Kuka kukin on

Här i den östra rikshalvan får man emellanåt reklam författad på det andra inhemska språket. Nyligen fick jag ett elektroniskt brev med ovanstående överskrift, men jag förstår nog vad det är fråga om, och behöver inte läsa mer än så!

Hela stammen jublar och det spritter i grenen

Jag fick skrapa bort is från bilrutorna i morse, så våren tvekar visst fortfarande.

Romania 1989, part 2

Continued from part 1.
According to the timetable, the train left Curtici/Kurtitsch at 02:30. I woke up next morning somewhere in Transsylvania/Siebenbürgen, now alone in the compartment, and I suppose after not having slept too much. The steward entered and changed the beds to seats. I don’t remember any more if there was any restaurant car in the train, although supposedly there was a Romanian one between Budapest and Bucharest. I did not have any detailed timetable, only Thomas Cook’s in which the Romania section covered one and a third page, and only the crude country map given to me by the tourist office. Places like Blaj passed by. The first photo is from Brasov/Kronstadt, I think.

Brasov

As usual, I leaned out of the window at every station to have a good view. I had read about countries where local people would go along the train and sell food etc. but in here it was quite contrary. At every station people arrived to buy ordinary things such as shampoo. They looked at me and asked for various items that they would like to buy. As I was unprepared for this eventuality, and did not have any extra supplies, I had to shake my head at them. This became quite embarrassing after some time.
The railway was in good condition, electrified and double-track, with maintenance work going on here and there. The sun shone and the weather was hot, but temporarily cooler when the train climbed the Carpathian mountain range. A place that looked welcoming was Predeal, with a futuristic station building.

Predeal, merchants

Carpathian mountains

I went on all the way to Bucharest, where the train arrived at the Northern station at 12:20. In the station building there was a tourist office, who got me a room in nearby Hotel Grivita on Calea Grivitei.

Hotel Grivita

I met a Swedish adventurous couple, who had arrived in the same train and was directed to the same hotel. Most of this block had been demolished, with the hotel left standing. I spent two nights there.
Then I set off to the main tourist office to get a street map. The place reminded me of the Stockholm office, but with almost no printed matters inside. When I asked about a street map, the people there just shuddered about such a bizarre question. So I was somewhat disoriented during my stay as I had only a general outline of the city.

Bucharest

Bucharest, Trăiască Partidul Comunist Român

We made company walking towards the city centre. At some place we stopped to talk, and then a man in a black suit, black hair and black glasses came up to us and hinted strongly in Romanian words that we were not supposed to stand and talk on that particular place, so we started to walk again. Later we went to a restaurant to get something to eat, which proved difficult. The staff seemed surprised that someone actually wanted to eat at their establishment but eventually we got a dinner.
The next day I wanted to eat my breakfast, included in the room price. There was no restaurant in the hotel, so I was sent to a café down the street. There I was served a Romanian breakfast, consisting of pieces of some kind of sausage, mostly fat chunks, swimming in an oily sauce, a slice of bread, and nothing to drink. No coffee in sight. I looked at the meal in despair, tasted some of it, but left the most.
I went to the big park in the North of the city. How? I suppose by tramway. There I found a café that actually had coffee in limited quantities, the only one I ever got in Romania.

Bucharest, park

Bucharest, park

Also I went to the railway station to make reservations for the return trip, but looking at the long queue I decided to take a chance and just find a vacant seat. I don’t know if there were any regulations about photographing railways in Romamia, but nobody complained.

Bucharest, North railway station

Later in the evening I was back in the city centre to make a phone call to someone in Hungary. The hotel had told me that they could not help with such matters, so I had to go to the phone office. In there, there was a lot of people, including several black Africans. I had plenty of time to watch them since I waited for two hours before giving up. Getting back to the hotel I somehow got the idea to try the underground which I guessed would take me in the correct direction. Down there I was surprised to find a modern, nice and clean world as opposed to the crumbling city above ground. I went a few stops with the train, and then walked a while to find the hotel. No people in sight, they seemed to go to bed early.

Pappersformat

Goda nyheter: jag har blivit publicerad i gammalt hederligt pappersformat, dessutom i samma tidskrift som hedersmannen Grefve Fågelsparre. Tidskriften är skånsk och heter Nya Upplagan. När detta skrivs är n:o 33 ännu ej publicerad elektroniskt.

Dumskallarnas sammansvärjning, del 8

Jag fick igår blanketten ”Inkomstdeklaration” från Skatteverket i Restsverige, där man ska kunna se hur mycket preliminärskatt man eventuellt kan tänkas få tillbaka.
Emellertid framgår det något implicit i en fotnot att verket inte klarar av att utföra en korrekt preliminär skatteuträkning eftersom jag lämnade landet under 2008, vilket påverkar grundavdraget. Att hitta korrekt grundavdragsbelopp i verkets labyrinter var inte lätt heller. Hittade man något som verkade korrekt så framgick det snart att det endast gällde mindre besvärliga skattebetalare, dvs de som icke överskrider någon gräns. Nå, rätt belopp förefaller vara 1.100 kr.
Till yttermera visso ingår icke avdrag för hushållsnära tjänster i uträkningen, vilket inte framgår i någon fotnot.
Slutligen framhåller en fotnot på motstående sida att ”Du får med största sannolikhet ditt slutskattebesked i december eftersom du har flyttat från Sverige under 2008″. M a o, det dröjer närmare två år från att jag lät utföra tjänsterna tills att jag får tillbaka avdragsbeloppet för dem. Det är tur att jag har så jag klarar mig ändå.

Rea idag

Idag har Rea namnsdag. Tyvärr känner jag ingen som heter så, men i annat fall kunde man ha köpt en present till nedsatt pris.

Tetraedrar

Överallt i den antikt civiliserade världen ser man pyramidformade byggnader, men aldrig några tetraederformade. Jag funderar på vad detta kan komma sig. Var de antika arkitekterna så stofila att de inte kunde tänka utanför lådan? Inte vet jag, jag är ju blott en civilingenjör och ingen arkitekt.
Eller har jag fel? Personligen känner jag tetraederformen bäst från min ungdoms dryckesförpackningar, men inte ens där förefaller de vara i använding längre.
Varför funderar jag på detta? Jo, jag sitter just med ett datorprogram som kan åstadkomma vissa grundläggande former, däribland tetraedrar. Emellertid kan jag inte komma på någon tetraederformad detalj till exempel i min Saab. Jag minns inte heller om det datorstödda konstruktionsprogram jag i tiden använde mig av kunde åstadkomma sådana, men det vore ju märkligt annars.

Bonus på spel

Jag har spelat Yatzy med dottern igen. Emellertid har jag i dessa kristider beslutat mig att avstå från bonusen.