Hoping all is well with you!
Wrapping a few weeks in Romania, and, yes — Transylvania. Serious castle hopping. Top of the bill was Bran castle, purported home to Bram Stoker’s infamous vampire.
Emerging from the eastern European communist bloc in ’89, Romania was largely unaware of western pop culture. Learning of Dracula and his celebrity in the west, the Romanian chamber-of-commerce moved a county line some few hundred yards putting the castle into Transylvania and “ka-ching!”
Our tour guide offered: Vlad “the impaler” did in fact swill goblets of his victims’ blood. Not a big a stretch to recast him as “the Count,” and open for business!
While Romanian trains pale in comparison to their neighbors, one unmatched feature though is the berry vendors working the aisles in motion. Fresh! Sweet! Inexpensive! Wow, I am so easy!
Visiting Brasov, a beautuful central Romanian town for a few days, we made our way through the 3rd narrowest street in Europe, and saw some very coloful graffiti- – much of it in English. Some sad soul had written,“We were a perfect match. Sadly, matches burn.”
Humor is different here. Even with their families and friends, laughter feels controlled, almost conditional. In the UK, cheek is valued for it’s own sake. Italy? It’s just in the air!
The one funny sign we saw in 4 weeks in Romania was for “The Cathouse Massage Parlor – – We bite! We scratch!”
Traveling around, I sense a day-to-day fatalism among eastern Europeans: a fog that seems to deepen as you move east, and to lift as you go west. Hmm.
Romanian food and wine, on the other hand, are terriffic. Shepard’s pie, beef schnitzel, apple strudel, lamb + veal burgers, goat kebab, their version of Greek salad, and…. sarmale (stuffed cabbage rolls of minced pork/veal), and a dessert called pavlova.
In the most Romanian Irish pub you’ll ever see, Cookie asked for a modest substitution. Our host said, “No, try it our way.” To her credit she did and made a really enjoyable discovery. Same with the wines. you will occasionally get a clinker. But that’s nothing next to the pleasure of discovering an unknown new treasure. No way around it: Ya gotta try stuff!
Sa aveti o zi buna!
Mike & Cookie/Claudia