Tripping on Colors in Transylvania
Colorful Autumn leaves, ubiquitous mushrooms, pastel colored buildings, centuries-old artwork, and so much more... Issue #33
After spending the month of October in Transylvania, I decided my favorite season to (re)visit my old homeland was autumn.
The summer crowds are gone - though the center of the town was still more crowded than I expected - the weather cools down enough to make walking around comfortable - , but most of all I enjoyed the colors of fall.
Dear Readers,
I wrote this last week, a few days after returning from my trip. It only needed photos to be ready to post.
However, a few days ago I was going to delete it. I felt it was no point in posting it. Or ever posting anything again. I was going to delete my Substack, crawl under a rock, and never write again. I get melodramatic sometimes, when I’m sad. But usually the giving up feeling doesn’t last too long.
As the day progressed, I eventually went for a walk. I noticed the beauty of the desert. A family of quails crossed the trail. They were so cute! It reminded me that beauty is all around us - no matter where we are on this planet. And those of us who have words to describe it should keep doing it. What’s the point? I don’t know, but it feels good to write. It feels good to weave words together, showcasing the beauty around us. Sometimes it is simply the beauty of our surroundings that keep us grounded, keep us going. And inspire us to try to protect it.
The post was supposed to be fun, and at least somewhat funny - hope you enjoy it. And hope you go outside, notice and enjoy the colors and the beauty around you!
Love,
Emese
In October we were tripping on colors in Transylvania - in every sense of the word.
And not because we ate any ‘magic’ mushrooms… although we saw a few of them.
To be fair, some crystal-clear, but extremely strong Vilmos pálinka (Hungarian strong pear liquor) and some dark brown, gold, amber, and red Csíki sör (local beer) might also had something to do with this tripping. Sometimes. They turned me into Lady Laugh-A-Lot, enjoying my surroundings more than usual.
And, in another sense of the word, the tripping on colors (autumn leaves) also occurred during long hikes on extremely rocky trails.
But all of it brought out our enjoyment of the surrounding colors.
All the colors we encountered during this trip made us happy, got us to laugh a lot, no matter if they were bright gold, yellow, red or rust and brown autumn leaves, dark green pines, or pink and other pastel colored buildings, dark or vivid paintings in one of the oldest art museums in the country, or bright red mushrooms.
We took endless photos, and sometimes even played with them, editing them to make them even brighter than they were in real life.
We had more fun in Transylvania this time around than we’ve had in years, in any other season.
Enjoying the colors surrounding us.
But mostly the ones showcased by the autumn leaves of the forests of the Carpathians.
And since we were there the whole month, we saw them change from all shades of green to their bright fall colors, then shrivel up into rust and browns and finally fall off the trees, creating a colorful, fun carpet to walk and play in, while also covering the underlying rocks and tree roots I was tripping over.
Living in the desert I don’t see the autumn colors. And when we travel in autumn, we usually drive to Flagstaff or Colorado, where the forests feature one type of trees besides evergreens: aspens. And while aspens are some of my favorite trees, especially in autumn, their color is uniform, featuring shade of the same bright yellow and gold.
In the deciduous forests of the Carpathians we encountered many more colors, all intertwined. The bright reds of maples competed for attention with all shades of gold and yellow of other deciduous trees, highlighted by the deep green of several types of pines.
I even noticed several bright purple crocus flowers still blooming among the colorful fallen leaves of the forest.
And then there were the buildings of Brasov. Reconstructed - at least the facades - they not only showcased centuries-old architectural features, but also competed for attention with their colors, starting with the pastel pink of the National Bank building.
I didn’t think the pink color was fitting for a bank - what do you think ?
We’ve been admiring the ornate, beautiful pink building for years, but somehow it didn’t occur to us to figure out what it was.
Until this trip. Since we didn’t notice any sign on it, we tried the huge ornate door. It opened, so we walked in the inner courtyard.
A uniformed man rushed over and told us - in Romanian at first, but switched to English - that we could not visit, it was not a building for tourists. We didn’t understand what he said the building housed, but he was so scared of us being there, and so eager to make us leave, that we said sorry, wrong door.
Walking out, I noticed the name National Bank on it - took us a visit to figure it out. Which was so funny, it got us tripping - on the combination of pink and bank in the same building. Wouldn’t it be fun to color money pink and treat it like a toy? - or maybe banks already do that, only make us believe they take it seriously?
I enjoyed the homes even more. We found several with paintings of flowers on the door or around the windows, others with ornate windowsills filled with flowers blooming even in October.
And then there was the yellow Trabant (Communist-era car) sitting in a parking lot in the center of the city.
It reminded me of the time I broke one as a 14-year old. To be fair, it hit me, but I walked away with only a broken knee, while the Trabant got much more damaged: the car is made of cardboard - literally.
I could not believe the car could still be in existence. And this one, matching the autumn colors of the trees, was in great shape, either refurbished recently, or, as I heard, brand new. Apparently they still make them - or make them again.
Some of the best colors I enjoyed were of artwork I remembered from my childhood days, as we visited the Bruckenthal museum of art in Sibiu, where we were surrounded by colors in every ornate room of the palace.
Home to the largest collection of Dutch paintings in the country, we walked through rooms filled with dark and somewhat somber colors, brighter paintings of flowers and portraits, and more contemporary paintings filled with bright colors. Besides the artwork, the rooms also showcased centuries-old ornate furniture.
But the real tripping occurred in the forests where we saw the big bright red - known to be poisonous - mushrooms.
I didn’t dare touch it, but my friend picked one, even as we were yelling “don’t touch it!” “I wasn’t going to eat it,” she answered. Still, we made her wash her hand before touching anything else. Of course, she was teasing us for part of the trail, pretending her hand was falling off.
We also picked edible mushrooms in another forest - not as bright, but still colorful, with its brown patches of its skin over its white top. Surrounded by colorful falling leaves, these champignon mushrooms, called in Hungarian fawn’s foot mushrooms for their elegant long stems were fun to spot - and pick. They made a tasty dinner, too.
Though the trip was more fun than most others in my old home country, my laughs also hid some anxiety and sadness. This trip was meant to help us decide if we could live there. If I could ever live in my old homeland again.
Even through the fun times during the trip I had an underlying feeling that I could never return home. In fact, it was no longer my home. It has changed and I have changed.
I love it as a tourist. But it is no longer my home.
I was tripping on the colors of my memories and my emotions, from happy to sad and everything in between.
But in the end I accepted the fact that Transylvania is no longer my home and it can never be again. As painful as it was, this realization helped me make peace with my feelings, both happy and sad.
And as I watched the autumn leaves fall I was at peace with this realization.
Please continue to write your posts, because we love reading them very much and I truly enjoy seeing photos of American nature, which is so different to the nature here in Romania, where I live in Maramures.
beautiful photos and writing! i got choked up in the beginning and end, but you're right!! there is so much beauty around us we can't forget that and we have to keep fighting to protect it <3