Long & winding road

Tuesday morning, Bill & John were going to get out early to go up the Sleeping Giant, which rises 500 feet or so above Torozco. Though they got up at 5:00, Dean and I joined them, and after about a half mile following sheep-pellet strewn roads uphill in the dark, we were overtaken by Tony. The road kept getting steeper and turned into a trail, and after another mile, I was getting winded & it became clear that I was holding up the others, so I called it quits, probably a half-mile shy of where the climb was about to get much more vertical. I went on a little ways further after the group left, then turned back to the town. The sky began to lighten as I walked slowly downward, listening for the wild animals Tony had insisted he heard screaming on the mountain. But no werewolves attacked, and I was able to see the lights of Torozco & Torozco St. George, as the villages began to wake up.

Had a nice leisurely morning waiting for the other guys to return. It turned out Tony had gone almost to the top, Bill and Dean reached a saddle between two peaks and John had gone on to one of the peaks. We went on to another excellent meal, checked out of the pensiune and were off to Deva. We stopped for lunch in Alba Julia, a Roman town with the burial place of John Sigismund, the Unitarian king, who proclaimed religious freedom. Then finally to Deva and the pensiune/guesthouse Melite, run by Presbyterians across the street from the Unitarian templom. We had a 4:00 lunch (more palenka), then met the congregation in a reception (more palenka), took a tour of the new Hungarian language school. Managed to smash my camera in a story too long and sad to relate, but it's still partly usable. Then back to Melite for supper (3 hoiurs after lunch). Some of the guys went after supper to visit the home of Arpi, who has a three year old and a very pregnant wife, but John and I were wiped out and stayed at Melite.