Sunday Mist

I was suffering from intense cabin fever having spent the week on the couch with my leg up, so once the plaster came off there was no stopping me from getting some beautiful fresh Bucharest air (cough cough). I had to source some locations for a photoshoot so I packed my camera and aimlessly wondered round Bucharest. As usual for a weekend it was very quiet and the lingering fog added to the ghostly calm.







Around 4pm it started getting dark, so I went on a long metro ride and sneaked a few pictures of some stations before I got caught by some security guard, who obviously thought I was spying for the KGB. You're not allowed to take photos in the metro which is a pity cause I found some nice spots. Maybe i'll just chance it and see what happens. If you don't want to be charged as an accessory I recommend you avoid the highly sensitive photo evidence below.

Garden Gnomes Maker's Plastic Prostitutes

A Romanian entrepreneur has come under fire for putting plastic prostitutes on the street to advertise his garden gnome business.

Neighbours in Lilieci, Bacau county, complain the realistic figures distract motorists and are an unsuitable sight for local children.
Cristi Birgu, 27, who has just set up his business, defends his "aggressive advertising" and says the dummies will remain outside his house to drum up trade.
Apart from garden gnomes and prostitutes, he makes reproductions of Laurel and Hardy, Elvis, sports stars, cartoon characters and animals.

Mr Birgu said: "So far, my girls have attracted a lot of beeping from truck drivers but not too many customers. Sometimes I am afraid somebody might have an accident, arrested by the view, you know."

Resident Gheorghe N said: "I don't think it's moral to display such objects on the street.
"They are a bad influence especially for children not to mention there are a lot of people with respect for God here and who don't tolerate such things."

via ananova

Transylvanian Tour

Last weekend my folk's were over for their second visit to Romania. Last time we didn't venture outside Bucharest, so this time I thought i'd show them the real Romania, so we left for a three day drive round Transylvania, taking in the towns of sibiu, Sighisoara, Brasov, Sinaia and all points in between.

First up, Sibiu:




Next stop, Sighisoara.

Simian Mobile Disco in Romania!

Here's the video for Simian Mobile Disco's "I Believe", directed by Parisian, Romain Gavras of Kourtrajmé, and shot in Romania.

Delta Music Festival

After another grueling drive of 10 hours it was a quick sleep back in Bucharest before heading off to the Delta Music Festival in the south east of Romania. The Delta is an entirely different proposition to Maramures. The festival was being held in a tiny village called Sfantu Gheorghe which is quite literally in the middle of nowhere, where the Danube meets the Black Sea. The only way of getting there is by a four hour ferry ride down the Danube from Tulcea, the nearest town. The festival was a three day affair with acts such as Coldcut, UNKLE and Shukar Collective.

We had booked a room in the village and were quite apprehensive about it as we hadn't actually seen any pictures of it. We were to be met by it's owner on leaving the boat, and sure enough there she was. The signs weren't good. The lady in question looked like a warty witch, and she even brought here broomstick. Our fears worsened as we followed her to the opposite side of the village from the festival. We arrived at her house, which looked ok, only to be ushered past it, to a room in the barn behind it! No toilet, no bathroom and a smell that reminded us of dead people greeted our unsatisfied glances as we walked into our home for the next three days. Suffice to say we waited for the lady witch to leave before picking up our bags and hot-footing it out of there as quickly as we could.

We found alternative accomodation pretty easily, and at half the price, so it was off to the festival. I won't bang on too much about it as it wasn't very good. The music was below par, the place was half empty and the storms came, which kind of took the fun out of it. The saving grace was the beach where the Danube meets the sea. An utterly amazing place... oh, and the fish was a welcome sbstitute for Romanias staple diet of meat.

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...