Days on hill 山里山外

 27Dec

To wrap up my stay in Romania. On 27Dec morning, we left Constanta and drove to Galati, which is Ioan's hometown. Ioan and Anca were to leave the boys with Ioan's parents as they planned to visit Dirk and Cony in Berlin for the new year celebration. I was going to spend the new year on SQ flight in mid air crossing the time line. :)

We drove for, i can't remember by now, about 4 hours? The road looked endless and mountains were high. The countryside of Romania looked like any other European countryside, to me, but a little poor-er. We crossed a river via big ferry to get to Galati ... see below ... it was so cold that I was too lazy to get out of the car to take photo as Ioan urged me to. :P



I finally met Ioan's parents. Apparently the house was the one that Ioan grew up in. It was a sizeable house, and I was told that to get this size of house during the communist time was a dream thing. Ioan's father was an engineer, who was doing rather well in the communist time, hence the house. He was curious about Singapore .. .and asked me about the average income level of Singaporean .. .to which I was embarassed to say I don't know :P ... must remember to write back to them.

Later, Ioan told me that his father urged him to visit Singapore someday soon. I asked why?


Ioan's parents were very fond of the boys. Above is Ioan's mother with Sava.


Again, more food for me :P ... a kind of pastry made from nuts and muesli, only for xmas. Yummy. lol I enjoyed it as much as Sava did.

Anca and I brought the boys out to play in the snow. Ioan was too lazy to join us. It was very cold, but snowing much. The boys were running wild. They pushed each other rather hard ... i was worried when watching. But Ioan and Anca were quite glad that the boys are toughening up each other ... i think that is a major cultural difference about child raising between Romania and Singapore .. .and I kinda like the Romania way looking at Sava and Sever played.

We left really early in the morning as Ioan was afraid that snow might extend the time needed to get back to Bucharest and in time for my flight. Another reason was to sneak out while the boys were sleeping ... not quite successful as Sever woke up due to blocked nose.


As I watched Galati from the car, I had the impression that it was better maintained than Bucharest. A really old but diginified city. I know Ioan was very proud of his hometown.







It took us less time than expected. Bucharest looked more calm after xmas. We even had time to have a coffee back in Ioan's place before I had to bid Anca farewell and let Ioan drove me to the airport.

cheers,
sj

Food i found in Beijing. One i tried. The other, I watched. ;-)

26Dec

We took the kids to the beach in the morning. Konstantsa is a popular beach resort of Romania ... with black sea. But a winter in a beach resort is a strange idea ... in fact I was the very very few customer in the hotel that Ioan put me in.

Ioan drove us along the main road along the beach and saw resorts after resorts.  One of them is owned by a famous Romanian soccer player, Haji Gheorghe. We stopped the car for a walk on the beach and Sava was the one that ran far in front like a restless horse. Sever kept his cool, stopped behind everyone, assess the environment before deciding where he was directing towards ...

I told Ioan, the two kids were so different.  

We took the kids back to the home and Ioan wanted to bring me for more sight seeing in the town. Sava insisted to tag along, but as suspected by Ioan, we soon found Sava dozing off in the back seat. Ioan had to task me to keep talking to Sava to keep him awake and we were amused with the dreaming look on Sava's face as he was trying to stay awake. We went to a mosque but unfortunately there was a ceremony in progress thus not open to public visit. Wewent home shortly for more food and drinks.

Mother and sons ... Sava was avoiding my camera, while Sever looked on.

In the evening we went out for drinks. It was then that we had a discussion on what Ioan would do if the church gives the followers a direction, which surprised both Anca and myself ... we never got to know Ioan as such a religious person. :P

 I had an impression that he is a rather religious person by observing him in the churches for the past few days. But still, that surprised me, in a big way.

25Dec

In the morning of xmas, Ioan came to pick me up from the hotel. Together with the kids and Anca, we went to morning mass. The church we went to was the one in which Ioan and Anca got married. It has a sharp slanting rooftop, which Ioan explained that the architectural style came from northen Romania where there are more snows - the rooftop helps the snows to slide down to the ground. It is completely built with wood and sits in front of the lake ... a really beautiful place to get married. The mass was solemnly but beautifully conducted. There were many Romanians who looked as religious as Ioan.

It was very cold and we had to leave earlier when Sava peed in the pants. :)




We proceeded back to Anca's mother's home.
And that meant more food ... pretty much like Chinese New Year celebration for me, where you visit your relatives/friends and eat all day. We literally sat in the house and relatives after relatives came visiting. They all brought with them home brew wines and home cooked dishes. Anca kept telling me, 'try them but if you don't like them, you don't have to finish them'. I ate almost everything ... considered myself well trained in eating discipline ;-) I especially enjoyed the varying taste of the home brew wines. For white wine, Romanian also mix it with soda water, which was the first time I tried having wine this way. Refreshing.

Anca's sister and husband came with their son. Very quiet, so different from Sava and Sever. Anca's brother in law works as an engineer on a ship which passes through Singapore quite a few times. He has been in the harbour but never had enough time to go on to the land. I played with my phone camera to try capture the family gathering atmosphere ...
This is my favourite dish ... minced meat wrapped in cabbage, perfect with green chilli pickle ... hmmmm ... i lost count on how many i had :)
 T
Anca, her sister and her mother.

Anca's aunt, uncle and brother in law.

Anca's sister and her son.

  Ioan and Anca's sister.

  Anca's brother in law .. and the mirror Anca's sister and mother

Ioan and Anca

Home made cake for the xmas. I luv this as well.

We took the kids to a festive amusement park ... all kid's dream with the roundabouts and trains. Even Ioan and I did a ride on a wheel, not too scary but we screamed anyway. Very cold but it is always good to see youngs and adults in high spirits ... which I remembered then what amusement parks are built for ... as that evening reminded me those amusement parks I had been to.

24Dec evening

Mos Garcion! Santa Claus came to Anca's mother's house and the kids were high ... well, they were already very active before the Santa arrived. Sava, the elder one with good looks adopting from Anca, came running (literally) towards me every other minute. Sever, the younger one, was less hyperactive.

Mos Garcion was their neighbour, helping to distribute gifts. The two boys got toy cars as gifts .. .and throughout the night the apartment was filled with the Crazy Frog music from the toy cars. :P
Ioan guiding Sava to match the alphabets and numbers on turtle shell.
Sever on phone with Ioan's father, asking him if the chickens are alright.
Boys getting curious about gifts in Santa's bag.

Sever trying out Ioan's gift from Anca ...

Even i had a gift from Mos Garcion ;-) ... Anca got me a photography book on Romania.

Anca and I had some traditional dishes prepared by her mother. The chicken soup was similar to the one Ioan and I had for lunch the other day, but Anca's mother's version tasted better. :)

Home cooked meal. Kids running around. Mos Garcion. Hmmm ... i can certainly feel the x'mas atmosphere. :)