Scoutmaster Europe Journal 2002

Report # 7

7/25/2002  

Hi Everyone,

            From Sighisoara the road has led to Sibiu, another Saxon town in Transylvania.  The town is much larger than Sighisoara, and has one of the best art museums in the country, the Brukenthal Museum.  The collection includes many paintings by famous Dutch masters and a few outstanding works by Reubens.  One, a Reubens painting of Loyolla, looks just like me!  I have a flyer with the picture to prove it!  The museum is housed in a mansion that belonged to the Austrian governor in the mid 18th century, during the time of Empress Maria Theresa whose portrait is also in the museum.  Much of the furniture include original pieces owned by Brukenthal.  There's an Italian ivory inlaid table and two chairs that defies comprehension.  It must have taken years for someone to carve intricate scenes in ivory and inlay them into the walnut and other woods that the table and chairs are made of.

I had a meal at an outdoor cafe off the central plaza that included a dish that I have never had before.   Romanians eat a lot of pork and other meat dishes.  I do not, so except when cooking for myself, restaurant food in Romania is generally pasta dishes, vegetable soups, and salads or cooked vegetables.  The cafe offered a meatless, mushroom stew with sour cream; it was delicious.  I don't think I have ever even heard of this before.  Salads here are basically, sliced tomato, sliced cucumber, sliced onions and sometimes some shredded cabbage.  Not much vegetable variety.  If you are a meat lover, Romania is the place, but for vegetarians, there is not much.

Sibiu has is the first city that I've been to in Romania with a pedestrian shopping street.  The street is crowded with people, and there are many outdoor cafes in the roadway.  My big complaint about Europe is that too many people smoke.  One English guy I met said he carries a pack of cigarettes with him to hand to people for favors, like taking their picture.  He personally doesn't smoke, but he says it's amazing how many doors a cigarette will open for you.  I mentioned that children begging is also not uncommon.  I am sort of doing what the English fellow does, but differently.  I buy candy and cookies that I give to the kids when they approach.  The smiles I've gotten for some gummy bears are incredible, but I haven't asked for any pictures.

From Sibiu it's a long drive to Timisoara near the Hungarian border where I'll end my stay in Romania.  I want to revisit a few places in Hungary and see some of Austria before flying to London.  Timisoara (pronounced Timee-shwara) is the fourth largest city in Romania, and the people here have encrusted the town with parks and flower gardens.  It is a gem.  The architecture is not as great as in, say, Cluj-Napoca, but the large broad pedestrian streets and plazas make up for it.  Since Timisoara doesn't really have any special cultural attractions, but I found myself enjoying just wandering around the various parks and the botanical gardens.

I stayed in a terrific campground called the "International Camping" place.  Other campers included four guys from Italy and a couple from other Bucharest.  The Italians outdid me in terms of cooking.  They were probably in their early twenties, but the meal they laid out would make you salivate.  They had a table and folding chairs, and their dinner looked like a small banquet.  They even had candles on the table; would you believe the candles were in candle sticks!  Mind you, they prepared all of their food on a small camping stove.

The couple from Bucharest, on their way home from a trip Yugoslavia, needed a ride into town to buy groceries.  Their names were Gabor, a traditional Hungarian name, and Anka, a traditional Romanian name.  Gabor has finished his "studies," and now has started a burglar alarm business.  He complained bitterly about the red tape needed to start a business in Romania.

On my trip back to Hungary, I thought I'd be able to spend the last of my Romanian currency.  I had about $25.00 in Lei, but never got to spend it.  About halfway to the border, a young policeman signaled to me to pull over, or so I thought.  Actually, he was just hitch hiking, and wanted a ride.  So I picked him up and drove him almost to the border.  The people of Romania have been incredibly kind and hospitable; they have none of the arrogance of western Europeans here.  This policeman spoke English well and he was anxious for me to tell him of my impressions of his country.  Needless to say, I was very complimentary.  He was delighted.

Crossing the border back into Hungary meant the usual passport and automobile paper checks.  On the Romanian side, they asked me to open the trunk, but when the inspector saw my backpack, he just waived me to close it up and go forward.  On the Hungarian side, they also looked into the trunk, but this time the inspector asked if I had anything to declare, like cigarettes or heroin!  I kid you not.  I burst out laughing.

My journey back through Hungary starts with a stay in Szeged, probably my favorite Hungarian city.  Szeged has much to recommend it.  It's a college town with many cultural attractions.  Like other southern Hungarian cities, the architects in Szeged used a lot of colorful glazed tiles as roofing material.  I am always looking up.  Szeged is also famous for the best paprika in the country, and the best salami, from a company called Pick.  Both products are available in America.  However the best food in Szeged is the cauldron of fish soup served in a famous little restaurant on the Tiza River; in Hungarian the soup is called "szegedi halasszle," and the named of the restaurant translates into the "Eager Catfish Fisherman's Inn."

The other thing that is special about Szeged is the synagogue.  It is the most beautiful synagogue that I have seen in Europe, and I've seen many, but not all, of course.  There are supposed to be other beautiful synagogues in Florence, Italy and in Toledo, Spain, that I have not seen.  Luckily, the synagogue in Szeged is an active place.  It's what we would call a Reform synagogue in America.  Here they use the term Neolog to mean Reform.  What that means is that there is an organ in the synagogue.  Orthodox Jewish synagogues do not have organs.  The acoustics are marvelous and I was fortunate to hear an English orchestral concert here one evening.

            Philip Sternberg