Biking in Romania
ninth report of Dave, 08.19.2007-08.23.2007
Dave had time to read my "biking in Romania" website pages and saw my comment about the part he completely missed in his number five report. So, here it is.
Getting rested up here in Targu Mures with Claud (my brother-in-law), and of course Vlad (my son, who's on his holiday at his grandparents)!
I didn't realize that one mail I composed got to you completely blank. It's too bad because I told of one of the real highlights of the trip. It's not all that important to me that you post it on your site but I had such a great time I want you to know about it.
When I left Alba-Iulia I headed west on 74. Planned on heading over to Zlatna. But the traffic was very heavy so at the first opportunity I took a secondary road heading north. I just sorta headed north and ended up in a small village called Cetea. Decided to keep going despite the fact that the road was getting very bad and very steep.
At one point I spotted a woman (with her dog) over in some trees. She saw me and called to me. I replied "I only speak English", whereupon she replied "I speak English!" (This far out in the country few people speak my language).
So she (Magdelana) came over and explained that she, her husband, and several other people were camped another km up the road and asked if I would like to join them. OF COURSE! So we made it back to a beautiful campground near a locally celebrated and beautiful (I know, I know, I overuse that word) waterfall and natural pool.
Right away "Maggie" and her husband "Cristian" take me there for a swim. Great fun. Then back to the campground where there were other adults, 2 Orthodox priests and several teen-agers. Had a grand time. ALL the adults were very well educated (Maggie is a microbiologist and Cristian repairs and services spectrometers) and most spoke English. Had a wonderful time playing volleyball, joining them at meal time, and singing around a campfire that night.
The next day Cristian, Maggie and I went on a hike and for a while got completely lost in that Transylvania mountain forest. Great Fun!
The 3rd day Cristian got a call on his cell. He had to go fix a spectrometer in a factory in Medias. I went along. Got introduced to the manager of the local radio station and got a tour of the place which included an interview which I was told would be translated and played the next day.
Maggie and Cristian are in their mid-fifties and we had some wonderfully interesting conversations about their lives under communism, its fall etc. You can read all you want, go to classes all you want, but you cannot ever even come close to the experience of actually listening to folks who lived through times like that.
For instance, Cristian told me that, due to his work at that time, he was sent out of the country from time to time. But Maggie was never allowed to go with him. He told me how he had considered not coming back a couple of time but knew if he did not, he would never see Maggie again and that she would loose her job and never be able to find work again. Chilling stuff.
More about Dave's biking in Romania trip after his next update.
Back to Biking in Romania page.
