October 1999

OUR NEW FRIENDS FROM "THE STATES"

 


Barry Sylver, Petronela & Barbara Silver
- at the Roman mosaic in Constanta -		       One September day we found in our guest book the following lines:
"Thank you for the information posted on your site. I was surfing because my wife and I are taking a cruise which stops in Constanta on October, 1 and I wanted to learn more about the city".

       We replied with the conventional "thanks for your visit ... we will be pleased to meet you here, in Constanta". Few days later, we received two beautiful photos that we put immediately on our "Landscapes" pages and so, the dialogue begun.

       We learned that Barry and his wife, Barbara, lives in Potomac, Maryland, United States, that Barry was responsible for research, engineering, manufacturing operations and IT for a 250 person company that manufactures ultraviolet curing systems and that he left the company in March and have decided "to take a significant amount of time off to travel, relax, etc."

       We also learned that Barbara studied art in the university and that she makes pottery.

       Barry gave us more details about their 12 days cruise itinerary (they will fly on Sept, 21from Washington, DC to Venice and back home from Istanbul on October, 3. The cities they will visit will be: Katakolon, Athens, Kusadasi, Odessa, Yalta, Constanta, Nessebur and Istanbul ).
       Barry also told us that they will be in Constanta on October, 1 and they will stay about 12 hours; so he and his wife invited us to take lunch together. We established that they will call us as soon as they will arrive in Constanta and we gave them some phone numbers.
I and the ladies

After visiting the Ethnological Museum		        Finally, October, 1 arrived. Barry called me in the morning, we established to meet at noon and, after some tries (my English is far from being perfect :-), I succeeded to make him understanding that we'll wait them in the "Ovidius" square, near the Ovidius statue (a place easy to locate).

       In despite of our worry, there was no problem meeting each others. Around the Ovidius statue was nobody but me and Petronela, so Barry can easily recognise us.
       Because Barry and Barbara expressed their desire to taste Romanian meal, we had at lunch: "tuica", "ciorba de burta" and "sarmale cu mamaliga".
       We all were surprised to see that we have many common points of view on many subjects, so, the discussion was very pleasant.

       After lunch, we walked a while on the streets of Constanta, we visited the "Roman Mosaic", where Barry and Barbara enjoyed to see some pieces of pottery too.
       Finally, because at 6 PM Barry and Barbara had to be on-board, with all ours regrets we had to go back to the Constanta port. We wished them a very pleasant cruise and we ask Berry to send us a message as soon as they will be back home.
       Once back home, both my wife and I agreed that it was a delightful afternoon, but we didn't know if Barry and Barbara felt the same.
       Few days later, we received the following message: "Barbara and I had a delightful time with you and Petronela on Friday and can't possibly thank you enough.  We truly appreciate everything you did for us to make it a great afternoon.  It is so much more rewarding and meaningful to be able to spend time with people who live in the city rather than just visit the city's museums.  I hope we can return the favor some day in the U.S.".
       If the perspective of a visit of the Popescus in the U.S. seems to be something that belongs to the future history :-), we are glad that our new friends had a "delightful time" here in Constanta, even if we have done nothing special for them; we only tried to be good hosts, as good as we could be.
At the Theatre

       One could ask: "Why so many details about this visit?". The answer is that we felt the Silvers our closest friends from the first messages we received (things that don't happen often to us). All was so natural, so direct, so they immediately became ones of our closest friends. We continue to change messages, thanks to the Internet that make people feel like neighbors.

Finally, take a look at some pieces from

BARBARA'S POTTERY STUDIO

 

 

POPESCU FAMILY NEWS ARCHIVE

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