Transylvania - Câmpulung

Tucked in a valley at the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains is the narrow and elongated municipality of Câmpulung, translated as Long Field. The town is divided by the River Tîrgului with two major roads running parallel on either side of the river.
 

Câmpulung is one of the oldest Wallachian settlements dating back to 1292. When Basarab I defeated the King of Hungary at the Battle of Posada in 1330, it ended Wallachia’s suzerainty to the Kingdom of Hungary and became the first independent Romanian principality. Basarab I became the founding ruler of Wallachia and established the dynasty House of Basarab of which Vlad the Impaler is a descendent. Basarab set up the first capital city in Câmpulung.

As an interesting sidenote, Basarab’s daughter Theodora married the then Emperor of Bulgaria and after several children and a decade of marriage he divorced her and sent her to a monastery to become a nun. Theodora is the first known nun in Romania’s history and in 2022 she was canonised by the Romanian Orthodox Church.

One of the highlights of the town is the Ethnography and Folklore Museum. Housed in a beautifully restored house, the museum displays a significant collection of folk-art objects, providing an insight into rural living and an appreciation for handmade items from hand carved furniture and wood turned utensils to hand-painted eggs and pottery, handwoven rugs, embroidered cloths, and traditional costumes.

A short stroll south of the Museum is the Negru Vodă Monastery, thought to be built in 1220 by the legendary Radu Negru, Voivode of Wallachia. Radu is supposed to precede Basarab I but some historians think he might have been one and the same person or he might have been Basarab’s father but there is no evidence to suggest either way. The earliest mention of Radu Negru was in the 17th century, lending a lot more mystery than truth to his existence. It is possibly the reason why he is listed as a ‘legendary’ ruler rather than real.

The monastery was rebuilt many times throughout the centuries, having been destroyed at least twice from earthquakes in the 1600s and the 1800s and a fire in the 1930s. Each time the monastery was repaired and restored. The interior of the church is filled with large scale paintings depicting various notable figures including several Wallachian rulers and their spouses. According to inscriptions found in the Court of Argeş (another monastery), both Basarab I and his son Nicolae Alexandru were buried here.

Coming to the end of my day, I’m hankering for a very filling but not too heavy dish and the Romanian stuffed peppers, ardei umpluţi, is what comes to mind. This is a universal dish that can be found in many cuisines, each with its own variation. What I am thinking of is the vegetarian version made of near-perfectly rounded, red bell peppers with their tops chopped off and the seeds cleaned out so it’s nice and hollow. Added to it is a mixture of cooked rice, minced onion, finely chopped carrots, seasoned with parsley, dill and the usual salt and pepper. The stuffed peppers are placed in a tray and a freshly made tomato sauce poured over it then baked. The bread as always is present to soak up the sauce.

A side note about the food. Romanian cuisine is wonderfully diverse and flavoursome. Given its geographical location, the cuisine is influenced by all its neighbours past and present such as the Balkans and Greece to the south, the Turks to the southeast and the former Austria-Hungary to the northwest. What sets it apart from its neighbours is the local flavouring and preparation giving the dishes their distinctive Romanian flavour.

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Transylvania - Poienari Citadel

“The view was magnificent, and from where I stood there was every opportunity of seeing it. The castle is on the very edge of a terrific precipice. A stone falling from the window would fall a thousand feet without touching anything! As far as the eye can reach is a sea of green treetops, with occasionally a deep rift where there is a chasm. Here and there are silver threads where the rivers wind in deep gorges through the forests.” – Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Such an apt description of Poienari Citadel located high atop a mountain west of Transfăgăraşan. It’s as if Bram Stoker had seen it when he described Count Dracula’s lair in his famous 1897 book. But Bram has never been to Transylvania. He has however, spent considerable time writing his book near Slains Castle in Scotland and the description of the octagonal room in the book seems remarkably similar to the floorplan of Slains Castle’s octagonal interior hall.

Construction of the citadel began in the 1300s, possibly by the first rulers of Wallachia and it is thought that only the main tower was built. Abandoned after a few decades and left to decay, it was Vlad Dracula, also known as Vlad III and Vlad the Impaler, who saw it as a strategic spot for a stronghold. As such he set about restoring the fortress and expanding on the tower with walls and bastions. He used the fortress as a second residence with his primary home located in Târgoviște, the capital of Wallachia at the time.

Vlad Dracula was the son of Vlad II the Dragon (Vlad II Dracul) who was a member of the Order of the Dragon, a chivalric order established by the then King of Hungary. The word dragon in archaic Romanian is dracul and Dracula is a Slavonic form meaning ‘son of Dracul’, hence Vlad Dracula.

Vlad Dracula was ruler of Wallachia, reigning over three different occasions. Wallachia was a small country squeezed between two powerhouses, the Kingdom of Hungary to the north and the Ottoman Empire to the south. During his reign, Vlad would regularly switch allegiances for personal gain; fight ferociously; and posthumously acquire the moniker Vlad the Impaler. One story tells of a banquet held by Vlad with hundreds of Wallachian boyars (nobility) who were constantly feuding with one another. When the boyars began challenging his authority, he called on his army to impale them with wooden stakes. A very bloody example that brought stability to Wallachia through fear.

Another story tells of the Ottoman sultan demanding suzerainty which Vlad refused. Vlad retaliated by impaling more than 20,000 Turks. The number seems incredibly high, and it is possible that the story is part true, and part embellished but what does remain a fact is that his reputation grew exponentially, and he continues to be an infamous historical character.

It is assumed that Bram Stoker’s aristocratic, well-dressed, cape-wearing, blood-drinking vampire Dracula was based on the fierce warlord Vlad Dracula. It’d be easy to see why. Both are named Dracula; both were warriors in Transylvania; and both fought the Turks. However, Bram’s notes show copied sections from another book about Wallachia and Moldavia that references several rulers named Dracula who fought the Turks but no mention whatsoever about the name Vlad or The Impaler. He further noted that Dracula means the Devil. What can be surmised from this is that Bram liked the idea of Dracula and its evil and cruel association as a character whilst having no clue about its historical background nor the real people who owned the name. Only a tiny bit of doubt remains based on Van Helsing’s description of Dracula in the book: “He must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land."

This connection or lack thereof between the real and fictional Draculas was complex. I am unsure if it was unravelled satisfactorily but I sure was left somewhat hungry. Sitting on a bench at the top of the citadel, I extracted a small lunchbox with a serving of salată de beuf. Translated as beef salad, this is a very popular Romanian dish, often made for easter or other main events. Time consuming to make it is a mix of finely chopped root vegetables, boiled meat, pickled gherkins, peas, and potato folded with homemade egg and mustard-based mayonnaise and accompanied with fresh bread. It was a very hearty dish that powered me up on the next leg of my journey.

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Question Fire

12th August 2021

My Dear Friends in the Los Angeles Fire Department,

Over the last few days a question has come up that you may resolve. I recently wrote the Governor regarding the wild fires in which I had two major points. The first was that we could rent tanker trucks full of water to help with fire fighting and the second was that there are retired fire trucks for rent in Hollywood.

I figured that if nothing else the industrial tankers can be rented or hired in mass with drivers and could hose down areas near fire or resupply fire trucks with water. The idea there is just numbers. It was about getting as much water to the fire as possible.

Now, the idea of using fire trucks that have been retired and are now used for movies and film was simply that, well, the more fire trucks the better. I did some poking around and found a company that rented trucks that had last fought fires in nineteen eighty five. Its trucks looked to be in good working order. That company had six trucks, but there are more companies with more trucks and in a wild fire every fire truck counts.

On FaceBook this was dismissed as small thinking and I was then told to leave the fire fighting to the people in charge. The Governor himself has not responded. This leads us to the two questions ‘are these ideas worth consideration?’ and ‘is it important to express my concern over the wildfires with the Governor?’.

In a world where every life counts lives are saved as much by funding as by people. Further, that funding will insure that our fire crews have what they need to fight the fire and come home safe. Writing the Governor about fire safety and ideas is one way of saying that the voters care about this topic. That would mean that even if I wrote to the Governor saying ‘buy more fire trucks’ I would still be supporting fire fighters and a safer California.

What do you think?


Richard Leland Neal

Hoping Kind of People

26th October 2023

Okay boss,

You need a writer and I’m one of those ‘hoping this is my big chance’ kinds of people with little experience, but all the drive in the world. I mostly have written comedy scripts. Comedy news for a YouTube channel to be clear. You can find that on my IMDB.

I wrote two full length plays and one full length film in college but after finding little in the ways of advice for marketing these works I got a degree in Psychology. I tend to lean into the darker parts of the human mind, and I like to really get out there and bend some brains.

I’ve written a few other scripts, I know I wrote a romantic comedy somewhere and a Sci-Fi thriller. I wrote the Thriller with a co-author and he wasn’t very compromising.

Where I’m at as a writer is green to the professional world, seasoned to working with others, and running out of time to get this going. If you have a job for me that job will be a big deal. If I had an agent I wouldn’t be answering this ad. If you need an agent, yeah, I can’t help you.

I think I get an answer for every hundred or so of these I sent out so I’ll be happy to hear from you.

Best,



Richard

Draw on the State Funds

1st September 2024

Dear Governor Newsom,

In light of the current draw on the state funds from unemployment benefits it comes to me that more should be done to get the worker to the job. I can tell you that over the years I have gotten more and more certified and yet suffered more job instability.

In high school I was trained as a printing tech, and I got my guard card. After college I got two more certifications in security and this year I got my license to carry a firearm. None of these have provided me with either lucrative or stable employment.

At my last job I met a man who had been through an emergency training as an auto mechanic, and yet he was working as a security guard. Unable to pay his rent with one job he worked as a delivery driver on the side but couldn’t find employment swinging a wrench.

Employment counseling has never helped me. I once asked the Employment Development Department for help and was just laughed at. I was offered no advice or direction on the subject. One job counselor advised me to chase my dreams but could offer me no real world advice. The next job counselor I spoke to just kept saying “take it” over and over again no matter how bad or suspicious the job I was interviewing for.

Every now and then I look into more vocational training, but education has always failed me. When I was a young man they said “get a degree” and by the time I got one they were near useless. My last job was degree or military experience preferred, and it paid less than working at a fast food restaurant.

Optimally, the unemployed should become more employable by gaining some kind of training. Maybe we should have a program where the unemployed can start vocational training and spend time on the job. If that fellow had is emergency auto tech program and spent a day every week changing oil at a mechanic he could have found a job working on cars.

It is in the best interest of the state and the worker for better days to be ahead with more stable work and higher pay. When I worked with the homeless our goal was to get them off the street for life and the state should want me never to be unemployed again.

If I wanted to look into vocational training I‘d have to do research to find out what training would be useful, find a program that would train me, then look for a job after the training with no experience. The state could do all that for the unemployed and as soon as they file a claim offer them vocational training as an option.

The state could offer an incentive of additional weeks of benefits to complete vocational training. Job placement and referral services would strengthen this program and having new skills would make it easier to find a job.

Just a thought,


Richard Leland Neal

Transylvania - Făgăraş

Făgăraş is a small city located in the foothills of the Făgăraş Mountains. Less than a mile southeast of the city centre lies the geographical centre of Romania. North of the city flowing west is the Olt River, the longest river running exclusively through Romania.
 

In the city centre, surrounded by a moat is the 14th century Făgăraş Citadel. Built on an earlier fortification made of wood and earth ramparts that was most likely destroyed during the Mongol invasion of 1241, the new citadel was reinforced by doubling the thickness of its walls. A worthy effort since subsequent sieges failed and the citadel was never captured again.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, the citadel served as a princely residence, mainly for the wives of the Transylvanian princes until it was repurposed to serve as a garrison. One such princess was Kata Bethlen who was one of the earliest Hungarians to write memoirs. Married and widowed twice, Kata had a difficult relationship with her in-laws and children and poured her thoughts and emotions into her writing, producing a number of works. As the carer of her late husband’s estate, she was also very involved in the community, encouraging her tenants to develop better farming practices, established nurseries on her lands for improved stock propagation, and employed artisans to work in her papermill and glassworks factory. She taught herself medicine and pharmacology so she could help her community and set up scholarships and schools with particular interest in educating girls.

At the end of WW2, the citadel was once again repurposed as a prison for dissidents of the newly formed communist regime. Restored in the 1970s, it now serves as a museum displaying historical artefacts and travelling exhibitions.

Feeling like a taste of Hungarian cooking, I’m in search of a restaurant that may serve goulash, or gulyás, a soup-stew that dates back to the 9th century when it was eaten by the Hungarian shepherds. Traditionally the stew was slow cooked in a cauldron over an open fire by first browning beef and onion in lard, then adding vegetables and a good dose of potatoes. It was then topped with water and flavoured with sweet or hot paprika and a pinch of caraway. Since paprika was only introduced into Europe around the 16th century, flavouring was completed with plenty of pepper. Fresh baked bread helped to soak up the juices. Now where to find such a place?

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Assistant Cover Letter

20th April 2023

Hi (Art Person),

It looks to me like you’re looking for something of an assistant. Rather a few of them I guess. I’m just looking to pay my bills. (A family) passing left me with some bad legal business and it’s costly. I have a night job and need a day job.

So, about me, well, I’m a man of Irish continence and having that very Irish ability to talk for hours without making people want to leave I will never bore you. People have said that my head is a vast store of off facts. Still, I’m normally the fellow your dog is always happy to see. We share a love of film and museums and I would be happy to accompany you to every film I haven’t seen. When I used to cook for (family) I always made a point of making balanced meals while trying new things. People say I’m patient, knowledgeable, and artistic.

In any case, you’ve never met a man like me. In my working life a good number of people have commented on how much they enjoyed running into me. If you give me an interview I can promise that you’ll want to hire me but I can say you’ll remember the experience.

Best,



Richard Leland Neal