Monday 19. October 2009 From the Bukowina and the Carpathians
By: KlimBimSometime in summer 2009
The first impression of this journey shall be the way out of town, along the river Cibin, direction north, direction Moldova, in the heat of the afternoon sun. The distance to Bistriţa was done by hitchhiking rest of the day. Past memories of travel experiences and destinations from different regions on mother earth, arriving in a town, which wasn't familiar to none of the strangers and that's why there was the feeling of arriving in the very unknown and the task would be, reaching new impressions.
- Only in the unknown it is possible to get complete new impressions, which overlay the memories from places we have already been. The magic of the earth lies in that. It's like this, that every location is a personal sheet of paper, which is new in the very first visit, but there will be more written with every next time. -
This first evening was affected from impressions like night-scene-romance in that small town, a gypsy pub full filled with smoke, with cheap beer and a three point five square meters wide non smoking room or a funny karaoke scene with a following accomodation in the bar. The journey went on with an obligatory ride in a Dacia and the ride on a Caruţa (romanian horse carriage) across the Carpathians, on which you enjoy the world so different than in a normal car ride. The security walls on the edge of the streets, made out of loose stones hold together in metal cages to protect the hillside from braking down, were an unforgetable accoustic experience, because the echo of the horse hooves was unique.
Moldova, Bukowina, a nice region in the heart of europe, well known for the countless numbers of monasteries, which are also interesting to see for non-religious people. The weekend went on in an unexpected way. It began as a harmless trip with a group of students to visit some of the monasteries, but it became a chivvy fast to visit one church, one monastery after another one. The charm of the beauty was lost as it turned out to be a religious sightseeing with no time, no end. Even the ray of hope those days to get some hops brew and a little bit of party on a gypsy baptism celebration was clouded, because of the interjection: "This is no traditional romanian music!" Anyway the architectural art of the master builders at the time period of "Stefan the Great" stays impressively and the churches which are painted from the outside are admirable.
From the east to the west. One night in Cluj, then beyond Huedin to the part of the Carpathian Mountains which lies between Cluj and Oradea. It all started with a hike across mountains and through the forest. At the shore of a lake an eagle was just a stone's throw away. The nights at the campfires in wild nature, the shout of a wolf in the far distance, only the rubbish which lies around at the nice spots everywhere, careless thrown away, could distort the picture of an archiac beauty. In Huedin, the small town where one gypsy castle stands close the next, there was a hungarian festival where hungarian minorities not only from Romania as well as a legation of Romanies hold musical performences of their traditional music. At Şuncuiuş we visited a cave, followed by an invitation to have lunch at the river shore. The hike across hills to the old men's cave afterwards we couldn't do, because of the missing equipment. But we got to know to some lovely folks, who run a farm on the mountain top. Just in that moment as we arrived they were building a traditional heap, where they pile up the hay. We drank fresh milked milk and we found our place to sleep for the night inside the barn.
A very last ride on a Caruţa commenced the end of the travel.
Category: Berichte