Blogs from Transilvania, Romania, Europe - page 35

Auf vereinzelten Wunsch speziell meiner Eltern, gibt’s jetzt ausnahmsweise diesen Eintrag auch nochmal auf deutsch. Also wir haben gleich die Gelegenheit genutzt, da ja am letzten Donnerstag in Ungarn irgendeine Unabhängigkeitstag ist und es da dann sowieso immer Krawalle gibt, zu flüchten und mal einen längeren Trip nach Rumänien, speziell Transilvanien zu machen. Ich hab dann auch schon frühzeitig mit den Planungen begonnen, dass alles nach deutscher Ordnung und Präzision abläuft. So habe ich dann 2 Minivans für je 9 Leute angemietet. Waren 11 Studenten aus Budapest, 9 aus Debrecen und natürlich noch meine Schwester Nina in Rumänien, die für uns den Dolmetscher spielte. Ein sehr multikultureller Haufen: je 4 Deutsch und Portugiesen, je 2 Polinnen und Türkinnen, sowie je 1 Tschechinn, Finne, Italienerin, Singapur und Südkorea waren vertreten. Nach einem gemeinsamen Abendes... read more

Dearest Friends, Happy Holidays to you! We are glad that we have been able to share some of our adventures throughout this year with you through this fantastic medium. While there is much one might reflect on, considering the major changes in our life, thanks to the blog there is less to recap! Instead, we look forward to what the new year will bring. We are headed to Sicily for the holidays and when we return we will come home to the newest member of the European Union. There are many ups and downs to this as I am sure you may have read in various publications. Everyone seems to have their prediction of doom and/or interview with an angry Romanian farmer. I would like to express another side, one less heard in the media, perhaps ... read more

Woke up around 7am and we were somewhere in Romania. The old lady in my compartment was on her way to Bucharest to visit her mother. She was German and spoke a little English, plus lots of Romanian and Italian. We managed to communicate though and she told me a few stories about Romania, and taught me a few Romanian words (boo-nah-dee-ma-naat-za = “good morning”, boo-nah-zee-wah = “good afternoon”, boo-nah-zeh-rah = “good evening”). All of a sudden the door to the compartment ripped open and instead of seeing a cop or soldier or someone wanting to mug us, there was a strange looking girl about 8 years old standing there in a t-shirt and jeans cut off at her knees. She started saying something that I couldn’t understand and pulled up the legs of her jeans. ... read more

Alecia: The weather’s starting to change here. We see frost some mornings, and are starting to think about purchasing winter coats. The stalls at the outdoor market are bursting with tasty seasonal treats - apples, pears, grapes, walnuts, dry beans, fall spinach and lettuce, potatoes, dry herbs, home made paprika, popping corn, tomatoes, onions, eggplant, garlic and the like. Since our last posting we’ve had some adventures with traditional food processing. Two weekends ago, we spent the day with Zsolt - our host dad’s parents (the closest approximation of his name in English is Jolt - the ‘zs’ makes a ‘jza’ sound). It was a family affair, with great food and plenty of palinka. The purpose the visit was to roast 60 kg of eggplant, flake off the blackened skin, mash into a pulp and freeze ... read more

Still driving around Romania with Lisa and finding it hard to leave and continue with the rest of my trip. Having a fantastic time although this is one backward, expensive country. Sat in an internet cafe that is someone's flat with a few computers and soldering irons laying around. We are in the biggest town that we've come across for a few days this is real farming country and it's now harvest time. The vast fields full of families collecting the crops and driving back by horse and cart. Stayed in a small village last night in a room in someones house. There was one restaurant in town full of the menacing locals eating their bland but substantial food. I have a lot of good photographs but the chance of uploading them any time soon ... read more