Day 24 - Thursday 18th June

When I opened the curtains this morning, I was pleased to see it was a bright sunny day with clear blue skies. However when we went down to breakfast at 8am, it was still quite cool. Once again it was a limited choice for the buffet. The Australian couple we'd met last night came to breakfast too and we had another opportunity to find out more about their travels.

It was about 9:20am before we left the hotel on our journey south back into Transylvania.

Along the way, we saw more of the sights that are so fascinating in this area. Apart from the gentling rolling green countryside and quaint villages, there are the people we saw along the roads. Some were walking, some on bicycles and some on horses and carts. People often sit on chairs or benches outside their houses and watch the world go by.

For our morning break, we stopped at a roadside cafe, Hanul Ursilor, from which we had a view of a citadel. This structure is famous in Romania because it is where ten Romanian soldiers repelled the invading Ottoman army despite being massively outnumbered.

The first destination of the day was the Gradina Zoo in Dragos Voda near Neamt. Apart from brown bears, peacocks and deer, they have a small number of Zimbri which are almost extinct. This is one of only two locations that still have this animal and they have a breeding program to try to save the species.

A short distance away in Neamt, we stopped at a fortified monastery. One of the reasons Alex took us here was to show us a church where very little restoration has been undertaken of the internal frescoes. The walls are dark rather than being bright with colour and this makes the whole church feel dark.

The monastery has a museum with numerous artifacts including printing presses, weapons and a king's crown.

Next we took a detour near the town of Bicaz to visit a dam that was built by political prisoners in the communist era. It has great views of the valley below. The lake formed by the dam is used for pleasure craft.

Alex had forewarned us that we'd be seeing three monsters today but he wouldn't elaborate on what type of monsters they were. They turned out to be three large cement factories that were built in the valley we were passing through. I guess they were monsters - partly because they were so big and partly because they jarred with the beautiful surroundings.

The road through the Carpathians Mountains took us through a gorge, Bicaz Gorge, with tall cliffs on either side of the road. In some areas, the cliffs were hanging over the road. We stopped and took a walk along the road to admire the gorge and to take photos of the gorge and the stream.

There were numerous street stalls lining the road. Suzy took the opportunity to look for slippers for Alexis and Amelia. After visiting several stalls, she found some that seemed to be the right size.

After passing through the gorge, we stopped at an impressive hotel that  has an elegant restaurant with Hungarian influence. Alex and Suzy had goulash soup whereas I had goulash kettle (I think). Mine was like a soup but it had more meat and was more spicy.

The beer I had was another Romanian beer called Bergenbier. Although it was a good beer, I think I prefer Ciuc or Ursus.

After lunch, we walked up the hill to the Red Lake. There are various stories as to why it is known as the red lake. It was a pleasant spot that people use for boating. It was about 4pm by this time and we were running behind schedule.

Further on, we stopped at the top of the mountain range to admire the view and take photos of the valleys below. Up here the temperature was only 15C.

The last stop of the day was to visit a gypsy family. When we arrived at their house, there was a police car in the driveway. Now before you jump to conclusions, the police weren't there because the gypsies were in trouble. It turns out that the father of the house is the village policeman.

The house is occupied by four generations of this Transylvanian Gypsy family. We were introduced to some of them before one of them, Clara, sat down with us in their kitchen so we could ask her questions about the gypsy way of life.

Clara is probably about 23 years old and is considered to be well educated because she went to school, unlike most female gypsies, and reached year 8. She has two children - a boy aged 8 and a baby girl aged about one.

The word "marriage" seems to be used loosely in their world. She has had two husbands - only one of which was a formal husband as opposed to being a gypsy marriage. She had her first child at 15 and her cousin was only 13 when she had her first child.

Their family have lived in this village for several generations. The wife normally lives with the husband's family and Clara is back with her own family after the previous relationships broke up. She is planning to divorce her last husband.

She said there are castes in the gypsy system like there is in India where they originally came from. Her family is from the highest caste and they have lighter skin. The lower classes are poorer and have darker skins. Each caste has slightly different dress codes. They only communicate within their own caste or the next level.

By the time we reached the Hotel Fronius at Sighisoara, it was about 7:30pm. This was later than originally planned. The itinerary called for a guided tour of the old town but we agreed to postpone that until tomorrow morning because it had already been a long tiring day with a lot of driving and a lot of stops.

Our room was on the second floor and once again Alex carried our big bags up the stairs for us. This room has a view of the clock tower which is one of the highlights of the town.

It was a spacious room with a large ensuite bathroom. The shower is in the bath but there is no shower curtain. Although the lighting in the bathroom is better than we've had recently, the lighting in the bedroom could have been better - especially when the curtains are closed. There weren't many power points and so I had to unplug the kettle i  order to plug in my powerboard.

This hotel has fantastic old-style character. It is a centuries-old building that has to be maintained in its original structure and style. It has tiled floors, brick walls and timberwork. The furnishings are tasteful timber pieces.

The entrance to the hotel is through an original brickwork arched passageway that leads to the reception and breakfast area. You go into the outside courtyard and go up a series of timber staircases to get to our bedroom. In the corridor on the top level, there is a glass panel in the floor showing some of the original building structure.

Throughout the hotel, it is decorated with artifacts of the period when the town was built - such as pottery and timber articles. This place is very pleasantly presented and preserved. It has elegance, style and real class.

At first we thought there was no air conditioning until I noticed a small vent in the ceiling and some controls on the wall. The controls didn't seem to produce any results. We asked the staff and they said they'd turned off the master control in the building and would turn it back on for us.

The WiFi reception wasn't strong and the internet access was unreliable. I had better success using my mini WiFi.

We settled into our room and then ventured out to find somewhere for dinner. Alex had suggested two restaurants in the main plaza of the old town as the best option. The plaza is very close to our hotel. The first restaurant was an open-air cafe but all the tables were taken and so we went to the second option.

This restaurant is in the house where Dracula was born. We went upstairs and were shown to an open-air terrace at the rear. It was a very pleasant setting (except I probably should have brought my jumper with me). Throughout the building there are Dracula memorabilia.

I had a Zander (fish) dish and Suzy decided to go for cooked vegetables again followed by a donut-like dessert. We had a litre carafe of red wine which turned out to be better than the one we'd had a couple of nights ago.

It was getting dark by the time we left the restaurant.

As with most other hotels around Romania, the bed had single doonas and no top sheet.

Day 23 - Wednesday 17th June

We had a reasonable night's sleep. There weren't too many rural noises to wake us up. Sleeping in a single bed with a single doona and no top sheet is still a challenge. People in this part of the world are obviously used to it. Initially we'd left open the door to the balcony to let some air into the room and to cool it down but Suzy closed it during the night because it was getting too cool.

Breakfast at the Casa Humor Hotel starts at 8am and we got there promptly at that time. As suggested last night by the receptionist, we brought down three bags of washing so she could send it away to be done by this evening. We were surprised that they didn't turn on the lights in the restaurant and so we sat a table near the window.

Alex arrived soon after. We once again insisted that he borrows a jumper from me to avoid freezing like he did yesterday. I also asked him if he could help me with recharging the SIM for my mini WiFi because the Orange site is only in Romanian with no English option.

At 8:45 Alex came to our room as arranged at breakfast. He managed to add credit to my Orange account but he didn't find the site at all intuitive. No wonder I had so much trouble figuring it out.

A couple of days ago, I'd been wondering why I brought three jumpers in my luggage. Although we had some cold weather earlier in the holiday, I hadn't needed all of them. But it's just as well I did because Alex certainly needed something to keep him warm and to stop him getting a cold. He opted to use my fleece with a zip front. It was fairly loose on me and it fitted him quite well.

With these delays, it was about 9:20 before we got away. Although they were forecasting 80% chance of rain, there were only a few very light showers. We were wearing jumpers and we took spray jackets with us in the car.

Today we would be visiting four painted monasteries and an egg-painting museum - all within driving distance of our hotel.

The first monastery was Voronet which dates back to the 15th century. It is close to the town of Humorului where we are staying. As with other churches in this region, it has frescos (paintings) on the outside of the church as well as inside. They depict religious events in the Christian world. It was built by Stefan the Great. The theme colour of the frescoes is blue.

Alex had told us us he would spend some time explaining the frescoes in this church because it would give us the background to the other churches.In particular he showed us the images on one side of the church that had various levels of painting showing the holy trinity, heaven, hell, the apostles, etc.

As he was explaining it all, I started to wish that I'd worn my spray jacket rather just a light jumper because the rain had started to increase from just a light shower. Suzy was well rugged up but said she wished she had brought her gloves with her.

As often is the case, there was a "photo tax" for taking photos outside the church and it was forbidden to take photo inside. There were a couple of other tour groups there including a German group.

Alex had intended to take us to a nearby coffee shop but found it was closed and so he drove us to another one further down the road. It was part of another guest house (pension) with elegant decor in the restaurant. The lady there spent a lot of time talking to Alex in Romanian trying to convince him to bring more tour groups to her guest house.

Suzy had wanted to post some postcards she'd bought and Alex managed to find a post office in Solca, one of the towns we were passing through, so she could buy some stamps.

He then took us to a workshop that made black pottery. We were able to see men working with the clay and then sitting at a spinning wheel to make pottery with their hands.

The next stop  was the monastery at Sucevita. Along the way, the rain was getting steadier. I was trying to take photos of the scenery and the horses and carts but this was becoming difficult because of the rain on the windscreen.

This monastery was built in the 16th century and is famous because of the depiction of the 31 steps to heaven.

Next we headed to the town of Moldovita. Along the way we stopped at a lookout with a beautiful view of the countryside below, At the top of the hill, there is monument in the shape of a hand that commemorates the political prisoners who were forced to build this road in the communist era. The temperature up here was only 9C.

At Moldovita, we stopped for lunch at the egg-painting museum. This is a small business that is owned and operated by a middle-aged couple. After thoroughly wiping our shoes at the entry, we were invited into their dining room for a delicious lunch.

We felt as though we could have been at home in Sydney enjoying a home-cooked meal. They had a timber dining room table with timber sideboards decorated with fascinating ornaments. The lady of the house, Lucia Condrea, had cooked an excellent lunch starting with meatball soup, followed by barbecue pork with salad and potatoes.

They offered us two varieties of brandy and then red wine. The finale was a delightful cake for dessert. We felt as though we were right at home except everyone else was speaking Romanian. It was the best meal that we'd had in Romania.

After lunch we got a guided tour of the egg-painting museum with the husband conducting the tour in Romanian and with Alex translating for us. Except that the man was very talkative and Alex had trouble explaining what he'd said before he moved on. Apparently he is a teacher.

I wasn't allowed to take photos in the museum except when he was demonstrating how the eggs are painted.

Lucia is the artist who paints the eggs. She is clearly a genius. Previously when I thought of egg painting, I'd envisaged simple designs. The artwork on her eggs is incredibly detailed and intricate. Many of the eggs are painted with religious themes and icons. Everything is beautifully coloured, artistic and symmetrical. They are genuine works or art. It must have taken her ages to do each egg.

Although there are some chicken eggs, most of them are duck eggs because the duck egg shell is stronger. There are some larger eggs from pelicans too.

At the end of his presentation, he offered a small selection for sale. Suzy had originally intended to buy some but decided they were too expensive and too much of a risk considering we don't know how we'll go getting them through customs in Sydney.

Next Alex took us to a nearby monastery. Again I paid the photo tax that let me take photos outside but not inside the church.

Alex then drove us back to Humorului to a monastery a few kilometres from our hotel. He took a different route to get there explaining that we'd travelling around the area in a circle. He couldn't talk inside because a nun was conducting a service. Across the road from the monastery, there was a series of colourfully painted houses.

Back in our hotel, I heard the mooing of cows and went out on the balcony to see two noisy cows in the paddock next to the hotel. Thankfully my washing had been done and so I had clothes to wear for the next week.

As we went down to the hotel restaurant at 8pm for dinner, it seemed as though the weather was clearing up. When we walked in, we saw Alex having dinner with Florin, the other tour guide we'd seen a couple of nights ago.

At an adjacent table, Suzy thought she detected an Australian accent. They turned out to be a couple from Melbourne who are also doing a tour with a driver guide. They had previously been to Georgia and Bulgaria.

Alex came over later and told us another joke.

Day 22 - Tuesday 16th June

Breakfast was in the gazebo at 8am and we checked out of the guest house after 9am.

The first stop was to visit the house of a wood carver called Teo Barsan. He turned out to be a very entertaining character. I'm sure he'd be a great salesman. It was certainly fun to visit his place.

He took us inside to see the timber products he was working on and then out to his work shed. The work shed had a mixture of traditional tools and modern power tools. In the yard we saw lots of timber logs that were waiting to be fashioned into something more beautiful.

The next stop was to be the Museum of the Romanian Peasant Woman in Dragomiresti but unfortunately it was closed when we got there.

On the way to the next destination, we passed a market. It looked like the same market we'd seen yesterday except that it had moved to another village. Along the way we passed by the City of Bistrita but didn't stop.

We were heading east to The Oriental Carpathian Mountains from Transylvania to Moldova. We stopped for a coffee break at the top of a hill that had great views of the valleys, farmlands and villages in the distance.

It had started to rain by the time we stopped for lunch as the Dracula Hotel and Castle which was built for tourists in 70s by the communist regime. I had a pork roll (pretty average) and an Ursus Premium beer.

After the lunch, Alex organised for us to do a tour of the Dracula room. A guide took us down to the room via narrow stonework passageways using just a single torch to light the way. In the room she explained some of the stories about Dracula. When she opened the coffin in the middle of the room to show us his remains, a man lept out of the coffin. He had successfully managed to surprise us.

Outside the hotel, there was a statue of Bram Stoker, the Irish author who wrote the books about Dracula.

It was still raining when we got to our next destination - a group of decorated (painted) houses on a side road in the countryside. I was the only one silly enough to get out of the car in the rain because I wanted to take photos of the houses.

Next we stopped at the Museum for the Art of Wood. Over several levels and numerous rooms, it displayed a wide variety of timber products including furniture, weapons, statues, carvings, farming implements, spinning wheels and other artifacts.

At the end of the tour, they also had a display of painted eggs. Suzy bought a few.

The weather was improving by the time we reached Casa Humor in the town of Humorului which is located on the Humor River. Our room was on the second floor of a three-storey building near the rear of the property which gave us a nice view of the town and the pastures on either side.

There was no lift and Alex carried our big bags up the stairs to our room. It was a nice room with two single beds pushed together each with its own doona. There was no air conditioning.

We had dinner in the hotel's restaurant where we ordered a 1L carafe of the house red.

Day 21 - Monday 15th June

We managed to get a reasonable night's sleep despite the heat and despite a barking dog. Breakfast was in the gazebo again and consisted of sausages, fried eggs, tomato, fresh bread, jam, honey and coffee but no fruit.

When I mentioned to Alex that I was still trying to catch up on my blog, he suggested that we set out today at 9:30 instead of 9am. As we left the driveway, Alex reminded us of another local custom - namely to put pots on a leafless tree near the front of the house. If there is an eligible young female in the family, then they put a red pot at the top of the tree.

The first stop was the market at a nearby town called Bogdan Voda.The roads along the way were pretty rough but probably not a great deal worse than you see at times in country areas in Australia. Along the way we saw local people walking down the road - usually carrying farming implements.

In particular we were interested in the horses and carts. Many of the carts were piled high with hay - sometimes with somebody perched on top of the hay. Other carts were just carrying people - sometimes with farming implements - and sometimes with the whole family on board.

I was busy taking photos from the car and occasionally we asked Alex to stop so we could get better photos. Suzy decided to use her iPhone to take these photos so that she could easily upload them to Facebook.

The markets were very busy and fascinating. They were clearly aimed at local residents - we were probably the only outsiders there. They were selling a wide range of goods including live poultry, clothes, shoes, produce, jewelry, tools and farming implements.

At the end of the stalls, there were dozens of horses next to the river and a bridge - usually a horse and cart combination. We were not sure if they were for sale but Suzy suspected that this was just the equivalent of their parking lot.

Outside the market area was the statue of Bogdon Voda who was the founder of Moldavia and after whom this town is named.

Alex took us into the grounds of the church across the road from the markets. Unfortunately the church was closed and so we just looked at it from the outside.

Next we went to visit the church at Ieud which is claimed to be the oldest wooden church in Romania. When we arrived, the church was locked up and so Alex made a phone call and ten minutes later a man arrived to open the door for us. He wasn't dressed in religious clothes - in fact, he was wearing a Hard Rock Cafe T-shirt.

As with other churches, it had a dominant position on the hill and was surrounded by graves. While we were waiting, I took the opportunity to take photographs of the surrounding countryside, the people working in the fields with primitive hand-held implements and the horses and carts that were passing by.

The front door of the church had an intriguing lock mechanism consisting of a rod through a whole in the door that connected with a grooved piece of timber on the inside. Clearly they had decided that they couldn't rely on this method because they also had two padlocks.

Alex asked the man if I could take some photos inside the church and he agreed. It's not very often they give permission for photos inside a church. Besides, I'm not sure what the reason is for the ban. Surely it would be OK to take photos if you turn off the flash like I do.

On the way to the next attraction, we passed a funeral procession. There was a car at the front and then dozens of people walking behind. As usual we saw lots of horses and carts plus individuals walking along the road many of whom were carrying farming implements.

The next stop was a new monastary at Barsana. This consisted of several impressive new timber structures on the side of a hill. After Alex gave us an explanation of the monastery and showed us inside the church, he left us to roam around the site to take photos.

The big surprise was to find a large cage nearby that housed about 6 or 7 peacocks. The males were very busy trying to impress the females by spreading their feathers out wide. The females were ignoring them. It was the beginning of a productive photo expedition.

Alex then drove us to a brandy distillery at La Moara la Niculai which is a town near Vadu Izei where our guest house was. This stop wasn't on the original itinerary but Alex added it because Suzy expressed interest in seeing a distillery after she'd sampled several brandies at recent locations.

The distillery was on the edge of a stream flowing into a lake. One thing that was unusual about this location was that they use the stream as a carpet cleaning business.This consisted of two large tubs and two water wheels.

We stopped for lunch at Sighetu Marmatiei. We found a nice cafe that had access through an arched passageway to a pleasant open courtyard. Once again there was an open grill in the corner of the courtyard where the cooks were busy preparing meals.

We found a table under the tree. This time I ordered a Stella Artois beer.

Alex left us to enjoy our lunch while he went off to find a shop that sold a suitable memory card for my camera. Although I'd brought two spare 16GB cards (in addition to the original 16GB card), I feared I would run out of storage space before we got back to Bucharest.

There have been so many great photo opportunities on this trip - including the Insight bus trip and the Balkan Trails tour of Romania. I thought I was overdoing it by bringing two spare cards but it turned out that I needed more.

Alex had to go to several shops before he found an SDHC card with the right specifications. Even then, the shopkeeper gave him a Panasonic card from his personal assets rather than from the shop. It turned out to be much cheaper than buying it in Australia.

The waiters and waitresses at the cafe were all wearing traditional clothes and before we left I managed to get them to pose for a photograph.

After lunch we walked a short distance to the memorial museum to the victims of communism which consists of a jail where these prisoners were kept. You can see the small cells some of which have chains in the middle of the cells to restrain the prisoners. The cells are labelled with the names of prisoners including some leaders who died here.

Although it was a stark reminder of the dreadful things that were done under communist rule, it didn't have too many reminders of the executions and torture of other places we've visited. In other words, they've elected not to show the worst aspects.

Next we travelled to the Sapanta-Peri Monastery where the church has the tallest timber tower in Europe. The fact that it is a new monastery was obvious by looking the surrounding buildings that house the monks.

Many of the churches we've visited have a sombre feeling about them because they are surrounded by graves. Our next stop was different. It's called the Merry Cemetery. Here the gravestones are colourful and have a painting of the deceased person together with a poem about the person.

This tradition has been going now for several decades and is the work of one man who runs the cemetery. It's a popular spot where the entry fees go towards refurbishing the graves and rebuilding the church.

After visiting the church, we walked down the street to see the house of the man who creates the gravestones.

We got back to the guest house at about 5:30pm. Tonight there was going to be traditional folklore dancing and singing with our dinner. We were there on time at 7:30 and started our dinner but the entertainment didn't start until almost 8pm when an Indian couple (who are also on a Balkan Trails tour but one day behind us) arrived for dinner.

In the entertainment group, there were three male musicians, two male singers and dancers and two female singers and dancers. The girls were only young - probably about 15. One was prettier than the other. They included the audience in the show a couple of times by inviting us to dance with them.

This group wasn't as professional and entertaining as the folklore show we'd experienced in Poland. The songs were too long and repetitive. The drummer did not seem too enthusiast. Alex commented that the drummer he's seen previously with the group was much better and had given the show enthusiasm and liveliness.

After we went to bed, there was a thunderstorm. This was good timing because we'd been expecting rain all day because of the forecast. We'd taken our spray jackets in the car all day to be prepared for wet weather but we hadn't needed them.

Day 20 - Sunday 14th June

Last night we had a reasonable sleep. The air conditioning managed to reduce the room temperature and by the morning it was quite cool. At least there was a single doona. It even had a top sheet.

Breakfast in the hotel restaurant started at 8am. Once again there weren't many people there. The choice wasn't extensive but it was still a pleasant meal.

Alex picked us up at 9am and carried our bags downstairs and packed them in the car. He then backed the car out into the street through the vary narrow passage next to the hotel.

My weather app said it was only 14C when we got up - it didn't feel that cool - and they were forecasting another hot day with a maximum of 32C.

The roads were good at first. Although the roads were windy, the surface was good. It was generally only one lane in each direction.

The first destination was the salt mines at Turda. It was obviously a popular spot because there were lots of cars in the car park and down the road. By the time we left, it was even more busy.

We'd been to a salt mine near Krakow in Poland on our Insight bus tour about a week ago. The salt mine here at Turda turned out to be quite different. At Krakow there were a series of long passageways underground before we got to a few large underground caverns.

Here there were a few passageways to start with and then some stairways leading down. Shortly we came across a gigantic underground cavern. It must have been about 30m wide and probably 40m high. Just like an underground world.

The passageway had led up to the top of this giant cavern. There were walkways and balconies along the edges. We didn't venture onto the balconies suspended along the length of the cavern - we stayed on the solid ground (salt rock) near the entry.

Although I'm uncomfortable with heights, Alex is more afraid of heights than me. Luckily there are good solid steel balustrades along the edge and I was holding on tight to the handrail.

We lined up to wait for the elevator that takes you down to the bottom of the cavern. The lift has a maximum capacity of 7 people and has a glass face so you can see the cavern as you descend.

This is obviously promoted as a family area. On the floor of the cavern, there are table tennis tables, pool tables and a kid's lay area.

They have toilets on this level. When I went into the men's toilet, there were about ten young men loitering there. I eventually realised why - they were use the hand dryers to warm themselves up - not just their hands - they were trying to stand under the heaters.

When you enter the salt mines, there is a sign saying the temperature inside is 10C to 12C and so most people wear jumpers but these youths were only wearing T-shirts.

There is another level below the cavern where there is a saltwater lake with boats on it. Suzy decided we should try out the row boats and so we caught another lift down to this level. This time it was a 4-person lift. Down there, we saw a sign saying we were 112m below the surface.

The boat ride fee was 10 Lei for 3 people. Suzy and I went in the row boat while Alex stood on shore using my camera to take photos of the event.

It's a long time since I last tried to row a boat. I found out that my right arm is a lot stronger than my left arm because we were initially going around in circles and I had to row twice with my left arm for every stroke with my right arm to avoid running into the wall, other boats or other structures such as the timber bridge.

Suzy was facing the forward direction and was giving me instructions on where we were going and how to row in the right direction. She was doing a better job of backseat driving than I was doing of rowing. In the end we managed to sail around the little island and drifted back to the drop-off point.

Heading back to the surface, Suzy and I waited for the two lifts, Alex, on the other hand, decided to use the stairs - hundreds of them. It was good exercise for him - especially since he is trying to lose weight.

The destination was the city of Cluj Napoca. Alex parked in the centre of the old town near the cathedral and took us on a guided tour of parts of the old town.

On one of the cobblestone streets, we came across street stalls. The first stall was selling tablecloths like the ones that Suzy had been admiring in our hotel restaurant. She decided to buy one but we didn't have enough local currency and so Alex lent us the cash. We soon found an ATM so we could withdraw cash and repay him.

We had lunch in an open courtyard close to the cathedral where we'd parked the car. It was busy and we of course didn't have a reservation. They managed to find a table for us in the shade to escape the heat of the day. Suzy and I both had hamburgers. I had a pint glass of an Austrian draught beer called Edelweiss.

Alex had warned us that the quality of the roads would deteriorate this afternoon. Although we encountered some gravel roads, some parts had recently been sealed. There were some sections where roadworks were underway but there was no construction happening today because it was Sunday.

We stopped at a wooden church at Surdesti which is a UNESCO world heritage site. Alex had explained that timber is used for a lot of the buildings in the Maramures area including houses and churches. The church was closed and so we admired it from the outside.

On the road leasing to the church, a local resident approached the car carrying jewelry such as beads and bangles. Suzy wanted to see if they were worth buying but in the end she decided not to.


The scenery along the road was beautiful - gently rolling hills with mountains in the far distance. The hills were green grassland and farms with pretty trees and occasional farm houses. Most of the time I took photos from the car but at times Alex stopped so I could get a better shot.

Suzy had decided to sit in the back seat today because she had better control over the temperature there. She had found it too cold in the front seat when the air conditioning was blowing hard. That suited me because it made it easier for me to take photos.

For the next two nights, we are staying at a family-run guest house. We arrived at about 5:30. It is located in a small village called Vadu Izei and it is located close to the border with Ukraine.

Alex had explained that it is a tradition for houses in this area to have a timber archway and gate at the entrance to the property. The driveway went past the family's house and past other buildings and gazebos.

Our accommodation was at the top of the drive in a three-storey structure overlooking the valley. Alex carried our bags upstairs and said we could pick whichever room we wanted. Suzy decided on the room at the front with the best view.

The room had a double bed, a TV and ensuite bathroom with a separate shower and no bath.  It was quite hot. There was no air conditioning and only one window had a flyscreen. The window had an unusual handle - twist it one way to open in as an upside down awning window and twist it the other way to open it up on the vertical hinge.

There wasn't much room for our bags and I set my laptop PC on the edge of the TV table. When I sat down on the small stool, it toppled over and I ended up on the floor. Suzy solved this problem by finding me a child's seat on the veranda.

We went down the hill to meet some of the family who were busy cooking meat on the BBQ. There are three generations in the family. We met John, George, Anka, Melina, ??. Alex told us there is an another sister who is 16 and very pretty.

Dinner was served at 8am in one of the gazebos, It consisted of meatballs in soup, BBQ steak, homemade bread and a crepe dessert filled with strawberry jam. They offered us three types of local brandy.

After dinner, we sat and had a long chat with Alex about his family, his girlfriend, the church and the meaning of life.

We were in bed by about 11pm. It was still hot and so we took the cover off the doona and used it as a top sheet.