Arrival and the Sunday Night Palace
The conference officially started on Monday, but I was one of a number of people for whom arriving on time and getting a reasonable fare involved arriving on Sunday afternoon.
My flight was scheduled to arrive at Bucharest's Otopeni airport at 17:45, but of course arrived late because of the additional security following the recent UK security alerts. Heathrow was in chaos, and the ban on carry on luggage meant that there was no opportunity to read through my Romania guide book enroute, and my camera was burried deep in checked baggage, preventing any photography until I was in a position to start unpacking..
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Those of us that had flights bringing us in the night before
were originally expecting to have to pay for a night's accomodation
accomodation. However the organizers were good enough to arrange
some free accomodation for us at some nearby student dorms, so
I was met at the airport by a some of our hosts, and along with
a group of others that arrived at similar times were driven to
our home for the night.
Asle took this picture of Gjert in one of the better looking dorm rooms. |
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The dorms were somewhat the worse for wear, and some of the
more affluent members of our group decided that they would
rather pay for a hotel room, but my standards were obviously
lower and I wasn't going to be put off a free night's accomodation
by a few bugs or the odd bit of mould on the walls.
Appart from the un-anticipated heatwave that seemed to co-incide with our arrival, the room was comfortable enough. And I expect that the sort of hotel that offered air-conditioning would would have cost more for the night than I was paying in room and board for the subsequent week. Asle took this picture of one of this example of the atmospheric fixtures and fittings. |
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On Monday we were woken just before midday (having retired fairly
late the night on Sunday night) and bundled into a bus to be
taken across the city to the conference venue for our registration
and check-in (stopping of to collect the hotel-stayers enroute).
The bus took us onto the campus and dropped us outside the door of building A6, where the registration was taking place, and also where I was to be living for the rest of the week. |
| Everyone on our bus gathered in the foyer with all of our baggage and queued at the registration desk to receive our registration pack and room allocation. |
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The accomodation was allocated with two to a room, and I got to share
a room on the top floor with Jim, who took this picture of me reclining
on my bed in our penthouse appartment..
The weather had not improved, and we were still in the grip of something of a heatwave which it turned out lasted for the entire week - and though the room was a bit of an oven, we did have the unexpected bonus of a small fridge in which we could keep cold drinks. On the other hand, the bathroom facilities were a bit basic for people who were not used to the idea of toilets without seats and byo paper, or mixed showers. |
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After completing our registration formalities the rest of the afternoon
was free, so having skipped breakfast after sleeping in till just
before our bus transport arrived, and knowing that the conference
catering did not start till dinner, a group of us headed out in search
of a suitable venue for lunch.
By mid afternoon we had settled in a small resturant just beyong the University gate - an event made more interesting by our tenuous grasp of the Romanian language. My soup was quite pallatable, but a few others discovered that recognising the Romanian for 'cow' in the name of their chosen dish did not necessarily mean steak, and were less impressed with their first encounter with tripe. There was some jubilation, however, at the discovery of some toilets that were equipped with both paper and seats. |
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The only other thing on the agenda for the day was dinner, which was
in the Cafeteria in which all of our meals would be being provided
till the excursion day on Sunday, and after that the Welcome Party.
The food in the cafeteria was good and plentiful, and as an added bonus the cafeteria was air-conditioned - which managed to get the temperature down from very hot to a level which while still too warm for me, was a relief compared with the usual temperature outside. |
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