Tourist In My Home Town #2 : Buzau City Train Station And Ilie The Vulture

Have you ever looked at your home town from a tourist perspective? It's impossible to do it when you live there, and the work routine kills your explorer vibes. The city landmarks and attractions are not so appealing when you seen them around since childhood.

I left Romania in 2011, and returned every year during the summer for few weeks. However, the period is still short and I always been busy sorting bureaucratic stuff, or visiting the relatives.

Let me introduce you to my home town, the place where I grew up. I will take you on a trip down memory lane, starting roughly when the world wide web was launched, and then I will take you back to Web3 times!

The city of Buzău is the county seat of Buzău County, in the historical region of Muntenia. It's a place full of natural beauty as it lies between the south-eastern curvature of the Carpathian Mountains and the lowlands of Bărăgan Plain.

Buzău is also a railway hub in south-eastern Romania, where railways that link Bucharest to Moldavia and Transylvania to the Black Sea coast. The town flourish due to the strategic position, as a link between the other regions.

The main railway station is an important transport hub, connecting Bucharest with the seaside, and linking the Moldavian counties with the rest of the country. The city railway station was open in 1872, along with the Bucharest Galați route. Those where the days! Sweet times with IRL frens' and hours of drinking beer when the summer temperature inside the train were above 35 degrees!

I spent over 1800 hours travelling from Buzau to Galati during my Uni days... probably the same amount of time spent waiting for gwei to return to decent values. That's about 75 days of my life, time well spent!

Do you know that Buzau is the largest city in Europe and the 2nd in the world placed exactly at the half the distance between the North Pole and the Ecuator? I didn't knew either until they added this landmark close to the train station! My hometown is so cool!

Let me tell you another story... and why there's a statue of a vulture as you enter the rail station. The plaque below the statue will tell you the story of Ilie, a friendly vulture that lived at the station.

Ilie was a bearded eagle, a very large bird of prey that flies at high altitudes. The bird that lives in the Himalayan Mountains was caught at Buzau and bought by a wealthy man. Ilie lived in a cage until his grand escape.

The stories were saying that Ilie was happy to walk around the platforms, or on the streets. The butchers close to the railway station were feeding him with meat, and he was spending his time on the roof of the station.

He was captured and sold to a lawyer but he escaped again and returned to Buzau. The story ends sadly, in 1942, when a German soldier aimed his gun at Ilie and took him down. The event nearly caused a riot, as the vulture was loved by the people. He was buried at the Dumbrava Cemetery and crowds gathered to say good bye!

Feel free to read and learn more about my town in Tourist In My Home Town #1 : Exploring Buzau City As A Guest

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