Mocanita

Maramures has it's own Thomas The Tank Engine in the guise of Mocanita, a narrow gauge railway track that winds its way through the valley at the breakneck speed of 15km/h! We spent 6 hours on one of the trains and came across a few customised vans which had been converted to run on the railway, as you can see in the above movie. Health and Safety regulations are non-existent on the train with people jumping from carriage to carriage, gates flying open at any given time, and carriages derailing at every other sharp bend in the tracks. This of course all adds to the fun.

We spoke to some of the passengers who take this train to work up in the forest. They leave there homes on a monday morning, spend the week in the forest, sometimes working alone, only to return on saturday to their family. They have done this every week since they became an adult and are familiar with nothing else. Many have never left their village, let alone been to a town or city.

Marajuana in Maramures

Today we visited a traditional village house in Ieud, which has been preserved in an authentic manner. Inside it's basically one room where the family eats, sleeps and works. Outside I was surprised to find a garden full of marajuana from which hemp is taken and woven into clothes. Unfortunately it hadn't been cross-bred so it didn't get you high, but I suspect from the general 'trippyness' of the area some people may have acted differently in their cultivation process!

Marriage, Virgins And A Well Stocked Kitchen

Whilst on our travels around the villages we kept spotting the occasional tree decorated with pots and pans in people's gardens. Our hosts explained this weird sight to us. Apparently tradition goes that when the clean living daughter of the house is ready to marry pots and pans are plaed on the branches of a tree in the garden. This signifies that the daughter is a virgin, has a well stocked kitchen and she is inviting prospective grooms to come and knock at her door.

If there is a red pot at the top of the tree it means she's really desperate to get married, and probably a bit of a moose! They must be doing something right here because in our village of Ieud there has never been a divorced couple since records began!

A Village Celebrates

As I said before this part of the country is like stepping back in time. Horse drawn carts and wooden houses are the order of the day, with grown-ups and children still favouring traditional costumes over westernised attire. We were fortunate enough to stumble upon the tail-end of a festival which had been going on day and night for two days. It could only be described as 'very trippy'!

The Churches & Monasteries of MaraMu

Well daylight didn't reveal too much, as the village was covered in thick fog creating a somewhat eerie vista. We were awoken by cocks crowing as we made our way down to the terrace for a breakfast consisting of eggs, bread, tomatoes, cucumbers, battered pumpkin and some kind of hamlike sausage. After filling ourselves up we jumped back in the car and set off to explore the churches and monsteries of the area.

BARSANA

Barsana was our first destination and it was like walking into a fairytale. Wooden churches with tall pointed roofs greeted us as the fog evaporated in front of our eyes. This is what a travel guide says about the place.

"Barsana can trace its history back to the Bronze Age. Documents dating back to 1391 make mention of a monastery and a wooden church named for St. Nicolae.

The monastery was abandoned and the small church was removed in 1720. The church was later returned and additional painting was done in 1806 in the baroque style by Hodor Teodor. He used predominantly white, blue and red in his palette. The church is also home to several beautiful wood and glass icons.

One of the loveliest faces of faith and wood can be found in Barsana. The 57 m. high church of Barsana monastery ranks first among the wooden construction of Romania. The foundation work was started in 1993 and by now the church is one of the most beautiful structure made by peasants in the country."







Next we visited some other local villages, finding many more examples of great churches that really identify the area. These were less tourity and somehow made them seem more authentic. The one you see below was deserted and as we opened the creaky wooden door of the church we heard the scampering of mice receding into the darkness... or was it something else!

A drive across Romania.

Click on images for larger versions.





Back in Romania and it's holiday time. For the next 5 days i'm embarking on a tour of Maramures in the very north of the country. Maramures is still a very traditional part of Romania, an area that seems to have bypassed the everyday things we take for granted. No internet, not many cars but plenty of monasteries, old churches, traditional costumes and of course the local moonshine - harinka!

Myself and Monica jump in the hire car at 10am and prepare ourselves for a grueling drive across Romania. This is the first time i've driven in Romania and its a daunting prospect. Romanian drivers can only be described as insane, and the roads are extremely windy and covered in potholes. We travel north through Sinaia, Brasov and the Transylvanian mountains and reach the beginnings of Maramures as night falls. It strikes me just how vast Romania is and you can see different influences in architecture as you travel through its regions.

We eventually find ourselves at our destination, a small historic village called Ieud at around 10pm. We are staying in a traditional Maramures house, made of wood of course, and are greeted with a smile by our hosts who offer us a glass of harinka, a traditional drink of the region which is made from plums and tastes a bit like grappa. I go to bed eager to see what the daylight reveals...

Mad Dogs & Englishmen Go Out In The Midday Sun

After a fleeting visit in London it was a short train journey up to my home town of Stratford On Avon to spend a few days relaxing at my parents house. Not a great deal happened, which is normal for Stratford. I did manage to have lunch with some old and very dear friends, Andy and Jen and their two kids Callum (my Godson) and Abbie. I hadn't seen them in over a year and it was great to catch up on old times and see their beautiful kids growing up so quickly.






The rest of the time I spent with my parents and walking aimlessly in the hills and fields outside Stratford.

London Town. One Night Only.

Sunday evening saw me take a flight from Cologne straight to London for my good friend Irish Steve's birthday celebration. I landed at Stanstead airport in the pouring rain to be met by Sean who very kindly offered to pick me up. It was great to see him and we listened to some of his latest cosmic edits as we sat in rain and traffic on the M11, slowly making our way towards East London. After what seemed like an eternity we finaly drove into Shoreditch and hooked up with Steve and the rest of his friends in the Griffin pub. By this time it was quite late in the night and we managed a couple of beers before the pub closed. We then proceeded to another friend of mine Barnzley's new office which was in fact a carriage of a tube train which had been lifted up by a crane and left on the roof of a building! Final stop of the night was a Burlesque night hidden away from day to day life in a basement bar in Stoke Newington. It was great to catch up with old friends, although I wish I had more time to spend in London.

rOBOTS in Cologne

It's been a busy week for the rOBOTS dancefloor devestation duo. Last week established our monthly residency in Bucharest and this week we were invited to play in Cologne, Germany as the city hosted its very own electronic music festival Co/pop. Sven and I were joined by Sascha from Clubbing Mag for a weekend of german techno, german beer and erm german sushi! Friday night saw us get into the festival spirit as we visited the party of the weekend - The Kompakt event in the centre of town. To be honest it was a fairly lacklustre affair with too many industry types milling around trying to look cool, but we got to hear Michael Mayer, The Field, Superpitcher and others. After that we popped into another club to catch the final hour of Agoria in a smaller club before arriving back at the hotel at the very respectable time of 6am.



Saturday saw us wandering around the streets of Cologne indulging in some much needed retail therapy before getting ready for our gig for the clubnight known as Aphone. The club is spread out over three rooms, a bar, a ballromm and the basement. We took up our position in the basement, pushing a nice and loud soundsystem to its limits with a healthy dose of electro, techno and more indified tracks to a packed and enthusiastic dancefloor. At the end of the night, satisfied we'd put on a good show, I ventured out into the rain and took a cab back to the hotel.

This was my first visit to Cologne and although not as vibrant as Berlin it was a great cosmopolitan city with a lot going on considering it inhabits only 1 million people. I'm looking forward to a return visit soon.