We enjoyed our short stay at Camping Perla Maramuresului . It was a lovely rural setting, even though just off the main road and the owners were so friendly, not just because they turned a blind eye to Mabel’s chicken chasing! This morning we woke to the smell of woodsmoke. Twenty or thirty metres away from Basil two young women were cooking something in a big cauldron over a wood fire. They were soon joined by some men, but unfortunately they didn’t speak any English or French so I was unable to elicit any details about what they were cooking. Some of the men were already drinking beer at 9.30 am, so whatever was in the pot, they were determined to have a good time.
Eventually we set off on the EU’s bumpiest main road, the route18. The first section we drove on this morning had had it’s tarmac scraped off and new drains were being installed, but they were doing tens of miles at a time making for an uncomfortable ride.
The area we drove through today is called Maramures in northern Transylvania. Lonely planet promised this area to be the most traditional part of Romania and that we would see many women in traditional dress. Of course we didn’t. Many horses and carts and traditional agriculture, but much the same as the rest of northern Romania. Lonely Planet we find is often out of date or sometimes plain wrong.
Maramures is also famous for its wooden churches. Eight of them have been awarded UNESCO World Heritage status. Most of these were built in the 18th Century, but the tradition is said to date back to the 15th Century when their Hungarian rulers refused to allow any stone churches to be built.
I had planned to visit two of the eight UNESCO churches today and the first one was in the small village of Ieun. It is one of the largest wooden churches and is known as the wooden cathedral. The structure of the church is very interesting, built, as it is, totally from wood without nails of screws, just wooden pegs. Even the huge roof is made from wooden laths.
Ieun
What made this church for me though was the young curator/guide who spoke excellent English, having spent 4 years working the US. Not only did she explain the church but also much more about the religion and modern Romania. The religion practised in the church is Orthodox Catholic. Again dating from the period of Austro Hugarian Rule the local population were encouraged to convert to Roman Catholicism, but were allowed to retain most of the Greek Orthodox practices, so the church actually looked Greek Orthodox,with icons and an iconostasis, but acknowledged the pope as their primate.
Wooden Grave Marker Iuan
On the subject of modern Romania she said that for most of the year the villages in the area are populated with the old. Most youngsters and their families have gone to western Europe to work. When they return for holidays in August the sleepy villages that we have seen become very busy with cars everywhere. The emigrants spend a lot of their money on embellishing their Romanian houses in a Romanian version of keeping up with the jones’. Jobs are very hard to come by and she and her husband are able to stay in Romania because they have a business that they brought back from the USA. Our interesting conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a coach party.
Sarah and I set off for our second church at Barsana. The second half of our drive was on the newly constructed section of route18 and a pleasant change it made! The church in Barsana looked very similar from the outside, but was much much smaller. I had to almost bend in half to get through the door. The interior, unlike the one at Ieun, was covered in naïve murals. It was very dark and difficult to see anything well and the guide here did not speak any English. Sarah was much more impressed by the enormous church grounds where uncut grass was studded with a multitude of wild flowers.
Barsana
Iconostasis Barsana
Wild flowers have been a theme for us on this trip. We first caught up with spring and wild flowers in Southern Italy in early March and now, three months later, there are still plenty of wild flowers because we are moving north just behind spring. Sarah keeps a small vase of wild flowers on Basil’s dashboard and she had been able to keep changing them as our geography and season varies.
We have finished the day at Camping Poieni (47.947717, 23.698424), which is a lovely small field attached to a guest house. There is a small fast flowing stream behind Basil and I have already been to look at the guest house restaurant. It looks like a Romanian meat feast for me, but pescatarian Sarah will have to make do with trout. At least she has a choice of grilled or pan fried!