The hospital I was in, which is reserved for lung cases and infectious diseases (in separate wings) with the TB ward lying somewhere in the middle, sitting on the pulmonary fence, is in a beautiful old building. Think mittel-european house of some minor voivode. (More Colditz than Stalag-Luft III. Oh sorry, I forgot I was going to try and lay off the prison references). A bit crumbling, but looking onto a nice courtyard, and with views in all directions, and located not actually in Csikszereda, but in the former-village, now-suburb of Csiksomlyo (Sumuleu Ciuc in Romanian). When I got tired of reading it was pleasant to spend time watching the Spring arrive - the tree outside my window went from bud to full-on blossom during the week, the snows on Hargita mountain gradually receded, the birds in the courtyard fluttered around collecting nesting materials and the like. It was all very tranquil.
Sadly though, this hospital will not be a hospital for very much longer. You see the building is owned by the church (the Roman catholic church in this case). It became a hospital during communism when it was nationalised, but now the church want it back (as under post-communist rules they are allowed to). I'm not quite sure what they want to do with it (the former orphanage in the same area reverted to RCC control a few years ago, and as far as I can tell they haven't touched the place since). To me, it would seem that having a hospital in the building goes some way to fulfilling the church's supposed raison-d'etre - you know about helping people and all that - but instead they will probably just use it for accommodation for the pilgrimage weekend, and leave it lying dormant for the rest of the year. It's a real shame, and a bit crap really.
In other religion related news, today is Easter Sunday in the Orthodox calendar. As I understand it this means that roughly 1975 years ago, Jesus of Nazareth was crucified and was resurrected a couple of days later. Then a few weeks later, he repeated the trick, just to head off the doubters. That's commitment for you.
Anyway, Happy Easter Romanians and anyone else of an orthodox bent.
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1 comment:
I fear hospitals, and the prospect of staying in one overnight, though I haven't had to since I had my tonsils out, aged six. On the other hand, there's something obviously attractive about the idea of lying in bed for a week with nothing to do but read and watch spring arrive. If only I could find an alternative reason for doing that besides being sick.
Anyway, very glad to hear you're out and on the road to recovery.
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