April 18-19 Kovedomb (Stoneyhill)

Today (18th) we are on our own for the afternoon and evening, so went grocery shopping for breakfast goods (wonderful coffee and tea were brought to us by a volunteer each morning at the Kovedomb B&B). We saw that there were many ways for folks to be separated from their money, including really good beer, good wine and a variety of hard liquor, plus many gambling venues. Gail liked the Egypt theme, proximity to the playground and name of this joint, which we later noticed is a chain.
We have not yet determined whether these women were gypsies or simply in traditional dress. Women dressed this way were not an uncommon sight in Marosvasarhely. We had dinner at an authentic Italian restaurant we found on our own, which was delightful. We sat next to two fellows working together on some internet business set-up in TG-Mures, one from Holland, the other from Italy. They conversed in English and were very cordial to us. The elegant new (2008) Kovedomb Unitarian Church was our host for the first half of our Romanian visit. Our room was under the skylights, and, as you can see, we had a streetlight for a nightlight. When we got in the room, I was afraid it would be glaring, but since most of the light was focused down, it was quite pleasant, as was the entire experience. The 19th we learned that the peak is the Star of Bethlehem, the common motif for Unitarian churches in Romania, symbol of redemption and the pure spirit of every child. Rev. Chaba leads a congregation of over 1,000 and is assisted by Rev. Janos (call me 'John'). Ten years before, Csaba (Chava) had been assistant minister to the downtown Boylai church which was growing rapidly as people move to town from the villages. His mission was to deliberately form a new congregation. Gail met with Csaba and John in the morning, and we wandered again in the afternoon, getting our lunch from a grocery store this area, on the outskirts of the old city. There were many soviet era highrise apartments with shops on the first floor here with four or five grocery stores within a short walk. In one we noticed these pre-dyed Easter eggs – cool, huh? That night we had dinner with Matilda Kiss, whose children were celebrating the Easter holiday with her mother in the village where the family owned land – enough to produce an excellent sweet, fruity wine and a plum hard liquor, very close to vodka or white lightning. Gail and I had a glass of wine, and I dared a thimble of plum explosive. Her husband, the Rev. Laszlo Kiss graduated Star-King Seminary in San Francisco: if you have very good eyes, you will see Peter Morales in the near corner of the class photo and 'Loci' in the back left corner. He passed of a heart attack at the age of 34. Matilda was grateful for the fund set up to help her and the two kids, as at that age his pension was meager. Her mother was pleased to hear she was having guests, as it meant she would cook enough to eat well while the kids were away. We enjoyed the food and her good company, finding many mutual friends and learning of her life with Laszlo.