Greetings!
Are we ever going to get tired of city tours? This morning at 9am, we yet again stretched our legs to see how this little 25,000 person town showed off its 900-year history. We found a magnificent clock tower, a church/school "on a hill" reached by a wood- covered 175-stair staircase (to support kids in the cold winters), and an old cemetery in the mountain woods.
Two-hundred and fifty years of residents, the cemetery seemed a perfect project for an Ancestry.com grant, until I returned home later to find that the website had 65,490 records from the town already. It was relieving to descend the hill gradually through centuries of tombstones and benches, even though much of it was over cobblestones.
As I think I mentioned, the town's battle towers were staffed by the members of guilds (blacksmiths, barbers, tinsmiths, etc.). In proper town fashion, we visited the Museum of the Guilds, where we saw ceramic tiles displaying German, Saxon, and Romanian designs.
In the evening, after a free-time break all afternoon, we were invited to have dinner at the home of Klara Gabor. Klara is described as an emancipated Gypsy, and she and her family cooked up a very fulfilling experience for us. While the meal filled our tummies, the conversation filled out hearts and minds. Klara delivered a no-holds-barred explanation of her life, her passion for her role as trailblazer among women in her community, and the difficulties of existing in oppressive marital and family conditions.
Answering the toughest questions I've heard posed about a seemingly intolerable conflict between what she believes, and what women and children must endure, Klara provided us with her insight and wisdom. Clearly destined to find her way out to her dreams, she described her 14-year journey to a soon-to-be achieved break from the community to a new life with her son and daughter. I know i wasn't the only one sure she would make it.
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