Timisoara

I've been talking to more and more people about the status of Timisoara during Communism. A lot of people here hate Bucharest and Bucharest doesn't look too fondly upon Timisoara either. We're the second richest part of the country, the closest to the "west" and I'm assuming the situation is not unlike various Canadian cities' opinions regarding Toronto.

During Communism, most of the country only had one channel, and even that was only for a few hours each day. Timisoara's proximity to Serbia and Hungary gave it access to alternate forms of media. A friend of mine told me that he learned some Serbian from watching the Serbian tv channels growing up. Timisoara knew about the situation in Eastern and Western Europe long before the rest of Romania did.

Timisoara is very ethnically mixed and tolerant and most people can claim a relative in another ethnic group. Also, many Romanians had previously immigrated to other countries in Europe such as Germany and France and were so able to send supplies to their families back home. Timisoara had denim when the rest of country hadn't had jeans since their parents were young.