Sunday:

Sunday morning, the day after I arrived, I decided to go for a walk around town. Maria had told me it would be a great chance to see all the locals dressed in their Sunday best, typically in their traditional clothing. So I left the house at 11:00 kind of randomly, but after seeing a few families saunter by my window. I made it over to the old wooden church, now the Greek Catholic church, at 11:30, just in time for the start of mass. I headed up the little hill to join them, go intimidated when a family walked up and turned around, stood at the bottom of the hill for another 5 minutes, then changed my mind again... whenever would I have this chance again... so I ducked under the low door into the dark space, took off my hat and walked in, positioning myself in the back of the small hall. There are two rooms in these wooden churches. The men go to the front room, where the priest is doing the ceremony... as I noticed, the women all occupied the back room. Two of the older women of the congregation, came over, took me by the elbow and led me to the small doorway leading to the front room. In addition to trying to be inconspicuous, I positioned myself in the back room so that I could make an easy escape if necessary... I had no idea how long these ceremonies go for... so much for that plan. There are no seats, so I was standing the whole time, except for those excruciating moments of kneeling on the hard wooden floors. At this time of year it is pretty cold... I can’t imagine what it’s like in the dead of winter or the middle of summer...

Monday:

On one of my afternoon walks through the hills, I was heading back to the house at dusk. I was coming down a road leading to the village and passed a guy leading a young horse. Sidebar: It was small, and I thought it was a donkey... what do I know about horses? So when I told Lenuza and Ioun that I met a guy in the village who had a donkey, they were scratching their heads wondering who it could be. To their knowledge, they weren’t aware of a donkey in the village. So I showed them the picture and they all started laughing hysterically... Maria included... They must have laughed for fifteen minutes. I was doing that naive thing where I was laughing with them, not really knowing what they were laughing about... Lenuza in her best english said “Denees, that no donkey, that horse...” and again they all started laughing uncontrollably, even the son in the other room on Facebook... So anyway. I asked the guy if I could take a picture of him and his horse. He said sure. Then he introduced himself and Georghe, and I as Denis. We shook hands and he led me to house to show me around. Of course we did the customary shot of the horinka (he called it palinka, which is what they call it in Hungary), and then he showed me around his house. Like most of the people in Breb, he was a farmer, but also had another specialty that helped served the community. He was a metal worked/ engineer. So he showed me all around his stables and workshop... then I met his wife Mariana and we played with the young horse a little bit. I shared another drink with him and went on my way.

Tuesday:

One afternoon I walked out of the house to find Lenuza at work on the loom in open faced shed next to my house. She called me over and had me help her out. I held a stick with wool wrapped around it, allowing it to unravel as she put the wood stick (I know there is a word for this, but hell if I can remember) through strands of wood being held and alternated in the loom. I am really not sure how she could have gotten her work done without my critical involvement. It was here where I threatened (and never quite delivered) helping her with the animals... 5am was just a bit too early for me.

Wednesday

I was feeling guilty about not doing anything while I was there... To date I had just stayed in Breb the entire time. So I called a newly transplanted Dutch guy named Matthias who had a car and did tours around the area... I would meet him Thursday morning to drive around to some of the other villages, see some more of the wooden churches, and maybe get out for a hike... We were to meet at 9:00 at the house and go from there... Sure I would be up... Is what I thought... then I drank a whole bunch of Ioun’s horinka the night before... at 9:30 I heard someone in my house say ‘Hello?”... Oh Shit! I overslept! I am not too sure I recovered all day, but I managed to hold it together the entire time, and Matthias was great... We visited churches in Budesti and Calinesti. The Calinesti church was great because it was so quirky. We visited the whirlpool in Sarbi. A pretty interesting idea that I was not aware of. Water is diverted to a fall, into a wooden basket... the pressure from the water in the basket causes a kind of middle age washing machine used for large blankets and rugs. Really cool. Then we went to the monastery at Barsana, and finally a walk arounf the village of Glod and a hike around the hills. It was great to get out and talk some football.

Thursday:

Before leaving on Thursday, I asked Maria if she could drop me off in Ocna Sunatag, so I could see the weekly market. This is the place where all of the surrounding villages come, often by horse drawn carriage, to buy sell and trade. There is the animal market, the food market, the new clothing market and the second hand market. It is quite the scene. In these rural areas, this is the primary means (or at least it used to be) for acquiring your goods. Things have gotten easier in recent years, with easier access to transportation and grocery stores having things you might need in a pinch... but the market is still relied upon by many of the people here. It was a lot like the weekly market in Namche Bazaar in the Himalayas... the Tibetans would come over the mountain pass with their teams of yak’s carrying knock off’s from china, ready to trade with the Nepalese mountain folk... the scene is amazing, both in Nepal and here in Romania. All kinds of people gathered around little stalls negotiating for the best price... a big 300lb pig, a baby calf, or in my case, a nice new woolen winter hat. I stepped back and let Maria get down to business, and she managed to talk the guy down from 150 lei to 110. I also looked at some wool blankets and the customary local winter woolen coats, but sometimes you just have to ask, ‘when am I ever going to wear this thing?’.