Blogs from Maramures, Maramures, Romania, Europe

HE SAID... Today we were travelling east from Debrecen in Hungary to Maramures in Romania. We arrived at the Hungarian / Romanian border mid-afternoon, where an austere young policeman came onto the minibus and took our passports. We then waited for an hour, not allowed to get out, until the passports were returned. At one stage we saw the young policeman come outside and have a cigarette, laughing and joking with his fellow police officers only a few metres from where we were trapped inside the minibus. Luckily, our bus driver left the air conditioning on, so we didn’t overheat. Our passports were finally handed over, and we continued our journey east towards Vadu Izei, a village in Maramures. While the landscape didn’t change much in terms of rolling flat agricultural fields stretching to the horizon, ... read more

Maramures. Zona respectiva trezeste fiori pe sira spinarii celor care nu au ajuns acolo inca. Dar nu trebuie sa disperati. Va facem noi o impresie a zonei respective. Si cine ajunge acolo trebuie neaparat sa faca o plimbare cu mocanita! Acolo descoperi zona Vaii Vaserului si tot ce tine de Viseu. Si daca tot eram in zona trebuie neaparat sa ajungem si in Tara Lapusului cu a sa Manastire Rohia. Si nu uitati si de Manastirea cea mai inalta din lemn de la Surdesti. Si Sublimul excursiei se poate incheia cu Complexul de la Barsana-un loc spiritual unde te regasesti pe deplin. Iar daca mai aveti chef sa mai vizitati cate o bisericuta din lemn specifica zonei amintim, Leud, Botiza, Poienile Izei, Vadu Izei, Bogdan Voda, Rozavlea, Petrova (comunitatea ucrainiana), Poienile de sub Munte, Va mai ... read more

Maramures Day 3-4 (June 9-10) A bus journey to Debrecen was next where we had a few hours to spend before catching the train. This was a surprisingly large town on the Hungarian border. It was a very hot day, and we were happy to sit at a café for a long lunch, only making a brief foray into the nearby square. Catching the train from Debrecen and finally crossing out of the Schengen area into Romania. The border crossing was fairly painless and I made sure they had stamped my passport to show I had left Schengen (very important for the rest of my travels). The countryside quickly differed from the Hungarian open planes, becoming much more hilly and treed (is this a word?). We were met at the station by a private van, taking ... read more

Botiza Botiza is a little village in northern Maramures, off a road, off a road, off the main road. When we got to Botiza we took a side road and found a nice guesthouse where we asked about parking up our van. The said 5 euros to camp in their garden and to use thier bathroom and shower. We had just managed to park the van between the spud patch and the plum tree when our hosts, Alexanderso and Lucia had poured us a glass of thier home made plum brandy (palincă) and invited us to sit down with them and their guests for a drink. Conversation was a little slow as we have no Romanian and their only forign language was French, so had to rely on what Shilpa remebered from French in school. With ... read more

We started our drive for a region called the Maramures. Reading about this area was really what enticed us to visit Romania. Due to its geography, the huge mountain range, it has been seperated from the rest of Romania. So it really did feel like going back 100 years in time and some of the villages felt untouched by modern times. Our first stop was a Cluj Napoca, a large university town, with lots of cafe bars. We only stopped briefly as we were excited to head to the more medieval Romania. Travel distance by this time we had realised took us twice the time we expected due to the state of the roads and on going road works on all the 'major' roads! As was it was dangerous to travel in the dark due to ... read more