by I’m writing this short post from Pensiunea Laura in the bustling village of Chișcău, almost right next to Peștera Urșilor, a.k.a. the Bears’ Cave. We visited the cave this morning; at almost a mile in length it was a sight to behold. As we entered the cave, it was strewn with bones from bears and other huge beasts. The stalagmites, stalactites and columns at times looked like marble figures. It was quite fantastic, as if we’d stepped into a scene from Lord of the Rings. (Mines of Moria? The first film? I forget.) After the cave, we walked down the long high street, stopping at a museum on the way. This was really a makeshift (but extensive) museum of farm machinery and tools, including all sorts of weird and wonderful Heath Robinson-style contraptions that we couldn’t figure out at all, and are probably still in use in Romania today. It’s been a relaxing and sunny Sunday.
Yesterday was rather different. I drove the best part of 300 km from our beautiful lodgings in Zolt to our booked accommodation in Chișcău, which I thought we might never reach. Things were fairly plain sailing to begin with as we stopped at Făget and Brad, but figuring out the last bit without GPS or a detailed enough map was no easy matter. We ended up a couple of kilometres from our destination but the only way to get there was down an extremely narrow gravel track that our car certainly couldn’t handle. Darkness was about to descend. Check-in supposedly ended at 8pm. We were hungry. Had I been with my parents, we’d have needed to scrape Mum off the roof of the car. Instead we kept our cool, rang the hotel people, got some surprisingly accurate directions from a man in one of the villages, and everything turned out fine. The level of calmness inside the car just about blew me away, as did the beauty of villages we passed through. We also met just about every farm animal I can think of except pigs.
The most stressful part for me was before we even started, when we had to find the rental car place.
Yes I really am starting the new job on Tuesday, with four students from a company where they make, as far as I can tell, lolly sticks. Somebody has to. Tomorrow morning I have to take a Skype call related to this job, after which we’ll head back to Timișoara.
