Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Map of Romania
March 14/15 2007
Budapest-Debrecen/ Cluj-Napoca-Alba Iulia
We left Budapest at 12 midnight on the 14th of March after meeting up for dinner at Bernd's (he's the organiser) house; we had these thick German pancakes you eat with jam(I forgot the German name) courtesy of Andre, and salad. We drove to Debrecen, another town in Hungary, to pick up the rest of the group (which makes 17 of us altogether), but got lost looking for their university accommodation, so we didn't reach the Romanian border till nearly 430 in the morning, or 530, because Romanian time is 1 hour later than Hungarian time.
It was a really long drive actually- about 5 hrs from where we started to the border-and since we were doing this road trip style (ie driving ourselves) I felt bad for the poor drivers. I admit I hardly felt the time passing, because the vans were really spacious and comfortable and I slept like a log=p At the border we realized what a diverse mix we were, because 18 of us represented exactly 10 nationalities- Czech, Slovak, German, Korean, Portuguese, Turkish, Polish, Italian, Finnish and Singaporean=) From there we drove on to Cluj Napoca, where we picked up Bernd's sister Nina, who's German like him, but works in an orphanage in the Romanian village of Aiud (which makes her really cool to me in a good Samaritan way) a little ways from Alba Iulia. The first proper place we visited in Romania was a salt mine, which in all honesty was kinda boring for me (I think everyone else concurs), because it was just a series of labyrinthine tunnels with salt crystals clinging to the walls. The only part that was any fun was when we got to go down this massive salt cavern which was more than 20 storeys high...Jussi, Luis and I were joking about how the mine should be converted into a huge dance club, with the cavern as the main dance area and the DJ up on the platform 20 storeys away=p To look on the bright side, at least it was educational, because I never knew salt came from underground mines (I always thought we got it from the sea).
The rest of the day went alot better, we drove into the hills for a picnic (the Romanian countryside is gorgeous- rolling hills, golden grass, sunshine and blue skies) which Nina's host family had packed for us. It was quite a spread, loaves and loaves of bread, two types of relish, this onion mustard dip, salami and ham, and two types of cheese, all of which we washed down with sweet Romanian Chai (that's what they call their tea, haha=D). We sat outside and enjoyed the sunny good weather and the pretty scenery, and when lunch was done we went trekking in the Carpathian Mountains (a short walk away from where we ate). It wasn't the easiest of hikes because the trail was uneven and in some parts cut precariously close to the mountain walls (in some places there was barely any walkway and we had to hold on to a rope so we wouldn't fall into the river/ravine/whatever was below), but that was part of the adventure, and everyone had a lot of fun! We had to cross broken bridges and climb up steep, rocky hills where every step sends a few rocks sliding downhill, but the weather stayed sunny, and the view was incredible=) At the end of the trail was this field of golden grass (our vans were parked across it) with huge dandelion plants (I have no idea how they get so big here) here and there. Martina taught me that in Italy you wish on dandelion seeds- you scatter them into the wind whilst you silently think about something you really want, and if the seeds stay airborne and float away it means you get your wish=) Of course, I took that as a cue to start uprooting most of the dandelion plants we came across and waving them so the fluffy seeds flew away in the wind...it was very pretty to watch, even though I couldn't think of many things to wish for=p
After the trek we drove on back to the home where Bernd's sister works, and were greeted by about 8 feisty little kids, all of whom were orphans (some of them were also autistic). They seemed really excited to see us, and I guess that's because they don't really see people outside much (the home was located almost in the wilderness, but it was a stately red brick 2 storey building, nicely furnished and very cosy). We had a BBQ dinner of ground meat rolls with mustard, bread and potato salad outside in the garden and watched the sun set from there, it was getting cold, so we were served wine and homemade Romanian palinka too. I really didn't like the latter, because it was so strong I felt like I was drinking lab alcohol or nail polish remover. I learnt that Romanians treat their palinka like medicine, its so strong its supposed to cure any and every form of illness you have. In fact, most Romanian households have their own alcohol distilling contraption, which they use to make everything from wine to palinka (it depends on what you put inside; fruits, plants, grapes etc).
After dinner we went wine-tasting at some other villager's home, and it was a very small place with a tiny living room/dining area, so it was a miracle 18 of us could fit inside. It was this old man, his wife and his parents, and the the jolly old grandfather seemed rather harmless until he grabbed Martina and kissed her full on the lips. Throughout the night the girls sitting around him had to suffer in silence his over-affectionate behaviour (I was lucky enough to get a seat far, far away from him)- it wasn't as if he were being outright lecherous, it felt more like he was taking his license as an elderly person to be, how shall I say this...overly hospitable. It couldn't have been much fun for the girls who were harassed by him (he also told Hyomi he loved her and proposed to her), but the rest of us enjoyed our time there because the wine was actually really good! We sampled 4 types of Sauvignon Blanc of different ages; the most aged one was even older than me (by 2 years). Not being a wine person, I was pleasantly surprised to find any wine that I liked at all, but wine number 1 and 3 were fruity and sweet, with none of that over-powering alcohol smell I hate. Because we were still fascinated with the diversity of our little group (and with a bit of help from the wine), we each had to take turns singing our national anthems (the Portuguese call it their national hymn). I still can't believe I had to sing Majulah Singapura in front of everyone...it was so embarrassing! For one thing, it made no sense whatsoever to me because its in Malay (I know they explain it to us in primary school class, but I don't listen and primary school is years and years away), and also I kept forgetting the lyrics. I was half-tempted to sing something else (anything!) and pass it off as our national song (since nobody would be any wiser- especially if I sang in Mandarin=p). Besides, I was the only Singaporean there, so I had no one else to sing with (which was true also for Hyomi, Martina and Jussi; Korean, Italian and Danish respectively). But it was fun hearing all these different languages, and most of them were really proud of their countries so they sang their anthems with gusto and lots of cheering=D
I learnt also that most of the Europeans have drinking songs they sing at drinking sessions, and I wish we had those too because they're really cute. Here's the lyrics to this Portuguese drinking song:
"E se a (Chai) quer se ca da malta,
tem que beber este copo
ATE O FIM! ATE O FIM!
E vai acina, E vai abaixo, E vai ao centro,
E vai para dentro, para dentro
ATE O FIM! ATE O FIM!"
We got this Portuguese girl Ines to write it down, and its like an initiation song for when you're a newcomer to the crowd and you want to fit in and drink with them. The first few lines are about being new to the drinking group, and "ate o fim" means to drink till the mug is empty (in Singapore we do this too, don't we?). The "E vai... ...dentro" lines are just actions you do with your mug in hand, acina is up, abaixo is down, centro is center (duh), and then the song ends with "ate o fim (until the end/finish)" again=)
Most of us were at least a bit gone by the time the night ended (I can say in all (boring) honesty that I was sober, because of the bad experience with getting drunk on wine at Eger), and we drove (Bernd and his sister did, because they didn't drink, though we found out later he lied) to this cloister in the mountains, and that was where we slept for the night. A cloister's like a nunnery, complete with church and all. They built a couple of lodges to accommodate outsiders, probably for the extra income. 6 of us shared a room, which worked out just fine numerically. It was freezing cold outside, but even at night we could see how pretty the surroundings were. As we followed the nun up the meandering stone path to our lodge there was a moment when I felt like I had stepped right into the pages of some story book; the imposing mountains with their bare winter trees, silhouetted against a clear night sky studded with a constellation of millions of tiny stars, and against this backdrop the figure of the nun wrapped fully in black making her way up the winding rock path- almost like a fairy tale witch! I confess to getting carried away with my imagination sometimes (it takes the edge of the everyday mundaneness of life=)) but Transylvania was really straight out of a Brothers Grimm tale, all dark, untamed wintry wilderness and magnificent craggy mountains rising steeply into infinity... I didn't even have to use my imagination to see how magical it was- I felt like Alice in Wonderland!
Anyhow, we had a long day, so I was glad to get into bed, which were warm and toasty, complete with the heaviest duvet I've ever had the fortune to curl up under. Above all, it was really clean, so I enjoyed a good night's sleep.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Map of Romania
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