Jun 30, 2006

Brighter Day

I don't know, maybe yesterday was a bad day, but today's looking a lot better. We all had a big dinner last night, and it was a lot of fun. A lot of wine, and a lot of meat.

Meat. Romania is ALL about the meat. Most menus hardly have anything meatless on them, and you even get cold meats for breakfast. Madness. That aside, the food is absolutely delicious. I usually end up having some hearty soup for dinner, along with some kind of meat and the national dish, mamaliga (a kind of polenta). Like one night I had minced pork rolled in sauerkraut. And last night I had a peasant dish of layers in a bowl, starting with mamaliga and then with goat cheese, pork, a fried egg and more cheese piled on top. Awesome. Where else would you get food like that?

The tour is, at worst, convenient, and it gets me into a lot of things for free and gets me there for free. Like today we went to Bran Castle (of Dracula fame...pretty boring, really), and Rasnov fortress, which was really great. It's an old ruined fortress from the 1400s, and they're painstakingly restoring it to the way it looked then, complete with 80 houses, a chapel, and a school, all within the citadel walls. There are also donkeys, which, while not as exciting as monkeys (see Shelley's blog), are really cute. Plus, they eat apples from your hand. Awww.

Other highlights of the day - bargaining furiously with an old woman at the market at Bran Castle and riding local buses in 90 degree weather. Shelley, I do not envy you your Chinese transportation.

Going to eat soon, which is always the highlight of the day. :P Also, something else that makes me happy? Pictures. Enjoy the smorgasbord...unfortunately, the only photos the internet speed in this cafe allowed me to upload. So enjoy and quit your complaining. :P

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=u54fr1b.beo8lb9z&x=0&y=-meb44f

= :)

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