Kiskapus - Koloszvar

In a few minutes, we go to meet the Unitarian Bishop of Transylvania. This will be brief as its hard to get much 'net time.

Last night we stayed in the rural village of Kiskapus, and had a nice stay in a small pensiune which would have been perfect if it had had heat. We had great food and fellowship and took a long walk through the village and up into the hills. We crossed back and forther over the small river, single file on shaky footbridges. People were very friendly -- everyone said hello or waved.

There was one man who asked if we were Hollanders, and when we said "American" he came and shook all our hands. Then he told us a long story in Romanian. He had not a word of English, but with some questions, and some back and forth, we got the gist (or thought we did). He talked about things being hard in Romania -- he was still upset about the Russian domination and current economic problems with the energy pipelines from Russia. He was upset that Roosevelt & Churchill had sold them out to Stalin at Yalta. He went on at some length. He was maybe 80 years old and a Roma (gypsy). But he was glad to talk.

As we got about as far upriver into the gorge as we felt we could go while daylight was fading, we saw a group of people who were picnicing or camping in a meadow. As we watched from fifty yeards away, they began dancing around their fire, while some of them waved axes. A strange sight -- human, interesting, scary and funny.

We walked back downriver to the village and our (unheated) pensiune, walking past concrete telephone poles. Now as we passed the houses in this quiet and isolated rural town, we saw that some had satellite dishes. But there was only one restaurant and one cafe, and both were long since closed,boarded up and abandoned. Other than our pension and the tiny store which looked like an auto parts dealer, there were no businesses.