Day 5 – Around Vatra Moldovitei
9.00k
Today’s notes are quite short as its late and I've
been drinking Palinka, the rather flammable Hungarian fruit brandy favoured in
these parts. I've tried a few variants of this over the years – grappa, raki,
rakija, etc, and Palinka could definitely be classed as the most breath-taking
example so far encountered!
Anyway, back to the story. Our first stop was just a
two minute walk from the pension – the Moldovitei monastery. It's one of the
famous painted monasteries found in Moldavia, and has quite a history.
Founded
in about the 14th Century, frescoes were added inside and out. It
eventually fell out of use as a monastery during communist times, but was
reopened as such in the 1990s.
It’s undoubtedly interesting and very beautiful,
although controversial in that it was renovated during the late 1950's and so
displeases the purists. For the layman, though, it was wonderful to see the frescoes, depicting scenes from the bible and notable historic scenes, as they
were intended to be seen – bright, colourful and very moving, clear images
telling the bible stories and what lay in store for those who transgressed or
drank too much Palinka!
Next, we went to the Painted Egg Museum. Now, I can
tell there will be some who immediately call to mind Keswick’s noted Pencil Museum.
But before your eyes glaze over, worry not: this was another delight. Virtually
all the decorated eggs are the work of one woman, and there are several thousand
on display. The work is intricate, detailed and time consuming, and requires
much skill, patience, concentration and steadiness of hand, and they are quite
remarkable. The link below takes you to a short video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0g-b1diyn0
It rained all day, so at lunchtime we popped back to
the pension to dry off a little and prepare for the afternoon. I spent time
looking at the map of Romania with Costin, getting a better feel for the
geography. The country was formed from various areas, all rich with historical
significance – Wallachia in the south (between the Danube and the Carpathians),
Transylvania to the west (North of the Carpathians, and named so by the
Hungarians, not the Romainians), and Moldavia to the north east.
After lunch we took a steam train ride along the
valley for about an hour, to a village called (I think) Argel. We came part way
back before disembarking for a 9 kilometre hike over the hills back to
Moldovita where Gelu was waiting with the van.
It was misty and continued to rain most of the way,
involved a steep-ish climb on a muddy track and teased us with fleeting views,
but was very enjoyable nonetheless. We talked with Costin about the state of
the milk industry and farming in general, and some of the good and bad situations
in our respective countries.
Returning to the pension, we had dinner at 7.30pm. The
first course was a full dinner-sized portion of goulash and boiled potatoes,
followed by another complete meal of forest mushrooms in cream with polenta,
followed by a large filled pancake. We were stuffed! I think our hostess thinks
we are underfed, although for the life of my rotund self I can't think why!
Day 6 - From Vatra Moldovitei to Pass (Ciumarna)
16.75k
Today we walked from the pension on a lengthy hike to
reach a pass at (I think) Ciumarna.
We began walking at 9.30am after another prodigious
breakfast, and immediately started to lug our swollen bellies along a rising
ridge with views back to Vatra Moldovitei. It was a misty start, with rain
seemingly imminent and low cloud rising from the valleys as often happens in
mountainous areas.
We hadn't gone too far when we met a Shepherd whose
dogs had come to greet us a bit over-enthusiastically – guardians of the flock
whose bite is definitely worse than their bark. He walked with us a short while
until we were moving away, and all was well.
The clouds lifted a little, but never cleared
entirely. Having finally gained some height, the next few hours were spent
navigating a sinuous route by and across a complex arrangement of ridges and
hillsides. Sometimes in woodland, sometimes across open pasture, and generally
level for the most part, the occasional ups and downs were steeper and more
prolonged than expected.
It had all been a bit Led Zeppelin IV this morning - Black Dogs, a Misty Mountain Hop and now Four Sticks (stacks)!
In one section of woodland, we came across a large,
clear paw-print, followed by further prints nearby. Too large for a dog, these
were wolf tracks. Actual. Wolf. Paw-prints. How about that?
From what we could work out there were perhaps three
animals, including at least one of adult size. Other tracks running exactly in
line suggest they were tracking a deer of reasonable size. Both sets of tracks
followed the trail for some way before disappearing into the woods, so we got
to be trackers ourselves.
We knew wolves were present in these mountains, and had
hoped to see evidence. The sheer quiet of these woods made the find that bit
more likely, but took away nothing of the magic!
We were still awe-struck sometime later when we
stopped for a brief lunch. Continuing, we passed villages and hamlets, barns
and houses, all well off the beaten track.
Finally, though, we could see our destination through
the trees, although the circuitous nature of the trail meant we were still about
three-quarters of an hour away. After a final few ups and downs, we climbed to
the road to meet the van, followed for those last few hundred metres by a dog
of such beseeching look we took pity and gave it a spare sandwich!
The sign at the end of the path suggested approx 7
hours of walking time, so we were pleased with our 5.5 hours.
With time left in the day, we went to look at another
monastery – this one at Sucevita. It was similar to the one at Moldovitei in
layout and shape, but built slightly later so had different frescos and
fortifications.
We also popped into a nearby pottery to watch vases
being made – the potter throwing pieces of consistent size, shape and design
each in about 90 seconds!
Back at the pension, we got cleaned up then went down
for dinner – a regional speciality chicken soup, followed by chicken cordon
bleu and mash (with chicken from their own flock) and a meringue and curd
cheese sponge to finish. Of course, there was loads of it, and we tucked in
while the uneaten remains of our lunch filled the table in our room.
Also on offer was more Palinka – wicked stuff (that's wicked in the
old-fashioned, “evil” sense of the word, not the modern "excellent" definition). If you
like drinking breathtaking liquids that burn all the way down your throat, marmalise
your taste buds, set fire to your stomach and finally blow your head off,
Palinka is the stuff for you!
Still, it breaks the ice and forges friendships
through shared adversity, and we had another lovely evening conversing with our
hostess and Gelu in a broken mix of French, English, Romanian and any other
language that did the job, with Google translate on hand if all else failed.
We retired early. Tomorrow is transfer day, and we
shall be in Maramures by nightfall.
Day 7 – Transfer to Maramures
Today involved a fairly lengthy transfer from Bucovina
to Maramures, about 6 hours driving in total, and also saw us switch from
Costin and Gelu as our guide and driver to Ramona and Dan.
Maramures had been one of the principal draws of this
itinerary. Inspired by the book Along The Enchanted Way by William Blacker,
amongst others, we were looking forward to seeing this place where the 21st
Century had supposedly yet to arrive.
Of course, we would find the reality to be somewhat
different, but in this region, right up in the north of the country, jammed
against the Ukrainian border, traditions and traditional ways of life feature
strongly, as do local food and crafts.
Setting off, we crossed several passes on the way
through Campulung Moldovanesc and on to Bistrica. Although primarily following
the valley of the Bistrica river, we were surrounded by mountains, and on
several occasions wound slowly up and down on switchback roads. Along with poor
road surfaces, 50kmh speed limits and frequent horse-drawn carts to avoid, it’s
no wonder that journey times in Romania are notoriously slow!
We stopped off in Bistrica around lunchtime, had a
quick look round, went up the tower of the main church, ate pizzas and pasta.
It was a further one-hour drive to our rendezvous with
Ramona and Dan. We said our goodbyes to Costin and Gelu, and set off across
more mountain passes arriving soon after at the border into Maramures.
About an hour later, we arrived in Botiza, the village
in which we are staying. Our pension is outside the main village by about 3km,
a set of traditional wooden houses of the Maramures region.
Really, it's an
idyllic setting – quiet, rural, traditional, with a big stove and hanging
drapes of rugs and cloths. We settled in with a cup of tea, then went to meet our
hosts for dinner – another pretty copious affair consisting of chicken soup,
pork and rice, and chocolate cakes for afters which proved, as we suspected,
just how good a cook our host Maria was.
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