Caracal

At the opposite end of the spectrum to the large, dusty, communist era theatre in Craiova is this little chocolate box theatre in Caracal.

The theatre is even too small to house our truss.

I had a day off whilst we were here, however as it mostly rained that day my sightseeing was confined to a walk to the supermarket with Bridget and a quick walk on the final morning.

There are a number of churches and government buildings here. Whilst these buildings seem well looked after a lot of the buildings are in a really bad state of repair, a good number falling down.

I saw this building from my hotel room and set off to try and find it. After a couple of false starts I finally worked out which street it was on.

The building is part of a complex of official looking buildings and unbelievably the right hand section with the turret is occupied. There were even plants on the window sills.

This lovely park was next to our hotel and a cut through to the theatre. It was really well tended and here along with the park in the centre of the town there had been gangs of people mowing the grass and tidying up.

All around the lake there were people fishing.

The journey to the airport was by bus again. This time as it was light outside we were able to see some of the countryside. The first section of the journey was through small villages and we saw lots of carts being pulled by horses or donkeys and people stood or sat outside their houses or working in their gardens. There were also lots of animal in the fields. Unlike the UK for each group of animals there was a person looking after them; shepherd, cowherd, goatherd; it was like a step back in time. As we got closer to Bucharest the roads began to improve a little, although they were mostly single carriageway. Close to the airport we were caught in slow moving traffic and a stream of people were walking along the centre of the road trying to sell items to drivers, trainers, socks, water and 1 man with a chainsaw!

Another fisherman

A row of bee hives along the side of this field.

We had a nice time in Romania. It was hard work as we had two different venues in a week, but it was interesting to see the country and all of the people we met were really friendly.

Craiova

For our trip to Romania we flew into Bucharest airport and were collected by this little coach for the three and a bit hour trip to our hotel in Craiova. This picture is of our driver trying to fix our little coach at the side of the road over half an hour away from our hotel in Craiova. Below is a picture of the first of the fleet of taxis that were called to take us from our little broken down coach to our hotel in Craiova. It was quite a start to our trip!

In the morning we spotted the lido that our hotel was named after. Tempted by a swim?

This is prompt corner, in a little protective booth! Sadly the communication system wasn't reliable enough for me to call the show from here. Halfway through the first tech I had to abandon the booth and go and sit between Tom and Rob at the back of the auditorium.

The scene dock, complete with tiny caravan and cage of rabbits

This is the high tech laundry facilities, the dryer was a little on the wimpy side so Bridget and I cracked the washing line out!

National Theatre of Craiova where we were performing.

The audiences here were very supportive. We sold out for both shows, in fact for the second night (below) there were people sat on every step in the auditorium and on the floor inside the doorways! It was an amazing sight to see them all stand together as the curtain call started.

It was non-stop in Craiova but our bus to Caracal wasn't until after lunch so I got up early, had my breakfast and hit the mean streets of Craoiva for a whirlwind tour.

St Anthony Catholic Church

Casa Gogu

Museum of Art

'Madona Dudu' Episcopal Cathedral

St Demetrius Metropolitan Cathedral of Craiova

Along the main shopping street

St Elias Church

This church has roof tiles that shine with a copper tone. As I was stood on the opposite pavement taking a picture a gentleman came up and started taking to me in Romania. I though that he was going to tell me off for taking a picture (which had happened earlier in the morning) but it soon became clear that he was telling me that I should go inside. And so I did. It was a beautiful building inside. The building was key hole shaped, you entered through a short corridor which opened into a circular space. There were no pews so the space was open with a wall of golden icon pictures in the centre. Around the sides of the circle were a series of thin windows with stained glass images of saints. There were several large chandeliers which were suspended just above head height and threw a gentle light around the building. There was a strong smell in incense and candles in the air. So thank you to the gentleman who stopped, it was definitely worth going inside.

The English Park

The University

And that was all I had time for. I had just enough time to get back to the hotel to meet the others for some lunch before the bus.