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11/02/2004 Archived Entry: "Dinner in Brasov..."

Official Itinerary for November 2nd in Transylvania...

You'll find medieval Brasov mesmerizing and see this beautiful town in our exclusive morning sightseeing tour. Free afternoon for shopping or own activity. Evening farewell diner with entertainment. (Optional: The Order of Transylvanian Knights (administered by the Transylvanian Society of Dracula) invites you to become a candidate for "knighthood" by passing 6 tests of chivalry. Participate -- or just watch and enjoy. Overnight in Brasov [map]or Poiana Brasov.

Hmmm. Again, I am almost certain we will pass on the chivalry entertainment unless the lecture-guide indicates it is a real ceremony - that is, unless it contains actual tests and rituals of chivalry used in centuries past. That would be interesting. Otherwise, Brad and I will wander the breath-taking landscape and the quaint streets in order to wear off yet another Romanian meal, which -- like Hungarian food - tends to be generous on the gravy and sour cream. Of course, we could always go to Bella Musica, "From all the restaurants in Brasov if I have to choose where to spend a night I'll surely decide for Bella Musica, a former cave built 400 years ago. Mexican cuisine. Excellent guest manners. They let you choose the music. Cozy atmosphere and delicious dishes. Try "the bean broth in bread". BUT Mexican food? Perhaps the Romantik of Bellagio instead? Food will be very important on this trip. I look forward tremendous to increasing the range of my palate because I have not really sampled Eastern European food. With one exception...when Brad and I travelled to Austria a few years back, I looked forward to the wonderful German/Austrian dishes of which I'd heard such wonderful reports. The best meal we had: a mom-and-pop Hungarian restaurant that you had to push back a heavy and much-worn plastic curtain to enter. The meal was a phenom. I could come to love Eastern European cooking. (Apologies to my waistline.)

How can I ignore that November 2nd is election day in the US for President as well as for other positions to which power-hungry candidates aspire according to their demon-seed 'talents' and family connections? Oh wait...I found the perfect way to ignore it! I'm in the Carpathian Mountains, 1/4 of a world away from the insanity. I don't even know if a single newspaper there will be printed in English...tho', frankly, I'll be able to tell the winner in any language on the face of this earth. As far as the 'locals' are concerned, however, we will be/are two innocent Canadians who have come to admire Romanian culture and history. Of course, we are travelling with a batch of Americans and it may be necessary to distinguish ourselves as Canadians. (The last such trip we took had moments of acute embarrassment because the Americans in the tour acted so very, very *rudely* and almost cruelly to the 'natives.' I know not only from observation but also from personal experience because, at one point during a breakfast, I got waylaid in the coffee line. Translation: I was pouring my own cup from a brimming pot when someone asked "Can you pour me one, too?" I did and the next person advances, and the next, and the next.... Finally, I put the pot down to return to my own table to enjoy my own cup of java and I got lambasted by the next person in line. A middle-aged American lady who thought I was a local hotel waitress. I got read the riot act with obscenities inserted until I replied with a shrug and the comment, "I'm sorry but you'll have to pour the damned coffee yourself!" At that point and from my accent, she realized I was a co-tourist. Too late! I'd seen how she treated "foreigners." BUT...back to my disagreement with Brad...he wants to wear a small, subdued Maple Leaf to identify us as Canadians. I want to plaster a bumper sticker over our luggage and across our backs. Brad informs me that my response is "too American" -- that is, too many Americans are now trying to pass as Canadians abroad and one of the ways you can identify them is by the obstentatious, over-kill manner in which they display Canadian symbols. Darn! I guess I will have to leave that live beaver at home.

Boy am I glad I never enabled "Comments" on my blog!

mac