Northern Romania - Maramureș, Bukovina and Iasi

"Bună Ziua" Romania and Europe. That's Romanian for hello.

We crossed the border from Ukraine to Romania by foot. Off the train at Solotvyno, a 1km walk, across the bridge, and into the small Romania town of Sighetu Marmaţiei and the EU.

Bye bye Ukraine, we have such mixed feelings about you!

Across the river Tisa

Hello Europe!

In Sighetu Marmaţiei we stayed at the lovely hotel Casa Royal. Romanians speak a Latin language similar to Spanish, so thankful we can now read signs! However getting our tongue around some of the pronunciation is proving impossible. But we have already discovered that many Romanians can speak English, so it's pretty easy going with communicating.

The town of Sighet

Tried the regional speciality - polenta with melted cheese and bacon. The one on the internet looked a bit better than the one we got.

Romanian Gypsies. A fascinating people, with many problems very similar to indigenous Australians. We encountered them in most small towns of southern Ukraine and northern Romania.

Got a share car out to Sapanţa for the day to see two major attractions of the region - Merry Cemetery, and the amazing Peri-Săpânţa Monastery with it's wooden churches.

Merry Cemetery, very ornate painted timber tombstones that tell a story of the persons life and death.
Read more here

Most tell stories of rural life - women weaving, men working, etc....

Some are wacky...

Some show pretty clearly how the person died...

All the paintings are accompanied by a story, apparently many are humorous. But some poignant.

More translations here but it's a bit of a depressing read.

A short walk from the cemetery is the famous monastery of timber churches.

Margaret crossing a bit of a scary bridge

A lot of the construction does not use nails or bolts. It is carved and fitted together.

Next stop Vişeu de Sus. A train ride from Sighet along the Ukrainian border.

Stayed in the friendly guesthouse Casa Doce, small but nice pensione,  The highlight of Vişeu de Sus is the historic Mocanita Steam train - a 5hr journey up into a mountain valley.

We had an exciting adventure when the train derailed on the return!

By this time, we had picked up a hire car in Cluj Napoca (Romania's second city) and driven to the North East district of Bukovina. The highlights included the Painted Monasteries of Bukovina and Mănăstirea (monastery) Nouă Zosin.

Finally, we haded west to the city of Iaşi (pronounced 'yash') near the Moldovan border to see the impressive Palace of Culture and other interesting architecture.

Saw some funky VW beetles decorated with tiles outside an art gallery

Next part of the journey takes us to Central Romania and Transylvania!