Painted Monasteries of Bucovina, Part I

Our main goal for Moldavia was to see a few of the painted monasteries of Bucovina. We drove to Gura Humorului to see the first of three, the (I swear I am not making this up) Humor Monastery.

We parked for the night, of course, at the Humor Monastery parking lot; here, 
the next morning, the meter maid is cheerfully counting her receipts, after having 
charged us 4 lei ($1.20) to spend the night; we cheerfully paid

The tower at Humor Monastery; these are all fortified 
monasteries; Romania has been  contested land for aeons; 
the monasteries we visited in Moldavia are all 16th-17th
century; fortified and garrisoned, the paintings both inside 
and outside the churches intended in part to educate and
embolden the troops

Humor Monastery; nothing funny here, really; beautiful,
though

Detail of one of the murals, which literally cover the building, 
inside and out

At the next painted monastery, Moldovita, a beautiful exterior mural depicting 
the 1453 siege of Constantinople; enlarge to see the Turkish cavalry, cannons, etc.

Porch fresco detail; a classical look, I thought, or maybe Byzantine

Another detail from Moldovita; somehow reminds me of Monty Python..

Interior dome at Moldovita

Monastery museum at Moldovita, towers, wall

Moldovita

Strange decor at Moldovita; Byzantine? Feather dancer?

Out of the Marmures and Into Moldavia

Having seen the high points in the Marmures, we drove on, east basically, into Moldavia, Romania's northeastern province.

Another colorful domicile

Romania entered the EU in 2006 or 2007, but has a very long way to go in 
coming up to EU environmental and other standards; sadly, most of the rivers 
look like this

The Wagon Wheel Restaurant/Hotel/Firetrap (in an unnamed town where we 
stopped for lunch)

Our route took us through a pass at the northern end of the Carpathian Alps, 
showing first snow of the season (the latitude here is about like Newfoundland)

New church at the pass (the people live in hovels, the 
children beg, but God and the priests are doing OK)

Road wash-outs and cave-ins are not uncommon, especially on the secondary 
road we were on

Another beautiful new church in a small town, now in Moldavia

Moldavian bus-stop shelter...we saw scores of these

And when your motor scooter dies, you can always count on Old Bess

Another unfinished building, this one, I think, to have been a ski lodge in the 
Carpathians

Getting the wood in for winter; this man proudly posed (jeez, I am glad I don't 
have to do that anymore!)

And in every yard, a decorated well

To Market, To Market, To Buy a Fat Pig; Part Two

After the market in Bogvan Voda, I have decided that every other market I have ever seen--except the Tibetan market at Namche Bazaar--is just tourist sham. Sometimes very nice, and interesting stuff, but not the "real" thing. Here, there are no stores, no Walmarts, nothing. Most everyone is relatively self-sufficient with their gardens and animals and crafts, and the market--we assume this is a monthly market--is where such commerce as there is takes place. Needless to say, we were the only outsiders there, but no one seemed to notice us, really. In high season, it is a relatively heavily-touristed place. But not now. We haven't seen any other campers since entering Romania.

The guidebooks we are using make much of the authenticity of all this, the Marmures the last bastion of traditional peasant ways of life in Europe. Some aspects of it are enchanting--the neighborliness and community of the people, sitting out on the benches in front of their houses, visiting, in the evenings. On the other hand, I'd gladly trade seeing all this in museum dioramas or "living" museum acts for improvement in these peoples' standards of living: indoor plumbing and safe water supplies, decent roads and conveyances, maybe even cars and trucks and farm machinery, wider availability of goods, decent health and dental care; even television.

Produce department

Grains

Fat pigs; probably their last meal together....

Used clothing

Locally-made furniture

Non-handmade shoes

Would you like some rebar to go with those new shoes?

Textiles

Bacon and cheese

Everything, cradle to grave...

Local statue of Bogvan Voda, conqueror of old

And Bogvan Voda's stave church

To Market, To Market, To Buy a Fat Pig; Part One

While at our "campsite" at Dragomiresti, we noticed countless horse-drawn carts going up the road to Bogvan Voda as well as cattle being driven there. And we inferred, despite our city-slicking ways, that Monday would be market day there. So we stopped in Bogvan Voda on the way back from Ieud, and, boldly, took in the market. It was an experience, worth two posts at least!

All along the road, for miles, coming and going, pedestrians

and carts headed for the market; carts often stopping to pick

up friends, neighbors, relatives

At the entry to the market, simply an alley opening onto a

large field

Yarn department

Hats...very tempting, except Vicki would kill me if I bought

another hat...

Handmade shoes

Cattle and horse sale, where the real action was

Horse power

Lunch

Wooden Church at Ieud

From Dragomiresti we drove on, past Bogvan... and turned off the main road to Ieud and its wooden churches.

Local color department: while the older structures are pretty

drab, the newer homes and businesses are definitely not...

On the road to Ieud

The church and cemetery at Ieud; these churches are very

similar to the stave churches so famous in Norway

Interior: a man noticed us gawking from outside the

cemetery, produced the key to the church, and let us

in to look around

Altar

Priestly vestments

Main chamber

In the cemetery, ripe plums in the trees; ah, memories of

the recipe for plum torte we got from Greg Patent and the

tortes which Vicki made every autumn in Missoula;

locally, the plums go into a potent moonshine brandy

The church and the nice man who let us in

(we left 10 lei in the offering plate)