We spent the last few days of our trip in Curtea De Arges with Raluca's and Lucian's family eating lots and lots and lots of good food. One day, Lucian and Raluca took us for a little drive to a close lake with a beautiful view. The lake is usually really high, but it was quite low right now. There is a really large dam that is guarded because it is a strategic point for anyone who would want to cause trouble.
We saw lots of gypsies with horse-drawn carriages usually carrying scrap metal throughout our drives.
Raluca's mom Eugenia let us finally help her one night prepare the salad de bouef, which involved us cutting up cooked chicken, carrots and potatoes, and then we watched as the made homemade mayonnaise, which I had no idea was easy to make, but had SO much oil in it. When it was all mixed together, it was delicious, and Camile had fun decorating the tops of the salad.
On the Romanian Easter (which was 1 week after the Easter in the US), we went to the church at midnight on Sat. night (Sunday early morning), and listened to the beautiful sermon, which was done completely in song. After about 20 minutes of the sermon, everyone had "shared the light," which is where they pass along the flame from their lit candle, so that everyone's candle is lit. Then, they go share the light with lost family members at local cemeterys before going back home to feast. We just went back to Lucian's parents house for some light food, before going to bed. It was really special and I was glad that both the girls were awake to see it.
Here are a few more pictures of our many meals together. We throughly enjoyed all of time with Lucian, Raluca, Alexia and their parents. It made our trip that much more special and memorable and we are so thankful for them allowing us to come.
Paste Fericit! (Happy Easter!)