Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Day 4- Tuesday

Hello! Today we slept in a bit and found some breakfast at an outdoor cafe. Of course it involved cappuccinos! I had a delish egg sandwich.
Melissa and I did a bit of shopping and got matching bracelets.
Lots of people were out walking dogs. We got to pet a few cute ones.  We also stopped at Starbucks where we met a nice Hungarian guy our age named Norbi who spoke terrific English. We plan on going back and visiting with him when we return to Budapest. 

Our driver Dani picked us up at the hotel to take us to Talpos, Romania. He is such a nice Christian man; he runs his own transport business and has 2 large vans. By law, he has to stop for a certain amount of time for a break after driving 4.5 hours. So when he reached Budspest to pick us up, he had to take a break before our travel. We listened to worship songs in Romanian which we recognized the tunes of. We really enjoyed our 4.5 hour drive on very bouncy roads! This really is beautiful countryside! 

Since I'm a farm girl, I was interested in the crops growing along the road. I spotted lots of wheat and corn, canola, and tons of sunflowers. Apparently sunflowers are quite abundant here. A lot of the fields have groves of trees as dividers. The terrain is very flat. Each house along the way has a large garden. We saw a beautiful farm with a pasture of bison. The road we were on was a two lane highway, driving quite fast and passing in and out, dodging bicyclists. We stopped at the border to get our passports checked and stamped. 
There were road signs along the way for tractor crossing and horse and cart crossing. We passed quite a few tractors along the way. The major industry here is definitely farming. 

So! We arrived at Sally's in Talpos this evening. We were greeted very warmly by her and some of the kids. Even not knowing the language, a smile is still universal! We love Sally already- such a wonderful, thoughtful lady! Her place here is really amazing. The first floor is a gym for the kids, and her living quarters are upstairs. 

We had introductions to the children (with lots of giggling!) and then played volleyball with them. I'm trying to keep all of their names straight! :-) What beautiful, sweet children! One girl, Denisa, hugged me like 15 times! 

Sally had a nice stew for us and we visited about some of the childrens' sad family history. These kids definitely need love! Sally introduced us to her 3 gorgeous German Shepherds: Tyson, Rex, and Macy. She keeps them for protection and guarding the property. I didn't take many photos this evening because it was getting dark, but I'm sure I'll have tons more tomorrow! 

As we go to sleep, the window is open and the sounds of traditional Hungarian live music is playing from the village bar, along with barking dogs. Quite peaceful, really! Excited for what tomorrow brings! 

1 comment:

  1. You convinced me to visit with, "We also stopped at Starbucks". :)

    ReplyDelete