He did some good things......

Ceaușescu's Country Residence

It's been a while since my last blog post. It's not that things haven't been happening but perhaps not so much to write about! I continue to reflect, pray and take time to make the most of this time that I have. Going into the last third of my sabbatical, Nikki and I have embarked on a river cruise taking us from Bucharest all the way to Amsterdam (river levels permitting) - eight countries and some beautiful sights and history along the way.

Without giving huge amounts of detail, we flew to Bucharest at the beginning of the week (Monday 14th) and spent a couple of days in the capital city of Romania. One of the things we were most impressed about was the cleanliness of the city, very little litter and a warm feeling about the place. We stayed in the Old Town, very near to street cafes, bars and restaurants as well as a number of historic sights and churches.

On our first full day we had a trip out to Ceaușescu's Spring Palace at Snagov (you can read a bit more about it HERE). We had a local guide who was superb. One of the things that struck me, however, with the guides we had in Romania were the comments about the Ceaușescu regime and time under communist government was the 'there were good things that they did....' - almost excusing them for the atrocities - for the people that disappeared never to be seen again, of the horrific conditions that some had to live in (and for those of us who remember the sudden collapse of the Iron Curtain in the late 1980's, the horrific films of children locked in Romanian orphanages and the immense abuses of power, corruption and wealth amassed by a few individuals. There is no excuse, no sugar coating for what people like Nicolae Ceaușescu and others did. There might have been little unemployment and great industry but this was done at the expense of human freedom, of life and often to enhance the wealth of a very few people. One of the guides talked about the Ceaușescu's having little/no personal wealth and the properties/possessions belonging to the state. I very much doubt that this is the case (as an example, I remember in my days in the insurance industry being asked to quote on a significant house, artwork and contents that were, apprarently, for the deputy leader of a significant communist country......history has proven that such people are greedy for wealth whatever political ideology they peddle). We also visited Ceaușescu's Bucharist home and the building he commissioned for the parliament - the latter at great expense to the local population (moving 20,000+ people from their homes for this vanity project alone) all for the sake of building one of the largest state buildings in the world (it is, apparently, second only in size to the Pentagon).

It's been a very memorable time for me as it was in December 1989 that I was on a coach from Taize travelling east toward Poland and in particular Wroclaw for the first European Meeting of the Taize Community in Eastern Europe (a forty second video HERE). As we travelled east through, what was then East Germany we were surprised and puzzled about the number of these small cars passing us travelling west. The being Christmas Day/Boxing Day, it was, of course, as a result of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism in the east. As young volunteers, I don't think, at the time, we realised what was going on and the significance of it. Looking back it's easy to see how important things were and how privileged I was to be a witness to some of it (my time in Poland has been a constant source of good memories but also of what people under communist rule had to go through as well as how the poor are willing to share absolutely everything that puts someone like me, with so much, to shame).

We've also seen a good number of churches too. The beauty of Orthodox Churches is remarkable. It might, of course, not be to everyone's taste but for me, it is something spectacular and I've experienced very prayerful moments in Orthodox churches. We stumbled one evening, across a service taking place. The channting from the priests was captivating and very prayerful. The bowing, kissing of icons and multiple signs of the cross from the congregation took me to another place. We will be visiting plenty of churches and cathedrals along our route - something I'm looking forward to as we move out of Eastern Europe and into the western countries.

Currently, we've made our way a little way down the Danube and are anchored in the town of Vidin. A small town on the western edge of Bulgaria (pop. 35,000). Here we've had a relatively restful day (which happens to be my birthday). Later tonight we enter a significant lock and tomorrow the Iron Gates (read more HERE); some spectacular views, no doubt, from the boat.

My reflections here seem really quite unspectacular but I continue to reflect over my time and take time to pray and contemplate and look forward to returning to the rhythm and routine at the beginning of August.

A few photos of this last week below.