In between

Amsterdam, Arad. Romania, The Netherlands.Greece.Volunteering, a paid job. Crossing the vineyard-covered slopes in mid-summer, following the Amstel river by bike and struggling with the autumn wind. Rabbits taking over a commercial area at night , geese blocking the village road during the day. Dutch schoffies, Romanian straydogs. Creativity 4, Step outside your country and into nature. Facebook, Hyves. Richter, Millennium Center. Brânză, belegen kaas. Hostfamily, sharing an apartment. Friends.

Time is flexible

Only a few days in Arad and I already have to admit that the title of this blog is not entirely accurate. Romanian time is very flexible and not necessarily always flying. Sometimes it walks, it crawls or it takes a tram. Sometimes it's caught in a traffic jam on its way to one of Romania's new palaces of consumption, the hypermarkets. And occasionally it stands still.

It happened when I had to wait in a minibus at Ferihegy Airport for the last customer to arrive. Four hours is a lot of seconds. Since friday I'm discovering Arad and surroundings. I arrived together with Estonian girl Kaie and we're waiting for the rest of the volunteers for our project to arrive. This means that our one-week on-arrival training will start this friday and that we still don't know where we will end up after that. O sa vedem, we will see. A large part of the project is carried out in three villages (far) outside Arad: Covasant, Abrud and Suplacu de Barcau. So far we visited the first two, to get an impression of the work in the local youth centers.

Two funny facts to conclude: the first pub I visited here is called Time to Time... And the clock of the city hall plays Vangelis on every hour (but don't ask me which song it is).

Arad City Hall