A Christmas Miracle

Santa is a man of many talents--giver, inspirer, jolly-maker, and now he can add one more to his repertoire: resurrector. Let me give you the backdrop. Two days before Christmas Eve, while already not happy about my solitary predicament in the town of Sibiu, I took out my IPOD to listen to tunes while I sent some emails. It failed to show any signs of life, even after I put it on a charge. Having seen my girl come back from the dead before (after a rainsoaking in the Amazon) I put her aside and tried to think happy thoughts instead of the proverbial kick in the nuts that the situation was giving me. I checked her absent pulse periodically over the next two days and slowly began to realize that she was gone forever and that my overnight train or bus to Istanbul the following day was going to be way more of a nightmare now and that crazy self sing-songing was going to be the new norm. It was all planned out--write a eulogy on the blog and tuck her into the backpack to wait for a proper burial down in the 'Zarks--what she would have wanted. Just as I was headed to the computer to write it, I thought I owed her one last try and Voila! She kicks back on. Oh sweet goodness you are back...Apparently Santa does know who has been good this year....




Alright, on to another news. Christmas Eve turned out suprisingly pleasant. In search of a decent place to treat myself to dinner I came across something so perfect and cliche that I had to do it--a Chinese restaurant. I have a deep level of respect for Chinese restauranteers for several reasons. One, is that they will be open hell or high water, holiday or hurricane. Two, is that they are the inventors (unresearched fact) of my favorite Sunday afternoon past-time: The All You Can Eat Buffet. Tell me that we are going to a Chinese buffet and later retract the promise and you will have lost a friend. Many people will attest to this fact. Lastly, my respect for Chinese restauranteers reached a pinnacle a few years ago when I was the guest of friend attending a woman's 30th birthday party in which the owner of the Chinese restaruant where event was held, allowed (and encouraged) a midget lap dance peformance DURING normal business hours, with John Q. Public and family gasping on in horror. These people just know business. Anways, while there I ended up being invited to sit with a young English couple that had stopped in the town--specifically searching out a Chinese restaurant as well. Needless to say we got along great. After dinner I returned to a hostel finally with some atmosphere--the local staff was distributing wine and beer and we had ourselves a merry little time. Woke up Christmas morning to more snow and lots of sunshine, which made hiking when some Finnish travelers around the nearby skiing mountain all the better. To top it off, we finished the day with some old-fashioned snow tubing.

Barnstorming it tomorrow outta Romanai, through Bulgaria, and hopefully eventually back into Turkey by the following day. I'm sure there will be some mishap along the way.

Creciun Ferecit!

Brian

Christmas in Transylvania

Took a painfully slow train from Veliko Tarnovo across the border into Romania. Luckily the only other passengers in the whole train carriage were Americans--mid-westerners at that. So the ride was spent in good company and I was fortunate to have fellow Couchsurfer picking me up that the station in the capital city Bucharest when I arrived. Spent the next two days crashing a couch and touring Bucharest. A definite highlight of the city was a late night out in downtown Bucharest in a situation that has become so familiar in my Balkan tour--a genre confused young generation dancing as enthusiastly to death metal as they do to music from the Little Mermaid. Ever see a long-haired metal head go from thrashing to forming a conga line around the bar? It happened, I saw it and loved it--it was about the 300th time I wished I had a videocamera on me at all times on this trip. Their lack of pretentions when it comes to musical enjoyment was appealing although I suspect their openness to all music comes not from eclectic tastes but rather a taste for anyone who will do a concert tour through Romania.

I soon found myself departing Bucharest on the 23rd for the Transylvanian town of Sibiu. No, this is not a Dracula-mania inspired tour, rather I heard the area is supposed to be beautiful, more so in wintertime. The bus ride there was pretty scenic, especially with the recent dusting of snow. I arrived to find the hostels vacant but the center city packed with ice-skating youths and strolling familys. It would have been a bit of a depressing place to ride out Christmas so I decided to skip town the next day and head to the city of Brasov. Just arrived via train and found a hostel with some other travelers and a bit of Christmas cheer.
Being away from home from during the holidays has not been ideal, especially when I know the fun I am missing with friends and family, which is only compounded when I get drunken emails from buddies like Robby Arthur telling me of the all great gatherings going on. Oh well, how can your ever know the sweetness of something unless you go without it?

And so, a very Merry Christmas to all and a safe holiday season--especially my boy Dave Tiehen in Iraq!

Woooaahhhh!
Count Quarnstrom