Nearby Excursions

Greetings,

I will try to make this short and sweet.  I say this to myself at the beginning of every post, and then I go wild.  Although I have learned much while here, discipline does not seem to be one of them.

Bill and his rental Fiat

My brother Bill spent 2-3 weeks traveling Central Europe in April and made Romania one of his "must see" destinations.  Luckily we were here to show him a good time.  It was nice to have him with us for two days and we spent one of the days traveling to Bear Cave.  The cave is located about 100 kilometers to the southeast of Oradea in the Apuseni Mountains.  This equates to about 2 hours drive one way.  Luckily, the scenery is beautiful.  The cave itself is spectacular and is known for its stalagmite and stalactite formations.  I will leave it up to you to look up what these mean.

The Apuseni Mountains

Inside Bear Cave

Soon after Bill left for the Alps, it was time to celebrate May Day in Romania.  This is a national holiday and is much like our Labor Day.  It is also celebrated much like our summer holidays--outdoor barbecues spent with friends and family.  We were invited to join the picnic hosted by a village church in which our friends (Elijah and Raelene) attend and in which he is the pastor.  We were joined by five Child Life volunteers from Texas and two women involved in special education.  Food was meat, some different meat, a bit more meat, then topped off with lots of desserts.  I could get used to this.

Everyone loves a picnic

The master chef 

This past weekend, I was able to teach a Master's class to students that live and work in Cluj (2nd largest city in Romania and the unofficial capital of Transylvania).  Our friends and colleagues Ioan, his wife Silvia, and Silvia's sister Ina suggested that we all go together and visit Ioan's hometown of Alba Iulia on Thursday and Friday morning, then visit Cluj on Saturday.  Most of this was to be done while I was teaching.  I did get a great historical tour of the citidel at Alba Iulia and some pearls about that city's involvement during Roman times.  In addition, Alba Iulia was the city in which the unification of Romania was signed in 1918.

View from our picnic site

We also spent Saturday afternoon touring the Turda salt mine.  Romania has several natural wonders and the country is just beginning to make these sights accessible to the public and marketing them to the rest of the world.  At the bottom of this mine was a playground with all sorts of games to be played (bowling, mini-golf, ping pong, rowboats, ferris wheel).  It felt like an underground city straight out of the set of Star Wars.

Roughly three weeks of adventure remaining.  We had some visa issues that allowed us to experience the Romanian department of the interior up close and personal.  The law regarding the length of stay for foreigners in Romania either changed or suddenly got enforced, we are not sure which one is the real story.  The upshot of the whole thing is that once we leave Romania, we won't be able to re-enter for several months.  So, for the next three weeks, we will stay in country.  For those of you Red Wings fans out there, it is a bit like what Bob Probert experienced during his playing days.

Inside the Salt Mine

Inside the citadel walls

Silvia and Ioan (with Cluj in the background)

A medieval couple trying to raise the gate

We are doing great and trying to end well.  We pray for many of you during the evening as life without television can be a lot more productive and a lot more saintly.

Pace,

Cheryl & Tom