What makes Timisoara, Romania so delightful? R O

What makes Timisoara, Romania so delightful? R O

[Music] work is almost over Summer’s getting closer closer no time to be sober sunshine on my should should I’m alive and breathing living my best life love is on my mind and it’s making me high I’m staying in this moment though it’s hard sometimes but I it out every in a while I feel love I feel it growing every day I feel welcome back to the channel from Romania where I be began a series of videos from the beautiful city of timu this is Western Romania and timu is among the country’s most historic and cultured cities known for its fine universities its thriving cultural life gorgeous architecture and is the place where the 1989 Romanian Revolution against communist rule began I arrived here by train from neighboring Hungary and almost almost immediately could sense something that is characteristic of uada and that is the ethnic diversity that’s a trademark here Tim schw is home to 21 distinct ethnicities and 18 religious groups that makes a lot of sense when you consider its geography the city lies on the bega river near a triangle where Romania bumps up against Serbia and Hungary the former being just a few miles away just to give you an idea of Tim’s long reputation as being a head of the curb in 1770 it became the first city of the hapsburg Empire with Street lighting and in 1884 was the first city in all of Europe with electric street lamps it opened one of Europe’s earliest public lending libraries and it had a municipal hospital two decades before Vienna in fact till this day Mada is often referred to as little Vienna the population of the city is only about 250,000 excluding suburbs but there are historical monuments everywhere and more than three dozen Parks this is a lovely city whose Center is organized around three major plazas each distinctive in its own right and flanked by boulevards developed under the rule of the hapsburg kings in the 7 and 1800s when earlier fortifications that once protected the city were [Music] removed I’m here in the Central Square of timas officially known as victory square but often called Opera Square for the fine Opera House owned to the National Theater and Opera there’s also something very key to Modern Romanian history involving this spot and I’ll come back to that in a bit but first I want to point out a couple of other things starting with the massive building you can see behind me with its 11 bell towers that’s the Metropolitan Cathedral the largest religious building here and the second tallest religious building in all of Romania the other thing is the monument that goes to the heart of what many Romanians consider to be their Heritage as descendants of the ancient Romans this statue is a copy of the capitaline wolf the original residing in Rome and if you’re familiar with it you know that it depicts a scene from The Legend of the founding of Rome that’s a She Wolf suckling Rome’s mythical twin Founders ramulus and Remis there are many copies of the statue scattered around the world but here it takes on special significance because Romanians consider themselves to be descendants of the Roman conquerors of Southern Transylvania under Emperor Trent in the year 105 [Music] CE [Music] in modern times this square with its Opera House figured prominently in the Romanian revolution of 1989 during which communist leader Nikolai kesu was toppled from power it was here in front of the Opera building in December of that year that protesters staged to demonstration against the regime was greeted by tanks in the streets and a bloodbath that claimed many lives the leader had left the country for a visit to Iran at the outset of the unrest leaving behind his wife Elena and a top military Lieutenant to take care of the problem in timy in the end the military joined the revolt kesu and his wife fled the capital Bucharest and after being captured they were sarily tried and shot by firing squad on Christmas day there’s a a festival about to take place here and the Opera House itself is largely obscured at the moment by a grandstand and all the trappings of the concert that is expected here tonight but there are visible signs all these years later of the violence that took place here strangely enough it can best be seen perhaps above a McDonald’s franchise on the Square McDonald’s located on the ground floor and if you look up above on the building you can still see bullet holes from that violent Epic [Music] well this most unusual exhibit in the center of Victory square is unique as far as I’m concerned I’ve never seen anything quite like it it’s an installation that is a a Botanical display but as you can tell it’s on a multi-level Scaffolding in the center of the square directly in front of the Opera house there’s no charge to enter all you have to do is work for it by climbing the four or five tiers of stairs to get here the views are Splendid above the city and at the same time each one of these plants which line the edges of this multi-tiered Terrace is labeled with both its common name and its botanical name it’s like going to a Botanical Garden in the sky I’m here on the Vega Canal a 114 K long waterway that connects Tim mishwar to the town of TI in nearby Serbia the border of which is only about 21 Mi away this is a historic canal built over several decades of the 1700s and originally equipped with a series of locks to make passage possible regardless of the water level over the years however most of the locks became inoperable and the canal was little more than a pleasant stream with little commercial value but that’s all changed in recent years thanks to millions of dollars of investment part of it from the European Union that has once again made timat a Port City from here commercial boats can connect to the Tisa River starting in Serbia and ultimately to the danu one of the beautiful things about this canal is that it’s lined on both sides with pedestrian walkways and wellways it’s extremely bicycle friendly City you see tons of bicycle paths everywhere in timas squada there are 70 km of dedicated bike paths along the canal alone if you come here you might want to do as I’ve done and take a spin down the canal on a water taxi it’s a way for commuters who live along this canal to get back and forth from different parts of timas squat or Beyond it’s also an outlet to those who just want to spend a pleasant day along the Waterway thank you there you are [Music] not just along the Waterway but everywhere in timisha really it’s extremely easy to get around public transport here is a dream uh can just hop on a tram or a city bus and uh pay by credit card into a machine you don’t even need to interact with the driver it’s usually four lay to go just about anywhere within the inner city that’s uh four lay is about 80 cents and the same is true for the machines on the water boats all along this canal people are enjoying themselves in the the parks that come down to the canal interrupted mostly only by restaurants and cafes some of which are landside and others are simply small barges that have been tied to the bank there’s a certainly a a casual lifestyle here I think most most people who would come to this part of Eastern Europe might underestimate just how Charming this city and ones like it are standard of living is reasonably High and the cities or at least I’m going to speak for Tim asada and two others that I visited thus far in nearby Hungary are well organized and people oriented which makes living here I’m sure a real pleasure I suppose if you’re a commuter could get used to commuting by boat using this canal I know I certainly could the boats run regularly every few minutes just as the buses and trams do which is one of the delightful things about timu with respect to public transport and just getting around it creates a kind of leisurely Peace of Mind in the city whether you live here or whether you’re like me just visiting people just stroll along the street may stop to have coffee or whatever but they know that they’re not really going to be late as long as they catch the next bus or the next [Music] boat with the sign says those are blonds B ANS almost tempted to eat one but not on an empty stomach not before lunch but they certainly are tempting if you like the Baro style of archit cure that flourished in Europe during the first half of the 1700s this would likely be your favorite Square in timu the Baro Palace that you see here these days is home to the city’s Art Museum it’s designed after the p kinsky in Vienna the column that you see near the center of the square is a plague column which is erected about 1740 to recognize the more than 1,300 madens who died by the plague a few years earlier such columns were common in Europe during the 1700s and were commonly erected to celebrate the plagues passing this one was moved here later that same Century to give it more prominence Flash Forward to today where it originally stood there’s now a shopping mall [Music] [Applause] [Music] for [Music] despite its past or maybe because of it timis seems to me an exceptionally happy place resilient comfortable and [Music] hopeful [Music] [Music] to be so sunshine on my [Music] shoulders I’m alive and Brea living my best life love is on my mind and it’s making me high I’m staying in this moment it’s hard but I work it out every once in a while I feel love I feel it growing every I [Music] feel I [Music] feel

I begin a series of videos from Romania in the delightful city of Timisoara, the country’s most celebrated cultural and educational center and ground zero for the 1989 revolution that overthrew 4-1/2 decades of communist rule.

I arrived here by train from Hungary to a marvelously walkable city filled with lively pedestrian streets connecting the three major plazas around which the town is laid out. To venture farther afield one need only hop aboard one of the water taxis that ply the Bega River (canal) that divides the city and connects with neighboring Serbia a few miles to the west.

► Follow me on Instagram and Facebook for updates, observations and additional stories about what I’m up to at the places I visit: https://www.instagram.com/outbound_with_ron/

► Hit the COMMUNITY tab for blog posts containing travel tips, information about places I stay and more. Feel free to leave a comment or ask a question.

► If you enjoy this video please hit the subscribe button to help the channel grow. Hitting the like button also will really help.

► Be sure to turn on notifications and hit the bell symbol selecting ‘All Notifications’ in order to receive updates.

► I love to hear from you. Leave a comment below to let me know what you think.

► For channel info and updates:
Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outbound_with_ron/
Check out my Website: https://www.outboundwithron.com/
Follow my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/Outbound-with-Ron-101698562285149

#timisoara #romania #travel