Back to Timișoara briefly, this is the Palace of Culture which was redesigned by Duiliu Marcu to give it this rather distinctive frontage. The building now houses the Romanian National Opera, the Mihai Eminescu National Theatre, the Csiky Gergely Hungarian State Theatre and the German State Theatre which is all rather cosmopolitan of it.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this building (to me anyway) is its balcony, a site of immense revolutionary significance where the Proclamation of Timișoara was read on 11 March 1990. This document served as a powerful condemnation of communism, following the execution of Nicolae Ceaușescu at the end of 1989. As the nation sought a new path forward, the proclamation articulated a vision for democratic reform and political transparency. Although these liberal values faced immediate and harsh opposition from those loyal to the previous regime, the balcony remains a symbol of the moment Timișoara was declared the first city in Romania free of communism and this plaque was installed here last year.

This view of Notre Dame is by René Billotte (1846–1915) who was an artist who spent most of his career in Paris. It seems that the artist liked painting these rather murky weather conditions, the purchaser was not getting the cathedral at its best.

My thoughts looking at the painting in the gallery were really more along the lines of what was the artwork doing in Timișoara? The artist had no connection with Romania, the artwork is of Paris and it’s not a particularly uplifting painting in any event given that Billotte was deliberately trying to show the melancholy of the city.

So, I spent far more time than was really necessary wondering about why galleries display paintings and for what purpose they are on show. Perhaps the reality is simply that Timișoara Art Museum is just putting what it has on display to see what resonates, but it all felt a little out of place to me.

Once again, I dwell on whether I should get out more.

The gallery doesn’t know who painted this, but it’s likely a Dutch painter from the middle of the seventeenth century. Although that’s not what amused me about this, it’s just imagining what a modern scene would look like. I do like just how many paintings there are from this period from within Dutch and Flemish taverns. Incidentally, I don’t like the painting’s name of ‘Feast’ given the lack of food, but I suspect that this might be a slight translation issue.

AI comes to the rescue here (and my new caveat of I’m aware of the limitations and challenges of AI, but I like its contribution to knowledge) at modernising the painting. Bringing a guitar wouldn’t go down well in quite a few pubs, but it’s not a scene that would be entirely unrecognisable.

This is the VRL room, or in short, it’s a restoration area which is visible to visitors to the gallery. The text in the above image reads:

“The Visitable Restoration Laboratory is the first painting restoration laboratory in the narrative circuit of a permanent exhibition in Romania and the Euroregion and is integrated in the Zsigmond Ormós Gallery alongside works of art of international importance. The mission of the laboratory is to open up insights into the behind-the-scenes of the museum and to show the unseen side of the museum’s work, where science and art work together for the benefit of our memory, community and history. The pedagogical dimension of this laboratory, the workshops, activities and cutting edge equipment (advanced microscopy, multispectral technology, low pressure table with thermosetting etc.) in the workshop’s equipment create a dynamic window to and from the public, attracting various categories of visitors who are drawn to accompany the museum team on the path of interdisciplinary knowledge, to become aware of the importance of research and in-depth understanding of the artefacts that have been passed down to us with responsibility through generations of remarkable people, from Zsigmond Ormós onwards, to Ioachim Miloia and Aurel Ciupe.”

I do like this as it’s interesting to see the inner workings of an institution, although I can’t help but think that the staff think this is a bit of a nuisance to be live exhibits. They were working in the area at the back otherwise I’m not sure I would have taken this photo. It must be somewhat distracting to be trying to research something carefully with a hoard of visitors standing there gawping in. It shows transparency though which can only be a good thing.

There are many old grand palaces in the city, many in a state of disrepair, but things seem to be getting better as many have been repaired. There are some impressive pieces of architecture, much of which was from when this was a city in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

The Orthodox Metropolitan cathedral.

The city was the European Capital of Culture in 2023 and there was a substantial investment in art funding, historical boards and improving facilities. This signage is a reminder of that event and the city was perhaps fortunate that the UK left the European Union, as 2023 was the year that the city chosen would have been in the UK.

Around a five minute walk away from the city centre is this large development of offices, residential and retail. There’s a large shopping centre and it’s all on-trend and exciting, clearly an area where a huge amount of money has been pumped in.

This lounge opened around 100 minutes before the sole flight of the day departed, so I can’t imagine that they’re making a great deal of money from this arrangement. It’s the Horizons Lounge and this photo shows most of the lounge, the door is to the left, the coffee is behind me, the little payment area is to the right and the main seating area is ahead.

The seating area which overlooks the airport apron. There were three passenger groups in here, so it wasn’t busy, but it also had some atmosphere. It was clean and tidy, although I did wonder whether they could have got some tables that didn’t look like rubbish bins.

There was something of a reliance on pre-packaging snacks and I’m not going to complain about a lounge which has lots of crisps, biscuits and chocolates. There’s also a coffee machine to the left which proved useful given how early in the morning it was. There was a beer available in the fridge, but I really wasn’t in the mood that early.

Well, there we go, what more could I want for breakfast?

I was impressed that the airport had opened this lounge up, there are some reviews which said it opened late or not at all, so my expectations were limited. The reviews are broadly low for the whole arrangement, but I suspect that some passengers expected sandwiches, caviar and a selection of fine wines, but that’s not going to be realistic when there’s one flight a day.

I booked a taxi to the airport which picked me up from the Euro Hotel at 03:00, which is earlier than I would have ideally liked. Indeed, this was so early that my friend Julian was still in the pub in Norwich to keep my company via WhatsApp during this little journey. Excuse the blurred photo, but I rather like it in a strange way.

I booked the taxi with Uber and it was there within three minutes, which did surprise and delight me. The cost quoted for the 25 minute journey was just £3.05 which very much pleased me.

We arrived before terminal one, where I was flying from, had even opened.

I walked the 25 metres to Terminal 2, where there was a bit more going on. Not much more to be fair, but they had lights.

It was a little frosty outside, just the sort of temperature for my temperament.

Terminal 1 was dark, empty but warm.

I had arrived around two and a half hours before my flight, which I already thought was cutting it fine.

Once the lights finally flickered to life, the transition from a dark warehouse to an active terminal was almost instantaneous.

This was not a busy terminal, there was a grand total of one flight departing for the entire day. At this point, I went through security and all was well, before getting a chance to pop into the lounge, but I’ll post about that excitement separately.

And waiting to board. The boarding process didn’t feel very organised in terms of priority and non-priority passengers, but I’m not sure that it made much difference in the grand scheme of things.

After the plane had been de-iced, we were able to board and we were on schedule. The aircraft is HA-LYF, not one that I’ve been on before although they do all look quite alike….

I had enjoyed my three nights in Timișoara, the first time that I’d been there. I wasn’t keen on the early morning flight, but at least it allowed me to get back to London Luton at an early hour.

The seating Gods had given me a middle seat, but I was pleased to board and find that a group of lads wanted to sit together and one politely asked if I would take his window seat a few rows forwards. This was a very agreeable situation, it meant that I was able to sleep for just about all of the flight.

The cabin crew, who were polite and helpful, kept the cabin dark for about an hour. I was aware that they did a trolley run, but they were quiet and efficient, so they were able to sell what they needed to without disturbing everyone. I find that Ryanair can be just a little less subtle.

And safely into London Luton Airport, always a delight. Well, sort of. Because of the time difference, we landed at around 07:00, which gave me the day to get back to Norwich thanks to the car share arrangement that I have with my friend Liam. Anyway, another bargain flight for just £8.99.

This artwork is by the Austrian Anton Romako (1832-1889) and I think is noteworthy for the huge loaf of bread in the painting. The gallery notes that this is about realism and perhaps it’s the case that the painter is very good at painting bread, but even so, I can’t help wondering what exactly the mid-nineteenth century middle classes thought they were getting here. Perhaps a celebration of honest labour, a wholesome emblem of daily sustenance, or just a rather accomplished bit of bread painting, but the poor girl in the painting seems to be playing a rather unsupported role (excuse the pun) in the whole arrangement.

But, I digress, it’s Romako that’s interesting here as he travelled Europe widely and was something of a success as a painter. He had great sadness as two of his daughters committed suicide in 1887 and he never recovered from that, died in a state of some disarray in 1889. As an aside, some of Romako’s artworks were purchased by Jewish families and they were stolen from them during the Nazi period and ‘acquired’ by art dealer Wolfgang Gurlitt who it’s fair to say wasn’t the most wholesome of figures.

The gallery doesn’t have provenance information about their artworks on their website, but it’s likely from the collections donated by Ormós Zsigmond who was an art collector in the mid nineteenth century and he not only founded this gallery, but donated all of his collection to it.

This is the memorial to Radian Belici, who was murdered on 17 December 1989 by the Romanian army on the orders of the dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. Ceaușescu’s regime was collapsing and he was desperately doing what he could in order to save himself, although it failed and he was executed alongside his wife on 25 December 1989.

Belici was just 23 and he believed in a better future for Romania, so he had joined protesters in the city against the regime. Ceaușescu was a brutal dictator, he didn’t fear killing anyone who got in his way, he feared democracy and freedom in every aspect.

Radian was the son of Ana and Ion Belici, who lived in the nearby town of Jebel. Radian had a wife and daughter who he sent home to safety when it was clear what the regime’s forces were about to do in terms of suppressing the protest.

The memorial is located at Timișoara 700 Square, by where Radian Belici was murdered.

This is Nicolae Ceaușescu, who was found guilty (albeit in somewhat of a kangaroo court) of a genocide against the people of Romania. After Radian was executed, his body was sent to Bucharest and cremated alongside other protesters so that the family couldn’t have the ashes. Radian’s mother took a handful of earth from the sewer pipe where the remains were dumped in the hope that they contained some of her son’s ashes. She visited where her son had been killed every day for as long as she was physically able.

I try and stay loyal to Accor Hotels and they handily had this Ibis in Timișoara where I stayed for two nights.

These rooms are fine for me on my own, but they are getting a little too small now for those couples who might want to spend a few days here. I liked that the large picture by the bed was actually just a painted wall with a frame around it. They don’t have any larger rooms for upgrades, but I was given my preferred top floor room.

The view from my window.

Some of the cold options and at the rear dish in the middle of the photo is ajvar, something which I’m overly obsessed by. The meat quality here wasn’t great, so I ignored that. The breakfast room was also really odd, it simply wasn’t large enough despite all of the space that they have here, it’s poorly laid out. I managed to come down at times that there were tables free, but many guests were struggling to find a space to sit.

The breads and apple pies.

A big dollop of ajvar. Those sausages were odd, they looked delicious but were chewy and lacking in any depth of flavour.

I suspect the hotel staff were wondering where one of their dips kept going.

The welcome drink of Timișoreana lager which tasted mostly of metal and disappointment. The croissant was mine, but there was a welcome gift of chocolates from the hotel.

The online reviews of the hotel are very positive, so they’re clearly surprising and delighting lots of people. I rather liked this hotel, although their restaurant and bar area was frequently dominated by private groups. On the first night, they had closed the restaurant for a private group and although I had no intentions of eating there, it’s a little sub-optimal for guests. Anyway, if I’m back in the city, I’d likely stay here again.