{"id":712,"date":"2007-05-12T03:00:11","date_gmt":"2007-05-12T07:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=712"},"modified":"2018-08-17T22:23:30","modified_gmt":"2018-08-18T02:23:30","slug":"saturday-may-12-2007-dogs-and-sheep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=712","title":{"rendered":"Saturday, May 12, 2007 \u2014 Dogs and Sheep"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the morn\u00ading, I did what I could to prac\u00adtice Mag\u00adyar with peo\u00adple, includ\u00ading the own\u00ader of the Panzion<\/em>, and it was to prove use\u00adful to us over the next few days. On the edge of town, there was a cramped lit\u00adtle store where I bought toi\u00adlet paper. It seemed to be patron\u00adized exclu\u00adsive\u00adly by the Roma, who were gath\u00adered around it with their horse carts, chat\u00adting and bar\u00adgain\u00ading, per\u00adhaps trad\u00ading in hors\u00ades (for some were unhitched, and were being close\u00adly exam\u00adined). I heard some Romani, but they appeared to be most\u00adly con\u00advers\u00ading in Mag\u00adyar. Roman\u00adian toi\u00adlet paper comes in hideous pink colour and has the tex\u00adture of roof\u00ading tiles.\"07-05-12<\/a><\/p>\n

When we felt that our oblig\u00ada\u00adtions in Valea lui Mihai were com\u00adplet\u00aded, we start\u00aded to hitch-hike again. Our next des\u00adti\u00adna\u00adtion was the ruins of the ancient Dacian cap\u00adi\u00adtal at Sarmizege\u00adtusa. This is rather high in the South\u00adern Carpathi\u00adan moun\u00adtains. Between us and this area is a region of rugged, but low\u00ader moun\u00adtains and plateaus, heav\u00adi\u00adly forested.<\/p>\n

We got a ride almost imme\u00addi\u00adate\u00adly, with a young con\u00adstruc\u00adtion work\u00ader. He spoke Eng\u00adlish well, and advised us that the road we were plan\u00adning to take over the moun\u00adtains would be very slow hitch\u00ading. On the map, it might look like an impor\u00adtant route, but in real\u00adi\u00adty it\u2019s poor\u00adly main\u00adtained and lit\u00adtle used. It would be bet\u00adter to go by train, which would be very cheap, and more effi\u00adcient. So he drove us to a small town where we could get the train, going con\u00adsid\u00ader\u00adably out of his way to do so, and even stayed to nego\u00adti\u00adate the tick\u00adet for us at the sta\u00adtion. We could not have done so our\u00adselves. There was one lone atten\u00addant at the sta\u00adtion, and, though the town was over\u00adwhelm\u00ading\u00adly Hun\u00adgar\u00adi\u00adan-speak\u00ading, she spoke only Roman\u00adian. The tick\u00adets were ridicu\u00adlous\u00adly cheap. Cross\u00ading the moun\u00adtains by road might have tak\u00aden us days, so this was the log\u00adi\u00adcal course of action. A train across the moun\u00adtains to Cluj-Napoca, in cen\u00adtral Tran\u00adsyl\u00adva\u00adnia, then south to a minor sta\u00adtion to switch to a west\u00adbound train, would let us off in Or\u0103\u015ftie, the clos\u00adest town to the ruins.<\/p>\n

Our ride had been pleas\u00adant com\u00adpa\u00adny, and incred\u00adi\u00adbly help\u00adful. Hitch-hik\u00ading in Roma\u00adnia seems to be very easy, and the peo\u00adple extreme\u00adly friend\u00adly. We had an hour to kill until the train showed up, so we walked into the town to get a very good meal of schnitzel and beer in a pub. The town showed the great\u00adest extreme between old and new we had yet seen. There was sprin\u00adkling of new con\u00adstruc\u00adtion, and some clean new shops on the town square, but most of the town remained grim\u00adly run-down. Every tree was paint\u00aded with white\u00adwash on its trunk, to a hight of a meter above the ground. The pur\u00adpose of this was not obvi\u00adous. Our ride had said he did\u00adn\u2019t know why it was done.<\/p>\n

Ceau\u015fes\u00adcu\u2019s Com\u00admu\u00adnism had been more bru\u00adtal and exploita\u00adtive, and cre\u00adat\u00aded even deep\u00ader pover\u00adty than the Sovi\u00adet Bloc ver\u00adsion. Signs of this lega\u00adcy were every\u00adwhere, almost two decades after it end\u00aded. There were some mod\u00adest signs of progress, but away from the main square the atmos\u00adphere was haunt\u00aded. The still air of the late after\u00adnoon was bro\u00adken by the per\u00adpet\u00adu\u00adal hoot\u00ading or owls and caw\u00ading of crows, in num\u00adbers that I\u2019ve nev\u00ader expe\u00adri\u00adenced. So every step along the dusty roads felt like a scene in Hitch\u00adcock\u00ad\u2019s The Birds<\/em>. The rail\u00adway sta\u00adtion was a decayed lit\u00adtle ruin. If we had\u00adn\u2019t just bought a tick\u00adet there, we would have assumed it was aban\u00addoned. The tracks were most\u00adly rust\u00aded and over\u00adgrown, and the \u201cwash\u00adroom\u201c was an over\u00adflow\u00ading privy inside a con\u00adcrete struc\u00adture too foul to remain in for more than a second.<\/p>\n

But the train arrived spot on time, and we board\u00aded it. The coach\u00ades were worn and creaky, but they had prob\u00ada\u00adbly been quite com\u00adfort\u00adable back in Agatha Christie\u2019s day. It was good enough for our pur\u00adpos\u00ades, and the view was very enter\u00adtain\u00ading, as we wound through the moun\u00adtains, often snaking through tight lit\u00adtle val\u00adleys and going through tun\u00adnels. The land\u00adscape resem\u00adbled Appalachia more than any\u00adthing from a vam\u00adpire novel.<\/p>\n

The train was rea\u00adson\u00adably full. A man in our com\u00adpart\u00adment spoke Eng\u00adlish. He was a rail\u00adway con\u00adstruc\u00adtion engi\u00adneer, and rather pes\u00adsimistic about Roma\u00adni\u00ada\u2019s polit\u00adi\u00adcal cor\u00adrup\u00adtion. He was eth\u00adni\u00adcal\u00adly Roman\u00adian, return\u00ading from a job in Budapest. The sun went down some\u00adwhere in the moun\u00adtains, and after pass\u00ading Cluj-Napoca, there was noth\u00ading to be seen but dark\u00adness. The train did\u00adn\u2019t qui\u00adet down. Instead, if became alive with chat\u00adter, and peo\u00adple leav\u00ading their com\u00adpart\u00adments to meet and chat in the gang\u00adway. We became caught up in a com\u00adplex mul\u00adti-lin\u00adgual con\u00adver\u00adsa\u00adtion, in which one man was under the mis\u00adtak\u00aden impres\u00adsion that Isaac and I were Ger\u00admans until we man\u00adaged to get it straight\u00adened out.<\/p>\n

\"07-05-12<\/a>On the sec\u00adond leg, at two in the morn\u00ading, we were told by one of the pas\u00adsen\u00adgers that we had arrived at Or\u0103\u015ftie. Unfor\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly, he was mis\u00adtak\u00aden. We stepped out of the train, it pulled away, and we found our\u00adselves in a minor sta\u00adtion about fif\u00adteen km east of where we were sup\u00adposed to get off. A sta\u00adtion\u00admas\u00adter came out and told us that the next train would be in an hour and a half. There was a wait\u00ading room in the sta\u00adtion, one of the grimmest such places I\u2019ve ever been. The crum\u00adbling walls were cov\u00adered by decades of graf\u00adfi\u00adti. There was a tra\u00addi\u00adtion\u00adal tile stove, or Kach\u00ade\u00adlofen<\/em>, which in the days of Aus\u00adtro-Hun\u00adgar\u00adi\u00adan Empire was the equiv\u00ada\u00adlent of a cast iron Franklin stove. It was not lit, but the night was not par\u00adtic\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly cold.<\/p>\n

Even\u00adtu\u00adal\u00adly, the next train came. The sta\u00adtion mas\u00adter re-appeared from wher\u00adev\u00ader he was hid\u00ading and flagged it down, run\u00adning to inform the con\u00adduc\u00adtor that we should be picked up. One sta\u00adtion lat\u00ader, we had dis\u00adem\u00adbarked at Or\u0103\u015ftie. Our plan was that we would hike through the town to its south\u00adern end, then look for some\u00adplace where we could pitch a tent. It was very, very, late, and it would not be long before dawn. We trudged through Or\u0103\u015ftie, the streets of which were desert\u00aded. We got some direc\u00adtions from a gas sta\u00adtion atten\u00addant, one of the few humans we encoun\u00adtered. The road south towards Sarmizege\u00adtusa, unfor\u00adtu\u00adnate\u00adly, began as a string of vil\u00adlages sep\u00ada\u00adrat\u00aded by farm\u00adland. The vil\u00adlages con\u00adsist\u00aded of an unbro\u00adken sequence of hous\u00ades and walled com\u00adpounds. Stray\u00ading any\u00adwhere close to one trig\u00adgered a bark\u00ading dog. We walked for many kilo\u00adme\u00adters, cre\u00adat\u00ading a wave front of bark\u00ading. Where the vil\u00adlages end\u00aded, there was com\u00adplete\u00adly flat farm\u00adland, new\u00adly plowed, com\u00ading right up to the road, with only the occa\u00adsion\u00adal tree or bush. Absolute\u00adly no place to pitch a tent.\"07-05-12<\/a><\/p>\n

Final\u00adly, after many kilo\u00adme\u00adters of tire\u00adsome walk\u00ading, we came to a patch of unploughed mead\u00adow that sank away from the road towards a bit of swamp, and had some clus\u00adters of trees in it. We picked a spot rea\u00adson\u00adably far from the road, and pitched the tents. It was well after dawn, by then, but we des\u00adper\u00adate\u00adly need\u00aded to sleep. This looked like a spot which might not be checked out for awhile.<\/p>\n

A few hours lat\u00ader, we were wok\u00aden abrupt\u00adly by a pack of dogs, sur\u00adround\u00ading our tents and bay\u00ading as if we were fox\u00ades brought to ground. We both stayed in our tents, as it seemed a bet\u00adter idea than stick\u00ading an arm out of a tent and get\u00adting into a strug\u00adgle with hounds of unknown num\u00adber, size and dis\u00adpo\u00adsi\u00adtion. I assumed that some\u00adone would soon come to the tents and demand that we jus\u00adti\u00adfy our pres\u00adence. But after a cou\u00adple of min\u00adutes, a dis\u00adtant whis\u00adtle called the dogs off, and they left. After ascer\u00adtain\u00ading that we each were undam\u00adaged, we wait\u00aded for awhile until there was\u00adn\u2019t even any dis\u00adtant bark\u00ading. Then there was a new sound: the bleat\u00ading, cloche, and ki-yip-yip<\/em> of a shep\u00adherd dri\u00adving a flock of sheep. I decid\u00aded to crawl out of my tent. I was once a shep\u00adherd, and I felt I could deal com\u00adpe\u00adtent\u00adly with any con\u00adfronta\u00adtion with anoth\u00ader shep\u00adherd. But he moved his flock in a wide berth around us, and treat\u00aded us as if we were just a lump of rocks. My greet\u00ading in Mag\u00adyar was ignored. We lat\u00ader learned that the entire val\u00adley was Romanian-speaking.\"07-05-12<\/a><\/p>\n

The land\u00adscape before us was spec\u00adtac\u00adu\u00adlar. We were still on flat ground, but head\u00aded for dark\u00adly forest\u00aded moun\u00adtains, which sur\u00adround\u00aded us on three sides, and beyond them, high\u00ader and high\u00ader ones. The high\u00ader ones were cov\u00adered with snow.<\/p>\n

\"07-05-12<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the morn\u00ading, I did what I could to prac\u00adtice Mag\u00adyar with peo\u00adple, includ\u00ading the own\u00ader of the Panzion, and it was to prove use\u00adful to us over the next few days. On the edge of town, there was a \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-blog","category-at-blog-2007"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=712"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9118,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions\/9118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}