Dragomiresti Monastery

We drove on, deeper into the Marmures, in search of the famed wooden churches, of monasteries, and of the peasant way of life that persists here.

So Vicki has formulated this theory, namely, The Monastical

Theory of Encampment, that, in this heavily devout country,

no one will bother us if we are parked outside the monastery;

indeed, people driving by, whole tour buses, actually cross

themselves; anyhow, we tried it, with success, at the

Dragomiresti Monastery; happily, so far as we have seen,

monasteries outnumber gas stations in Romania by about 3 to 1

The front gate, beautifully carved

I walked up the hill to check out the

monastery

Not one of the ancient ones

In the courtyard

But it did have a fairly typical wooden

church, for which the region is famous

And later in the evening, aplenglow on one

of the Vlad the Impaler haystacks;

haystackenglow?

Stop, Look, and Listen!

In our first few days' driving in Romania we had been approaching RR crossings with great caution...rightly so, it turns out

So here we are back in Sighetul Marmatiei (relieved to be

back in Romania, with our camper/home)

At the apparently disused railroad yard; note weeds...

But wait, who's this guy in the uniform on the bicycle with

the yellow flag?

He has just manually lowered the crossing barriers and is

riding hastily, ahead of the train, to lower the next...

And there's the train, very old and worn cars, with five (we

counted) passengers

The engineer waving

And after it has passed, our man with the yellow flag raises

the barriers and rides on to his next appointed rounds

Remember: Stop, Look, and Listen!

From the Former USSR with Love

At Sigheta there is a new bridge across the Tiso to the Ukraine, former USSR. A little bit of paper work, a walk in the rain, and there you are...

Even before Sapanta, we noticed road signs in Russian as well as Romanian

We did not dare take pix of the border facilities, but you can

see the new bridge in this Ukraine billboard, at the crossing;

I think it says "Your capitalist wolves' taxes at work..."

From the bridge, Romania on the left, Ukraine on the right; River Tiso in the middle

So there we are, past the border station and its frowny-faced guards

Just like in Romania, unfinished buildings

Welcome to Slatina

The village church; note variety of construction materials

One or two very nice houses; most not so nice

There were exactly two stores open, both

very limited general merchandise, staples,

beer; nothing in the way of souvenirs or

trinkets, not even post-cards; not unlikely

we were the first Americanskis to venture

this way

OK, now we've been to the Ukraine; alas, not much to show

for it but stamps on our passports, but we did it

PS For those wondering why we did not venture further into this fascinating land, the Ruskies generally, in whatever their former-states, are not particularly welcoming of independent travelers, and especially of those in RVs; we have an acquaintance who did the Ukraine recently in an RV, but he was part of an organized caravan (convoy), that is, a tour. Next time. Or more likely, the time after that.

Sigheta Marmeita

The town of Sigheta Marmeita was a few kilometers up the road from Sapanta, and it offered a couple attractions: the home of writer Elie Wiesel and a bridge to the Ukraine.... Sigheta was infamous after the war as a place where the new communist regime imprisoned and murdered dissidents.

The Elie Wiesel home in Sigheta

More

It now offers tours, but we decided our Romanian was too
 limited...

Wiring in Sigheta; like a lot of other places we
have visited

One or two of the churches downtown

Another

The Palace Cultural

Merry, Merry, Cemetery

Our first goal was Sapanta, in the Marmures, and its "Merry Cemetery."

It's a small village, no campground, no supermarket parking

lot, nothing...so we just parked next to the church and the

cemetery; obviously, the church is being renovated, and I

 figured it would be quiet...

The night was very quiet

But, to our surprise, the church was still in

use, bells pealing Sunday morning, and

amplifiers broadcasting the 2 hour+ morning

Orthodox mass

But we got to see the "Merry Cemetery" where one of the

locals years ago began the tradition of carving and painting

the grave markers, wittily, and always happily; the

tradition continues with his apprentices

The Creatorul, Stan loan Patras, directly

opposite the church entrance

The tire guy, with whom we could relate...

The school teacher

A writer?

And the most intriguing--and photgraphed--

of all

And the mass went on, and on, and on... (mostly to the

 tune of "Car 54, where are you?")

Most of the faithful outside

Patiently

More Marmures Scenes

Scenes driving into the Marmures...

We were struck by the number of very large residences,

most under construction, few actually finished and

inhabited

Even in fairly remote rural areas

We have seen hundreds, perhaps thousands; all of the

same very recent vintage, when Romania entered the

EU and capital apparently flooded in--but not long enough...

These beside more traditional dwellings, each with a front-

yard well and a yard given completely to fruit and vegetable

gardening

Up in the hills, a road-side picnic area

In one of the cities, like Cluj, much defunct heavy industry

and oil (?) pipelines

Ditto

A defunct farm collective out in the countryside, one of

dozens

Great beauty in the churches that are

everywhere

And more unfinished 5,000 square foot mansions

And more wagons...it is a country in transition