Okay, so we just came back from Romania – yesterday. I think I held up pretty okay for the most part, considering I’d never been to Europe, and how last minute it all was. We had all of one day to prepare for leaving to Romania. I brought WAY too many clothes, and most of the time I would have been happy just being naked all the time, it was so hot! AND humid! OMG – 95-98 degree weather with 47% humidity, by the Black Sea, and on the set of the dumbest movie ever.
I can’t tell you the name of the movie or who worked on it, just because I think I might get in trouble, but just trust me when I say that it’s worse than any Romanian made-for-tv plot you can think of. The director himself wrote the script and had no idea what he was doing. Climbing up and down steep stairs on old dry-docked Romanian cargo ships where the sets were, with no air conditioning or fans for that matter.
The food wasn’t that great (except the lamb chops) and the drivers are all crazy! Ours, though, was a nice guy – though admittedly he did drive a little too fast at times, when other cars are used to just jumping out in front of you at the last second with no warning at all (I guess it’s normal for Eastern Europe). Everyone seemed like a vigilante on the road, it was so insane.
Everything that can go wrong, DID go wrong, and Murphy was with us the whole time. Their “best hotel” in a resort town called “Constanta” was just awful. Never mind that the air conditioning didn’t work, or that there were giant cracks in the windows of our 11th story suite, and that their idea of a club sandwich is chicken salad with soggy bacon and boiled eggs. The water heated up in the shower, and then spontaneously decided to go cold for two seconds before recovering for another three.
The few good things I can say is that their Coke is still made with real sugar, and not high fructose corn syrup like in the good ol’ USA (don’t get me wrong – I love this country despite some flaws). Our translator, Maria, was sweet and kind and saw to our every need as best as she good (thanks, Maria!). And Paul was cool too. Most of us got along, actually. And the other two American actors in the film were fairly nice, though I spoke less with them than some others on the crew.
A lot of Romania is still trying to figure out capitalism, I think. They have many buildings left over from the communist era. It only just ended in December 1989. The cities are depressing, I must say. And many of the other people in the crowds as we passed them were a little vulgar. But perhaps that’s just a Romanian thing. Things like talent agencies don’t exist there, nor do they have a union like SAG (Screen Actors Guild). The actors and everyone on the crew had to negotiate their own contracts, and don’t get overtime and things like that. The young actress in the film apparently had asked for more money for being asked to work three days over what they intended, and the production manager called it “blackmailing”.
This experience was the worst that I’ve ever had on any trip, and my husband says the same. We’re never going back to Romania.
My brain is still dead from all the jet lag, and going through customs, and having to go through security 4 different times! We were so delirious by the time we go home, I barely knew my own name.
Excuse me while I crawl into bed for the next week or so. Next week we leave for Toronto, and then to Atlanta. Oh, boy, oh, boy… *snore*…
