they would follow us etc, etc. We had been told to carry no uniforms with us, so there was nothing immediate or obvious to say we were in the Army. We changed the obligatory S10 a day each, had the car's details entered in our passports and were waved on, Superficially all looked reasonable, we had expected to see downtrodden peasantry, and although they wore clothes whose style belonged to the early fifties and in drab colours, they weren't actually looking over their shoulders for big brother all the time. We stayed at a campsite called Sl&ncev Brjag which means Sunny Beach. It is one hundred and ninety miles of clean sands and cheap hotels which cater for the workers holiday needs. As someone explained it's a holiday factory. Despite its promis- ing name on "our second evening there, hailstones of a truly amazing size bombarded our tent and for a short while I felt our holiday could well have ended there. We saw few private cars or bicycles, most people travel by state run trains and buses. People seemed to be spending their money at secondhand clothes stalls, on food or alcohol; we saw many drunks during our holiday. Food seemed in short supply and a determined effort to track down the basic of foods was necessary if we were to eat. We saw no fresh meat shops at all, and long queues outside kiosks selling vegetables. Our one meal out consisted of two mackerel each: no butter, potatoes or vegetables other than a chopped up cucumber, but as much wine as one could consume. No coffee or dessert was available. Surprisingly, fresh strawberries were available and at around 45p a pound seemed cheap, but the local people seemed unable to afford them. The towns and villages were full of billboards covered with political slogans and hammer and sickles: one village we drove through was being bombarded with propaganda from loud- speakers high on rooftops. What a dreadful invasion of privacy with no opportunity to switch off or get away from it. Bulgaria is totally agricultural with many but not all farms being communes, houses are old and most need a coat of paint, gardens overflow with vegetables and vines. Side roads through a village are mostly gravel and dirt and potholed. The general impression was a depressing, dreary country, people seemed wary of us, possibly because Bulgaria has few foreign tourists yet, and that western capitalists have been portrayed as villians of the peace!! At the border with Romania we reached an impasse with the authorities over £20 worth of Bulgaria leva; there was nothing to spend it on and we couldn't export it, eventually we left the money and our address and one day hope to see it again I! Romania proved much friendlier; enormous grain growing fields many miles in length, and acres upon acres of vines. Our first evening we spent at Mamia on the Black Sea Coast, again quite ghastly. I began to feel like an exhibit at a zoo, with people interested in car, tent and us; next morning we moved on as soon as possible. Bucharest the capital had suffered badly in the older sectors from the earthquake earlier in the year: it is an elegant city with large green parks, beautiful houses, four and five lane highways little traffic and clean buildings; any- one knowing Tehran will realise it is the antithesis of all we had been used to: in fact David was so moved by it all he had to take a photograph of almost empty traffic lanes. Some American fellow travellers recommended a local folk concert of Romanian songs and dances, which proved both colourful and entertaining, afterwards we went for a meal at a well known Inn called the Hancul Manuc Inn, and depending on what you had in your wallet determined on what level of balcony you ate. The balconies faced each other making a square, and fellow diners and drinkers provided the entertain- ment. During the morning we had eaten our first cream cake and drunk our first coffee for days in the Intercontinental: it is the only place to escape the furtive beings who sidle up to you and want to buy any hard currency you have. Anyone not a foreign tourist or a party member cannot get within fifty yards of the entrance. A few days later we set off for Brasev in Transylvania which in turn reminded us of Vlad Dracula. We did try to visit his castles at Bran and Snagev with little success. On to the Ploesti oilfields which extend for many miles and which were a bone of contention in the last war. Near Brasov is Poiana Brasov in the Carpathian Moun- tains and is Romania's ski resort area: we are both keen skiers having enjoyed a four month ski season in Tehran, and Poiana Brasov had been sold to us as both cheap and with excellent facilities; it's possibly cheap but the facilities have still to be developed before it could complete successfully with Europe. Had we had more time I would have liked to have gone to Moldavia to see the famous externally painted monasteries of Neamt, Agapia and VSratec. In Hungary we hoped for something different and were not disappointed. Budapest is a beautiful city on both sides of the Danube: the shops have many consumer goods and clothes and good food is easily available. I bought my first souvenir, a piece of Hungarian Herend porcelain for which I had to pay in dollars. We took a coach tour to visit the main tourist attractions: the Monument to Dead Soviet Soldiers. St Matthias Church, Fishermans Bastion, the lovely old Town Hall and Tower. The most impressive building was the old Buda Palace which has in parts been modernised to create a fantastic National Gallery of marble and glass, and which overlooks the river and the Pest side of Budapest. We phoned England on one of our evenings there to see if our son Simon had been accepted by Cranleigh Public School and were thrilled to find he had, so we celebrated at a very famous old restaurant called 238 |
| Book number | R0246a |