Balance Beams & Garlic

This past weekend Alex and I were able to spend the weekend in Cluj-Napoca, the second most populous city in Romania, and unofficially, the capital of Transylvania.

I mean, how cool sounding is that--the capital of Transylvania? Anyway, we spent our day in the city by doing what we love to do the most: drinking good coffee and visiting museums and walking. Lots of walking.

While we were leaving the botanical gardens (a must-see there 'cause the greenhouses are super impressive), we passed a young girl who had red, blue and yellow stripes on her face. Then another person, then another. And then we remembered that Cluj was hosting the Artistic Gymnastics European Championships, which is a big deal.

Here we were, in Transylvania's capital, hosting a gymnastic championship and I realized these two things are what most commonly pop into people's minds when they think of Romania: vampires and amazing gymnastics.

(It is pretty humorous to tell those who are on a mission trip here that we're actually in Transylvania--that part isn't fictional. Ironically, people here also love their garlic sauce called "mujdei"--just you wait until you slab it on some pork chops.)

Anyway, Catalina Ponor is a very well-known Romanian gymnast who just won the gold medal (nearing 30-years-old, which is quite a feat in the gymnastics world) for the balance beam: here is the must-watch: