Bistrita Days

Today is the beginning of a 3-day festival in Bistrita honoring the birth of the city. Bistrita Days is like a county fair...concerts, roaming clowns, carnival rides, umbrella covered vendors selling all kinds of things, and of course, the food row. Fair food is the BEST and Bistrita has some great fair food. I sampled a Turkish Kebob today that was fabulous. The guy serving the kebobs was a riot and posed willingly for a photo. To be honest, the food row looked more like a big line of barbecue grills. Almost every vendor had mounds of meat to sell...everything from fish to weiners to things I didn't recognize - ha!

Many of the tables next to the vendors had piles of bread in the middle. Bread is a huge part of a Romanian's diet. In fact, they won't eat some dishes without it and every meal you have cooked by a Romanian includes a big pile of bread in the middle of the table. Cynthia (the Pastor's wife) told us today that they had a potluck dinner recently and she forgot to buy bread. She thought they were kidding when they seemed upset...but after she realized they weren't eating most of the food she realized they were serious. She went to the corner store and got bread so everyone could eat!!

I was so excited to see Romanian clowns walk past our table! They looked GREAT! I didn't get to see them in action, but I did catch one taking a break and got my picture with him. It's funny...I've learned there are certain things you should never do in costume (drink, smoke, cuss, etc.) . This clown was sitting on the curb smoking away while in full costume! Smoking is still very accepted here in Romania...even in the grocery store!! It takes a little getting used to after living in Boise where smoking is outlawed in all public places. The clown was very agreeable to having his picture taken and even spoke a little English which was fun.

I'm sure I'll have more stories considering today was only the first day of the festival. We plan to go back again over the weekend.