Last September, I decided to have a little trip to Romania to participate to the birthday party of the school “tango timisoara”. The travel was quite an adventure as I didn’t book the best option to flight. Even with hours of travel, it was worth it. First time in this event, first time in this country, I barely knew 5 people. However it was surprisingly easy to get in the mood. The other day I was writing about tango8 where I go regularly and the feeling to be at home. Even if I was for the first time in Timisoara, I had the same feeling.

First, for those who know nothing about Timisoara, like me few months before the events, Timisoara is a little city at the crossing of the Romanian, Serbian and Hungarian border. To reach the city, you can flight to Bucarest then Timisoara or flight to Budapest then take a shuttle. I took this option after leaving my work on Friday and that’s why I arrived late for the beginning of the marathon. It is a nice city. The centre at 10 minutes walking from the event is full of old squares and buildings which allow a nice walk around during the day. If you wait for the night, numerous ravens gather to stand on the top of a building near the cathedral.

Anivertango takes place in a bar called Ambasada mixing factory and art place styles. Ambasada offers good coffees and has a little garden which was the perfect place to take the brunch and chill out. With the nice weather and temperatures around 25 degrees, you could spend all your weekend under the shadows of the tree chatting and listening to the music. In case you want to dance, you can go to the first floor of the building where is the dancefloor, with air conditioning and big windows to let the sun enter. The venue doesn’t give you the impression to be here for a marathon. You have more a holiday feeling which is quite nice and really convenient to get in touch with people.

Only girls composed the DJ team with Naoko, Karolina Tkaczuk, Vera Tinkova, Anca Madroane, Monica Șuteu and Gabriela Manea. I already heard everybody except Vera which was a discovery. From what I heard I would say a marathon 100% women DJ can easily be a success. Arriving super late on Friday, I missed Naoko and Karolina. Vera, Anca and Monica had good sets on Saturday with a good balance of style. Gabriela played on Sunday with an interruption of 20-30 minutes with an unexpected storm crushing trees and everything standing outside. She didn’t play hurricane maybe to avoid to annoyed more the divinities. But the song would have been perfect for the moment. I forgot, in fact, there was a guy, José Almar, playing for the afterparty in a very dynamic style.

I never travelled to Romania so I got the role of the stranger in the middle of groups of friends. A lot of confirmed dancers came from Serbia, Croatia, Hungary and several cities of Romania speaking languages I don’t understand. I like to hear incomprehensible discussions (but don’t worry people speak English…). Anyway, I danced a lot. There was maybe around 150 participants. Cabeceu was easy in the room due to the reasonable size and people receptive. The navigation was pretty good and it was a good surprise. Finally, I was also surprised to have nice tandas with local people and a last dance with a beginner from Timisoara. I am convinced they have good teachers there.

If I could gave an award for the best homemade food, I will give it this year to Victor Popescu for his brunch, his selection of products and his spicy sauce. The food was mainly inspired by Italy with delicious cheeses and vegetables. Everything fresh and tasty. I don’t know if it is usual in Romania but you have there a chef to discover. Sorana Greucean completed the buffet all kind of sweets.

A little detail, the food come in addition of the marathon fee. The whole package marathon + food (brunch/dinner/food all over the event) costed 90€ which is a quite reasonable price if you compare the quality/quantity of the food with other marathon today.
Thanks to Maria Tirtea / Momentango for the pictures. A lot of pics of nice food and tasty embraces are missing. You can find the full album at the following link : https://www.facebook.com/pg/MomentTango/photos/?tab=album&album_id=2023065674579083