I woke up with a queasy stomach. I think it was the slimy meal I had yesterday and the 7 pear nectars I drank. Of course, the two more pear nectars for breakfast did not help. But there is an issue with fresh fruit here and that is shortages! I packed up and had difficulty finding the bus to Continesti. I had a long walk to the bus station and feeling super queasy got on the bus which crawled but perhaps that was me feeling sick and impatient. The stench of body odour and garlic breath almost made me hurl. I had to collect myself for 10 minutes after getting off the bus. I went to the nearest cafeteria and had a Pepsi and an aspirin. I found a campground and paid for two nights after waiting in yet another line-up. The beach beckoned and I suffered through and through with the freezing water. I returned after a couple of hours and yes another freezing cold shower and the toilets stink and yes no toilet paper. I suppose that is also in short supply like most everything else in Romania. Feeling somewhat better I bought Le Monde and was reading it in the campground when a guy called Pierre from Quebec approached and said “Bonjour” seeing that I was reading Le Monde. He writes for a big Montreal daily Le Jour. We talked politics awhile and decided to go to a nearby cafeteria which was part of an international socialist youth camp. We are not young socialists and did not have a special ticket to enter. We are young but not recognized as young socialists. So much for a spirit of internationalism. How international is this camp? In Romania it seems sucking as much money from the tourists is the game. Pierre, who is here writing an article on European socialism, said it is the hard-working capitalists that are providing the edifications and foundations of Romanian socialism. Our campground spot is double what the good communists pay. Discrimination! We returned to our tents to a meager meal of bread and ham. I had the chills so crawled into my sleeping bag not even bothering to brush my teeth.
“Travels to a Different Time” : 5July1974: Constanţa, Romania: Mr. Culture Eats Slimy Dinner and Drinks Pathetic Romanian Beer After Swimming at Garbage Strewn Black Sea Coast
Up at 8 this morning and after saying good morning to Victoria headed out to search for food which is a chore in Communist Romania. I did find 4 pear nectars at the local supermarket which is anything but “super”. Being a “hepee” I am always subject to stares from a population that sees few long-haired western tourists or even Mr. and Mrs. Straightlaced tourists. Came home after hunting down some bread. While I ate breakfast Victoria turned on a national radio station with some good classical music which was always cut short by “tourist information”. I went to the Black Sea beach and it is strewn with garbage and cigarette butts. The water is covered in seaweed and its frozen. There are hordes of locals kicking up the sand playing football. There are all sorts of hawkers selling cheap merchandise and food. After the beaches of Yugoslavia quite frankly who on earth would come here for a vacation? After the beach I stopped in and visited a Turkish mosque which was rather plain but offered a spectacular view. The older part of town is beautiful and juts out into the ocean like a peninsula. The new part of town is blemished by socialist architecture with is ugliness camouflaged by rows of trees. Next stop an art gallery with nothing of note except for an exhibit of charcoal on paper drawings that captured the Romania of yesteryear. The archeological museum was the best piece of culture for the day with shards of ancient pottery, Greek sculptures and Roman artifacts. I had the museum to my own which gave it a greater impact than if I had been in a crowd. Next to an incredibly beautiful church called the Church of St. Pierre and Paul. I returned home for lunch and gave the beach another try. Came home and went out for a dinner of some slimy dish which was filling and a step up from pig slop. I had a Romanian beer with it which is 30 cents for half a litre. It is strong at 12.5% but is mostly flat and one can only drink half of it before it totally loses its carbonation. Dessert was an ice cream. I was back at 9:30 and watched a “Musica Popular” show on television which was mostly traditional Romanian folk music. I was in bed by 11:30.
“Travels to a Different Time” :4July1974: Bucresti and Constanta, Romania: Staying with Grannies in an Ornate Room from a Different Era; Travelling with an Egg Thief
I had breakfast with Sorin when he left at 8 to go to work but my belongings were so wet I had to dry them on the balcony. Sorin’s girlfriend cooked me up some delicious eggs. Romanian eggs are incredibly tasty. I packed up and she cooked me more eggs with fresh bread and a beer and I was out the door just before a bunch of Sorin’s friends arrived for lunch. I did a farewell jungle imitation and they all loved it begging me to come back.
I took the bus to the outskirts of the city and headed to the highway back to the Black Sea Coast to my destination of Constanţa. A group of peasants approached me and were crowded around me wanting to touch my long hair! Can this be real? I was quickly picked up by a Frenchman and his Romanian wife heading back to Paris. Again the story I was told about the only way of escaping Romania was to marry a foreigner.
The next lift was all the way to my destination with a truck driver carrying a huge cargo of eggs destined for Cairo. Romanian is a Latin language and speaking French and some Spanish I can use this in communicating in three languages to try and make myself understood. We chatted and it is as if we understood each other. Perhaps we did and for three hours that seemed to work. The ability to communicate with people is so important and this interweaving of languages, facial expressions and hand movements is sort of a language in itself. In any case he stopped near the port and took off the tarp over the cargo and pirated lots of eggs and gave me a couple of dozen. Off I went walking into the city centre finding a tourist agency that gave me hugely expensive prices of 135 lei for a room but as a student he would do a favour for me. Up above the tourist agency was a room I could have for 85 lei. I went up to the room and two old ladies Victoria and Raglesa fussed over me the long haired “heepee” like I was their grandson. I went out for dinner and really pigged out for $1.15. It is like I am never knowing where my next meal may come from in this country. It is almost like it is reassuring to see food.
I returned home and had a hot shower oh so glorious. Victoria insisted I dry my long hair with a hair dryer she was so proud of. Although I have long hair I let it dry naturally but Victoria insisted and her hairdryer was limping along sadly! I managed to free myself from these caring old birds to a most ornate room from another era. Everything is polished and cleaned and so well maintained. The sheets are clean and crisp. Am I in a vestige of pre-Communist Romania? And I gave them the eggs which they were delighted to accept.
“Travels to a Different Time” :3July1974; Bucharest, Romania: A Sulky and Jealous Woman: More Line-Ups and Bureaucracy
Up at 9 a.m. and I had breakfast with Sorin and his wife. Sorin had to go to work. He is an engineer. I was left behind with his wife who is very sulky and uncommunicative. I wrote some letters, looked at my maps and made some tentative plans about future destinations. Sorin came home for lunch and we had vodka, bread, cheese and stuffed peppers. After lunch we had a walk to his site which was a new hotel under construction. I walked around the city for 4 hours and went to the Carpati Tourist agency and asked if there were student accommodations to some sour looking woman who said they had no such accommodations in Bucharest. That was a load of crap as the city map I got from her had numerous student accommodations marked. I pointed this out to the sour woman who said they did have student accommodations but they are all full and private accommodations were a huge $12 a night! Can I believe anything this bureaucrat had to tell me? I discovered a main street for what seemed to be ordinary working people and discovered an incredible marketplace. There was a peasant begging and her child was eating a dirty piece of bread. I think they were Roma people known as gypsies. I have seen some of their horse drawn caravans here in Romania like out of some movie. I gave some thought to what Li Li had said about how hypocritical the Romanian Communist party was by saying that all people were equal. Given the way the Party members live what baloney that all people are equal. That is very evident here in Romania. I purchased a pound of raspberries for 50 cents and some visjne which are soft cherries. Fruit is not fully in season so I will have to wait for a big bash of grapes. I ate the berries and then got lost. Getting lost in a great way of discovering a place. I soon saw my marker “The Intercontinental Hotel” and got back on track. I passed by an ugly glob of a building called The National Theatre. After that to an art gallery with some good paintings by Stendahl, Maisichheui, Lazarescu Florina and many other Romanian artists. Sorin was home when I arrived and we had some cookies and some of the visjne I bought followed by vodka but this Romanian brew is very harsh on the throat. Sorin said the sourpuss was not his wife but his girlfriend from Bacău and she was jealous of me and did not like me. I am heading out tomorrow but he asked I return and he would give me a great tour of Bucharest. Sorin and his sulky girlfriend went to a party and said they would return around midnight. They left me a key and I went out to The Intercontinental Hotel for dinner. Dinner was a less than memorable smattering of French fries and 4 meatballs. I wanted a beer but there was a line up for tickets for the beer and another line up to pick up the beer. What is going on with these stupid line ups in Romania? I took the 37-bus home and had a vodka and orange juice and leafed through some Romanian magazines. I dozed off around 11 until Sorin and sourpuss returned at 12:30. I had enough energy to do some jungle imitations which sent Sorin into hysterics. A sailor imitation was good too but this did nothing in my popularity contest with the sourpuss.
“Travels to a Different Time” : 2July1974: Do I Choose the Vodka, Girls and Party Option? Doing Business on the Black Market
To my surprise flying to Bucharest from Bacău is cheaper than the bus! So I bought a ticket for $2 leaving later in the day. My ticket on Tarom is a simple piece of cardboard saying Bacău-Bucresti. I head back into town to grab some breakfast but the line-ups for bread and meats were incredible. I just gave up soggy and dispirited and went to a restaurant for some cream of vegetable soup with some meat possibly beef and potatoes in watery gravy. With nothing much to do went for a vile Romanian beer. I then went to the best hotel in town for another beer and ran into a black marketeer and changed some currency into Romanian lei at a great profit. A couple of his friends arrived and they insisted I stay at their villa and promising a good time with vodka, girls and a nonstop party. There was a doctor in the group who wanted me to join the “festivities”. We then moved to a bar and had vodka shots for 25 cents each. The doctor wanted to leave Romania and is scheming to marry a German divorcee. This was about the only way he could leave Romania. After a last shot of vodka they drove me to the airport and said I must phone their friend in Bucharest. The passengers were workers. For such a tiny airport the security was intense with some 15 soldiers with machine guns. I met a guy called Christian beside me who offered me cigarettes and bought me orange juice on the plane. The plane was a Russian AN-24 and it belched fumes and the plane rattled down the runway and you had to shout to be heard. It was non-pressurized and a very bouncy low altitude flight. 45 minutes later we landed in Bucharest and Christian phoned the guy the black marketeers said I call. Christian , a gym teacher, took me to my host Sorin an engineering student. Sorin had a party going with his friends and his wife. We had meatballs, yogurt, sausages and eggs with East German beer. After the friends left Sorin and I had another beer and hit the sack. What a day!
Photo jetphotos.net
“Andrij The Orphaned Ukrainian Rescue Dog”: Chapter 10: U.S. Marines Honor Me: Pissing on Putin
Another night in the White House before I head to Toronto. But first there are a few talk shows that are so popular in the United States in the morning. I am woken up at 6 a.m. and have a quick breakfast with President Biden. He has yogurt and strawberries and I have some beef kibble with lots of cold water. President Biden says good-bye after breakfast and says he has asked Reggie the Egyptian Rescue Dog, a good friend of his and the United States, to do him a “favour” and I may be involved. President Biden insists I refer to him as Joe. And before he heads off he says there is some red haired woman called Jenn in the White House Briefing Room that has arranged a special ceremony for me? Joe hands me a special White House dog bed with a presidential seal on it. He picks me up and looks me in the eye and says we are best friends and he will be seeing me soon. A nice man. Gentle and kind not like that brute Putin. That shit would slice me up and feed me to Siberian huskies. I’ll slice him up before that!
I go to the White House briefing room and the red-haired woman says hello and we start a press conference. The world press is there. She announces a special session. Some high-ranking US Marine soldier comes out and addresses the press saying I am being made an honorary Captain of the US Marines First Division and given a Robert Leckie Medal of Honour. Robert Leckie was a brave decorated warrior of the First Division in a bitter battle against the Japanese in the Pacific. The Marine guy then gives me a flak jacket with the United States flag on one side and the Ukrainian flag on the other and a helmet with a U.S. marines First Division insignia on it.
This is broadcast worldwide and Putin digs deep into his money laundering pool and ups my bounty to 40 million euros. It is upped to 50 million when after the press conference I raise my leg and piss on a picture of Putin on the White House lawn. Go Ukraine go. Push Tsar Putin over the edge and we’ll be marching on Moscow!
RKS Wine: A California Cabernet Sauvignon on Training Wheels!
There are LCBO Vintages consultants that know their stuff and can be trusted. Some can’t thinking the LCBO knows how to select wine and who are you to question the big monopoly.
One trusted Vintages consultant suggested Long Barn Cabernet Sauvignon as an entry level Cabernet Sauvignon with a “California” designation which means that 100% of the grapes come from that state.
It is a challenge to find a reliable $20 and under Cabernet Sauvignon from California but part of the fun is trying.
On the aromatic side there is some cassis, blueberry, blackberry, black cherry with a wisp of smoke. It’s got the bones of a good Cali Cabernet Sauvignon but lacks complete power to be a classy one. On the palate it has moderate tannins and hints of creaminess and depth that one might expect from a much pricier Cabernet Sauvignon but I emphasize hints. Bits of cassis, kirsch and blueberry. A California Cabernet Sauvignon on training wheels. The acids and tannins are perfectly aligned for food.
If you have friends that think they are knowledgeable about wine I think you can pull this out for a BBQ, slightly chilled, and they might say that is good Cabernet Sauvignon! Take advantage of the heat and smoke as a cover for a paltry priced $16.95 California Cabernet Sauvignon. But try this in a controlled tasting room you might not be able to get away with it.
Speaking of a hot grill this would suit just about all manner of beef or lamb burgers. This wine punches above its price point. Drink by the end of 2022.
(Long Barn 2020 California Cabernet Sauvignon, Long Barn, Napa, California, $16.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 164872, 750 mL, 13.5%, Robert K. Stephen A Little Birdie Told Me So Rating 89/100).
“Travels to a Different Time : 1July1974: Bacău, Romania: Diary Disaster: East German Circus and Propaganda Film: Dirty Glasses
I am slowly recovering from hell. I lost three weeks of diary to the rain. Like a turkey I set up my tent at an angle on a hill and it rained and everything in my tent was soaked including my diary. The receptionist at the campground tried to cheer me up and showed me around Bacau and was a big help shopping with me to purchase some groceries. So at least a splendid meal outside my tent. Yet more rain overnight but a flat tent is better than an angled one. After dinner I met Li Li the campground receptionist and we stepped inside a department store to wait for the rain to pass which it didn’t. The quality of goods on display were very shoddy. It was raining “like a madman” as Holden Caufield would have said in “Catcher in the Rye”. We went into a café for a lemonade and they didn’t do a good job of washing the glasses as I had chocolate smears all over mine. It is sort of gross. What germs have I caught in Romania! This is why I like to eat well with lots of fruits and vegetables so I can build up my resistance. After our lemonade we went into a museum for a display of religious art. Not so good. We then went to the Busch Circus a big East German circus. What louts humans can be locking up wild animals in cages. The Romanian peasants loved it. No derogatory remark intended. They are simple uneducated folk from the countryside. Li Li says the CPR Communist Party of Romania thinks the peasants are stupid. Stalin hated the kulaks and that hatred has permeated into Romania. Li Li is sick and tired of Romania and wants to marry her boyfriend in Amsterdam but is having difficulty in leaving Romania. It seems about the only way to leave the country is marry someone outside the country. But she says the big wheels in the CPR can travel as they wish. They live in special flats, shop in special stores and drive cars. The circus was a depressing place to be and the mud and rain did not help. Li Li wanted to phone her sister but there was a line-up to use the phone. There are big line ups here for everything. We stopped off to meet her sister and dry off. Her sister’s apartment is tiny and is in a huge complex of bleak apartment buildings. There are no lawns just fields of mud. People throw garbage from the balconies so it is strewn all over the mud. They brag in the CPR about modern socialist development but it seems to be modern socialist decay. These modern apartment buildings are crumbling and in a state of disrepair. We went to see an American western movie “The Legend of Nigger Charlie” along with an anti-war movie about Vietnam. A bit late for that but that is Romania. Romania is one of the longest cows in Europe to get milked by the Soviet Union. I am not sure but I caused quite a stir in the theatre with my long hair and Western style dress. Feeling like a Martian and movie star.
Returned back to the campground and my tent was a lake of water including my sleeping bag. A Romanian guy took pity on me and knocked on my tent and invited me into his cabin. It was a small cabin with two beds and I was expecting him to make a move on me. He was a painter and poet and looked like Charles Aznavour. He said it was OK if I slept in the other bed and as it was belting rain it seemed like I had no choice. I was exhausted and some his friends came to play a board game and I virtually dropped from exhaustion clutching my knife. I woke up at 7 a.m. and was furious and helpless with the pelting rain. At 9 it stopped raining and I packed up and headed to a ramshackle airport.
RKS Film: “Întregalde”: Romanian Film Spins it’s Wheels in the Mud
Radu Muntean’s “Întregalde” like the Land Rover in the film that is trapped in the mud is spinning its wheels and not really progressing. I was expecting more from Muntean with 6 films under his belt.
Three friends head out from Bucharest to deliver food packages in the remote Romanian countryside. Their Land Rover becomes badly mired on a remote logging road thanks to errant directions by the senile Kente (Luca Sabin) they pick up wandering on the road. There is some tension as the group splits up looking for help as darkness sets in and temperatures start to decline. Will some dubious Roma’s sodomize one of the girls who goes to get help in their unplated rust bucket of a truck or is it simply deep-seated Romanian distrust of the Roma’s? And how charitable is this trio when one of them sees Kente holding one of the girl’s scarf saying how soft it is. One of them now says you can now wipe your ass with it.
The story is hardly dramatic and there does not appear to be any hidden message of note woven into the plot. The film was shot in the Apuseni Mountains in Transylvania and is really the star of the movie. The landscape in late fall is ominous. A good deal of the film is shot in darkness which is more annoying than artistic. A brief glimpse of rural poverty is jolting.
I have no qualms with the acting and Luca Sabin as Kente steals the show as a senile “Forrest Gump” as one of the trio nicknames him.
You can see the trailer here https://vimeo.com/648701704.
It will be opening March 4th in Canadian theatres.
RKS Film Rating 65/100.
“Travels to a Different Time” : 19August1973: Getting Stared at by the Provincials in Bonn and Ending up in Philadelphia
Woke up in the hospital with all limbs intact. Tidied up and Michael arrived and Heidi shortly after with some breakfast. Heidi had to be in surgery in another hospital some 4 kms away so we drove her there. Michael took me on a tour of Bonn and after we met Heidi for lunch at the hospital cafeteria. I had a tour of the new intensive care unit the most modern in Germany. I received a few stares with my long hair. Michael and Heidi are Berliners and very modern and cosmopolitan so long hair raises no eyebrows with them but does with these “provincial types” in Bonn/Köln. The Roman ruins we saw were impressive. A lazy evening with a couple of Dortmunder Unions and a German movie on television.
20August1973: Michael and Heidi drove me to the airport in Bonn and we said our good-byes. Very tight security at the airport including soldiers with machine guns. My chances of getting on the Overseas National Airways flight to New York was not looking good but a miracle happened as another US charter airline Capitol International Airways had room if I wanted to get to Philadelphia.
21August1973: We arrived in Philadelphia at 10:30 p.m. and I cleared customs around 11:30. A choir was belting out songs in the terminal building. I had to borrow 50 cents from one of them to go to the terminal my flight would be leaving from. I slept at the airport and next morning a flight to New York and then to Montreal. Good to be home but give me a few months and I will want to hit the road again. For the time being good-bye Europe for 1973. Next year?
A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity 