Day 27 – July 9th – Cluj Napoca to Sapanta
Although the visit to Cluj-Napoca seemed so brief, we valued the experience immensely, especially the lovely atmosphere of the Hotel Agape. Of the two dominant churches, St Michael’s Catholic Church is by far the original and historical church of the city. Situated in the central square of the old town, the ‘Piata Unirii’, construction first commenced in 1349 and completed about 100 years later. Interestingly, documents from the time indicate that the construction was partly funded by the payment of indulgences (the purchase of forgiveness of sins) which was a widespread practice throughout Europe and which in part were influential to the ‘protest’ of such practices that eventually led to the Reformation and the beginnings of the Protestant Churches. Interestingly, the church was converted, with the population, to Protestantism between 1545-1566, then taken over by the staunch Unitarian Party 1566-1716, and finally caught up in the counter reformation by the Habsburg government supported Catholic Church.
The Hotel Agape is about 100 metres down Strasa Luliu Maniu which runs off the Piata Unirii. It has a charming old world feel, and once inside you could be forgiven for thinking you were inside a convent. The Hotel is owned by the Catholic Parish of St Michael’s, and is run as a ministry of the Parish. It also conducts a daily street feeding program for the city’s homeless, which is very commendable.
We enjoyed a breakfast before humping our back-packs to the car, and setting off for the 220k drive to Sapanta. Sapanta is a very small village on the very northern border of Romania (basically separated from Ukraine by the Tysa River) in the culturally rich Province of Maramures. We managed quite easily to negotiate our way north out of Cluj-Napoca, and into the northern rural landscape of Romania.
The road was surprisingly very good, and once we left the city, the rural views were extremely attractive. The countryside is dotted with small rural villages – it seemed that every 3-5k were slowed to 50kph for yet another village. We didn’t mind though because the villages were all very interesting.
We are also learning to drive ‘like Romanians’. It is quite okay to pass a car in the face of oncoming traffic. Although there may only be two lanes (one each way), traffic moves over to enable cars to pass effectively three wide – something that is quite unnatural to our Australian way of life. In fact it is considered poor etiquette if a slower vehicle (like us) did not straddle the white line on the outside edge of the road to encourage cars to pass without waiting for a break in oncoming traffic.
We were sorry to pass out of Transylvania, but glad to drive into Maramures, one of the most culturally interesting Provinces of Romania. Almost immediately we could see the unique way of hay stacking in the vast rural fields. The building architecture changed, and the churches were now much taller with high bell towers in a very unique architecture. We enjoyed the views all day.
The closer we got to Sapanta, the narrower the roads became, and for the final 40k or so the road was a series of multiple switch-backs much like we see on the Tour de France – with beautiful deep forests and some climbing and descending. We made a brief stop at a lone general store. It was a typical general store, but they always serve coffee – in this case no English, and the coffees were ‘espresso’ but what we might also call ‘short black’ – about two or three sips and its all gone, but for the equivalent of AUS30 cents so we couldn’t argue. I went to the ‘loo’ at the rear, and I’m just glad that Julie didn’t need to ‘go’ – it was a flat slab of concrete with an ancient hole in the floor. We were after all in the northern frontier of the once communist country.
Eventually we arrived at Sapanta which is famous for only one thing – the ‘Happy Cemetery’. The village is very tiny, although it does have a Monastery and a surprising number of ‘Pensiuneas’ – the Romanian ‘B&B’. We were surprised by this, but it seems these have popped up in view of the tourist interest in the Happy Cemetery. It is a very rural village with a lovely variety of genuine handicraft stalls. This Province and especially Sapanta is well known for the making of rugs and other beautiful craft made from wool. There is also pottery and the cultural Romanian clothing worn by the Romanian women for sale at roadside stalls. All of this was within 100metres of our lovely ‘Pensiunea Ileana’. The Happy Cemetery is actually across the road from our Pensiunea (Ileana was the daughter of Queen Marie of Romania, whose Royal reign was terminated by the Communist Regime in 1948, but who inherited the Bran Castle only to lose it to the Communists, but whose son the Archduke Dominic was awarded ownership again in 2005).
We enjoyed a walk through the cemetery with its unique and historic Church of the Assumption (more about the cemetery tomorrow), and browsing the stalls, while mesmerized by the common scenes of horse drawn carts going up and down the single street. We sat in the shade of an umbrella and enjoyed ‘mici’ with mustard (a Romanian skinless sausage) and coffee, just enjoying the 20 degree temperatures and the lovely hospitality of the people. Finally, we feasted in the small outdoor dining room at the Pensiunea on all home-made Romanian food – cooked by the 77 year old mother of the owner of the Pensiunea, whom we met after dinner. They are such lovely people.
We have a free day here tomorrow to explore all that this lovely village has to offer. From this beautiful and warmly hospitable ‘Pensiunea Ileana’, we send our love.
KRA
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