Monday was a day spent joining angry mobs and storming castles, pretty much normal daily activities in Transylvania and the real reason I came on the trip. I know all of the folk arts of Romania are important, I know it’s a good thing to support the crafters who painstakingly make all of the garishly painted ceramic garden gnomes. I know it is important to eat spinach soufflé pressed between two slices of Wonder Bread. I know it is important to pay over $9 a gallon for benzene, although it was 95 octane. Yes, all of the cultural activities are part of the deal but I knew I would always be disappointed if I came to this dichotomous world of horse carts and cows holding up a mile of traffic that consisted primarily of German luxury cars, and failed to storm a castle.
To bring everyone up to date…we spent Sunday night in Cluj, the ancient capitol of Transylvania. Cluj is a classic example of a 2011 Romanian city. Reeling from what everyone in Eastern Europe calls “the crisis,” Cluj is suffering. Apartment building projects are abandoned, industrial sites are abandoned and everyone is waiting for the EU to help out. The people are still smiling and the streets and sidewalks get washed, often times while we were walking on them. Back to the story…Eva was a little puny so we decided to head south and eventually back to Budapest. We mapped a course that would take us thru Aiud, (castle, mob potential,) Alba Iulia, (big castle more potential,) then toward Deva and Arad with plans to cross the border at Nagylak.
Aiud castle was built by the Saxons and is generally considered a church fortress. The city of Aiud grew around the fortress as is commonly the case. Basically the Aiud Castle was in the city square. Lisa and I walked around the grounds of the castle and dropped some coins in the alms box when we looked into the church area. Much of the castle is under renovation, but people were still living inside the walls; amazing stone construction. The spire had a clock that was added in 1836 and it still works with a bizarre series of weights and chains and can be wound from the ground even though its 90 feet above.
I visited a feed and grain store on the side of the castle and bought some seeds. You could buy giant bags of Ammonium Nitrate fertilizer and they also sold diesel fuel?
On the storm the castle issue…there were quite a few villagers wandering around the square, some were grumbling but not enough to riot. We packed up and headed to the next castle.
Alba Iulia has a very big castle, it is also under renovation. I think the Romanians are trying to get the castles up to EU castle specifications. We parked and walked thru the nicely gardened grounds of the Alba Iulia Citadel and across the original drawbridge from 831 AD…and then it happened. Just as we crossed the drawbridge I found myself in the middle of a very angry mob. It seems that the restaurant had run out of the daily special and they were fired up. I was instantly swept up into the moment and I felt, for the first time in my life, the uncontrolled fervor of a mob. It was exhilarating, I started shouting and grumbling with the mob, I looked for a scythe or a shovel but I only had my Bloomingdales umbrella, I shook it open and we stormed the castle. Then, just as quickly as it had started, the mob dispersed to the Elder Europa Autobuz and they were off to the next castle. They asked me to join them but I had to decline, I needed a beer.
We found a nice little lunch place near the city market and we also found the official mob supply booth. He was doing a brisk business.
Lots of castles on the road toward Budapest, lots of accidents, lots of horse drawn carts, which may have caused the accidents. We crossed the border into Hungary, we were home.
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