"17 Moment of Europe" - Romania. Round the world travel by car
We rushed to Bucharest on October 21st. Romania is the 17th country on our way. Despite the fact that it was almost at 9 pm, the doors of the embassy were opened for us by Teofil Rendyuk, Counsellor-Envoy of the Embassy of Ukraine in Romania. He is a very erudite person, Doctor of Historical Sciences, writes books and sincerely worries about Ukraine, always does more than his job duties require. . . jokingly called "Theophilus and Theophilus".
So, we were graciously greeted, taken to the reception room, Teofil told us about the country, about the people, told us the program for the next day and even safety precautions on the territory of the embassy. We admit that being on the territory of the embassy is a great discovery for us. After all, this is an official organization, and we were received at such a late time and even settled in a small apartment, which is seconded to the embassy... The apartment is small, cozy, warm and reminded me of my childhood, because it was equipped with Soviet furniture.
The next day there was a personal meeting with Ambassador Theophil Bauer and the third secretary of the Embassy Elena Kuzmenchuk. It was very pleasant to communicate with them, easily, sincerely, openly... (for the umpteenth time we notice that the more open the interlocutors, the more I want to talk). We talked both about the project itself and about issues of Ukrainian-Romanian relations.
At the meeting with Pan Theophil Bauer, the issue of work in the field was also raised. This is a painful topic for us: we received a response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to our appeal only on October 15 - 2 months (!!! ) after we registered it. Moreover, while people on the ground have already begun to work with us, as we have been meeting with ambassadors and consuls of European countries for a whole month, the Foreign Ministry in response asks us to clarify the route... This is such an amazing feature of our reality - people on the ground work faster and more efficient than the center!
After the conversation, the Ambassador's assistant gave us an informative tour of Bucharest. Pan Teofil told the story of the Embassy building – beautiful, spacious, with comfortable halls and creaky parquet, which unobtrusively reminds of how old the building is… It was built in 1910, during the war years passed to the German government, there was the headquarters of the German troops. But time put everything in its place...
In the evening we went to the Ukrainian Cultural Center, where rehearsals and performances, meetings, screenings and discussions of films usually take place. There was an extensive program here: meeting with us and watching a movie (we posted it for you on our channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCj7RVjb0at8MSESAqxGqJEQ ). Many people from the Ukrainian community came, they were very interested in the details of our project, and they were especially impressed with motankas. Almost all the motanka dolls were dismantled from me (usually the communities choose 2-3 as a keepsake, but here the owners were found 10), one of them went to a native Romanian.
Needlework girls from Ukraine, I send you greetings and bows from us and from all their new owners. Thank you!
