Local Warming

Yesterday, the thermometer that we have outside our (north facing) kitchen window hit 10°C. It’s another sweltering day again today, with temperatures once again soaring above zero. It did actually snow one day last week, and there was even enough of it for Bogi and I to have an extended snowball fight, but now that brief taste of winter has vanished, and obviously all the snow has melted.

There is now some snow on the mountains though and we managed to go up to our local ski resort of Hargitafürdő (Harghita-Băi) on Saturday and Sunday so Bogi could indulge in her extremely new hobby of skiing. Irritatingly, but unsurprisingly, she's already way way better than I am.

The slopes were a study in contrasts over the weekend – Saturday, the end of the Christmas/New Year holiday period, was full of tourists from all over the country having their last day of skiing before heading home for work. Car number plates were all AB and BC and AR and so on, with only a smattering of local HR plates. And the dominant language of the chattering skiers was very definitely Romanian. Sunday, it was much quieter, and we passed lots of the out-of-county-ers coming down the mountain as we drove up it. At the top it was all day tripping Harghitans, and the dominant language had switched to Hungarian. It was like going to the same place two days in a row but finding that place in a different country. Saturday we were in Romania, Sunday in Szekelyföld.