A few days in Maramures

For those of you who have not heard of Maramures yet, it is a very beautiful and pritine area in northern Romania. It is one of the few places where many local traditions have been kept through the years, including the harsh years of the communist dictatorship.

This area is very mountainous and a little hard to get to, which explains why some of the traditions have survived.

Maramures has a lot of wooden churches. The local people are known for their woodworking skills. A lot of the old traditional homes have giant wooden gates at the entraces to their yards. There is also a museum which during communist times was used as a prison by the authorities and where a lot of the old democratic government met its end.

Maramures also has what is know as "The Merry Cemetery", where the local villagers are burried and on the headstone (cross) is writtens a short 4 line poem about their lives. It is invariably made to be funny, no matter what they did in their lifetime, and the crosses are painted in lively colors.