18 July 2012

Friendly Maramures

After spending most of our trip in rural areas, we decided to try something else. We found CS host ‌in Baia Mare - north of where we were. On our way to Turda I lost my mobile phone. Then we managed to hitch very slow ride. It was about 39 degrees in a shade and the van was overloaded. Because of that the engine was overheating when we were going uphill. And thanks to or rather because of some kind of safety system the engine was limiting its horsepower and we were slowing down. That made us to stop every 100-200 meters and wait 1-2 minutes to let the engine cool down a bit. On one uphill we were overtaken by a guy walking on the side of the road about 5 times!

We came to Baia Mare with too fast, but very nice driver. He even decided to drop us off directly in front of our host's flat. Cosmin decided to be our favourite host and he pretty much managed. There were also two other couch surfers from North America.

Long story short, we spent next day on CouchSurfing trip to discover Maramures region.

Gypsy ghetto
Ciuc Premium 0.33 and 0.5 in special price!
Our lemon favourite - Ciuc Radler - cheaper than juice!
Chimney used for sending pollution to Hungary
Villages in Maramures are known for special style. You can see differences between other regions.

Gate - the bigger and fancier the better
New style house, old style gate
Pickled fence with a roof
The weather used to be very hot for many days in a row, but when we came to see one of the biggest wooden churches in area, we were welcomed by quite sudden storm. The air became fresher after the rain, but sadly just for half an hour.



Inside the wooden church
Another interesting place we visited was The Cheerful Cemetery. Place, where every tombstone has a story and picture on it. Having a local speaking Romanian was very helpful sometimes. Some of them were interesting, but most were just sad.


He was a butcher
She spent most of her life picking apples
A confectioner
This little girl died hit by Dacia
An animal molester?
A miller I guess
Lumber mill worker

We spent about one week in Baia Mare. We had enough time to relax and visit the city, but we did only the first.

One of many huge churches under construction

We had small brake from the city and we went to small village to meet our host's family. We had a great time cycling, meeting more relatives, eating local food, milking a cow and tasting truly organic, still warm milk.


Me being a redneck

Sign of mourning

Really fancy gate...
...and really fancy house

Beehive trailer
Joanna milking a cow

Denisa the sister
The view from Cosmin's kitchen
Our way to say goodbye and thank you
I love letters left by hosts
After really long overstaying we decided to move on. We spent two nights on the road to get to our next destination and next host. The night and morning of mu birthday we spent camping in the middle of thunderstorm. The rain wasn't heavy, but on of uncountable thunders struck less than 100 meters from us. It was an extraordinary experience to me. Difficult to describe.


Beautiful sunrise after that stormy night


We arrived to Iasi very late, but our driver was very helpful and dropped us off in front of a guest-house. Sadly it wasn't open. Three workers were staying there and they showed us their great hospitality. After few phone calls and not successful attempt to convince the owner lady to come with keys, they decided to let us stay for free in one of their rooms. Bathroom with hot water, electricity and bed were all we needed that night. Later we had to spend another day hitching to get to our next host.


Our destination

1 comment:

  1. awww, Wesoły Cmentarz, chciałam tam dotrzeć 2 lata temu!

    ReplyDelete