Sheep Guarding Llama

We slept in a bit this morning.  Not long after waking up, Nikoli came over and grabbed me and I went over to his and Maria’s house next door to visit for the morning.  It was probably around ten when I went over.  His son, Mihai, who speaks English was there was we were able to do a lot more communicating than normal.

We hung out for a few hours and talked about house options in town.  Then Nikoli, Mihai and I took a drive and a long walk around the village looking at some houses that are or might be available.  We looked at a lot of stuff.  There were a few that were really interesting.  One is definitely for sale but needs to be torn down and a new house built in its place.  But as land is essentially free that is not the big deal that it might seem like it would be.

Dominica came over for about an hour and visited with everyone as well.  We got invited over for lunch in Targu Mures tomorrow, too.  So we are heading out in the morning to go down south.

In the late afternoon we went up to Reghin to go out to dinner.  Dominica did not feel like cooking today and everyone felt like a dinner out.  We tried going first to the Pensiune Casablanca where we ate our first meal in the area and where we have eaten the most in the area but it turned out to be so full that they could not seat us.  So we drove out east of town and found all of the restaurants packed out there, too.  Looked like weddings or graduations or something like that.

We ended up settling on pizza.  At least they were not very busy.  We sat at our table and looked over and saw Iakob (our priest from across the street) and his family having dinner at the table directly next to us!  Small world.  Not many restaurant choices.

We got three pizzas and two panasi or blueberry covered Romanian donuts.  Delicious.  It was a nice evening, and we were back home before it was too late.

Today is our very last day to do some touring of Romania. We got up early and got the car packed up and got on the road for the couple hour drive to the west to the small city of Turda where Romania’s most famous salt mine is located.  It is raved about by everyone that we hear from so we figured that we really have to go see it.  It’s considered one of the things not to be missed when living in Romania.

The drive was not bad; the weather was great and we made very good time.  Getting out to Turda was easy.

Arriving at Salina Turda we discovered a little “village” of shops in the parking lot of the mine.  This is apparently a big thing to do, buy knick knacks and snacks before and/or after going into the mine.  We had not gotten breakfast and it was a bit of a drive so we decided that we would hit one of the little fast food stalls before we ventured into the mine.

We had a nice little lunch and then went into the salt mine.  We had very high hopes for this trip today, we heard so much good stuff about this salt mine.  Going down the long stairs into the mine, it seemed like it would be pretty neat.

Once you get down low, the heat gives way and it is very cool and pleasant under ground.  The mine is carved right out of the salt, it is really neat.  The walls are solid salt and look like ice and snow.  This is where the cool part ended.

The salt cut goes miles under ground between towns.  Along this route there was very little to do.  There was supposed to be all kinds of interesting things in the salt mine, but outside of a few exhibits about a winch and a horse room, there was really nothing.  We spent a huge amount of time trying to explore and see if we had missed something.  We probably put in a full hour just walking back and forth

in the hallway making sure that we had not missed a doorway or something.

Finally when we had given up and went to leave we were looking at the informational pictures along the entrance and definitely saw things that we were unable to find.  So we did more research and eventually found a stairway going down and found that there was a very poorly labeled way to get down fifteen stories to a weird little underground carnival area.  But the stairs were not safe and certainly not something that the girls could do safely and the elevator, that is advertised heavily everywhere, was out of service and there was no way for us to get to the part of the mine that people raved about.  But we could see it and could see that there was nothing to do and that we were not missing anything.

So Salina Turda was a bust.  Not only is it not the big tourist attraction that people think that it is, but it is not even worth going to if you are there.

As we left the mine, we stopped and got some sweet treats from the little stands outside of the mine.  We met some Romanians visiting from Washington State that we talked to for a bit and they said that these weird marshmallow filled sandwiches that we had found were the best that they had ever had.  So I guess that we lucked out there.

From Turda, we drove to Cluj-Napoca, the capital of Transylvania and its largest city.  We have been hoping to get to visit Cluj since arriving here.  Our home sits, more or less, along the main road that turns into Main Street in Cluj, hours away, but we have never even been close to it before.

We parked downtown and started by walking around the open air market in the main square.  We found a little stand selling head bands and bought matching Romanian hair bands for Liesl, Clara and Luciana.  Then we bought some pastries and walked to a playground in the middle park near the National Opera House so that the girls could burn off some energy.

While we were there I went out to do some exploring but it was not too long before Luciana had a bathroom emergency and we had to go looking for a bathroom that she could use.  We found one at an awesome little upscale urban cafe near the park.  Liesl and I ordered coffee and got a table while Dominica took Luciana to the bathroom.  Liesl tried, and liked, her first coffee today!

We returned to the playground and the girls played there for hours.  I explored downtown a little, took some pictures and videos.  But we did not do too much.  Before long it was time to get back home as it was getting late.  It was a long day with the driving and everything.

The drive back home went well.  Time for our final weekend in Romania.

All writing, school and packing today.  Tomorrow we are heading out to the Salina Turda Salt Mine in Turda, Romania and then, we hope, trying to make it to Cluj-Napoca which is the capital and by far the largest city in Transylvania.  So today is heads down, getting things done as this is the last productive day of the week.

The food is nearly gone in the house.  It is slim pickings and everyone is ready for variety and choice again.

It is the middle of our final week in Romania, Wednesday.  Besides my getting writing done at the desk, most of the energy around the house is put into the girls working on school, getting fruit picked in the garden and getting as much early packing completed as can reasonably be.  There is always so much to do in the last week.  It is easier, though, to back up and be ready to leave to go home than to get ready to head out again.  When we are heading home we have to back “everything”, there is no picking and choosing.  It all has to fit, there should be nothing left around the house at all.

This week is also our last week to drink all of the wine and tuica that has accumulated around the house these past months.  The village loves to shower us with drinks and we can only drink them so quickly.  So I do my best to keep up.

No more grocery stops, no more dairy runs…. this is it. It is like we just passed the point of no return.  What we have is all that we are going to get and we need to make all of it count.  We have just a little sight seeing that we want to do before we leave Romania and we are hoping to be able to take the girls to see one of the famous salt mines before we leave.  Only a few days left, but we should be able to squeeze that in, yet.  And we have not yet made it to Transylvania’s capital of Cluj-Napoca.  We need to see that, too.

The rain help off today and it was a pretty nice day.  The hay and cow traffic has been picking up significantly as of late.  More and more carts full of hay pulled by horses, and streets full of cows are daily sights.

Loose hay is practically the symbol of Romania.  You see it everywhere.  I have no idea why bailing hay is not done, but it really isn’t.