Lat Long

 

In Romania today â we just drove off the road & asked in a village where we could camp, they sent us to this pension in a village called Julita, on the River Julita, at the foot of the Transylvanian Alps.  What a find!  Thereâs a delightful lady here who seems to do everything â cook, do the rooms, tend the garden, feed the chickens, & so on, & her boss seems to sit & drink beer!!  We are camping in their orchard beside the chickens (& cockerel, so we could be in for an early morning) We are now in the fanciest over the toppest restaurant you have ever seen, & have just exchanged family & garden pictures.  She is mad keen on roses & magnolia!

 

I found out some stuff about Romania.  Hereâs a bit about Dracula (which is really bad!) Vlad Draculea, ruling prince in the 1400s, was known as âTepesâ (the Impaler) after his favoured form of executing his enemies.  Stop reading now if you are of a delicate disposition.  A dull wooden stake was carefully inserted into the anus, driven slowly thru the body avoiding vital organs, until it emerged from the mouth!  He is legendary as the inspiration for 19th C Bram Stokerâs Count Dracula.  Vladâs surname, Draculea, means son of the draghon, after his father Vlad Dracul, a knight of the Order of the Dragon.

 

I learned a bit of history about Romania which I was quite woolly about before.  They entered WW2 on the German side resulting in the murder of 400,000 jews & Roma at Auschwitz.  Then in 1944they changed sides & helped the Russians.  Postwar, Transylvania was returned to Romania, the Soviets withdrew in 1958 and Ceausescu became president in 1974, placing his wife, son & 3 brothers in big roles & their chaotic and megalomaniacal system followed.  Rural communities were resettled in concrete blocks, leading to famine,  & entire suburbs of historic buildings were smashed, among Romaniaâs many problems under Ceausescu.  In 1989 Father Laszlo Tokes publicly condemned the regime from his church in Timisoara, riots ensued, and were crushed, but after much bloody protest C & his wife fled by helicopter.  They were arrested in Targoviste & on Christmas day 1989, were executed by firing squad. 

 

I shall stop at this point as our dinner is arriving!