Solo Through Romania's Dark Past 🇷🇴

well we failed on our mission to get into ukraine but the fun doesn't have to stop there there are plenty more countries in the region for us to explore none more interesting perhaps than the one that lies to the southeast of hungary a country of castles vampires and hopefully one or two socialist mosaics let's go and check out mysterious romania [Music] ale you have make ale it's like um mickey maggie ale beer sure sure sure sure sure soprano make it make well the train to arad where we're going to remain at least from platform 6. and look at the towns we're going to go through we're going to jeal noc mesotour mazzuberini and my favorite beckquez it's gonna be amazing open the kochie please locked out the kochie how did you get into my cochi [Music] yes it's the babushka train i mean my element wow are we all going to remain here is quite the hit on this train with the babushkas they're all giving me the eye once they heard my cotton turn them on well i've taken an executive decision when i was looking out the window in the town of shoalnock i saw a mega soviet looking railway station so i've jumped off the train that's the train and we're gonna go check it out let's go and check out sean what railway station hopefully there's another bloody train to romania later on today let's see well they must be very proud of old schol knock railway station because check it out as i'm in the under course check out what they got the history of the railway station some old plates some old bits of socialist chocolate wow love to try it 1857 wow it's an old railway station and then here in 44 it was bombed in the war probably the soviets blew it up and then they rebuilt it in 1975 they built it like this check it out wow i'm excited to go upstairs and check out old shulman railway station let's see what it's like crikey well it's a big huge socialist railway station big old room check it out look at it let's look around see if we can find any hints of the past did we make the right decision jumping off the train here is the varrot rem [Music] which must mean waiting room wow look at it beautiful and it's not changed the same lights the same benches maybe not the same plants but what an interesting little place we've discovered pretty much untouched since it was built in 1975 wow [Music] let's look outside the railway station see what we can find in the vicinity the question that springs to mind to me is why do they need such a huge railway station here in this town of jollnok why i mean it's massive and i can't imagine many people are going too many places from here but don't know the mysteries of shanlock railway station maybe we'll never know well the decision to jump off the train has been proven to be the correct one because opposite the railway station is this big old socialist built monument an obelisk depicting well i don't know quite what but here's a man on a horse driving cattle probably i'm predicting this is the history of the hungarians how they arrive from the euro mountains the hungarians came from the ural mountains places we've been before that's why their language is unlike anything from europe it's a uralic language and here we have dead horses and dead men you see when you jump off a train in a random town you don't know what you're gonna find we never would have seen this and up there it says pro libertad for liberty liberty of the hungarian people i presume and here are those hungarian people lovely hungarian people hello there you go that's how you chat too what did i say she's okay she's flirting with me your woman is flirting she's okay bye-bye wow getting flirted with by the local people but anyway less flirting and look at this the hungarian obelisk of this town wow i do like this part of the world not much has changed check out this place they've still got the old signs on the shops america billard billiard and salpo old socialist hungarian signs and laut in fact i'm going into the bar i like the old chasse belt saw so much i'm going to go into the bar and have a beer drink bar oh drink bar thank you wow he got there in the end oh wow sure sure yes please wow i like it one show wow check out the picture on the wall with the lady with the boobies out what kind of establishment is this i like it the communist bar thank you wow what a place um yeah okay i'm here in the corner nobody puts baldi in the corner foreign well the discovery of this little bar here in this town proves why you should always have a flexible itinerary when you're adventurizing if you see something you like from the train you jump off you explore you jump back on the next train it's not a problem if we hadn't jumped off or we would never have known about this little place this little socialist bar look at this beautiful nothing has changed even the bastard off course and i'm cursing them [Music] how much how much [Music] it's okay it's okay thank you no it's okay it's okay it's okay thank you bye-bye bye-bye thank you i like your bar thank you bye-bye wow what a wonderful little place we discovered the lout [Applause] [Laughter] no problem okay no problem no problem enjoy here enjoy the kobanyai the greatest beer in hungary ah yes well our little visit to the bar reminds us just how important language is when you're traveling in a country or when you're trying to make a video do you think for one second if i spoke any hungarian i would have just sat in a corner and not spoken to anyone not ask that babushka what life was like in socialist hungary of course not we would have heard all kinds of stories alas i don't speak hungarian and unfortunately i don't speak romanian either but we won't let it get us down we'll do what we can let's go and buy a ticket now to arrad [Music] i hope there is a train today i mean i like this town i don't want to stay the night here i've got things to do today oh okay super super whoo thank god the train number the marrow okay wow better than budapest look at that in flipping whatever this town is called you get an envelope for your tickets you don't get that in flipping budapest good old socialist train stations never let you down [Music] [Music] well i'm excited to see what romania is like romania a country that isn't slavic uh romania means landed a roman so it's a latin country and it's going to be interesting to see how socialism was crafted onto a latin country how that influences design its architecture its mosaics maybe let's go and see what's left with that past and um yeah have a little look around in the land of the ciaos adventures in central europe you're not allowed to say eastern europe in these countries they get a bit angry if you say that i don't know why it sounds much cooler eastern europe who cares about central central what who cares eastern europe much cooler the ticket inspector caught me on the train all by myself and said what are you doing you've got to go forwards into the other coupe if you want to go to adad you're the coxy you're in the wrong coxy for god's sakes where's the adad coxy okay you know what i don't get is why people love to sit in the regurgitated chemically filtered air of air conditioning makes no sense to me it's a nice day there's a nice breeze outside you kept the window open fresh air flowing into your coupe but no people pay more to sit in a flipping air-conditioned coxy makes no sense what's wrong with people these days they're not tough you don't want a bit of sweat on your brown there's nothing wrong with sweat on your brow anyway we're in the right coxy let's get to add thank hello everyone i'm going today to timeshwater and tomorrow to bucharest did you stamp okay cheers well we finally made it to romania [Music] [Applause] check out modern romania it's even got flipping escalators who knew let's go up them well we've made it to wonderful arad here in romania our first stop and i was worried that there wouldn't be any traces of the socialist past left in old romania but we needn't have worried did you see those things coming down the escalator and not only that but across the road i've seen something even more interesting let's go and check it out well it's very lucky that i saw this as we were coming on the train this big building that seems to be called the astra building just poked itself up above the khrushchevkers wow sorry but there's a romanian tram check out flippin egg it's like being back in the 80s anyway as i was saying this astra building just popped itself out above the thrill shockers and on the side of it i saw some kind of fainted no fainted faded painting let's go and see what it's off i think it might be a chaucheskin painting let's have a look wow what a great start to the trip how lucky was that that i just saw it poking out above the other buildings look at it it's a flipping socialist mosaic it's huge it's the biggest one i've seen look at it wow and it's still here this bodes very well for our trip in romania if we found a mosaic in the first five minutes there should be loads of them in this country wow beautiful viva romania i almost said viva ciao cescu but i think that'd be a bit much don't worry i'm going i'm going oh okay ciao from here photo no problem okay exterior photo okay sorry sorry sorry wow i'm in trouble already i've been told off by a security guard for climbing the fence and taking a picture of this wonderful mosaic my first enemy in romania i've only been here two minutes [Applause] wow we're gonna have to be on our toes and old romania with what we film the chalceskian mentality might still live large here we shall see but we won't let it get us down not a problem i think we departed as friends sorry yeah she's smiling she's all right she's like listen i don't make the rules mate i know they're ridiculous but i've got to do it no hard feelings welcome to arad wow a friendly romanian woman just sitting on the sidewalk chilling let's get ourselves a little bit of grubs i've not eaten today i've had a beer but no food let's have a little snack and then i'll tell you about the plans in romania i've come with plans i'm a man prepared but also a man that's a little bit hungry where's the best restaurant in town no wow okay how brave am i feeling mashed potato and this one oh god uh no no no this yes yes yes yes whatever doesn't kill me this sauce please yeah and yes yes yes yes well it looks bloody awful but let's see what it's like i don't want to get food poisoning on my first day in the country foreign [Music] [Music] literally the worst meal top five worst meals ever anyway let's go back to a rad railway station because the journey doesn't begin here in iraq not the proper journey i'll explain a little bit later nasty nasty nasty timmy schwarnlort okay thank you very much multi-mish platform three timoshwara nord we've got 20 minutes i've come to use a communist toilet how do i do it oh wow what's happening one more [Music] okay no you don't like it well where's the other one then okay i think i'm in what i just paid too late [Music] but i paid i'm going in i'm sneaking in oh it's so undignified but sometimes you gotta do those things to get into a communist toilet what a country romania is i've only been here five minutes i've been shouted out by a security guard had the worst meal ever and been ripped off by a toilet machine things can only get better from here press this touch oh it all works nicely when you want to get rid of you when you're trying to get in there it rips you off all right where's our train now you're probably thinking to yourselves why the hell if we just got to arad are we leaving arad surely there's more to explore and there probably is however my plan for tomorrow is to take you to three locations in romania the three locations that shaped the end of socialism and the end of chauchesku's rule here in romania we're going to start off in timisoara in the morning then we're going to head to bucharest and then we're gonna finish in a place some of you have seen on film but tonight timothy man it's been a long day we started off this morning at what nine o'clock from budapest and now it's about seven in the evening here in romania just want to get to my hotel get to bed and then tomorrow begin the ciaosku journey across romania [Music] last stop of the day this the first day of the journey oh let's look for a taxi and get to a hotel yes wow okay how is life in timisoara beautiful yeah good you like it yeah yeah yeah okay good can we take a selfie with you yes you can you can taxi will be here in two minutes we've got plenty of stuff good luck my friend good luck nice to meet you too thank you thank you good luck with your studies bye-bye bye-bye wow look we met fans in timmishwara and here's one more fan hello are you my fan no watch it for me baby they won't make it please i don't have a small man for you he's got a gold chain on he's rich yes he's got silver chain see big disgusting and cool hair yes there you go man you've been oh you're having a laugh on you hey you're lucky you got five get lost flipping it he gets it's a mishwara you hit up for cash immediately you give them five they say that's not enough this is my taxi yes hotel central please bye-bye you little bastard there he goes look at him got hassled immediately excuse me can i open my window a little bit it's very cold in here with air conditioning very bad yeah okay thank you oh yes better nice summertime hot air perfect check out the old hotel central check in the room will be 401 the fourth floor you can use any elevator okay i'll find it thank you very much let's see what this room is like in the cheapest hotel in timisoara check it out not soviet more mid 90s chic but we've also got a view of downtown timishwara and the hotel central sign [Applause] [Music] in 1918 nikolai chalcesca was born into a poor village in southern romania he became a shoemaker but a tenacious one by 1967 he'd survived imprisonment and internment in a concentration camp to become the leader of socialist romania and for the first decade of his rule ceausescu was a popular leader he wasn't afraid to stand up to the ussr earning him a knighthood from the queen of england and the life of the romanian people slowly began to improve [Music] however a combination of poor economic planning falling world oil prices and a disastrous domestic policy changed all of the good work things began to unravel protests at the spiraling economic conditions spread across the nation but the army and the security managed to quell them and for a while at least ciaosku remained in power but in december of 1989 a spark here in the city of timeshwara would ignite the entire nation and in just one week the shoemaker would be gone did you hear me speaking fluent romanian then fluent hungarian fluent romanian wow are you impressed on december 15 1989 the police here in timisoara arrived at the home of the local pastor and critic of chauchesku lashlo takesh they came to arrest him but take an ethnic hungarian was not to be intimidated and he refused to give himself up the supporters of talkish arrived here at his home and refused to let the authorities enter and capture him negotiations ensued but two days later the romanian army opened fire and 73 people lay dead and just one week later so too with charcescu right you speak such nice english oh no not nice in english i speak better german or hungarian but english okay but do you remember 1989 were you here living there then yes yes did you see the protest in the city in those days yes right right it's very interesting but life has improved in romania really not what you expected [Music] i've made friends on the streets of simashwara oh wow beautiful oh viejo viejo [Music] so anyway these ladies i met on the street are showing me their apartments here in timisoara i'm not sure why i think they want me to buy it but anyway this is how people live in timeshwara look at it look at the old architecture the big doors look at this wow think of the potential of these apartments what you could do with them could live like a king here if you had a kitchen okay adios gracias gracias well i think i was almost caught up in a real estate scam they wanted to sell me an apartment but i don't think they had any documents for it well we're now going to head to the capital bucharest to see where the next stage of the revolution took place but before we do that there's a little museum i want to show you guys here in timisoara welcome to the communist museum downstairs you will find a replica of irregular communist apartment okay therefore rooms in total the parents room the children's room the kitchen and a larger hallway that links them all together you will see a lot of objects mainly made in the 70s and the 80s in the communist block either here in romania most of them anyway or in any neighboring countries let's see some objects from socialist times here in romania see what people's houses were like back in the day look up here the different bottles of alcohol that the workers would have bought in the shops come home after a day in the mines and drunk sliver bits tropical time wow look at that one or maybe some lamy look it's got such a latin vibe to it look at this these little objects and abacus that children in the schools would have played on practice their mathematics overlooked by pictures in the classroom at the chaucheskus i don't know if you can see this not but look on this radio this old romanian radio the towns you could pick up tirana chisinau sarajevo budapes beograd bucharest praga and randomly monte carlo when i visited former socialist countries and the museums that you have now they always focus on the most negative aspects of those years and this museum is different it's much more interesting because it lets you in some ways imagine the lives of the average romanian back in those days which probably wasn't that different from hours in a sense you went to work you had a few pints after work with your mates you came home played with your kids listen to some music like um binoni sinulescu and arena goggin and their famous hit boonazu asi bunlukru life for many many of the people in these countries probably wasn't that much different than for us now probably had better music back in those days too well that was the museum of communist objects and how interesting it was and look i bought myself a little souvenir to listen to when i'm back in brighton alexandrew jeweller with his famous hit me i aidus er primavara look at him listen to this back home all right now we're gonna head to bucharest allow me to give you a tour of what is the greatest coupe i've ever been in in all my travels check it out you get a lovely bed surrounded by this beautiful wood effect you've got yourself a little table you've got reading lights you can open the window by doing this or close it by turning the handle yeah no air conditioning you've got yourself a little table for a bit of work if you want a bit of editing up here you've got yourself a little cupboard with a nice present from romanian railways [Music] luggage storage oh it's literally the best train i've ever been on i wish the journey was a lot longer anyway i'm gonna have a few hours sleep and i'll see you guys in bucharest [Music] it's amazing passing through these brutalist railway station towns here in the provinces of romania look at them and what you've got remember is these buildings that were built in the 60s or the 70s or the 80s well they all would have had pictures before of the ceausescus nikolai and his wife elena on the platforms people would have been reminded by the cult of personality constantly who ruled the country welcome to the rest come on alexandra let's get out here well we've arrived in the capital now let's go and see where the next stage of the revolution took place thank you hey what about um nikolai ceausescu he was he was a good patriot romanian people so for us for romanian people was very bad right very very bad was very very hard to live in romania because you you don't have it you don't have light right you don't have a hot in your home yep eating eating okay in your home you don't have television uh you then you don't have freedom okay are there some people in romania today who miss those times or that respect chauchesku about and these people who regret the chaos they make a comparison with this guy from today in romania yes and this guy is more bad like ciao more but more and more bad for men and people more bad but people would say this is the eu this is freedom democracy no it's a big based in 1971 nikolai chalczewski returned from a trip to north korea inspired by the building projects he'd seen he decided to tear down an old district of bucharest and rebuild it in the same monumental style that he saw in pyongyang the house of the republic was to be the centerpiece of that project a workers palace in 1984 thousands of workmen and 700 architects began the task of building the new socialist district of bucharest the district i'm walking through now however by the time this mammoth building project was completed in 1989 socialism in europe was collapsing romania and nikolai chalcesco clung on precariously the events in timeshwara had seemed like the start of the end of his rule ceausescu decided to hold a mass rally here in a capital to give the people an opportunity to show their love and devotion to him and the party that rally took place here in revolution square on december the 21st chauchesku took his place on the balcony along with his wife and spoke of the achievements of socialism and his rule the crowd massed in front of the palace listened for a while eight minutes into his speech a chant rose up at the back of the crowd tim ishwara timishwara ciaosku wrestled tried to silence them with his arm but the chance didn't stop in fact they grew louder a presidential bodyguard realizing the danger that was growing in the crowd pulled nikolai chaucesky and his wife inside they were hurried to the roof where a waiting helicopter whisked them away ceausescu would never see his beloved palace again oh hello hello one one ticket please to targeviste i think i'm saying it correctly well we're now going to head to the town where chauchesku's rule over romania finally ended this is the way to travel open window no air conditioner beautiful helicopter left bucharest and flew north but the pilot fearing being shot down by the romanian military landed on a highway just outside the town of targavista that's the town we're going to now a car on the highway but the driver called the police nikolai and his wife elena were arrested and brought to an army building here in this town let's go and look for that building small town romania oh i like it well it wasn't very hard to find a building because it's right opposite the railway station wow this is where it all came to an end let's go inside and take a look let's hope it's open is the museum open can i look inside thank you so much wow okay i see and where is the room where the trial happened where they the judge here okay okay i'll have a look here first on december 25th 1989 a military tribunal was set up in his very room to try nikolai chaucescu and his wife who was seated over there in the corner of course the verdict was already decided it was a show trial the charges were genocide for events that took place in timiswara they protested their innocence but it didn't matter the verdict guilty the punishment execution as soon as the verdict was read out the ciaoskus were led down this corridor to meet their fate with immediacy you can only imagine what was going through the mines with both the chalceskus as they were led along this path and could see the execution is waiting adrenaline fear but you have to say that the ceausescus didn't beg they didn't plead they just stated their innocence to the end it was in this very spot that within just minutes of the verdict being read out the chalces were lined up and unceremoniously machine-gunned to death a cameraman ran out of the building trying to catch the historic images on film the rule of the chaucheskus was over and there you have it the speed of events that took place in december 89 and the fall of chauchesku remind us of just how quickly leaders and empires can be toppled if the people unite as one i've had a great time in romania it's been fascinating thank you for watching until next time bye-bye [Music]

Channel: bald and bankrupt

Views: 4,182,840

Keywords: Romania, Ceaucescu, Bald and bankrupt, Socialism, Eastern Europe, Daily bald, Adventure, USSR

Id: aro2vgpcpis

Length: 50min 46sec (3046 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 05 2022