Oradea and the CFR

Oradea and the CFR

Nancy and I had the opportunity to travel to Oradea this past weekend. Oradea is a city, a little smaller than Cluj, sittings on the western border of Romania. Hungary is a ten minute car ride away. We stayed with fellow Peace Corps volunteers and spent the day sight seeing and Nancy took a dip in one of the hot spring mineral pools for which the city is famous.

What I continue to notice is that Romania is a country with sharp contrasts between city and country, between rich and poor, between modern and backward, between clean and trash. It was most pleasant to see spring time beginning to come to the country. The willows were budding out along the river in Oradea and primroses gone wild with their soft yellow flowers dotted the backyards and pastures all along the train tracks to and from that destination. The white storks have come home to the large nests that occasionally top the electric poles along the roads and ring necked pheasants were out in abundance in the pastures along the train route.

Riding on trains in Romania is not as romantic as it sounds. CFR is the company that runs them and the return trip on the Inter City class of train was fine, with a big glass window to stare out of. The train was clean by Romanian standards and the trip took a little more than two hours. Travel on the Inter City trains is not bad, and the next lower class, the Rapid, can be even nicer we’ve been told, but for some reason the train that leaves at the most useful time is normally the Accelerat. Don’t be fooled by the name. It’s slow, never accelerating and dirty.

There is no smoking in the little six or eight person compartments but the heat is always on, making them very hot. People do smoke in the adjoining passage way and it’s a toss up between standing outside the cabin in the smoky air, but with a window open, and remaining seated, looking across at your neighbor in the compartment. Be sure and use the bathroom before you get to the gara, for the facilities in both the station and the train are appalling.

Even on the fastest trains it takes a long time to get places. Bucuresti is a seven hour trip. To get to the Black Sea on Romania’s eastern border would take us over nine hours. Similarly, Iasi, on the northeastern border with Moldova is nine hours away. Those volunteers stationed in out of the way places often figure on a twelve hour trip to and from anywhere.


Whichever train you take though, be sure and look out the window for it is an amazing country that goes by.