Cluj-Napoca

We woke up in Maramures which were more drizzly and cool than wild and snow-covered. We took a morning stroll through along the streets which supported more cars than oxen, but after crossing a bridge and taking a few turns we ended up in a part of town which was full of wooden houses, farm strips and streams interpersed with the odd house that could have come straight from Homeworld. Our first encounter at the village was with Nikolai, they ran the local village distillery. The locals would bring them their choice of fermented fruit and they would complete the process on behalf of the locals to produce their horinca. At first we thought they were emptying sewerage bins but when we discovered that the brown lumps were fermented fruit the bile levels settled.

Nikolai was also a talented woodworker, having built everything we could see in front of us that was made out of timber. They had also cleverly diverted a small part of the River Iza onto their property. This small diverted flow would generate electricity, power and run the distillery and also play a major role in the villages' communal "washing machine"! The whole set up was simply ingenious! Mal's pig spit suddenly just lost a bit of shine after seeing this home-made set up.

A generous breakfast. The children loved the "giant chiacken nugget"

River Iza

We saw this at the National village museum! A more modern roof but the same concept applies

This was all built by Nikolai

What are they doing?!?

Moving this...femented plums

The distillery set up

George explaining how it works. The water you see running is from the River Iza, used to help condensation

The river water, both powering the distillery and also used for condensing

The flow was diverted into smaller channels

A large churn to wash the village "rugs"!

The washed rugs hanging to dry

Before exiting the property, the water had one last job...providing electricity

One of the symbols of Maramures

This means that there is a girl in the house to be married

Swing by Nikolai, Model by Albany

Next stop in Maramures was Barsana Monastary, another good example of the Maramures skilled timber craftsmen. The wooden buildings look old but most were built relatively recently using local timber and in a style typical of the region.

We were supposed to visit Sighet Prison Memorial, one of the very few Communist museum/memorial. It was used as communist for only 6 years but during that time, many of the intellects and religious leaders in Romania were imprisoned or executed here. The prison was unfortunately closed, and this was the first minor mistep made by the tour company. This was perhaps something they should have known prior to our visit.

We survived another long drive back to Transylvania, arriving at Cluj-Napoca. Our orientation tour was by way of minivan today before we checked into Villa Siago for our last night in Romania. We had to repack our bags, and buy provisions for our train journey tomorrow as there was predicted to be no dining car. We briefly visited our last Romanian Christmas market before calling it a night.

The closed Sighet prison

Barsana Monastery

The timber church 

Like all orthodox churches, ornately painted on the inside

A maramures wooden gate

Our hotel interior

Small but clean rooms

Christmas market!

Maramureș

Turda Salt Mine

Today we headed north towards the Maramureș, skirting the Ukrainian borders, and entering the real rural Romania. We stopped at Turda Salt mine prior to leaving Transylvania. To be more accurate, it was a former-salt mine-turned-recreation-centre. They've built ferris wheels, mini-golf, bowling and even a mini lake in the cavernous spaces. It was fortunate that we visited during low season as there was only 1 elevator which had a capacity of seven to go down to the first open chamber and then another elevator which only had a capacity of 4 to go further down to the lake level. During high season, your choice would be to wait and line up for the elevator or walk down around 28 floors of stairs to get down to the very bottom...The children took the stairs. Oh to have the energy of youth!

Down a tunnel

Along a long corridor

An example of what the mined salt looked like

Going down again for the elevator to go further down...George explaining why everything was made of timber

Below us was the first large chamber

Large enough for a ferris wheel

From there, you can go further down...where there is a small lake and mini island

Looking up to the upper chamber and the elevator shaft

As you do, you row a boat around a mini lake in a salt mine

Amazing patterns of salt against the wall

Putt putt. Mal could not resist

Not sure who had more fun. The man

Or the kids

From the salt mine, it was a long drive to get to Maramureș, where the people are still "traditional", living a rural lifestyle that had remained unchanged for decades. We could still see horses being used for carts and personal transports, and examples of the beautiful wooden gates we saw at the National Village Museum. Unfortunately, many of the young have left for to work in Western Europe, leaving their children behind with grandparents and sending money home. What initially began as a one or two year plan, had become decade long trysts with "just one more year".  It has created social issues, as well as changing the landscape dramatically with big modern homes being built for "when they come home". These new houses currently sit empty as the elder generation prefer their older, smaller traditional houses.

Our first stop in Maramureș was the Merry Cemetery in Sapanta, so named because of the colourful crosses and witty epitaphs. It was started by a local woodcarver Ioan Stan Patras in the 1930s who wanted to celebrate the life of the people who had died. Each cross was a mini story of the person, and many had carvings which depicted traditional trades typical of the rural community. Some were a little sad, showing the cause of death, like the 3 year old who was hit by a car :(

Our final destination was the home of John and Silvia, locals in Vadu Izei one of the Maramureș village, where we would have a home stay. I know what I'm about to type is spoilt, entitled and difficult but here goes...it was a catch 22. We were a little disappointed that the village was a lot more modern than expected. At first glance it did not seem too different from other places we had been to in Romania. We were relieved that it was more modern than expected. We had a warm & clean modern room to sleep in and we had wifi.

The highlight of our visit though, was our meal prepared by our hosts. John and Sylvia were warm and welcoming, and our meal was delicious and hearty. We were treated to their home brew and made to eat A LOT. What previlege it was! We felt so blessed to have been able to have this experience and interaction with the locals.

The Merry Cemetery in Sapanta

The artist who started it all

Beautiful rural sunset

George translating for our host, John

A delicious home cooked Romanian meal

Meatball soup

Cabbage rolls, chicken and pickled vegetables

Dessert!

Our rooms

Transfagarasan, Hunedoare & Alba Iulia

Fagaras Mountains, the highest in Romania

Today it was time to conquer a mountain, the Fagaras, the highest in Romania. This may seem simple enough, but we had an ex-communist infrastructure to navigate. Reaching the base of the mountains with our minivan was easy peasy. On arrival, we were greeted by a musty, dirty and tired looking cable car building. There was already a small line of people geared for a multitude of snow activities. The cable car was meant to open at 9am but by 940 there was still no staff member in sight...Finally one appeared and stated that it was windy at the top and that a test run needed to be performed. They did the "test run" with the first 7 people in line! Egad!!! After "clearing the ice" with first car (egad!!) the second car moved a lot of faster. Our guide wisely opted to keep the whole group in the 3rd car together rather than splitting up. If we were to perish, we would at least perish together.

We were packed like sardines into the cable car with 3 other passengers. Taking photos with limited limb movement was a feat. So please enjoy the shots...Despite the coziness, it was difficult not to appreciate the scenery which turned white dramatically as we ascended quickly to more than 2000m. Below us was the famed Transfagarasan Highway, featured in Top Gear, which linked Bucharest to Transylvanica through the Carpathians. Built by the communist dictator Ceaucescu partially because he was told it couldn't be done...the Highway literally took an army to build. Unfortunately for us, the road was only open a few months of the year, so this was the only way to see it.

Once at the top, the condition of the building we arrived at was no better than the one below, with couches that looked like it had been sitting in an attic for 30 years... The children didn't care, running out into the snow with wild abandon. The grandparents did well, trudging through to make it to one of the chalets for some well deserved hot drinks. There is usually an ice hotel here every year EXCEPT this year! Argh!!! All we could do was do walk around Balea Lake, the source of the ice for the hotel. Again this was literal, we walked around it and that was it. We couldn't even see it as the lake was under snow...

Nonetheless, the group had a fun time with our morning adventure. We descended down the mountain uneventfully and moved on to our next destination, Hunedoare Castle (also known as Corvin Castle).

We waited in the cold until our car arrived

Our cable car

Balea Waterfall

You can see glimpses of the Transfagarasan under the snow

The height of chalet chic in 1973

A building. Surely there is something warm in there

Hot chocolate time

Snow bandits!

Hunedoare Castle is a 15th century Hungarian Castle. Impressive on the outside, it was unfortunately the recipient of "fanciful" restoration, with many features not true to its gothic origins. It was still amazing to walk through the large Castle with original sections being apparent. Some random interesting facts...Nicholas Cage rode in on a motorcycle and stopped here in the movie "Ghost rider". Bill Gates hired out the castle for a function...

With strict rules about driving times, we overnighted at the town of Alba Iulia where King Ferdinand and Queen Marie were crowned. As has become routine, George took us on a walking tour of the city before leaving us to wander. As it had started to rain, we decided to have an early dinner at Dante. The children declared the food to be excellent! So a win! Our hotel Ave Alba, didn't look like much on the outside, but was cosy, comfortable and super clean with friendly staff.

Hunedoare Castle

The inner courtyard. 

A bit of an adventure wandering to one of the guard towers

Our lovely and clean rooms

Church in the town.. Just happens to the be Romania's oldest catholic church...

Christmas lights and happy faces

One of the entry gates to the old city