Romania

We've now been to all the countries that border Slovakia, so it was time to go a bit farther. Romania seemed like a likely candidate, and it didn't look far on the map. To paraphrase the warning on your rear-view mirror, "Objects On Map Are Farther Than They Appear". Or at least it will take you a lot longer to get there than if you were driving I-70 or the German Autobahn. We headed out Friday morning, going south into Hungary and taking a very scenic (and very slow) road over the Zemplin Hills to Tokaj. This is where they make the famous Tokaj wine (the wine that the bums' favorite is named after) and you can't swing a cat without hitting someone who's there to buy (or taste) the wine. We saw a bike tour group of a dozen happy people, one of whom tipped over and crashed on the bike path while we watched. They must have already visited a couple of cellars...

Unfortunately, we had no time for wine-tasting, so we headed east through Nyiregyhaza and out into the plains of eastern Hungary. Flat, boring and lots of traffic. At the Romanian border, they seemed more interested in our car than in us,
but after 10 minutes or so, they let all three of us in. We'd heard that ATMs are hard to find, so we headed for downtown Satu Mare, which has more ATMs on the central square than any other place I've seen. Fortified with 500 Lei (2.39 to the dollar), we headed east to Baia Mare. Roads in Romania make Slovak roads look good - you have to keep a constant watch for potholes, uneven railroad crossings and lots of horse-drawn wagons. In Baia Mare, we realized that we'd lost an hour - like Ukraine, they're in another time zone.

Our destination in Romainia was the town of Botiza in Maramures, the poorest part of the country. I've seen it described as 'medieval' - I wouldn't go that far, but it's definitely early 20th century. We stayed with a delightful couple, Ioan and Maria Manta. (In Romania, all the men are named Ioan (John) and all the women are Maria (Mary). In our first 5 minutes in the local cemetery, I spotted at least half a dozen Ioan Mantas, although our host showed no signs of being deceased.)

There are no restaurants in Romania outside of the major towns, so we had our breakfast and dinner at the Mantas - some interesting (and tasty) sheep cheeses, polentas and other good stuff. And of course, a glass or two of palinka (only at dinner). The rooster got us up the next morning, and after breakfast we checked out the local market and then went up to the Orthodox church where some kind of ceremony was in progress. The local ladies forced loaves of bread and cabbage rolls on us -

finally a nun took pity on us and got us a plastic bag to carry all our bread.
Wine plays a big role in Catholic services, but we're not sure about the theological significance of Coke...


After Botiza, we visited a pottery shop in Sacel, and the monastery complex in Barsana. I thought monasteries had monks and convents had nuns, but this monastery was exclusively nuns.


On Sunday, Cindi got to dress up like a Romanian peasant, after which we hit the road. There's not much public transportation in Maramures, so we picked up a couple of little old ladies (Maria and Maria?) who were hitchhiking down to the big Orthodox service in Stramtura. We decided to check it out ourselves, and were wandering around outside the church when I was accosted by an old gentleman. I'm not usually addressed as 'Boy!', but something about him seemed interesting. He quickly invited us back to his house for a drink (more palinka). His house had all the signs of being the home of an aging drunkard, but it turned out to be his 'museum' - he has a perfectly normal house next door with a perfectly normal wife. His name is Ioan Stef, and he's very interested in the Jewish history of the area (he himself is Greek-Catholic, but he had many Jewish friends who were deported to Auschwitz). Despite his affections for the Jews, he seemed rather intolerant of the Orthodox Christians ("Orthodox bad!") He and his wife served us coffee and lunch, and we probably could have stayed for dinner, but needed to get on the road.


Last tourist stop in Romania was the famous 'Merry Cemetery' of Sarpanta. A local woodcarver started the tradition of carving humorous tombstones with little poems, and it continues today. This fellow drank and smoked himself to death,

while this poor boy fell under a train.

And this guy appears to be performing an unnatural act with a sheep.


After spending our remaining lei on ice cream, beer and diesel (in that order), we crossed back into Hungary. There's a new superhighway that we missed on the way out, so the trip back to Presov was a bit quicker. Still a long day (470km) in the car...