Small Excursions

Its true that we have been spending a lot of time traveling to other European countries, working on the house-improvement projects and trying to get this visa extension thing figured out but that doesn't mean we haven't had time to see some sights a little farther away than our backyard but a little closer than Vienna.
Here is a sample of our day/weekend trips thus far:

First we had to go northwest to the mountain village of Vaideeni to visit our beloved friends Vali and Simona - brother and sister-in-law of Marius and Monica (I'm thinking of doing a family tree or some sort of schematic to help you all keep everyone straight).

Then we took a little day trip south to Simona's parents house in Măceşu.  Most of the interesting photos from that trip have already shown up in the "Primavara" post but here are a couple that didn't make it in.

I love inginuity

Simona's dad and the cat that reminded the boys of our cats in Santa Cruz

Then we went north to Braşov for the special assembly day.  5 hours there, 5 hours back on winding, mountain roads and I was so carsick I couldn't take a single photo until I had been out of the car for a good 2 hours or more. Sorry about that.  But let me just say that it was a gorgeous, warm, sunny morning and everyone was walking around in their shirtsleeves in the open-air stadium
Because there was a special speaker, the place was packed so we could only find seats on the ground at the back of the stadium, up against some plastic sheeting that served as the back wall.  It wasn't a bad spot, really, except for the bits of chipped cement that were digging into our buttocks and thighs but a few adjustments with a strategically placed magazine or two and we were surprisingly cozy.  The important thing was that we were there.
Since we were at the back on the side nearest the street, the traffic was a bit loud at times particularly as the stadium is next to the fire station.  Sitting through one emergency after another, I began to get a feel for what it must be like to have Meniere's Disease-a condition in which you can hear nothing but a constant, high pitched noise.  For those of you who think this sounds like a pretty fun pathology to have, let me tell you its not.
But it was all good and the important thing was that we were there.
In the afternoon it started to look like rain and then lo and behold it did, in fact, begin to rain.  But we had no worries because Mihai had the foresight to bring an umbrella and I had a hood on my jacket and where we were, up against the plastic sheeting, we could curl up into little balls and be pretty well set.
Because the important thing was that we were there.
Then the rain got heavier and what I mean by heavier is that it became a downpour and by downpour I mean that my notebook became so wet that the pen tip pushed right through the paper and the ink ran in little rivers over my hands.  But since my hands were so cold that I couldn't hold the pen properly, it didn't matter much anyway.  But we were there, and that was what mattered.
Then then wind began to blow but we were fortunate to be sitting with our backs against the plastic so we were nicely sheltered from the worst of it.  Then the wind really picked up and began vibrating the plastic sheeting and all of the sporting pennants that hung from the back of the stadium and the sound was something like sitting underneath target practice for a U.S Marines' rapid-fire light artillery unit.  Did it thunder?  I'm not sure, all I could hear were the guns, er, plastic.  And when I say that is all I could hear, I mean that was it.  Flapping plastic.
But we were there, right?
By the time we got into the car to drive home we were blue, dripping and deaf.
The stadium is not too many blocks from the famous "Dracula's Castle" and as we drove through the torrential rain I thought "too bad we won't get a photo of the castle" but then the rain let up and I thought we were in luck. The castle came into view and as Mihai pulled over and as I readied the camera I noticed the oddest white stuff floating in the air.

Snow.

In May.

Seriously.

You say you can't believe it well, I am here to tell you that its true and I know it is because we. were. there.

Right about here I stopped taking photos because I could see the rain was picking up and I wanted to get the camera packed away some place safe.  The only thing you missed was the sight of umbrellas blowing inside out.

Dracula's Castle looking eerie in the snow-filled twilight