We departed Friday around 5 pm. The first stop was a large grocery store called Carrefour in order to buy supplies for the weekend. Carrefour, which is a French chain, reminded me of a mix between Wall Mart and Costco. We bought a lot of food.
From there, we resumed our trek into the Carpathians. The first half of the drive was mostly flat farmland. Sheep, goats, cows, horses (and of course dogs and cats) were a constant feature of the scenery. Once we got into the mountains, the scenery reminded me very much of Western Washington state. Tall trees lined the windy roads. At some point, we arrived at a dirt road. Its a good thing we were in an SUV because the house was about another half hour up the dirt road, and even over two small streams.
Around 9 pm, we arrived.The house is very large, with two stories and six bedrooms and sits on about 5 acres of land. Electricity is provided by a gas powered generator which requires activation, so we arrived in the dark. My first encounter upon arrival was with a millipede ambling across the floor:
We then built a fire to sit around late into the night.
The next morning, I was finally able to get get a good view of the local environs
Saturday was occupied with hiking, lounging, reading, barbecuing, and just generally enjoying the mountains.
Besides the millipede, other local wildlife included very large spiders, very large grasshoppers, frogs, little fish in the pond on the property, and a beetle with a very shiny, almost sapphire like carapace (plus the local dog, who would return periodically in search of leftovers).
I didn't see any of the bears or boars which inhabit the Carpathians, but we did hear a couple of gun shots from hunters. Here's a bouquet made up of local wildflowers:
I had an opportunity to try mici, a Romanian dish which was described to me as a hamburger in the shape of a hot dog. It was good, though no one was actually sure what was in it. The owner of the farm I visited the previous weekend also brought delicious cheese made from the milk of his animals. There was cow, sheep and goat cheese. All were good, with the sheep being my favorite.
The next day we departed. Here are a few more shots of the scenery around Soveja:
On our way back to Galați, we made two stops. First, was a German World War 1 cemetery.
We also stopped at a monument which was built to honor Romania's soldiers in World War 1. The interior is a mausoleum.
Overall, it was a great weekend. I enjoyed the mountains a lot. Though, two days in the wilderness is about my limit.I'll be spending this week writing policy papers which SMART will be sending to the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the European Union. Also, I may have several appearances in local media. Next weekend is not set yet, but it looks like we'll find ourselves either in Brașov (known for its castles, among them that associated with the historical Dracula) or Bucharest.
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