Eastern Europe coming and going

Dateline: Podis, Romania; December 22, 2011—My grandmother once told me I should eat the heart of the watermelon first, and then the seeded part, that way if I ran out of appetite before I ran out of watermelon, I would have already eaten the best part. But another sage has said we should save the best for last. Being again on the road, I am hoping before this trip is over that I have realized the second maxim, because the beginning of the overseas part of this journey has been everything but tasty.

In reality, my journey began December 6 when I left for Maryland. Knowing I would have time to organize my belongings up there, I packed with reckless abandon, stuffing my car like a Christmas goose. My time in Maryland was spent pleasantly with my mother and for a week with my three sisters. Whereas I will be far away from loved ones during the holidays, it was a blessing to be with these four special people on the rare occasion when we are all together.

The night before leaving for Europe I worked until midnight, then arose early the next morning to finish my project and pack for the second time in two weeks. The project took longer than I had hoped and the fine dinner my mother prepared went untasted as I tried to “lighten my wagon.” Along with a large quantity of natural health items such as DMSO, menthol camphor and a large array of wonderful salves made by a friend of mine, Mike Bunnell. If you need some good salves, go to ourfathershealingsalves.com.

I bought a hand baggage scale for such occasions because I hate getting burned for excess weight on flights. I am waiting for the day when the baggage and the passenger all climb on the scales together, one weight. Those of us who are thin would be able to carry more hand baggage than those carrying excess body baggage. But I doubt I will see that day. My goal was to have my two check-in bags right at the allowable weight of 50 lbs and my carry-on at 20 lbs. Pack, weight, dump; pack, weigh, dump. My flight was scheduled to depart for New York then Paris then Bucharest at 17:35. It was close to 14:45 when we finally turned onto the highway heading for BWI. Don’t like to cut things so close but this just couldn’t be helped.

Still concerned I might be overweight, I began pulling things out of the suitcases. Shirts, trousers, this and that. When I finally arrived in Romani and put my things away, I found I had three blue shirts and one black shirt left; two blue sweaters, and four pair of dress slacks. But before that, when we skidded into the BWI departures area and I lugged my way to the ticket counter, I found I was about 10 pounds under my allowable weight. And I was completely through everything and sitting at the gate about an hour and a half before my flight.

From BWI we flew to New York, a flight all of about 20-25 minutes. Then I sat there far longer than you want to sit in JFK before taking off for Paris. Had a long layover in Paris which was nice. Went to the Sky Club and had a nice breakfast and high speed internet before reboarding for Bucharest.

It was raining in Romania when the plane landed, a very cold and large rain. When you would look up into the street lights you would see snow and somehow in those flakes last few meters to earth they rose above the latent heat of fusion and splashed on the cold earth. Someone had been dispatched to take me to Bucharest de Nord, the central train station. The temperature was falling and it was a long wait but finally the train to Bacau arrived and I pulled my tired body aboard. It was about a six hour ride through the dark Romanian night and when we finally arrived, it was snowing. My friend Radu met me, at nearly 3 AM, and took me home to Podis and there my work began.

Dateline: Podis, Romania; March 18, 2012—I have been both terrible remiss and overwhelmingly busy the last three months so this is my first post. I will try, over the course of the next ten days, to give a few of the high points of my trip…and some of the low points. Thank you for your patience.

God bless,

Don