After a few solid weeks of hard work in the classroom, several Volunteers decided to gather for some R&R and to celebrate a colleague’s birthday. One of our Volunteers that lives in a small town outside of Timișoara gave us her pitch for why we should all come to her site. Despite the twelve-hour travel time from Ploiești, it wasn’t a tough sale for me because she has one of the premier Romanian wineries right there in her town of Recaș. Not only is she close in proximity, but being an amazing Peace Corps Volunteer she has also forged a strong relationship with the operators of the winery. With my overnight train ticket in hand and my taste buds fired up, I hit the rails for what would be a great weekend with friends.
During a brief layover in București I met up with the weekend’s birthday girl in one of the nicest McDonald’s I have ever seen. Gara de Nord in București is certainly functional but it is not a work of architectural wonder, nor is it heated. So after a ten-year boycott of McDees, I sought refuge from the cold under the golden arches. The two of us got caught up on the latest happenings at her site while we waited for our train to arrive. We have both taken overnight trains before but this was her first in a cușeta, literally translated to “bunk” but is basically a sleeper car. In fact, she turned one year older while sleeping in the cramped top bunk of one of the most rickety modes of transportation there is. At around 6 am we had one connection and then a few more stops before our hostess warmly welcomed us on a cold frostbitten morning on the far Westside of Romania.
Knowing that we would be sleep deprived and weary travelers, our friend planned for a light Friday of mostly relaxing and hanging out. A few other friends popped into town throughout the course of the day and we were given a leisurely tour of her school while it was in session. Impressive to say the least, her school is a theoretical school and has clearly seen some funding in recent years. She has an amazing counterpart, which is an equal blessing for any Peace Corps Volunteer and she seems to have a good hard earned rapport with the community in general. On the way back to her house we picked up a jug of Recaș wine from the crema in town and prepared for an evening at the kitchen table. One real treat was that our hostess had prepared ahead of time a super delicious homemade chili with locally sourced ingredients and care package provided spices. To top it off? Homemade corn bread. This was probably the only time in two years that I will get to enjoy the yellow cakey southern delicacy and boy was it good.
Early the next morning we all woke up to a warm breakfast of bacon and eggs. This may not sound special, but it is. Although eggs are numerous in Romania, what we know as bacon in the States doesn’t really exist here. Luckily for us we spied one, and only one, packet in the grocery store the afternoon before. So it was with full and content bellies that we rallied for the exciting winery visit still ahead.
After a short walk across town we were picked up by staff members from the winery and taken in two cars through the residential out skirts of Recaș and past the fields of vines to the winery. Our colleague had arranged ahead of time for us to be given a private tour, tasting and lunch. The Romanian tour guide spoke good English, which was supplemented by the Romanian to English translation of our incredibly fluent hostess. The facility is nothing short of amazing. Admittedly, I am not a numbers guy and have forgotten the details regarding the amount of hectors they grow on or their yearly bottle production, but I do remember that they are among the largest producers/exports of Romanian wine. The following wine tasting proved why. We were generously encouraged to sample six different varieties, and all of them were great. Though their Fetească Regală still remains my favorite. The icing on this cake of a day was the winery’s Hungarian gulaș. Vastly better than my feeble attempts to recreate the dish, they apparently keep the family secret recipe closely guarded. The soup alone was worth the 24 hour round trip.
Our weekend adventure concluded in a very different place then one might expect from Peace Corps service….in a shopping mall in Timișoara. And not just any old pathetic excuse for a shopping mall, this one was more legit than most I have seen in the United States. Though I am not a big shopper these days, I have to tip my hat to their ambition of filling every storefront with a name brand. Although their “Apple” store lacked the appropriate merchandise to satisfy our birthday girl’s need for a replacement laptop, she did manage to find what she was looking for in short order. The night rounded out with a quick tour of the Timișoara old city center, another great meal and a nightcap in one of Timi’s many underground (physically) pubs.
Our mission was certainly accomplished, with no small thanks to our gracious hostess, the winery staff and the inherent beauty of Recaș and Timișoara. For those of you coming to visit next year, if you are up for the trip, I would gladly like to go back for another visit.
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