The Iron Gates

Iron Gate Two at Sunrise

The Iron Gates are two dams that were built in 1960 and 1971, between Yugoslavia and Romania, raising the level of the water 108 feet to make navigation of the river possible year-round though the Kazan Narrows (cataracts). We went through the first lock at about 7:30 AM at sunrise and the second at 11:30 AM. Before the dams were created you could only pass through the cataracts about 220 days a year and one year they were passible for only 46 days.

Topic: Communism

In the morning, our program directors talked about their experiences under Communism. Each is a Transylvanian, so they all experienced what happened in Romania. Szabi was nine in 1989. "As a kid, life was okay. I didn't know about the struggles my parents had to get food and electricity. I remember being at my Grandfather's when the TV transmission of Ceausescu's speech suddenly ended and people started marching outside our door. That is when we heard about the shooting of the protestors and we saw the people being shot on TV, and even our neighbor was shot. I was afraid for the first time."

"I am Hungarian, and we were hoping that after the revolution, we would get our Hungarian school back again, which had been discontinued. We were protesting for our rights the new democracy. Two months after the revolution, sadly, we almost had a ethnic war between the Hungarian and Romanians. "

Elana lived in a small town. "We did have food and were religious, going to church every Sunday. We had German friends and they sent us things like chocolates. While I'm Romanian, I actually went to a German school in the town. I lived with my Grandmother in town and I would visit my parents who ran a motel outside the town. My parents had to report everyone who stayed there. For example, they had to report when an unmarried couple stayed there. I remember that one time they had a bear that was eating our pigs. My parents had to prove that they didn't slaughter the pigs and sell it to others. They had to take pictures of the bear to show the police. We were poor, but we didn't know it. We had two hours of TV a day, mostly propaganda. If you wanted to buy a car, you would wait for five years to get the car. One of our neighbors said the communists’ biggest mistake was to air Dallas on TV. We didn't even see a color TV until the 1990s."

Hunor lived longer through the Communist days (He's 50). "We were used to one pair of shoes, one grey pair of pants, you don't know what you are missing. My first protest was how rough my school uniform was. My mother put in an extra lining otherwise my legs would itch. 'There must be something wrong, if they can't supply us pants that don't itch'. I was a member of the Communist Youth Organization. We had a competition to collect scratch paper. The winning team would get to visit the theater during school hours. We won and were quite excited. But out theater performance was listening to a woman and man reciting poems about the greatness of Ceausescu. We never tried to win a competition again. We were trained not to think on our own, but just follow. It was safe and comfortable. But if you had the initiative to think on your own and express it, you would have a police visit. You tended to have two different lives: what you did inside the house - like listening to Voice of America versus what you said and did outside. I used to listen to western music through all the jamming. We had quotas for food and waited in line to get it, yet the Communist propaganda  spoke of how well the people were cared for. The transition to Democracy has been good for some and difficult for others. For me, it was a good transition, but for others life was safer under Communism. For example, they needed to compete for the jobs, when the factories began closing because the factories weren't competitive."

But we must remember that each country has a different experience. Romania For example, under Tito in Yugoslavia, life actually was very good. But after he died, there were many ethnic struggles and wars. Hungary opened up much more after their 1956 revolution. Romania suffered more than the other countries during the 1980s because Ceausescu paid off all his foreign debts in a few years at the cost of consumer goods. Our guide in Bulgaria was of the opinion that life was better under Communism. When we asked "Will people re-elect the Communists?" Not likely, because of the internet. People have a voice today, and I don't think they will give away that freedom to speak up.

 

King Decebalus

In the afternoon, we passed through the cataracts which is where the Danube passes through the Carpathian Mountains. Our first major site was Trajan's tablet, a plaque created in 106 AD to celebrate the road created along the Danube. The road was constructed by drilling holes in the cliff face and supporting a road of planks on beams sticking out of the cliff. It was roofed over to stop attacks from the cliff top. Trajan marched his legions along this road to the bridge he had built across the Danube for his war campaigning against King Decebalus. Further along we passed the Statue of the King Decebalus built in the 1990's and 130 feet high. We then passed a recently completed church. It was built based on a former river pilot station, no longer needed since the dam was built. The sheer walls of the canyons in this part of the Danube, rise 900 feet above us, and 900 feet below us. There is something about a river carving through the mountains which make for the ultimate scenery. Best of all, the sun came out shortly after we entered the canyon, lighting up the scenery and as we left the sun hid behind the cloud bank.

Cruising the Iron Gates





Vidin, Bulgaria

Topic: Eastern European Traditions

Christmas On December 23rd families slaughter a pig and then burn the hair off by fire (today, often with a blowtorch). Plenty of plum brandy is drunk during the procedure .The skin and ears are crispy and eaten immediately as a treat. The pig is divided up for ham, bacon, and sausage to be eaten during the Christmas holidays. Hungarians will use the bone to make a soup. The big Christmas feast is on Christmas Eve. Families attend the two hour service ending about midnight followed by a family meal of stuffed cabbage. In the morning, the Christmas tree is decorated.

Easter starts with the midnight service. At the end of the service everyone "takes the light", gets a lighted candle, process around the church three times and then take the lighted candle home. The typical Easter meal is lamb. This will usually last the family about a week. They paint hardboiled eggs, typically red, and each family member eats one before each meal of Easter week. On Easter Monday, it is traditionally for the young boys to visit the girls, read them a poem about spring, sprinkle them with perfume and get a kiss in return. The family will invite the boys in for an egg and cake.

Births, Weddings, and Funerals. In the Orthodox religion, it is customary to keep new born babies in the house until they are baptized at the church. They submerge the baby three times and the boys will be brought to the altar, for the only time in their lives. The Godparents are in charge of the ceremony. Godparents, typically an older couple, are also used for weddings. There is first a civil ceremony with just family and then a church wedding follows. The reception is usually an extended meal with dancing between each course of the meal. In Romania, it is also traditional to steal the bride, and then the Godfather negotiates for the return of the bride to the groom. Funerals are to occur within three days of death. It is considered quite important that a candle be lit upon death. The wake is held at the home for three days with all the mirrors covered (to ward off spirits). After the church service the body is taken to the cemetery with the procession stopping at every crossroad with a short ceremony to ward off the in-between world. There are further ceremonies at the cemetery after 40 days, 3 months and every year for 7 years. At the end of the seven years, the body is dug up and the bones blessed for a final time.

Vidin

Turkish Mosque in Vidin

In the afternoon, we had a walking tour of Vidin, a town of about 35000 people. Bulgaria followed the Communist pattern we saw in Romania. Factories were built in the city, attracting people to move from the farms. But at the end of the Communist era, these factories were not efficient and many of them closed. Unemployment is 25-30%, so over a million Bulgarians work in other countries, sending money home for their families. We visited a local Mosque built in the Turkish style. It was quite small, serving only 30 families. Because the Turks ruled Bulgaria for 500 years, there is quite a lot of discrimination. So the local Imam has been trying to open up the Mosque to help people understand the Moslems. The Imam provided a blessing for our guide, Hunor and his family before we left. We passed a former synagogue built in 1894 which had been destroyed by fire in 1950. The Bulgarian people are well known for saving the local Jews by hiding them in their homes from the Nazis. The highlight of the city is the Baba Vida fortress. The fortress is named in honor of Grandma Baba, who took care of the people of the city in the Middle Ages.







Baba Vida Fortress

In the evening we had a folk dancing troop come onboard for a show after dinner.





Ruse, Bulgaria

     While Ruse is the local port on the Danube, we took an hour and a half bus trip to visit the village of Arbanasi and the city of Valiko Tarnovo. The route we're taking is the main route from Turkey to Europe, across what used to be the only bridge between Bulgaria and Romania until a couple years ago. On the way, we learned about Bulgaria.

   Bulgaria has a population of 7 million people, 2 million of whom live in Sofia. Bulgaria has been primarily an agricultural society, but during the Communist regime many of the farmers moved to the cities and became factory workers, such that 70% of the population now lives in the cities. After the end of Communism, the land was returned to the original owners, but many of them didn't want to return to their farms, so they use cooperatives to farm the land, and then take the profit from their farm. We also found that the population twenty years ago was 9 million people, but they have lost 2 million to emigration or the natural aging of the population. This has led to a very generous pregnancy leave policy: for one year you get 80% of your salary, you can have a 2nd year at minimum wage, and finally a third year where you don't receive any money, but your job is still guaranteed upon your return from leave. The history of Bulgaria includes two kingdoms, the first from the 7th century to the 10th century, the second from the 12th century to the 14th century. Then came the Ottoman Turks who rules this area for 500 years until1878 when Bulgaria formed its own state.

Interior Church of Archangels Michael and Gabrielle

The village of Arbanasi we visited was founded in the 15th century by Christians from Albania, Greece, and Bulgaria. The people were privileged and rich, they ended up building seven Orthodox churches and large homes. We visited one of the churches, Archangel Michael and Gabrielle. It was small and rather plain from the outside, but inside it was completely decorated with murals - the saints, the life of Christ, and stories of the bible. It is a typical Orthodox church of the Turkish period with the altar area separated by a gate with icons, the main church where only the men worshiped, and then a large chamber where the women worshipped. Here was a unique mural of a pregnant Mary with a smile on her face. Christ was shown within a circle near her womb. While there, we were entertained by a four men singing Church Slavic, similar to what we had heard on Sunday in Constanta. In the orthodox church they don't use any instruments, so everything was acapella.

Dining Room

The home we visited was built primarily of wood and stone. We saw the reception room, dining room, kitchen, and several bedrooms, but every room had a bed, since the families were large. It looked quite comfortable to live in. Unique was an indoor toilet (a triangle cut in the floor), even today in the countryside, only 20% of homes have indoor facilities.

Fortress at Valko Tarnovo

After lunch, we visited Valiko Tarnovo, which was the capital of the country during the kingdom period. The hill is picturesque since it is built on a series of steep hills. At the top of one of the hills is the restored fortress of the city. Today, the city is a youthful city since it both has a university and an army school. For the tourists, there is a pedestrian street filled with craftsmen: silversmiths, potters, artists, etc. Our group was filled with shopaholics, who couldn't wait to get here. 

Constanta

Glycon Serpent, 2nd Century

We spent most of yesterday on the bus traveling from Transylvania to the Black Sea port of Constanta. We met up with the rest of our party at lunch in Bucharest. Lunch was soup, chicken schnitzel and a sugar coated plum dessert at a restaurant, called Carù cu bere, the beer cart. We had to try the restaurant's beer, it was a light tasting lager.

 This morning we did a tour of the city. The city was originally founded as the Greek city of Tomis. The area was conquered by the Romans in 102 AD, until they withdrew their troops in 276. Our first stop was the Archeological Museum which had various glass vases and statues from the 1st to 4th century. Particularly striking were the Glycon snake and a statue of Fortuna, which are often associated with the city. Outside the museum was an original Roman mosaic. Then we walked the nearby street to the Black Sea, passing the largest mosque in Romania, a Roman Catholic Church and finally an Orthodox church where we got to listen to the rich baritone of the choir during the church service. On the seashore was an old Casino which has been in disrepair for the last 20 years. Hunor remembered his childhood days, when they would vacation on the seashore. During Communist rule, they would get a voucher for a hotel and meals. After an overnight train ride, you would wait in line to see which hotel you would be assigned for your vacation. Distributing cigarettes or coffee to those in charge, would give you a better room and better meals. After the fall of communism, the family would instead go camping with their used car and tent, bringing all their food with them, since you couldn't guarantee that you could buy food in the city. We ended our tour by going to the beach and touching the relatively warm water (it gets into the 70's during the summer). Across the street was a Harvest festival, so we explored to find a farmer's market dominated by assortments of cheeses and meats.



Food Festival

   In the afternoon, we left the harbor and headed a little north to the entrance of the Danube-Black Sea Canal. This canal circumvents the Danube delta which is not only difficult to navigate but 200 miles longer than the canal. Looking at a map an old mountain range changes the direction of the Danube from going east to going north, even though it's within 40 miles of the sea. The canal had been conceived in 1830, but never started until 1949. The alternate name for the canal is the 'death canal' since it was used as a forced labor camp from 1949 till 1953. Over 20,000 people, mostly priests, intellectuals and political prisoners died working 12 hour days with little food, After Stalin's death, the labor camp was closed, and all work had stopped by 1955. A second canal was begun and completed using Romanian workers, equipment, and engineering in 1986. The canal became part of the European canal-river system from the North Sea to the Black Sea. The earth from the canal was used to expand the harbor in Constanta, it is now the fourth largest size harbor in Europe, but it's volume of shipments is much smaller.

Danube - Black Sea Canal

Peles Castle

The grounds of Peles Castle

Peles Castle was the summer palace of the royal family, built beginning in 1873 and finished in 1914. Royalty was imported from Germany after Romania gained its independence from the Ottoman empire. Karl (or Charles) the First built this castle in the style of a Bavarian palace with their own money. The palace has 160 rooms, but it also has central heat and a central vacuum. The interior is spectacular, particularly all the wood work on the walls and doors exquisitely carved by skilled craftsmen. The palace feels quite warm and livable compared to most palaces we've visited. Because it is relatively new, it is well preserved. It also had some traditional rooms, like an armory filled with armor, swords, and rifles from the orient to the west. The palace also has the room where Romania's fourth and last king was forced to abdicate at gunpoint to the incoming Communists. One of the most beautiful castles we've visited. Since we couldn't take interior pictures of this castle, visit the website for some interesting videos.



Peles Castle

We went on to the city of Brasov, "the best city in the world" according to our guide, Hugar, who lives there. Founded in 1235, it has always been an industrial center. Our guide and bus driver treated us to wine and cheese on top of the hill overlooking the city. Then we walked the old part of the city from St. Katherine's gate to the Jewish synagogue, on to the Black church and Council Square. The Black church was originally a Gothic Catholic church started in 1559, it became Lutheran after the reformation. It was nicknamed the Black Church after the Hapsburg forces burned the town in 1689 during the Great Turkish War. Inside it is quite plain, though it has quite a few Iranian rugs hanging from the sides as well as a large organ which we got to hear briefly.

St. Katherine's Gate, Brasov

Tonight, we're visiting the Azuga wine cellars for sparkling wine and dinner. These are the oldest cellars in Romania from 1893. We got a quick lecture on how they make sparkling wine: yeast is added to the win generating carbon dioxide up to 6-7 atmospheres of pressure. The bottles are periodically shaken for 9 months. Then they are racked upside down for 2-3 days, turning them twice a day to collect the sediment next to the cork. The cellar walls are 5-6 feet thick with a center filled with air. This provides a constant temperature and the fungus on the walls keeps the humidity constant. After being bottled and corked again, the sparkling wine rests for 2-3 months before being served. We sampled 3 different styles from sweet to very dry, followed by a nice dinner.

Bran Castle

Bran Castle or Dracula's castle has both history and legend as part of it's story. Starting with history, a key figure was Vlad II. He fought against the Turks of the Ottoman empire in the mid-15th century and was awarded the Order of the Dragon, and gained the surname Dracul (Romanian for Dragon). But the dragon is also a symbol for the devil, a negative connotation. His son, Vlad the third became known as Vlad,the Impaler because of how he punished crime and corruption. The accused would be impaled on a wooden stake, such that it missed any major organs and then hung up on the stake until they died. Vlad, the Impaler was the ruler who inspire Bram Stoker's Count Dracula. The castle itself stood on the border between Moldavia and Transylvania on the major road connecting the two and was used to both protect the border from invaders and collect duty on goods moving between the regions. The castle was given to the royal family in 1920 and Queen Mary furnished the castle with what we see today. The castle was closed in 1948 after the communist takeover and reopened in the 1960's after all the Dracula movies made it a tourist destination. We toured the castle with its many rooms, ceramic fireplaces, and balconies. Queen Mary did a good job of turning a military fortress into a pleasant home environment.

Bran Castle

For lunch we went further into the mountains  - we now had about 6 inches of snow all around us to a local restaurant. The fields were filled with sheep. Lunch was plum brandy, vegetable soup, Tochitura (a Romanian beef stew) with polenta and chocolate crepes for dessert.  While at lunch we were able to observe the traditional dress for both men and women. The men's outfit was interesting particularly the wide belt used to carry their money and other valuables, the suba - a sheepskin covering and the clop, their felt summer hat.

John in Suba (sheepskin) and Clop

Since the weather was still cold and windy, Hunor took us to the Sanaia Monastery, the original reason for this settlement. It was started in 1695 and is named for Mt. Sanai after the founder had been a pilgrim to the Holy Land. In the courtyard of the monastery was a small chapel with a depiction of the last judgment above the doors. The nearby Orthodox parish church was built in 1834, one of the many small churches built throughout Romania. The Romanian style church has the traditional three steeples, but the bell tower itself is in a nearby building.  We went to a nearby restaurant, called Snow, where we had soup or a salad, but each couple also split the local dessert - a doughnut style pastry with sour cream and berries on top.

Interior of Orthodox Parish Church

Bucharest, Romania

Prologue

We visited seven different countries during this trip to Eastern Europe as we travelled the Danube River from the Black Sea to Budapest plus a visit to Prague. We saw a lot of commonality in their history and the deep differences that each country has experienced, explaining somewhat why this has been such a turbulent region.

First the commonalities:

• Each country started as some sort of kingdom typically founded in the middle ages
• Each country is either strongly Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic
• Each country spent one to five hundred years as part of either the Ottoman or Hapsburg empires Resentment against the Turks is strong in many countries that were under the Ottomans
•  Most became a nation again either in the late 19^th century or as a result of World War I
• Each was significantly affected by the Nazi’s in World War II
• All were part of the Communist block after World War II
• In 1989-90, each had a revolution away from Communism
• Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia have split into smaller nations
•  Each country faced the shut-down of many factories that couldn’t compete in a capitalist system, resulting in unemployment that is still 18-28% today
• Each country considers being part of the European Union as part of the long-term solution for economic betterment.

But, pay attention to the differences as you read this. Particularly, how long they were part of an empire versus an independent nation, the treatment of the Jews in World War II, their experience under communism, the transition out of Communism, their progress in the European Union.

For those of you who would like to see a video of the trip, rather than read all these posting, a narrated 20 minutes video is available on youtube.

Bucharest

This morning we started out with the city tour of Bucharest.  About 10% of the population of Romania lives here. Through history the city has been severely affected by fires (most of the building and even the roads were made of timber in earlier times) and earthquakes. Today most buildings are made of stone and five stories or less since there is little bedrock, mostly sandy soil.

The most interesting part of the morning was hearing about the revolution to overthrow Communism in December, 1989, the last of the former Eastern European countries to end communism and the only one that had a violent conclusion. It began in the nearby city of Timișoara, but ended here in Bucharest. Nicolae Ceauşescu, the communist dictator, decided to encourage a demonstration in Revolution Square on December 21st. Edmund, who was 15 years old at the time was in attendance. He was very anti-communist because his grandfather had been imprisoned by the Russians after World War II because he was an entrepreneur. He also blamed the Communist health system for the death of his mother from breast cancer - the medicines to help her were not available. When Ceausescu addressed the crowd, he soon found the crowd against him. So the tanks were called in to trap the people in the square and the secret police began shooting into the square. A total of 1600 people were killed during the next several days. Edmund's best friend was shot by a dum-dum bullet to the head. Over two million shell casings were found in the square. By the next day, the army changed sides, and by Christmas Ceausescu had been executed by the army.

Edmund showing bullets from Revolution Square

Romania itself was formed in the 2nd century AD as a Roman Province. Over 87% of the country is Christian Orthodox, the country was 'born Christian' since churches have been found dating from the third century. In the fifth century, the Slavs, Huns, and other tribes took over the region. During the middle ages, it became part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1859, Moldavia and Wallachia joined to become Romania and after World War I, the area of Transylvania was added to the country.

We stopped outside the Military Academy to see Romania's history depicted as a mural. The mural was created during the Communist era and conveniently forgets to depict anything to do with the former Royal family. In the 1960's, Ceausescu decided to demolish the historic center of the city and completely rebuild the government and major commercial area in five years using military and "volunteer" labor. Part of this became the Parliament Building, which is the second largest office building in the world (the Pentagon is the largest). The entire area is huge (the size of the city of Venice) and filled with classical buildings. In this area, we stopped and enjoyed a filling lunch at Hanu Berarilor. Before leaving Bucharest, we visited a nearby Gypsy village. Here the most successful gypsies have built their homes - each trying to outdo his neighbor. These are large homes, but the extended family tend to live in only 2-3 rooms with the rest furnished just for show.

Romania's Parliament Building

In the afternoon, we headed toward Sinaia in Transylvania. After traversing large crop areas, the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains began. The Carpathians define the county into it 3 major regions. Moldavia is east of the mountains, Wallachia in the south, and Transylvania in the midst of the mountains. The Hungarians and Saxons (from Bavaria) were invited into Transylvania influencing the Romanians here. By the time, we reached Sinaia at 2500 feet, it began to snow. There are having the coldest early October in 80 years - most of the trees haven't lost their leaves and the heavy snow has bent and broken many of them. We ended our day with some pork schnitzel at the hotel restaurant