after waking up insanel
y early and taking a insanely long bus ride (with pee breaks wayyy to frequently) all the way to transylvania, our first stop was a big outdoor market, one that is only open for a week of every year. to be completly honest, i could have turned around and gone home right then and there. it was absolutely freezing and it was raining, and our bus was parked way far away, so we had to walk down the side of a narrow street with semis blowing past us. but after a miserable couple of hours, the trip perked up. we made our way to a small hungarian village we were staying in, and there split up into our host families. i ended up staying with a woman named ibi and her husband istvan. they were absolutely incredible, even though we had a hard time communicating, as it was all based off of our tiny hungarian vocab
skills. they had a pig, which we decided to name norbert after they laughed when we asked his name, along with some chickens, and a dog who was actually named rex who was chained to the outhouse. and yes. i did say outhouse. and transylvania's temp averaged around 0°C during the day. so going at night was always an experience. not only would you wake up the rooster and have him "cockle doodle doo"-ing at 3 in the morning, but it was absolutely freezing. and i of course had the extremely smart (and possibly palinka influenced...) decision to go out there in shorts and a t shirt. times like that i was glad steph, jacque, and i were all stuck in the same bed, thank god for body heat.during the trip we did a lot of sight seeing. lots of churches, as always. we went to another market place where we got to see a man make chess sets, and then we did a lot of shopping a
round. transylvanians are into beautiful textiles, all made by hand. 2 families invited us into their houses to see their "clean rooms" where they had gorgeous beaded and embroidered textiles and clothing. another night, a family had us in to see them do a traditional hungarian dance performance. another major site for us was seeing people skinning a cow on the side of the road, and deciding that we should stop and watch. intenseeee. i'll spare everyone the site of that (but it is in the photo album) but we saw the cutest old lady there.every morning and night we were given some of the absolute best food ever home cooked by ibi. breakfasts were huge spreads of cold cuts, jams, breads, and cheese. dinner she'd make soup, cabbage rolls, or potatos with pork chops. it was definitely an authentic and hearty dining experience. and of course every meal started with shots. our last night there was istvan's 55th birthday, so we got to celebrate with him by having an even bigger feast than normal, plus more palinka and beer from the bar. we were sad to have to say bye to our family, and we exchanged gifts with them. they gave us cutting boards that istvan made himself, and we loaded them up with chocolates and wine.
on the way back to budapest, we stopped in the same place we stopped on the fir
st day for the market. the last day of the market, it turns into an animal market. it was a wild experience. there were trucks everywhere carrying cows and sheep, and horse drawn carriages running around. andrew even got his foot run over by a truck, but luckily it turned out to just result in a bad bruise. the market was fascinating, but at the same time hard to take in. there was a sheep being skinned right next to two other live sheep. it was insanely dirty, and the animals weren't all in the best shape. but it was one of those things that we couldn't look at through american eyes.overall, transylvania is nothing i expected, but so much more. there were no thunderstorms and vampires, but instead an incredibly different society from anything i've ever experienced. it was a place where it was entirely normal for cows to be wandering our street in the morning, and for horse drawn wagons to be the main form of communication. it's weird how the things that i take for granted and assume everyone does is not the way at life at all for people in other parts of the world. transylvania is a place i'll never forget, and not just because of the outhouse...
<3 ali
p.s.- pictures:
http://tulane.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2066898&l=e3998&id=2808002
http://tulane.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2066904&l=149e9&id=2808002
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