Vadu Izei, Sighet, SÄpânÅ£a
Our first stop in MaramureÅ is supposed to be a town called SÄcÄlÄÅeni, where they have a Grape Harvesting Festival. However, found that the festival had been postponed a week!!
So we decided to push ahead to Vadu Izei, going through a super curvy road, but beautiful autumn scenery
Finally reached Vadu Izei, but night had fallen. We stopped by a few houses looking for accommodation, and finally found ourselves at Anna's house.
Again, she doesn't speak English, but we managed to converse ourselves into staying 2 nights at her house!
Since we are the only guests, we had a choice of 4 rooms to choose from!
In an hour's time, we're ready for our hot home-made dinner. For 20 euros a person, we got a full board of accommodation, dinner and breakfast!
Sarmale, cabbage leaves stuffed with meat and rice, is one of the traditional Romanian dish that is served everywhere. The gravy of course, could be different
Breakfast consists of crepes, breads, cheeses, ham and oh-so-lovely jam. All home-made.
The cheese is really flavourful
This is eggplant/brinjal mashed into some sort of paste, thats supposed to go with the bread...
A covered well!
Home grown apples, that goes into making Å£uicÄ, that is available in every household! Å¢uicÄ is Romanian fruit brandy, typically from plums, apples etc
Besides Å£uicÄ, we had self-produced wine from these home grown grapes as well!
Amazingly, the house is warmed by a generator, fueled by traditional cut wood!
Morning at Vadu Izei
Stopped by Sighetu Marmaţiei (Sighet for short) to take a look at their old prison, which have been converted to the Museum
Sighet is pretty interesting in itself!
The Hungarian Reformed Church
Parts of the exhibit in Sighet Prison, this showing the integgoration room during the communist regime
The prison cells hold all the exhibits as well lots of history
Our next stop, the famous Merry Cemetery in SÄpânÅ£a!
Merry Cemetery is a very colourful cemetery, with a very colourful history.
Each of these cross tells a different story, although all is painted in blue, the traditional colour of hope and freedom.
The creator of this Merry Cemetery started carving these crosses in 1935, and on each of these crosses, he wrote a witty epitaph to the deceased
It is truly regretable that we do not know how to read these epitaph cos they're supposedly be able to tell the whole life story of the person with just the pictures and the words!!
Every picture really different!!
Inside the Merry Cemetry church
Like all the churches in MaramureÅ, all the paintings are exquisite
The church ceilings are all so beautiful!
And here lies the creator of Merry Cemetery, just outside the church. He carved and painted his own cross, and wrote his own epitaph! (before he died of course :p)
Selling of trinklets and wares just outside the cemetery
The most common transport in MaramureÅ, the horse cart
SÄpânÅ£a lies just 4km south of Ukraine. It could very well be Ukraine in the distance...
A very friendly local girl, smiling for the camera
A 300-year-old troiţa, a cross which stands by the roadside, where traditionally, travellers would pray by the cross to ensure a smooth journey
Back at our guesthouse in Vadu Izei, Anna has prepared yet another sumptious dinner
Beautiful MaramureÅ countryside
