***************** Pictures are at :
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronray/collections/72157600190609970/
It seems that my blog is slipping in priority, but I will try not to let it go to far. To make it a bit more interesting I'm going to just sort of hit highlights and thoughts versus running through the sequence of my travels.
In general : Im really doing quite well. Coming out of Bulgaria I was feeling some weariness of my travels as far as site seeing and the continuous movement bit, but I think Romania just turned out to be a real quality experience, primarily with the people, and now I just feel like I'm coasting through a lot of interesting locations and people, and enjoying it. I continue to feel humbled by the other travelers and local people. Many of them are just so comfortable with themselves and have such genuine respect for other people. I still haven't been anywhere that I felt like the people have such different lives than us. My general suprise has been that no matter where I'm at, we all think about the same things, and generally have similar lifestyles. The exception might be the Maramures area in Romania where the people completely live off the land. I've seen little desperation. I'm also generally impressed with how social the people are, especially in Bulgaria and Romania. Gatherings occur any and several days of the week. I guess part of what I'm saying is be careful about thinking we have great lives just because we live in america. Having new kitchen appliances is nice, but in the long run doesn't add too much real quality. It also seems to be a well known fact that Americans are shallow and smile way too much, even when we don't mean it. I have to agree that one of the reasons i like eastern europe so much is that people are generally very direct and say what they think. If it sounds like I'm american bashing I am!! :) No actually I still love where I live and the family and people, but there's certainly lessons that can be learned.
Well I'm one day from heading off into Siberia. I'm stopping in 3 places before I get to Beijing. One is Tomsk, a small university town right at about the midpoint, Lake Baikal, which is the deepest lake in the world, and actually it holds I think a third of the worlds fresh water if you don't count the ice caps. Finally I'll stop in Ulan Bataar in Mongolia which maybe I'll try riding some camels or something :) I was a bit nervous about this train trip at first because there were alot of naysayers saying that if you don't know Russian than you'll just end up abandon along side the train tracks somewhere in Siberia. One thing I've learned is that everytime someone has said "beware of this or that" it hasn't come to fruition. Its much more reliable to use your intuition that usually tells you its really not that difficult. Plus, as a guy from Brazil that I met here in Moscow told me, this is your one chance and just make the most of it. This trip is very safe, and I have a guidebook that takes me the whole journey telling me what to do. I'm a little disappointed because my couchsurf host from Tomsk said he couldn't host anymore so thats a bummer, but it will still be good.
I'm trying to think of an interesting story to tell. I would say one of the best experiences I had was the 2 days I hitchhiked in Romania. I was in the Marmures area, which can be likened to the lifestyle of the Omish, and I had been walking with my pack in between villages. The night before was great because when I was tired of walking i just left the road and found a wooded area to camp out. I built a fire and had roasted wild apples. I wish I had Chelsea with me though, because i feel a lot safer when I'm hearing strange noises. Anyhow the next morning it was raining and I couldn't leave until after noon. I walked to another village and sure enough it started raining again. I was trying to hitch to a further village but was now getting weary with the weather. After about 20 minutes of being rejected by what seemed to be mostly other tourists driving by car, a Romanian guy picked me up and said he was on his way to find his girlfriend. Evidently he just had a fight with her in the car and she demanded he stop and let her out at a random location. As we drove along we finally spotted her, drenched, looking like an angry wet cat. The driver, who was thrilled to practice his english, just kept talking to me, completely ignoring his girlfriend. He had learned english on his own by paying attention to subtitles while watching movies and television.
He was probably late 30s, a salesman for medical products, and really tall. His legs bowed outward in this little economy car we were in. Anyhow, we talked about how much he thought about living in the US and how difficult it was for Romanians just to even get a tourist VISA. Its funny because at one point he completely stopped the car and told me to watch what happens. The car slowlsy started to roll backward.. nothing too interesting I thought. He then told me that this was one of the strangest spots in the world. He said that because of the extreme magnetism at that exact location, the car would roll backward on its own, when actually it was a downhill. At first I thought he was being silly but he was very serious about this. He said that it wasn't yet well known in the science community. I was pretty sure it was just an optical illusion because of the way the road looked, but there was no reason for me to submit any thoughts to the contrary. We moved on and he asked me where exactly I wanted to be dropped off.
It was still raining so hard and I started to think that I just needed to find a real place to stay. He and his girlfiriend just so happen to live in Baia Mara which was the next place on my list after the village I wanted to go to. So I told him screw it, I will go all the way to Baia Mara, I'm tired of this rain. He was happy about this because we could talk more. As we went along, he said he was inviting me to his house for lunch (pretty sure he meant dinner because it was 6pm). He said he would be honored to feed me and he had some fish and homemade soup that he wanted me to try. I couldn't refuse. When we got to his house, which was actually an apartment on the first floor, it was fairly meager place. It had everything you need but was very outdated and needed some cosmetic repairs etc. Still it felt quite homey and they didn't think twice about the condition.
The chicken soup was fantastic after being in the rain all day. He then poured me a glass of homemade tomato juice, which was real thick like ketchup, but was cold and tangy, not sweet. He then poured me a glass of homemade Tsuica. Score!!!!!! I had been waiting for this to happen. Tsuica is the classic homemade plum brandy that it seems almost everyone in the Balkans make. It is super strong and has really high alcohol content. It burns all the way down, and they are proud of this fact. I found out that they make this brandy from not just plums, but usually all sorts of fruits such as apples and pears. Basically use whatever you have. He showed me how to throw back the brandy, then chase it with the fresh tomato juice. The cold tomato juice was perfect for erasing the burn. It was really a fantastic combination. We continued to talk about American things such as movies and how he has a friend thats trying to get a VISA. Meanwhile, I keep getting more fish and more Tsuica and more bread and more of everything they had. I didn't dare refuse these offerings because number one I hadn't had a good meal in a while, and two, they are so flattered to have someone enjoy their food. Finally his girlfriend, who actually knew english pretty good, started joining more in the conversation. More often than not, she would just jump in to correct her boyfriends grammar when she found the opportunity.
Fortunately for me, he had actually watered down this Tsuica because he had an ulcer, so even though I had about 4 tall shots, I wasn't drunk, just a solid buzz. He said something sort of strange, I thought, that I have a good opportunity to use the fact that I'm american to make friends and contancts in Romania. That is paraphrased, but I think he was saying that also in a business slant. He then asked if I could go meet his friend who was trying to get the VISA just to briefly meet, and exchange emails, so that I could help him with his itinerary. He was extremely greatful I was willing to do this. Before we left the house, he started raiding his cupboards and refridgerator for things to give me. To my dismay, he pulled a large 2 inch thick slab of pure pig fat from the refridgerator and cut me a huge chunk of it to take with me. Evidently you cut off thin slices and eat it with bread etc. I feel bad that I had to fiegn that I liked it, but I didn't want to show that I was seriously afraid of this. He then gave me a huge jar of naturally collected honey, some onions, tomatos, and some other things from his mothers garden. It was so much more than I could really efficiently carry, but again I didn't want to refuse this generosity. I was really flattered by this.
After stopping at the minimart to meet his friend, he then drove me around to about 5 different hotels just to find me the cheapest rate. He walked me up to the receptionist and negotiated the cost to make sure I didn't get the tourist price. We shook hands and I thanked him as heartily as I could, and basically after that I took a long hot shower and rested comfortably in my dry, but really awkward, hotel room. Didn't matter. It was such a great experience though. He and his girlfriend were so genuine and humble. This will definitely be one of my great memories on this trip.
OK well this is probably enough writing for now. I think i will keep more to this type of writing to keep it a bit more interesting. Don't forget, I'm keeping all my pictures in a new location so make sure you go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/aaronray/collections/72157600190609970/
