Transylvania and Beyond by Dervla Murphy

Author:Dervla Murphy [MURPHY, DERVLA]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: TRV010000, TRV000000, TRV009040
ISBN: 9781468305876
Publisher: The Overlook Press
Published: 2012-07-31T16:00:00+00:00

Sighet’s Ethnographic Museum has an international reputation – in certain circles – but during most of the year is opened only on request. The town’s Culture Officer was rumoured to hold the key and I not unreasonably expected to find him in the House of Culture – a bizarre 1911 hybrid, part Victorian gaol, part Loire château. Originally a Magyar theatre, it has long since been overtaken by silent, sad, damp-smelling dereliction. A white marble stairway, cracked and muddy, sweeps up to a circular gallery where the corpse of a grand piano – legs in the air – lay on a mound of rubble. Off this gallery, down high narrow creaking corridors, little girls were typing in little offices. My arrival caused them to crane incredulously over the tops of cumbersome (1911?) machines and then titter nervously. None made any attempt to communicate in any language.

At last I found two older, sour-faced women; they shared a small desk, surrounded by tall filing cabinets, and were barely discernible through a haze of cigarette smoke. The Culture Officer did not in fact operate from the House of Culture but they – somewhat reluctantly – telephoned him. It took seventeen minutes to get through, though his office was less than a mile away, which could explain their reluctance. A slim, blue-eyed teenage girl, tongue-tied with shyness, was then summoned to guide me to the Museum.

Dumitru – small and dark, with longish hair and a drooping moustache – spoke fluent English. Alas! the keys to the display rooms were at his home, far away in a bloc. But he would be happy to show me round next day – meanwhile would I drink coffee with him?

Over our first cup, Dumitru began to unburden himself. His engineer wife was on sick leave, suffering from a serious sight impairment, and they were saving up to go to either Hungary or Russia in search of ‘special spectacles’. But how long would it take to save so much on their joint monthly income of 7,600 lei? And with two children to feed …

Over our second cup, Dumitru revealed that until 1985 he had taught in Timisoara. But at the age of thirty-two he felt compelled to quit a profession that made him feel ‘false’. Given his qualifications, the only alternative job on offer was in Sighet, where his wife was ‘all the time lonely and restless’.

Over our third cup, Dumitru observed that Rumanians are now suffering from collective guilt, asking themselves why they didn’t get rid of the Ceausescus ten years ago but unable to find any morale-boosting answer. ‘It is important for foreigners to understand this because our mental state now is making it harder for us to behave the way the Occident thinks we should. You must be patient while we recover our self-respect. Soon after the revolution, the Front began to expose the true nature of the Ceausescu regime in detail, scandal after scandal being shown and discussed on TV. All these proven scandals traumatised us – this wasn’t only rumour.

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