CJ STONE

Author and Columnist

Travel

Beyond The Forest: Journeys to the Heart of Transylvania We drove down the western side from Timisoara to Bucharest, in a Ford Focus diesel, in ten straight hours, along those cracked, battered, broken roads - overtaking everything that moved, swerving in and out of heavy traffic, with huge lorries coming at us flashing lights and horns - but it wasn't till I came to a door in a rambling, shady house near a park that I knew I'd arrived in Romania. The house belonged to an opera singer. There was something powerful about her, Wagnerian even in her street clothes. She was more than a little daunting. And yet, when I came to the door and asked if I could use the loo, she said "please" and gestured me in.
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	Angels of New York
	We came in on the George Washington Bridge on the Interstate, but you could see the city long before that, from deep inside New Jersey somewhere, the jagged line of skyscrapers flashing between the hills and trees, shimmering in the bright autumn sunlight like some giant bejewelled crown abandoned on the shore by a long-forgotten god. Manhattan Island. Was there ever a more iconic - or instantly recognisable - skyline? And then we were sweeping in off the freeway along the slow arc of the ramp and down into the bustle of traffic along the highway, making for the Upper West Side. What is it about New York?
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Iron In The Soul
Ironville doesn't have a very good reputation at all. In fact, it has such a bad reputation that one part of Ironville doesn't even call itself Ironville. It calls itself Codnor Park. Mostly its reputation stems from itself. The village doesn't need any outsiders to put it down. It does that all by itself. From the moment I arrived people were going on about its bad reputation. They kept warning me to move my van in case it was vandalised. It went on and on. In the end I heeded everyone's advice and moved out of the village.
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The Golden Cup
I guess most of you will have heard of Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, also known as Vlad Tepes. One of his titles was Dracula, and he was probably the original for the central character in Bram Stoker’s novel of the same name. He must have been one of the most evil people ever to have existed. He is Romania’s most famous historical figure. “Tepes” means “Impaler”. He got his name because impaling was his preferred method of execution. This is how it was done. The victim had his legs yanked apart, by horses attached to ropes, and then a sharpened stake about the size of a fist was inserted between the buttocks, up the anus.
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Western Reunion
	To be honest, it was more awkward than I had imagined. I was in Poole in Dorset, meeting an old pupil of mine. I used to teach English as a foreign language. The ex-pupil’s name is Vera. She’s twenty four now, and has just qualified as a Nurse. When I’d known her she was eighteen. We’d had this brief, innocent romance. It had mainly involved long walks along the beach holding hands, and deep conversations looking into each other’s eyes
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Photographs by Helen Stone. Illustrations Ian Pollock and by Eldad Druks. Website by Bridgefield Consulting. Expression Templates