Gypsy Journey

Wednesday Sept 28th

We all were up early again and met for breakfast at 8, finished packing and ready to go when Emanuel arrived at 9 AM. On the way to the airport Emanuel only had one stop for us. When Mark first told us we were going to visit a Gypsy family we were all like, what? why? I imagined it as just a sales pitch for some homemade jewelry or baskets or something like that. Basically just a stop for us to get rid of any extra local currency that we may still have. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Emanuel’s wife called him to notify him of an accident on the highway to the airport and traffic was stopped in both directions. The place he was taking us happened to be the village just before where the accident occurred so it worked out for us to take the detour with the Gypsies after all.

We pulled into an average looking home in the small village of Valenii and was greeted by Clara who welcomed us into her home. The house was a simple single floor dwelling but furnished well. Gypsies are quite skilled at working with their hands and the embroidery or quilting or stitching or sewing or whatever that thing is that woman do with threads to make pretty designs on stuff (obviously out of my element here) were displayed on their pretty clothes and curtains around the room.

There were some very beautiful dishes all up for display in the room also, which made me think we were in the kitchen except there was no empty counter space to prepare anything. In fact, in retrospect, I don’t recall a refrigerator or a stove or a sink. Wait, ok so let me start this over, we were in what appeared to be a sitting room.

Clara invited us to all sit on a couch. She sat directly across from us in a pose suggesting, 'Ok let’s talk'. Her mother and grandmother, who were also present were not part of the conversation. Her father passed through and nodded on his way by. She was the only one in the family that knew English and boy did she ever know it. She spoke in perfect fluent English and with only a very slight accent. People in New England have stronger accents. She told us that she learned to speak English by watching American movies, which also gave her quite the education.

Clara was not out to sell us anything or show us anything, she only wanted to talk and what an education we got from her. She just talked about Gypsies and their lifestyles and customs and history. She said all Gypsies around the world are traced back to the same place in Northern India and they all have a common language based on Sanskrit. She can go to any Gypsy group in any country and understand them and fit in. All Gypsies belonged to clans and she was a part of the Gabors. They also still follow the cast system although that is not practiced in India any more, but with the Gypsies it is rather strict. They have three casts. she belongs to the second class. She explained that it is impossible for men to change their cast but women can if they pay enough money or have a big enough dowry.

The most surprising thing was her explanation of the gender differences. Woman are treated only as belongings and are not only treated less than equals they are barely even treated as people. Gypsy woman are not allowed basic human rights like men, such as, they are not allowed to go to the dentist and not allowed to wear glasses no matter how bad their teeth or eyes are. They are not allowed to drive or work out of the house and are not even allowed to go to school.

But Clara did all these things. She was a rebel in her village and was considered an outcast and a whore. She is the only Gypsy woman that drives in her whole clan, has her own business and even own a pair of glasses. Everyone in her clan rejects her and even her own family is opposed to her actions although they still let her live with them. When she went to a dentist to get some work done her own grandmother scolded her and told her the work made her look ugly and no man would ever want her now. Of course her teeth looked great.

The only reason she stays there is because she has two young children which her family is helping raise. Clara does have an outlet though for her 'strange' and 'new' ideas such as thinking she is as good as a man. She is on Social Media and has her own YouTube channel and is also on TikTok and Instagram. We asked if there was anything we could do to help her and her reply was to share her YouTube channel with others and have them subscribe.

She is on YouTube as “Rebel Gypsy”

Our 30 minutes with her went quickly and soon we were back in the car and back on the way to the airport. Actually we were NOT on the way to the airport. the accident had still not been cleared and traffic was not moving. Turns out a semi had a head on collision with a car and the trailer turned sideways and was blocking both lanes. Two people had died and they were waiting for the police to finish the investigation and for some kind of tow truck to get the trailer off the road. There was no sign of movement and we had to be at the airport soon.

Emanuel made a couple calls and made a U-turn and tried for an alternative path, which meant backtracking a good ways and going a whole other direction. It might get us there an hour behind schedule he guessed. We could possibly be even later if we stayed put so off we went. Emanuel was actually rather nervous about it and was driving as fast as he could.

He was still answering questions and chatting with Mark who was in the front seat with him. From time to time we would pass things on the road or homes with things for sale and Jason would call out their names in Romanian. Emanuel was so impressed by Jason’s vocabulary and pronunciation he accused Jason of being a Romanian in disguise.

We did make it to the airport and even a bit early. The plane ended up arriving late so our departure was also late so we ended up with plenty of time.

The plane landed in Budapest at 2:30 PM so we still had a lot of day ahead of us. We easily claimed our luggage and took Bolt (A European version of Uber) to our hotel, the Intercontinental, downtown Budapest, right on the Danube river with impressive views of the buildings across the river. Mark has a hotel membership and was able to get two rooms there with points. It was one of the most upscale hotels in the town and was very nice indeed.

We took a short walk downtown and found a local restaurant service local dishes. Bryan discovered a cherry beer on the menu that tasted more like a cherry soft drink and not like a beer at all. For food we all chose something local. Hungarian goulash, some chicken dish wrapped in a crepe and some flat bread pizza looking things. It was all quite delicious.

Next we walked down the Danube river and boarded a boat for an evening riverboat cruise. The cruise lasted just over an hour and went up and down the Danube as a recording pointed out notable buildings and gave us history of the area. Perhaps the most impressive thing were the ladies working there. Before the boat trip began three young ladies stood at the front. One at a time they took the mic and gave the welcome speech and instructions for the cruise. The first was in English. When she finished she handed the mic to the next who gave the same talk but in Hungarian. Then the third in German. The they started over again but with additional languages. Italian, Spanish, Romanian, even Hebrew. It was quite amazing to see how many languages they knew.

During the cruise there was a headset to wear while the narrator was explaining about the city which could be set to probably 50 different languages. By the time the cruise began it was already dark and everything on both sides of the river were lit up. Some of the building were impressive enough during the day but the added lighting made the architecture look even more spectacular.

After the cruise we went right back to the hotel and went to bed. It had been a long day, as most travel days are, and we were all quite sleepy. Only two nights to go.