Grupa Una

My wife and I lived in Romania during 1984-1985, and during all that time--quietly, to avoid the attention of a distrustful government--the two of us met together as AA Group Number One (Grupa Una) in our apartment in Timisoara, Romania, The popular national drink, tuica, a kind of plum brandy, was offered us everywhere, and we had to learn to say "no thanks" tactfully, without offending our hosts. At Christmas, we left Romania, traveling on the Orient Express from Transylvania through Hungary to Austria and Vienna. How exciting it was to be in a free country with bright lights and pastries and shops stuffed with goods of every imaginable sort--a severe contrast to bleak Romania, with its empty shelves and universal suffering. It was an incredible joy to find a wonderful AA meeting in the Vienna woods--our first meeting in many months with more in attendance than the two of us!