Romania - Eastern Europe - page 488

trips, mostly with a specific area of interest, such as the brand-new “Raggle-Taggle”
tour, which focuses on Gypsy culture. The company offers different travel and flight
options, so you can match trips to your budget, and accommodations range from top
hotels to stays on organic farms. DiscoveRomania (Str. Paul Richter 1/1,
500025 Bra @ ov, Romania; & 0722-74-6262; www.discoveromania.ro) is another
excellent tour company that is also a founder member of the Association of Eco-
Tourism in Romania (www.eco-romania.ro); hands-on owner Laura Vesa has a range
of interesting and varied packages for travelers keen to discover the “real” Romania.
To this end accommodations are generally with local families in small villages, and
Laura can plan your visit around special festivals and events to deepen the experience.
Nature lovers should inquire after the tour that combines 3 days animal tracking in
the Carpathian Mountains with a night in a Moldavian wine-producing village and 2
nights in the Delta, in the fishing village of Uzlina.
For adventure tours and mountain activities, Apuseni Experience ( & 0259/
47-2434; www.apuseniexperience.ro) is one of the best outfits in Romania, based in
the city of Oradea. Abercombie & Kent ( & 800/554-7016; www.abercrombieand
kent.com) offers a 14-day “Highlights of Romania & Bulgaria” tour. The online
Romanian Travel Guide (www.rotravel.com) is a resource for virtual planners with
links to local tour operators. You can book discounted accommodations at discounted
rates through this service. U.S.-based Quest Tours & Adventures ( & 800/621-8687;
www.romtour.com) has specialist tours to Romania, ranging in duration from the 2-
day “Touch of Transylvania” tour to the 11-day “World Heritage” tour.
GAY ROMANIA
Homosexuality is no longer illegal in Romania, thanks largely to pressure from the
E.U. to bring human rights practices in line with the rest of Europe. This represents
the end of a long battle against nasty discrimination in legislation, but does not solve
the problem of an inherently homophobic society. When the first Romanian gay pride
march took place in Bucharest in 2005, it was in the face of tremendous, vocal oppo-
sition from the church, government, and the police, not to mention the city mayor.
Slowly, gay-friendly or exclusively gay clubs are emerging, but this is only in the larger
cities; public displays of homosexual affection are not likely to attract a positive
response.
3 Bucharest
Caught up in a necromantic adventure with its elegant, faded past, Bucharest may not
be to every traveler's taste, but for those interested in experiencing the fast-paced, idio-
syncratic flashiness of a city that's clearly on the edge of a tidal wave of change, it is
certainly worth planning a few days here. A heady mix of beautifully old, blandly new,
and somewhere ambiguously in-between (the latter defined by the brash architecture
of Ceau @ escu-era behemoths), Bucharest seems to know that it's the capital of a nation
on the move, a country finally ready to take its place in the European brotherhood.
Legend tells that Bucharest was named after a young shepherd, Bucur, who was so
moved by the beauty of this spot on the eastern bank of the Dâmbovi $ a River that he
built a church here, but these humble origins are since long lost in the shrouds of his-
tory. Strategically located, Bucharest grew wealthy off trade between the East and
West, and entered its swinging heyday after it was crowned the nation's capital in
1862. Then came the World War II bombings, devastating earthquakes in 1940 and