Romania: Parks, Mud Volcanos and Snowy Mountains

One of the things I learnt from going to Romania is that I am not a good tourist. I don't mean in the sense of urinating up famous monuments while being stupidly drunk, as the British have been gaining a reputation for doing recently, but rather that I don't tend to find myself by the famous monuments in the first place. If I did happen to end up by a monument or an important building I would arrive at the scene lacking the item most treasured by tourists the world over, that being a camera, and I must confess I actually have an aversion to saying 'cheese' in front of whatever assemblage of stone, concrete or metal I find myself by.

Like most I do have a curiosity about my surroundings, I enjoy exploring, and find glimpses into the past interesting. So well I do think the creations of the rich, the powerful, or the pious, that were built to show just how rich, powerful or pious they were may well deserve the drunk Brit treatment, overall I enjoyed having a nosey around the towns and cities I visited. But like I said, I took no camera! All is not lost however for those of you who at times enjoy life through these colourful rectangles because on a couple of cool trips I went on someone's kind father had a pretty awesome camera to record things, and later, back at Forest Garden our hosts kindly took up the rectangle capture duty.

So this is my very delayed photo blog of Romania.

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One of my first priorities, indeed my continued priority, in Bucharest was finding the best places where the green stuff grows. The nearest and the best of these was Herăstrău Park (I don't know how this is pronounced, to me it was just 'the park', or if there was any confusion over that it was 'the big park'). The park comes complete with many trees, a huge lake, lots of little paths, big bushes, and beautiful and sometimes weird wild dogs. In short, many cool places to explore. There is a difference there compared to parks in England that I noticed. I was walking around Hyde park once (which is nowhere near as good what with the Victorians needing to loosen up a bit), and there was a tree stump that had been cordoned off! Presumably the local warden had deemed this tree stump a danger to the public! In Herăstrău Park in one place they had dug a small but long trench, maybe for some piping or drainage, and it was quite amazing, without there being any warnings, cones, or fences, people managed not to fall in! Actually, one thing I miss about Romania now that I am back in the UK, is being able to pass from one railway platform to another by walking over the rails, it is such a hassle having to use bridges or subways!

So...

Me hanging out with one of the locals :) :P

Random views of the park...

A really cool game of table tennis...

Trying (and failing) not to hit the wild dogs that came to chill with us...

Part of the big lake in the park (who's water looks strangely computer generated up close!)...

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One weekend Sophie's family took me to the corner of the Carpathian mountains to see the mud volcanoes, that was a very cool trip! Forget what man can create, show me what nature can create, and keeps on recreating!

It needs no comments...

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The photos of the first time at Forest Garden Sanctuary I have already shown you (here). But I returned a second time (and will return again :D ). This second time was a slightly different experience, because this time I had company in the cottage. To begin with there were four of us volunteers, chopping wood, cooking, painting, doing a little stone masonry (for free, so does that gain me entry...?!). Although we were given two rooms between us, being sociable creatures we all ended up sharing one. It was nice, and the cottage became more alive and much less scary at night. Good company can certainly make some aspects of living in the near wild less of a challenge!


The two girls then left, leaving me and another lad. We decided it would be fun to take up the challenge of digging a two meter deep storage well for rain water, which we did, and it was.


The well needed concrete rings to line it, big heavy concrete rings, that usually need some kind of machinery which we didn't have to lower them into the hole. What we had was one short bit of unconventional looking rope, and a couple of trees standing about. A trip to a shop later and we had a long bit of conventional but not so thick looking rope, but it was the best the shop had.

The best laid plans...
...may often work, but, there we all were, ready to let the rope slowly loosen from around the tree, the ring was slowly moved into position next to the hole, and the rope snapped...A little bit of rubbing our heads together and we got the ring to where we wanted it...But you live you learn...And much to our collective surprise, perfect...

So, I am lying nice and warm in my comfortable bed, it has not long got light and I am waking, coming slowly into full consciousness, feeling quite relaxed and refreshed. I roll over then sit up towards the window to open the curtain. I am dressed in a second, it has snowed! We knew it was going to get colder, but we hadn't expected this! (For me England is a damp failure in this regard, so often disappointing in the snow department!)

So we were up and out in no time, and I had the suggestion that we go and look for bear tracks in the snow. Now there is one thing about looking for bear tracks in the snow, and that is that you don't expect to find them, it is like looking for Santa's sleigh marks on the roof. But no, this is not England, this is Transylvania and I am up a mountain in a forest, there are bear tracks in the snow! And although it must have been a fairly small bear, no other animal has footprints that big here (though thinking about it now I wonder whether a lynx does, though I doubt it would be big enough). This was maybe 150 meters from the cottage at a rough guess!

I learnt something else that morning too: soap doesn't work when it is frozen! I had got into the habit of getting some water out of the well in the morning, tipping some into a bowl on the wash area and having a quick wash there. Well I had left some clean water in a bowl out from the night before so I found the mound of snow I thought that was, and found the soap under more snow. Then after breaking the soap away from the frozen wood I plunged it and my hands into the bowl. The soap scratched my hands a bit and that was it, no bubbles, nothing, just very very cold hands!

Well here are some pictures from our morning walk to the spring (sorry, neither me or the lad I was with when we went looking for tracks had a camera)

Our pack brothers...
Bobby has just seen a tasty ankle to bite...
Apples, now with 20% snow at no extra cost...Yes click on the picture if you want, zoom in on my hand if you have too, yes that is a pair of my socks on my hand, yes there is a hole in it...Ah, to be in a forest in the snow...Its a good day when you find a half eaten carcase on the ground...At the water hole...:) ...The end (for now)...
Lots of thanks to all the really cool people I met that gave me company, fed me, took me to interesting places, or often all three! I had a really good time and have many happy memories.

And thanks Sophie-Sophie, for being awesome!

It's ok, let's talk

(Coldplay - Talk)

Talking openly and honestly with someone you trust, where you don't judge but try to understand, where there is respect, empathy and truthfulness concerning feelings and intentions, can enable people and their relationships to flourish beyond what is often thought possible.

Often, however, that doesn't happen: we play emotional games, we act self-defensively and we generally act in ways that create strife. So, which are your favorite ways of causing rifts in relationships?! Mine are displacement and stonewalling, but there are many others to choose from...

Globalization: "Everybody Does That"
Blame-Shifting: "And you do the same thing but worse."
The Victim: "I'm so good to you, and you treat me so badly."
Gas-lighting: "I was just kidding; Can't you take a joke?"
Entitlement: "You are the one who made me angry; You deserve it."
Denial: "I'm not angry."
Displacement: "Just because you had a bad day at work, don't take it out on me."
Guilt: "I work my ass off to give you everything and you can't even make me some tea."
Shame/Blame: "You are a human slug; you never do anything."
Stonewalling: "This is the way I am, take it or leave it."
Projection: "You think I'm stupid, don't you?"
Devaluation: "You really could lose some of that extra weight."

Actually, I am not proud to have used any, and it hurts to see any used. I really strongly agree with Dr. Bill Cloke's article (from whence these came) that "To not defend ourselves, but instead hear what is being said, and then be able to express our understanding through acknowledgement will beat a box of chocolates any day" (Thanks to Sophie's blog on being open for bringing my attention to this quote). Deeply connected relationships are so important in life, so, so valuable. For these understanding and compassion are essential, and these require openness and honesty. It may be difficult to understand and accept another, to be open to their views, and their criticism, but the benefits that are gained from this make life worth living!

I also believe that only through healing rifts in our own personal lives can the healing of the larger rifts between communities and between nations be achieved.

I know I have just as much work to do here as anyone else and so I am most grateful to all those who spend the time to listen to me and to understand me, and I hope that I too can return this gift to others.

Happy Valentine's day! (And happy non-Valentine's days also!)

Sleep deprived with aching body and raw fingers, but very happy!

So it all started at midday Friday. Half way through my meditation session my phone goes, I answer, it's Tim: do I want to go climbing? yes!

I leave my meditation, grab my harness and climbing shoes and head off to the pub where we are meeting and having a bite too eat first.

Tim and Meg have already finished eating by the time I get there, but they dutifully watch me munching through my (free) veggie-burger and chips. We chat for a little while, with music videos shining down on us from the walls in the dark, relaxed Adephi pub.

Tim drives us over to the leisure centre with the inside climbing walls, and Meg signs a form making her responsible for my life and death, so that I can get in. The entrance area is warm and smells of chlorine, but we walk through some double doors into a spacious hall where the air is fresher and full of life. On all the walls going up to the tall ceiling are huge fake rock faces with ropes trailing up them and smaller rock faces with thick cushioned mats underneath them. We put our climbing shoes on, I take mine off again, remove my socks, then strap myself back in - lots of little customs to learn in this new world.

We warm up by climbing the smaller walls with the padded floor: that's fun, scaling up the fake rocks feeling like a monkey, then falling or jumping back down onto the very compassionate flooring. Tim and Meg are very good at this, flowing up the difficult walls gracefully, I... well... give me time!

After this we strap ourselves into our harnesses and tie ourselves on to ropes. The bigger walls await. This is fun, but there is nothing like being suspended by a rope a distance from the floor, trying to get a firm grip on the next handhold to make you realise the importance of strong arms - I made myself a commitment to get my weights out again! It tests your faith also - letting go of a wall high above an unsympathetic floor, when your comparatively little friend (I'm about 2 meters tall) is the only person on the other end of the rope, isn't the most natural thing to do, but still, she said it would be fine, and indeed it was. Meg did not go shooting into the air as I shot towards the ground, indeed, it was quite a leisurely backwards stroll to the floor. I however, did send Tim shooting towards the floor when it was my turn on the other end of the rope, for some reason I though that was what he would want, it didn't occur to me that he had no idea he was flying towards the floor because I was controlling it that way or because I was out of control, but I slowed him before he and the floor got to know each other too much and apologised for my rather large mistake!

A bit more climbing later and it was time to go, my hands worse-for-wear and my upper body muscles fatigued. We headed around to our different houses to collect the gear we would need for the following day, stopped of at the supermarket to stock up with food, and then off to Meg's house where Tim and Meg cooked us a tasty Moroccan dish. After munch Tim taught us how to read the details on maps, to take grid references, and take bearings. After sitting cross-legged in a quiet corridor with map and compass in my lap I finally managed to figure out in my head what was going on with all these difference Norths (true north, grid north, magnetic north) and what this meant for not getting lost. A relaxed evening chatting and watching cartoons later and it was time for bed. My sleep patterns were messed up so I lay awake in my sleeping bag most the night reading 'The God of Small Things' - I really good book that is amazingly difficult to describe!

We woke up early in the morning and the sun was shining - not quite living up to the 'severe weather warnings' of the forecasters. No worries, breakfast of eggs, beans and toast, a quick shower and a packing of bags and we are off to Anonymous-friend-who-lives-in-the-hills' place. Still sunny.

At Anonymous-friend-who-lives-in-the-hills' beautiful house in the hills we drink tea and look at maps. Anonymous-friend-who-lives-in-the-hills' sister arrives and off we go. The weather is cold and very windy now, no worries, warm and windproof clothes and my neck warmer sorts that and we begin, maps and compasses at the ready.


Walking up the road towards where we will get on to the moors Tim tells us how to count our paces to measure distances. Mine are about 54 paces to every 100m. The map tells us it is 500m to the next pub so we try it out...

1,2,3,4,5,6... hmmm the sun's nice ...33,34,35,36... I'll take my hat off ...50,51,52,53,54 100m! 1,2,3,4... why do these cars think we shouldn't be on the road ...44,45,46,47... there is the wall, the map is trustworthy ...53,53,54 300m, or was it 400m? 1,2,3,4,5... definitely 300 ...20,21,22,23... my paces are shorter, should add more to make up ...54,55,56,57,58,59,60 400m ...33,34,35... its windy, my hair is in my face, nice though ...52,53,54 500m! Yeah sweet pretty much by the pub. Not the most well looked after pub in the world that, it looks like it had be left on the bottom of a scummy lake for a millennium before being lifted out, dumped at the side of the road, and left to dry. But no worries, we have food, we carry on walking, I keep counting, 150m 'til the path we need.

Well the path wasn't obvious, but the counting meant we knew where it should be. We climbed the fence that had been inconsiderately been built across it and carried on. On the moors now, with the strange grass, and the spiky plant with flammable sponge inside that I have no name for, Anonymous-friend-who-lives-in-the-hills has a possible name for it, but I forget. Burnt patches of moorland are here too: they have strange moss and lichen growing on them, vast empires of tropical rainforest no more that a centimeter high, an ant's paradise.

Now it is time to look at maps, we look at the surroundings, look at maps again, put compasses on maps, line up where we want to go, set compasses to grid north, alter compasses to magnetic north, chanting the magic words 'grid to mag add, mag to grid get rid'. We're set, the compass points the way, we pick out land features and walk. And walk, and stop, and stare and walk again. Chat and wonder, and amble and joke and breath fresh air! And feel hungry. We head towards some rocks and find a spot out of the wind, hemmed in by the rock, a spot popular with the sheep. Out comes the stove and soup, out comes the tea, the hot chocolate, the bread, the snacks: all made twice as nice by the walk, the scenery, the company and the warmth on a cold day.

We finish eating and I step from out of the rock shelter and the wind hits me, not just the wind but snow as well. Great! I jump around on rocks a bit, then get packed to move. We head back, it's probably not best to go on, some are too cold and it is still a fair walk.

We head towards a reservoir, hats down, neck warmers up to nose, brightly colour ninjas, flying over heather. Or stomping through heather, tall heath, with hidden holes and streams. Falling, laughing, stomping, down towards the reservoir.

We are back to the road. It is a shame to walk on a road with countryside about, but it is the best option. I practice counting!

1,2,3,4,5... hmmm, hard to talk while my mind is counting, hard to use the vocal part of my brain for two things at once ...27,28,29,30... how about I set my mind counting in the visual part of it ...41,42,43,44 [seeing the numbers in my head, more than hearing] 45,46... difficult, not quite there ...51,52,53,54... hmmm, the one hundred could be a picture too ...100m [larger, in red, to the side of the picture of counting numbers in my head] 1,2,3,4... this will need practice, but how amazing if my mind could do it automatically, I could be talking, doing other things, and occasionally look back at the pictures in my mind to see how far I had come, will need a lot of practice though!

We are back to the car park, nearby is a strange dome with round window holes and a globe that reflects all. It immediately becomes one of my favorite random installations. Pictures are taken.

Back to Anonymous-friend-who-lives-in-the-hills' house where she prepares us a bean stew with dumplings. We lounge around sipping wine, with me dozing slightly, feeling very hungry with the smells from the kitchen. Jessie the cat sniffs my hand then enjoys a bit of petting before going to eat. We have a bit of an effort at a sudoku puzzle, but give up, too tired. Music is playing, we are relaxing.

Food is ready! Yum! Thank you very much Anonymous-friend-who-lives-in-the-hills!

Its time to go, sad but true.

We drive through the dark: weary, achy, happy