Pics- Transfagaras

(Long, windy Transfagaras road; Gondola; random campers in a beautiful place; Luna waiting for the gondola)


 

Eurojournal - 29 July 2006 (Roadtrip-Vlad Tepes castle, Transfagaras Rd,Happy Birthday Sloane!)

We head out early to get to the Transfagaras road. It’s a long way. We drive the freeway, the established one to Pitesti. That was quick and smooth. Pitesti has a very depressing but interesting history. There is a prison there where they did a “student re-education” experiment on psychological abuse of political prisoners from 1949-1952 during communism. One of the prisoners implemented this under the orders of the Securitate. The prisoners became torturers of other prisoners. The victims became torturers. If they refused they would be locked in a coffin-like box standing up for weeks. The torture methods were insane and awful. In 1958 the implementer and 21 other prisoners were secretly tried and sentenced to death for the murders of 30 prisoners and abuse of 780. The Securitate denied involvement in the experiment. Former political prisoner Dimitru Bacu writes about this in his book, The Anti-Humans.

We leave Pitesti and get to the Transfagaras road. This is a pass through Romania’s highest mountain, the Fagaras mountains into Transylvania. This was my favorite part of the trip. It was hot at the base and when we reached the top it was snowy. We hopped on a gondola to the top. Camping is permitted just about everywhere in Romania so there were a lot of tents in random but beautiful places in the mountains. I would have loved to have camped here. It was green with rocks, conifers and waterfalls. Pristine. We saw sheep being herded and stopped for a few crossing as we headed down the long windy road.

Before we went all the way up we stopped in Poienari, where the real Prince Vlad Tepes castle ruins are. We walked up 1480!! Steps to the castle ruins. Liam played leader and made it all the way up with energy to spare. The views were astonishing. Byron liked this one more even though it wasn’t decorated or even formed as it was 700 years old.

The drive home was smooth. We laughed at how people set up camp on the side of the road. The drive down was much like the road to the coast at home except with families playing badmitten and having a barbecue on the turnouts!

We stopped at Metro in the city to get groceries. It is like Costco but with so much food we can eat! Tofu, tvp, soymilk, veggie burgers, etc. There are different chains of stores like this. They call them hypermarkets.

We arrive home at 2 am gladly falling into a warm soft bed! It was also our nieces 3rd birthday so we tried to call as soon as we got home where our cell phone worked.

Happy Birthday Sloane!!!!!! We love you!

(Snow at the top of the Fagaras mountains, sheep and shepherd, fagaras mountains, Transfagaras Road)

 

Eurojournal - 28 July continued

We make it to Buchuresti and the driving steps up several notches. I am comfortable driving in the cities at home. I am comfortable driving really fast. I am comfortable passing. I am burnt out driving and arrive to a city where really anything goes and people are grumpy with their horns. Some intersections do not have any signs indicating who has the right away so anyone goes and if you are too slow everyone honks at you. I had to go and hope for the best. I’m tired and hungry and can’t deal. It’s my birthday and I have been driving all day. The kids are arguing about whether it is my birthday or not. I have to tell them that yes, it is in fact my birthday. *sigh* I remind myself that I am in Europe for my birthday and to be happy.

We find a great Lebanese restaurant. We had hoped to make it to our final destination area to stay the night but it’s getting late and I am tired. I decided before we arrived to Buchuresti we would stay in a hotel with a hot shower there. I didn’t care how much it cost. I’m done. After dinner James checks out a suite for twice as much as we budgeted. I had dropped him off and drove around. I had several people honk at me and the same old chaos. I pick him up on the verge of tears and declare we are getting out of the city now. The suite sounds amazing but no parking. We just go. We get lost getting to the freeway out and the on-ramp is not separated form the off-ramp. Both a semi and I are driving down what could be considered the middle of the road, no lines. I swerve and miss thank goodness. We find a motel outside of the city. James has me go with him to see what the rate is. I hug him and break down. We take a walk and he buys me a Fanta. Yep I’m hooked on the silly Portocale (orange) fanta soda.

Now this is funny. We walk to the motel and look at the posted rates on the building. 3 beds for 160 lei (about $50). Someone comes out and asks what we want. James starts babbling in English. I interrupt and ask Vorbeti Engleza? He goes back to three other men and they are laughing at us. One man comes back and speaks to us in English. He offers us the room for 60 Euros ($75) and breakfast. We ask to see it. It’s fine for all of us. I am adding up the Euros and confused about the posted price. He wants Euros and no credit card even though they advertise that they accept VISA. We tell him we only have lei. He is not happy. He tells us then it will be 210 lei ($75). I point to the posted sign and ask why it says 160 lei for 3 beds? He pretends he doesn’t understand so I attempt to take the sign off the wall and show him. He then writes, 175 lei and no breakfast. Fine. We didn’t want breakfast there anyway. I ask why the extra 15? He says the kids. Fine. I go to the car to get more money and return. The manager was there offering James a “discount” to 160 lei. The worker was disappointed and rude at that point. James thought maybe I figured out they were taking advantage of us and the owner was afraid I was going to call someone like the anti-corruption hotline when I left. Great we got the posted rate. The worker asks for my passport and money and will not give me my passport back. I ask for it back and he says he will give it back when we return the key. No way. We tell him give me my passport and money and we will go elsewhere. The manager looks at him and signals for him to give my passport back. We get the keys. We walk out laughing. What just happened here? The same 4 men including the disappointed worker but excluding the boss followed us out. I move the car to the side of the hotel where other cars are parked and they run out and tell me to park directly in front. I park there and we get the kids out. The boss runs out and tells us to be careful with the tv with the children as the first few channels are adult. We thank him for the advice and the discount and go in. This is funny. We decide to call the four men the Romanian Mafia.

We get in the room and Luna and Liam hand me a folded piece of paper with Luna’s writing. On it are coupons : 1 day to sleep in until 10am; 5 minutes of silence in the car; 1 chore; many kisses and love. They sang Happy Birthday to me and James and Byron return with a vegan dark chocolate bar. Now that was the best birthday present ever!

Pics- The real Vlad Tepes castle

 

Eurojournal - 28 July 2006 (roadtrip-Black Sea)

28 July: I woke up at sunrise to pee. Bathrooms at the campgrounds so far in Romania are pretty bad. I check out the beach. The campground is quiet. Everyone is asleep. I could watch the sunrise if I stay up longer. I go back to see if James is awake. He and Byron had puppy duty last night so I knew they were exhausted. He was up, the kids were all asleep. We check out the beach. It’s cool with overcast. I realize I am there either a bit too early to see the sunrise or the clouds are too heavy. It is pretty cool to be at the Black Sea and maybe see the sunrise on my birthday. I’m pretty tired and decide I didn’t want to wait longer for the sunrise. We go back and sleep a few more hours. I wake up and James took the kids to the each. Byron and the pups are still asleep. It looks like rain soon so I hurry to the beach to get a little sand. We wait out the rain in the tent and go back to the water. After a few hours Liam went in far and loved the water. It was shallow and warm. Not blue like Jamaica or the Mediterranean. Luna loved the water. It is time to get lunch and leave. We were heading to the real Dracula’s (Vlad Tepes) castle tomorrow and the Transfagaras road.
I am pretty tired of driving at this point as it is so much work here. There are patches of freeway from the coast to Buchuresti. They only have one short freeway in the country and are working on another here. As a child I never understood what life could have been like without freeways when I learned about Eisenhower and his interstate project. Here it was. Patches of new freeway. We can drive on it without the lines. New rest stops with signs. The signs have areas for potential businesses to advertise. We stop at one rest area and that was the most surreal experience ever. They advertise a WC (bathroom) on the sign along the freeway. The kids have to go bad. The doors are locked and there is a bed next to one of the locked doors with cloths, blanket, newspaper and baseball bat. There is a man inside one of the doors. Maybe he is building this? Maybe he is a guard? He comes out and I ask in Romanian if we can use the WC. He says NO! Okay. Hmmm… now what? I wait to see what other drivers are doing. They walk to the back of the building. I follow. Maybe that is where the bathroom is? After driving I decide it would not surprise me as just about anything goes here. Uh well yes anything DOES go here! The bathroom is the area behind the building. I walk back to the car knowing it’s along way to Buchuresti and there are no other stops.





 

Pics

(At Peles castle, Luna's point of view, Liam's point of view, Inside courtyard of Peles castle)

Eurojournal - 27 July 2006 (roadtrip-Peles castle, on the way to Black Sea)

Today we drove to the Black Sea. It was going to be a long drive so we stopped at Peles castle on the way in Sinaia. We skipped the touristy Dracula castle (it’s not the REAL Vlad Tepes castle!) in favor of going to Peles which we read was much nicer. It was a very pretty castle and fairly new (built in the 1800’s). Byron was pretty disappointed that it was so new. He felt it wasn’t as authentic as the ones he had seen that were over 700 years old. Peles castle was the first to have electricity and housed King Carol I, the first king of Romania. We ate in a great little ski village, another place we could order off the menu.

I had this intense experience at this restaurant. I am reflecting on my own internal conflicts around class, social justice, privilege, race, and my observations in this country. The levels of poverty are different than at home and distinctions less clear. In the village people are much poorer than in CA but most have property and are well fed. Our table at the restaurant was outside on a deck. Next to the rail was the sidewalk which was about 5 feet below us. A man approached me from below the deck and spoke at me in perhaps Romanian. He was dark, there was an intensity in his eyes. An intensity which brought fear over me. A fear where I felt the need to protect myself and family. It was almost like he was reciting something like scriptures, not the same as talking or asking for food or money. I looked up at James who was sitting across from me and told him what was happening. I looked back down and the man was still looking directly at me talking. I said “nu” (no in Romanian) and motioned for him to go away. He stayed. I ignored him. He left. We watched him walk down the street. What was he saying? Maybe he was just asking for money or food. In that case I could have given it to him. Am I too privileged to recognize that? I am too removed where I fear the poor instead of feel compassion? I know when I moved away form San Francisco I became less connected with the homeless in the city. When I lived there, I would sit and have conversations with people who were homeless. I had no fear. I saw them as people. When I would return to SF from home, I became more and more fearful. Am I like that here? But there was something different about his man. Or I am making excuses for my reaction?

After dinner we drove to the Black Sea. Oh these drivers are crazy! Like I mentioned everyone passes, even on small roads, even when there is an oncoming car. The oncoming car just moves over. It’s insane. I got the hang of it after a while and passed like any other Romanian … but in a monstrous van. There are horses and carriages on the road. The roads are so small that we have to pass to get anywhere. Every trip takes along long time. In the US 50 km should only take about 30 minutes but here it is more like an hour or more. We arrived at the Black Sea around midnight. The towns looked like Las Vegas. It was surreal. Surely there must be a LaSalsa somewhere here! Yep, still craving that burrito. We found a campground and spent two hours setting up the tent Csaba loaned us. Everywhere along this patch of coast is like one big party. Our campground is about a 2 minute walk to the beach which is why we chose it. But there was dance club with loud music. We didn’t care. We were too tired.




Peles castle pics (more to come on next blog entry)


 

Eurojournal - 26 July 2006 (Roadtrip-Sighisoara, Brasov)

The puppies were doing great so we decided to try this road trip to the Black Sea with the understanding that we may have to go home at anytime. We left at 10 am to get to Brasov, a ski city about 150 km away but a long 3 hour drive. We stopped for lunch in Sighisoara and visited a citadel. It was amazing. In the square it was like stepping back 700 years. High up on a hill were cobblestone streets, dresses for sale. I felt like I was at a renaissance faire. The kids climbed the fortress walls. Byron informed me of the difference between walls from the Renaissance and Medieval times. The more recent walls are shorter to withstand cannons while the tall ones are older because less technology was used, like arrows. We walked around the citadel and got some lunch. I really liked this city a lot. We headed to Brasov. Driving here is pretty crazy as the roads are primarily two lane roads (or smaller!) and everyone passes. We walked around Brasov to the piata which was very charming. We toured the Black church. It was raining so we enjoyed the square with raincoats on. We hiked past the citadel wall and rode the gondola overlooking the city. The children loved that. Dinner became a misadventure. We found what sounded like a great Mexican restaurant in our guide book. I have been missing burritos!! First we walk through town following the map. I looked at the wrong icon and took us a few blocks off, never finding the restaurant. We are all VERY hungry at this point and I feel awful for my error. We follow the map again this time looking at the correct icon on the map. No restaurant! The address in the book was someone’s house. Just as we were about to give up on Brasov we found a great Italian restaurant. We could order vegan food from the menu and it was absolutely divine. All the children ate the bruschetta and loved it. Even Luna and Byron who often refuse to eat raw tomatoes! Very happy and full we drove to the campground. We rented 2- 2 bed cabins which were quite cute. Byron did night duty with one of the pups.


Brasov with Black Church , Brasov, Sighisoara (last two pics)






 

Puppy pics

Puppy 2
Puppy 1 

Puppy updates

I want to thank LoraKim for all of her support and advice over email. She is a UU vet/minister and member of UFETA (Unitarians for Ethical Treatment of Animals). Thanks to her, the pups are doing much better. After I bathed puppy 2 on Sunday she seemed more content. We went to a vet supply store yesterday and got some de-worming medication and some other meds to get rid of fleas, ticks and other bugs. The place had just about everything we needed and was staffed by a vet who spoke some English. There is also a village vet here. We will get pups into one of them this week for a check up. Both pups are doing really well and I hoping to take puppy 2 out of quarantine soon. We are already seeing results from the meds today. No more worms inside and out. I feel so relieved!

It's funny I am doing things I would never do at home and using chemicals I would never do with our own dog. We do what we need for our dog Andie and the rest is natural remedies. I went on a search for bleach (bad! I know) to sterilize the whole house. Perhaps this whole worm thing is making me OCD but we also need to have excellent vector control. I want to take pups in for every test imaginable and give them anything they need. heartworm, whatever as they are likely to have something we can't see.

The village is more supportive. The same family that brought us milk from thir cow offered to help with food (meat). i still don't know if we wil be able to adopt them out here but we will try our hardest. Otherwise we will adopt them out at home.

We rented a car for the remainder of my stay here. We have this monstrous mercedes van. It's obnoxious but we got a good deal through a friend of Csaba's. I feel odd driving it in the village hoping we are not feeding into the idea that Americans are excessive (we are!). It's nice to have the freedom though. We are hoping to attempt a trip out to the Black Sea and the castles(depends on how puppies are).

Be careful what you wish for...Please Help!

Last week I was wanting a little more to do here in the village. Well, I got my wish. Yesterday on the way to the village football (soccer) game after a very long day of festivities, we passed a VERY tiny puppy drenched in the rain. It was orphaned or abandoned as no mother was in sight. It was freezing so instinctually I picked it up to warm it up. No one claimed it at the football game. Guess we were stuck with a puppy for a while until someone adopts it here. It is about 3 weeks old. eyes still closed. scoots a few inches but can shiver when cold and pass stool and urine on its own. It cannot however eat. We have been feeding it fresh cow's milk with vitamins with a tincture dropper. We warmed up the puppy. She stabilized and is quite cute, just a little bigger than our hands. I made sure the little ones did not touch her as we didn't know what she might be carrying. We accepted by later last night that we may end up keeping her and bringing her back if no one adopts her. We talked with Csaba and he said no one will adopt her here. Not in the plans but it is what it is.

James and I go out to the village dance that night and what is lying at our gate door? Another puppy! cold and crying and about the same size. Someone, apparently the person who abandoned the first one thought we should have another and literally left it at our doorstep. James and I look at each other. "What do we do? We can't take care of two. And what if there are more?" We can't leave it there either. So in it goes, to get stablized. Only this one was in terrible condition. The whole body was covered with a parasite egg/larva or something. We quarantine it from everyone and only I am allowed contact with it with strict handwashing, etc.

We hurry to the dance to see if Csaba can help us find a vet. There was someone from earlier in the day that was a vet. Csaba, having a little to drink immediately says to let it go and let it die. No one will care for it here. We can't do that. We need a vet. We need medication! He didn’t get it. I return home disappointed and feeling like we will have no support from the village. Yet we can't just abandon these puppies. We just can't. I could never ever live with myself if I did. I thought if we tried hard enough, we could. Maybe in the city. So we decide to find someone the next day who can speak English. I met a woman who used to live in the village that translated for me at the festival. She is here until September.

It was a long night. Puppy 1, the well one slept through the night. Puppy 2, sick one woke every 10-30 min and was not hungry. It was in pain or itching. It could only be comforted with my hand. In the night it crossed my mind to find a vet and just euthanize it. Understand that I have never supported euthanizing animals and here I was thinking, wishing I knew what this pup needed. James stayed up all night researching natural treatments, vets in Hungarian, translating and seeing what this parasite was. Meanwhile my hands are sore from washing so much.

Puppy one seemed clean today, content with no external parasites. This is good. Then I find a few in her bed. Damn it! Though we should never bathe pets this young, I go for it as it’s our only option right now. We have no vet, no medicine, no support only instinct and everything I learned form Willow and my years volunteering at the Humane Society and a wildlife refuge in high school and college. I think through my natural pet book and see what James finds. I make a soap out of dishsoap, lemon juice, olive oil, and echinacea goldenseal tincture. I bathed puppy one and got the eggs off easily. This one only had a little but they came off well. That gave me hope for puppy two. I call my American friend I met in Cluj and ask if she knows any resources in the city, vets, anything. She says she will try to find something as she has a friend in mind but warned me that strays are usually put down in this country. There is a different relationship to animals here. People are poor enough and trying to get by. They don’t have enough to have a luxury like a Humane Society.

At this point after no sleep I was seriously considering the alternatives. I sent an email to a Buddhist nun asking for her guidance. I am still waiting on that. I am exploring deep within what I need to do with this pup. It is so miserable. Do I leave it to die? Do I euthanize it? Do I do everything to help it? And if it heals what if it becomes orphaned again? What if no one adopts here and I can not bring it to the US to adopt out? James is as confused as I.

So back to the bathing. I try to clip and shave puppy 2 with no luck. The eggs are right at the edge of the hair and the skin covering her. It’s awful. I try bathing and it worked! Almost everything came off with some scrubbing. Puppy hated it but I told her she would feel so much better. She (actually I have no idea what gender it is!) looks great now and it out in the yard napping in the sun. I will need to bathe her again later to get any stragglers. I know she must have this parasite internally after having so many externally so she is still quarantined unitl we see a vet and get medication.

James and the kids went to a village festival picnic while I stayed to bathe her. He promised to find someone to help us find a vet. We really need to get her in. We are supposed to rent a car tomorrow for a week or two. It was for our trip to the Black Sea (I don’t think that will happen now.)

At this exact moment I think she will make it if we can get rid of the parasites. Then what? I have hope and determination that we’ll adopt them out here. If not, we may bring them back and adopt them out at home.

Please everyone help us. Talk to your friends and family. We need homes for these two sweet pups. We’ll pay all vet expenses and have them in perfect condition before we leave. We have to! Please.

I’ll get pictures soon. I guess I have a job now and more than plenty to do. I hear a pup crying. Feeding time!

I passed!

The director of my graduate nursing program just informed me that the CA Bureau of Registered Nursing said that I passed the NCLEX! Hooray! Fini!

Eurojournal - 21 July 2006

We have had 3 days of sun. Yesterday we had lunch with Csaba and his family at our house. That was fun preparing food for them. Lunches are the main meal here. We had pasta with homemade sauce, veggie soup, fresh baked bread from the store, tea and red bell peppers (paprika here). Liam ate the entire bell pepper and loves all the sweet peppers here. Everyone eats the yellow bells (paprika) here. I made some oatmeal raisin cookies the night before. I have been withdrawing from processed treats. I think I have baked something 3 times this week! We have been giving most of it away though.

Earlier in the week James and I witnessed some interesting behavior among the storks. When they are eating they make this creepy sound. One of the storks left the nest, circled it and stood at the other telephone pole. It turned it’s head backwards and upside down and clacked it’s beak. Almost like a victory dance. We were perplexed at what was happening. The nest looks crowded full of big storks, the babies must be small. We asked Csaba at lunch about the storks and he told us about them. The ones we saw with the dark beaks were the young even though they were giant. They nest for 3 months here beginning in June and leave for Pakistan or Africa in August. In that 3 months the babies are born, grow and fly. There are 3 babies born and one, the weakest, is usually dumped out of the nest immediately. We saw one baby fly well. It circled high in the sky and glided as if it were experienced. The other one was still trying to jump up and spread its wings in the nest. The parents remain a couple for a lifetime and travel south together and return to the exact same place next year. Because of the ponds here, our village has the highest concentration of storks than even Holland.

The children have been playing cards, dodgeball, making a mini-cave outside out of dirt and having tea parties complete with British accents. We have been playing Go fish with them too. Byron has been spending about 1 hour a day teaching Luna and Liam Spanish and learning about teaching methods as both children learn in a very different fashion. Right now they are outside making a teeter totter out of sticks and rocks.

Recently, they have been getting squirrely and fighting and it is driving us crazy. We had a family talk last night and established some guidelines. I am trying to focus a lot of attention on the children today to intervene before they fight and encourage them to take a “breather break” (space from each other with some nice deep breaths) when they start to feel frustrated. I saw that Liam took a voluntary “breather break” before things got difficult between he and Luna already.

James goes to Csaba’s everyday for a few hours to learn Hungarian. I have been working on a Soduko puzzle book someone from our church at home gave us. My type A personality is starting to surface as I need something else to do. Last night I thought I’d take up jogging setting goals each morning. We’ll see how far that goes as I absolutely loathe running. Cycling on the other hand I love. I’d love to bike up the hills here.

We have been trying to figure out the bus schedule or rent a car but things keep coming up. I am hoping to take the kids to the castles and Black Sea soon.

Eurojournal - 16 July 2006

James did his sermon at the Transylvanian Unitarian church today. It is such a radically different experience then at home. He spoke about the differences between his church at home and here. The primary difference being the use of “God the father” which is used here but not at home where perhaps spirit or the divine is used. In the village, people are born into and later confirmed the Unitarian faith whereas at home many of us are searching for something other than what we grew up with. The attire is what fascinates me the most. James wore his suit but with a long flowing black cape/robe. I for total shallow reasons thought he looked great. He went to the next village to do another sermon. He is scheduled to preach in other villages during his studies here. Again the children did a tremendous job sitting very quietly in church today.

We walked through the village a few times today. Everyday it rains. We thought there was a definite pattern but it’s unpredictable when. Sun may shine in the morning only to find dark clouds looming overhead. Is it going to pour or not? The children and I briskly walked home from church as we raced the dark cloud. We got inside and nothing more than a sprinkle. We ate lunch and went back out when James came back form his second sermon. We got the raincoats and rainboots and trekked the village ready to get soaked. We stopped in the little store to return our glass bottles and buy some orange drink. It’s fun to see everyone and say hello. I wish I knew more language though to really communicate and ask questions. I want so badly to really know some of the people here. What makes them tick, what inspires them, what are their worldviews? What do they think of us freaky Americans in our silly raincoats?

geese and backyard pics

What's a picture without the geese?
Our back yard in the village 

More pics from village

Ah I can upload mutiple pics...hooray!
Below are the storks. There are giant stork nests on top of telephone poles and chimneys.


Luna was feeding a kitten crackers.



Luna and Liam in our yard






The view from our kitchen window where the geese live