More wooden churches

THUNDER! That was the first thing I heard in the morning, so I slept in, waiting for it to end. By 10, the weather improved and it was time to start, with a smaller summit with a ski-lift to cross. It turned out to be a nice, sunny day and I visited some more of the wooden churches of Maramures, making my way to their towers via steep ladders. I consider myself really lucky to have been allowed inside these churches, sometimes finding the key-holder was a challenge for its own sake. Once a village-dweller made a long detour to find the care-taker, who was just getting up and he jumped in his car, told me to get in and opened the church for me.

In Budesti, having visited not less than two churches, the thunderstorm returned, but it disappeared as quickly as it came, so I could continue towards Barsana, passing some beautiful wooden gates, I took a photo of the first, second, third gate, but then I realized they are hundreds and hundreds of these, so I just admired them and stored these in my memory. I also met a funeral procession, where the elderly people were clad in traditional village attire, carrying a special bread. I need to research what this custom is.

Reaching Barsana, I found yet another monastery, it had a number of beautiful wooden structures, both old and new, in an amazing tranquil setting, with a lawn that was manicured to the perfection; feeling a bit like in Switzerland or France. The big surprise was that I saw a priest blessing something - and this something was a passenger car. The owners, a couple, were standing next to the car, while the priest went around it, offering the vehicle his blessings.

Then it was a straight ride to a town called Sighetu-Marmatiei, right on the Ukrainian border. I did play with the idea of crossing the border, but I left it off for the next day, and decided to do a 40 km-long evening program. I headed along the border to Sapanta, passing through some Hungarian villages, where some two couples were just getting married; it was fun to chat in my native tongue with the folks there. In Sapanta is yet another unique thing in Romania: the Merry Cemetery, having colorful tomb-stones, many hundreds of these, each of these having a sort of a caricature and then a funny poem about the life of the person. One of them reads something like this: “here rests my mother-in-law. Had she lived three days longer, I would be lying here”. Hmm, making fun of death? The reason, I learnt, is that the people of Maramures believe in eternal life and regard death only as a stage. The town also has a wooden church, which was the highest wooden tower in Europe.

Back in Sigethu, I found a nice hotel, where I met some young guests clad in traditional dress of Maramures. When they saw me in my biking outfit, they of course made me wear these traditional dress. It fit quite well.