Newark Airport is a joy of modern soaring cielings, fresh daylight
and uncrowded openness after the dreary industrialization of north Jersey. Ample carts made my bags manageable and check in and security was smooth and quick. The long wait was helped by an easy and spacious layout with services nearby. I was surrounded by young international travelers as I tried to recognize languages. My United flight was with Lufstansa to Munich, so my area was mostly Germans. I am crossing into the world of being a language minority. Soon it will be Hungarian and Romanian.
Bleary-eyed from a long sleepless airplane night, in Munich I transferred to a regional Lufstansa to Cluj/Kolozsvar. Lots of families on this plane, two blonde wide-eyed little sisters and a pair of dark-eyed twin boys about three years old who were very fast runners, usually in opposite directions. Such sweet smiles! Fortunately their parents were equally fast, though clearly exhausted!
Through the cloud openings near Kolozsvar, I saw a few rural villages with quaint churches and surrounded by great bands of fields.
Those could be some of the Unitarian villages, I have no idea.
Lehel, the Unitarian archivist kindly met me at the Cluj Airport. What a welcome friendly face. As we drove into the city I had forgotten all the bleak, boxy reminders of Communism. Having never been bombed, Kolozsvar's story is told in the many eras of architecture from two millenia.
The square block Unitarian Headquarters in the town center, where I have a guest room, was built about two hundred years ago and is the third home for the Bishop's office, Unitarian seminary, high school and archives. It feels like the rock of Gibralter- huge, ambling and well-worn. Next door is the Kolosvar Unitarian Church, the "mother church." I had dinner at "Pizza Rex," a comfortable cafe with a wooden cieling and wooden booths across the street. It is somehow run by the Unitarian Church but I'm not clear how.
My room is simple, small and European modern. It has an Ikea feel. It is in the eves of the buillding with a skylight, and best of all a bright bathroon with a lovely shower. The three flights of stairs are moderated by two halls midway where I pass the Bishop's office and other administrators. It is manageable for my cranky knees. I believe high school girls live down my hall- I hear frequent conversations but not in English. I tried speaking with one girl but she knew no English.
I imagine I will be meeting some of these folks in the dining room.
My sleep cycle is completely off. I'm well-rested at last, but it is 4am here. Today I wander around this great building to find the office to arrange meals in the dining room and the Archives, across the central courtyard. This is so amazing- I have been dreaming of being here and now I really am. What a gift, a blessing. I am ready.
No comments:
Post a Comment