Following my visit to Brasov in Romania recently I just happened by chance to be in Bath Spa for a few hours this week....
I was struck by the many similarities of the two cities. Both of ancient and historic origin, about 100 miles from the capital, sitting in basins of relatively flat land and surrounded by hills and both having busy tourism sectors...
Bath has a population of about 89,000 - so much smaller than Brasov's 250,000 - and I assumed that Romanians looking for work opportunities would have discovered Bath too. But it seems that I was wrong - no doubt there are some living and working in Bath, but during my brief visit I could find none or anybody who knew of any.
So no chance to ask them what they thought of England...or to compare notes on my impressions of Romania...
but I did find "Tip" the Big Issue seller from Manchester and he gave the interview below.
He is one of about 60 sellers of this magazine in Bath and has met a few Romanians selling the publication too but not the numbers that might be imagined from reading the Daily Mail or similar media outlets...
Not a very scientific study but the best I could manage.
Thanks again to "Tip" for his time.
First video - some views of the city of Bath below....
Second video - an interview with "Tip" - about 10 minutes - below...
Perhaps its an idea worth looking at again...
Hi
ReplyDeleteAs one of your readers who lives in Bath, but with Jersey connections it was nice to read and view your opinions of the city.
You are right there are few romanians in Bath, many more polish, but recently I came across some half dozen romanians who were constructing a new road across private land, the new entrance to a private public school. I was very impressed with how hard they worked. Their boss, a welshman, decribed their work rate as awesome and told me they worked 7am to 7pm, sometimes 7 days a week. They lived frugally, saved hard, and intended to return to Romania where, with their savings they could build their own house.Some had been here several years, but now this job has completed, they have indeed returned home.
They spoke little english,but one told me he came from transylvania, and laughed when I mentioned Dracula,saying that was the little most english people knew of his country.