Subject:   [adventure!] Sleeping, pils

Date:   4/8/2004 5:08:44 AM

 

 

YEEEEEAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOO!!!!!

 

Well, what I actually said was something a little more obscene. I spent

Tuesday paragliding in the hills of Transylvania. Paragliding is that thing

where somebody straps you into what looks like a flying pink croissant and

pushes you off a hill then, if you're good, you sail through the sky with

the greatest of ease, yelling swear words in your native language. Or if

it's your first jump, you might find it easier to just lie down and let the

paraglider drag your body across the field until you grind to a halt. I

tried both approaches and found the 'greatest of ease' approach much more

enjoyable. There are some pics and even movies (with the sound of me

swearing!) that will be available to you at some point in the future when I

find some time and money to upload them. All I can tell you about

paragliding is this: do it. Even if you live in the hill-less towns of

Windsor or Urbana and find yourself jumping from a highway overpass holding

a bedsheet. In fact, when I get back I'll let you take pictures of me doing

that.

 

And speaking of advice, here's some more.

 

In Romania, there are stray dogs. You know how people from Australia are

always telling you the ratio of sheep:people in New Zealand (20:1, I've

heard) and insinuating some kind of perverse sexual relationship (notice I

didn't use England and Wales in this example)? Well, people don't make those

insinuations here in Romania, but there sure are a lot of stray dogs. So

many stray dogs in fact, that people feel uncomfortable jumping from the

highway overpasses with their bedsheets because there's no dog-free space to

land.

 

Anyway, on top of the heaps of stray dogs (they're not actually in heaps,

but I'm spending too much time with Australians) there are also the

non-stray dogs, which every Romanian is required to own two of.

 

Now, I'm sure you are thinking 'boy, with all those dogs, there must be a

lot of barking at night', and you are right to think that. But what you

probably don't realize is that these smart Romanian dogs have figured out a

way to get some sleep at night, by handing all of their barking duties over

to one particular dog, who acts as an ambassador to us humans, yelping out

the needs and desires of his brethren, clarifying dog social policy,

suggesting parks, fire hydrants, where to scratch. Lots of valuable

information. This dog just happens to live next-door to the Villa Helga

hostel in Bucharest, not something they print on their brochure, I can tell

you. Unfortunately (so unfortunately), at some point in his life, this dog

ambassador took a trip to Moldova and has not been able to reset his

biological clock to Romanian time, so he doles out his wealth of knowledge

during the time that Romanians (and travellers) tend to be trying to sleep.

Yes, Moldova is right next to Romania, and in the same time zone, but

another thing you can learn in Romania is that Moldovans do not sleep.

 

Whereas a couple of months ago I would have suggested earplugs, I am a much

smarter and harder traveller now, and advise sleeping pills. Ten or fifteen

sleeping pills in a handful of hamburger meat should be enough to help this

ambassador get some sleep.

 

Whether or not you choose this method of sound-damping, Romania offers some

really good beers which, as well as inducing sleep, really taste wonderful!

That is despite having names like 'ciuc' (pronounced 'chuke', a slang term

for 'vomit'). These beers are (partially) responsible for the number of

Romanians jumping off of hills with bed sheets and landing on stray dogs.

 

Hope you're all well,

jay

 

p.s., Today: Bulgaria! Tomorrow: Istanbul!