Having celebrated completing my planned distance over the last five weeks with a large glass of rose and a whisky with my meal last night, I was feeling a bit sluggish this morning. However I had booked a walking tour of Timişoara followed by a street food tour. They both happened to be run by the same guide and I was the only participant.
I learnt that Timişoara dated from the 14th century, when it was part of Hungary, that for many years it was occupied by the Ottoman Turks, before the Austrians regained it in the early 18th century. The Ottoman town was completely destroyed and the city rebuilt with a roads running at right angles in a neat pattern. To defend the town it was surrounded by walls and bastions in a star shaped pattern. We visited the one remaining bastion. Germans were invited to come and settle in the area and help construct the city. The multiple paths of the Bega River were collected in a canal, draining swamps and allowing navigation to Budapest via the Tisa River. In 1848 the Hungarian uprising against Austria was suppressed but commemorated in the name of Liberty Square, one of several squares we visited. Timişoara prospered in late 19th and early 20th century with many new buildings, a lot of them seemed to have been banks, which had a beehive motif in their stonework. Many of these buildings have been subject to decay, loosing bits of their rendering, exposing the brick underneath. Those that have been renovated look very fine, painted in pastel colours including a few in the Hungarian Art Nouveau style.
After the First World War, and the fall of the Austrian-Hungarian Empire, Timişoara became part of Romania (a country only in existence since the mid 19th century). Following the Second World War Romania became a communist country, and from 1967 was led by Nicolae Ceaușescu, essentially as a dictator. Timişoara played a leading role in the overthrow of Ceaușescu with the first large protests in December 1989. People were dissatisfied with the limited food rations on which they had to live, and the actions of the Securitate, suppressing any dissent. My guide showed me some of the bullet holes made when soldiers opened fire on the protesters, which included his father, killing many.
Due to long period as part of the Hapsburg empire the street food showed the influence of a number of countries such as langos and a type of chocolate cake from Hungary, pretzels from Germany, and burek as in Serbia. Having eating all of these and more I was stuffed by the end of the food tour!
My departure this morning was early for a 6:20 am flight from the small Timişoara International Airport. All went well, the taxi ordered by the hotel receptionist arriving in good time and it was a direct flight to London Luton, so despite feeling groggy with lack of sleep I was soon back in Britain and on my train home.
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