Last Updated on May 12, 2020 by PowersToTravel
To most people, crossing the mountains in good weather, in a car, is a spectacular experience. Mountains imply beautiful vistas and unique scenery. The Carpathians are particularly scenic, with the Romanian farmhouses and haystacks dotting the folds of the landscape.
Unfortunately for me, mountains mean nausea.
I have been able to travel the Highlands in Scotland for years without ill-effects.
What’s going on now? Now things are different – my father isn’t driving. My father with his slow, deliberate and safe driving generally created a gentle environment for my stomach. Now, I’m in a car with a wild Romanian driver – a driver we have likened to a New York City cabbie. Fits and starts, swerves and braking, my stomach was just all over the map, and at times I left it in the ravine.
“More slowly.” Greg would politely say.
“Oh. Ok.” The driver would slow for about one mile, about one minute in a fish’s life, and then that memory would be lost, like a fish’s, and we would be back to swerving and jerking about.
We left Sighetu Marmetei heading east towards Gura Humorului across the Carpathian Mountains through Prislop Pass.
Before we got to the mountains, we stopped at Barsana Monastery (see my previous post about it), a Wood Carver in Rozalea (not interesting – he wasn’t working and there wasn’t much to see), and a great traditional museum called Muzeul Țărăncii Române, in Dragomiresti, Maramures.
The Muzeul Țărăncii Române held an amazing stash of peasant life. The house itself was built in the early 1700s, and an unmarried woman lived here her entire life. The “dowry tree” in the lawn, with its red pot at the top, shows she never married, always awaiting a husband. She lived there until she died at the age of 74, when the house was preserved as she had left it, a museum to the peasant traditions. We were so happy to have stopped there.
But, back on the road into the mountains, we weren’t the only travelers:
I was not bothered by our competition, as it gave me an opportunity to take pictures, and think about other things than my stomach. However, as we came off the mountains, our driver wanted to make speed, and was frustrated by other competition. Gunning his engine, he kept trying to pass this vehicle:
Not only were we in the dust, so was my stomach. As you can see, the truck coming toward us on the two-lane road were just as intimidating as the one we followed. However, we finally made it down the mountains, and into more gently-rolling hills:
Egg Museum
In the small village of Vama, we stopped for a visit to the Egg Museum. The museum consisted of several large rooms containing floor-to-ceiling glass cases, each crammed full of decorated eggs from around the world. Organized by region, we saw eggs from South America, Russia, the Far East. The eggs were labeled in English too, which helped.
It was an eye popping experience that had to be taken very slowly and with great focus, as eggs are not terribly large, generally! I should have taken some close-up pictures, but I was so happy to be on my two feet and not swaying side to side, front-to-back on a mountain road, that I just wandered slowly around the museum, letting the colors and design just permeate me.
The little museum sold the artist’s own eggs and her eggs were quite beautiful, and also expensive. To this point in the trip we had not encountered painted eggs for sale and could make no comparison, however during the next few days in Bucovina we would see so many eggs for sale at all the tourist stops. I can say without hesitation that the painted eggs here were far, far superior, and worth every penny. Her eggs and painting were perfect. The paint on eggs at tourist booths was invariably chipped. At the museum we bought one for ourselves, and one as a gift. Here we are, happy with our purchase:
Hilde’s Residence
We continued on to Gura Humorului to Hilde’s Residence where we would spend the next two nights. Hilde’s is an inn with several cottages and outbuildings. Set on a farm, complete with gardens, fields and animal pens, it was however actually very close to the town as well.
We were allocated the cottage “Rustic” which was anything but rustic.
A complete self-catering cottage, my excitement held no bounds as I discovered the kitchen had a washing machine! No dryer, but a washing machine nonetheless!
With a two story house, complete with kitchen, dining room, living room and huge upstairs bedroom I found I had all the space to festoon all our wet laundry all over. (I didn’t take photos of that!) Such a luxury!
Ahhhh, dinner
Hilde’s Residence has two dining areas – one inside and the other a patio – and we chose to stay and eat there in the dining room. The town center was only a 1/2 mile away, but I was so content to stroll the country setting while the laundry sloshed about, and eat early.
According to my trip journal, I chose “Traditional Tochitura”
and Greg, “Beef Goulash”:
Food excited me in Romania. I believe this is the first country I have visited where the traditional foods really appealed to me. In Albania, there were so many olives, and I don’t like olives. In Thailand, the spices were too strong. In Mexico I couldn’t escape the guacamole and beans.
But here in Romania, the pork and beef stews, with their potato or polenta carbs, with some spice but not too much spice, made every dinner an adventure. Here at Hilde’s I chose the Tochitura, which is a pork stew (pork meat and sausages in a tomato/green pepper sauce) with polenta, and an egg on top! Click here for a recipe I found on the Internet that seems to match what I ate.
Greg “goulashed” his way through Eastern Europe, trying it in each country. Romania was his first, and he found it good – a beef stew in a tomato base, with mashed potatoes.
A happy end to an “up-and-down” day.
Interesting Links
Compass Travel – “The Romania Rhapsody Tour”
The next step in our Romania Itinerary
Day 7 – An entertaining visit to the Folk Traditions Museum of Guru Humorului
Check out my key Romania article
Romania Travel Blog – Itinerary, Planning and Diabetic Travel Tips
