Strudli Festival

This weekend we have three days off as Monday is... well, we're not sure why we have Monday off but we suspect that it's something to do with religion. Anyway, we get a day off. If I remember correctly, this happened last year. It seems that every couple of weeks there is some event that requires no classes. It will be Children's Day in a week or two, then the kids will go on class trips, and then basically all classes will be over. It's a good thing that Amanda and I have finished all of the set work for each of our classes or we'd be rushing.

Today we went to Vállaj, a town near the border on the way to Romania. One of our students told us that there was a Strudli festival there, so went with our friend and colleague from school, Laima. We weren't too sure what a Strudli was, but we were damn sure that we were going to find out. When we got there, we had a look at the timetable and found out that we were an hour or two late for a dog show, but we were only an hour or two early for the horse and cart races. It was either very poorly, or very perfectly, timed. Either way, we had enough time to check out the Strudli.

The Strudli, we soon learned, is a type of pastry cooked with either potato or jam inside. That pastry can either be fried or baked, and is best served hot. There was a huge tent full of matronly women in traditional dresses preparing the Strudli, so of course we had to have some (strudli that is, not matronly women). After purchasing some tickets and collecting our different Strudli, we sat down to enjoy. They were nice!

 

It wasn't too long before the horses came out and started to race around the track. It was a time-trial type race where the horses had to pull their carts as quickly as possible through various gates marked out by witches hats. We didn't exactly know the rules, but it seemed that if they knocked one or more of the hats then there was a time penalty imposed. The first team to race around the circuit was a team of two ponies. Although they were smaller and less able to pull their cart to full speed, the ponies definitely seemed more agile with the sharp turns.

It was a good day.

- Daniel.