Claudia Schäfer
claudia @ nautichorse.de 24.11.2003 First Visit to Arieseni Hello Erwin, It's Monday again..... )-: Once again many thanks for your information and details on how to get to Arieseni. The journey went well and we found the house of Aronel and his family without any difficulty. As planned, we left Oradea at 8 o'clock in the morning, quite excited, and when we turned off in Stei onto the road to Campeni, we were finally able to get our first personal impression of the beauty of the Apuseni region, as you had promised us. This drive alone to the "roof of the world", would have made our trip well worthwhile!! Straight away I rolled down the car window to breathe in the good air! We reached our destination at 10 o'clock: Arieseni. People were just going to church, and the first thing we did was to visit the little church. We encountered many of the local inhabitants on their way to church and they greeted us amicably! The friendliness of these simple, unassuming people really moved me! After that we walked to Aronel and Cornelia's house. We were so impressed with the path along the riverside that we walked for over an hour and breathed in deeeply. ((-: Crystal-clear water, little houses on the banks with their inhabitants, cows, horses, even little piglets were making the most of the November sun. We followed suit! We reached the Neag's sometime between noon and 1 o'clock in the afternoon. They immediately welcomed us in and offered us food and drink, they were so friendly - it was almost embarrassing. They didn't even know us. And in the midst of our preparations for the journey, I hadn't even thought of bringing a little thank-you gift with me. How embarrassing! Of course the communication was not easy. My colleague, Josef, is confronted with the Romanian language at work more than I am, so thanks to him and to plenty of facial expressions and gestures, we managed to converse with one another. Of course, a day's trip is much too short. Time flew by much too fast. There is so much to discover there, and we are sure to come back to intensify our first impressions. Aronel also showed us your plot of land. It must be great to spend time there, and I look forward to visiting you to open the barbecue and cycling season and be shown the natural beauty sights. Until then Best wishes Claudia |
