Community Highlights Europe Romania Part 2

Romania Part 2

Published 6 Jun 2026 · Romania · Comments

Monday 1st June 2026

Today was a long day, but we saw a variety of interesting places today. Our first stop this morning, was the Astra Village Museum which is the largest open-air museum in Romania. All of the buildings we saw were originals that had been pulled apart in their villages and rebuilt for the museum.

Would you believe that this was a communal bus. Mainly to pull kids along if they needed to go to another village.

Our next stop was at Hunyad Castle, built in gothic style in the 15th century. According to legend, Vlad the Impaler spent a few years there as a prisoner after being overthrown in 1462.

We also visited the Densus Church, built atop a Roman Temple and believed to be the oldest church in Romania. This was incredible, it was so unusual. You could see signs of Roman columns and writing.

As luck had it, it was open so we got to see inside. Again you could see they had used 4 Roman columns inside.

We enjoyed dinner with a lovely family. We were welcomed into their home for a traditional meal and home made liqueurs.

After the first 2 courses I couldn’t resist laying down for a rest.

We saw a woodpecker while in the garden.

We didn’t get back to Sibiu until 8.40pm.

Tuesday 2nd June 2026

Leaving Sibiu, we stopped in the small town of Turda to visit the Salt Mines. Although no longer in operation, they have now become a popular tourist destination. Salina Turda is one of the oldest salt mines in the area.

The 700 metre long salty corridor.

As we wandered through we got to see some of the old machinery.

The little chapel.

We took the steps down to the bottom of the main cavern.

As we descended, we were amazed to see that the bottom of one of the caverns had been turned into an amusement park.

The cavernous chambers and the salt patterns were amazing.

What do you do when you get to the bottom of the salt mine? Take a boat ride of course. One of the other chambers had a lake at the bottom.

The lift back up to the top.

The stairway out.

It was a long drive today, but we saw some beautiful scenery along the way.

Local farmer selling homemade cheese on the side of the road.

We visited the 1766 church in Surdesti which is a UNESCO Site. This church is dedicated to the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel. It is famous for being one of the tallest wooden structures in the world, featuring an impressive 54-metre-tall spire and a two-tiered roof.

The inside was just as impressive.

We continued on to the little town of Breb where we are staying for the next 2 nights at the Pensiunea Lucia.

The barn and the cows and pigs.

Wednesday 3rd June 2026

Another lovely traditional Romanian breakfast. All home made from jams, bread, spreads, meats and cheeses.

We spent a whole day exploring the Maramures region today.

We first headed to our furthest point for the day and visited the Merry Cemetery in Sapanta. Since 1935, colourful wooden crosses have been erected in the cemetery. It is famous for these crosses with naïve paintings describing, in an original and poetic manner, the people who are buried there in addition to scenes from their lives.

These 2 are pointed out as the wording is so funny.

Plum brandy is real poison,
It takes you onto a path of sorrow:
It brought the same for me,
And Death placed me under its feet.
To those who love plum brandy:
You will have the same destiny as me,
For I died as I held tight to my bottle.
Here lies
Dumitru Holdiș
Who died at the age of forty five years,
Driven to death by bottle, in 1958.

Below this heavy cross
Lies my poor old mother-in-law.
If she’d lived another three days
I’d be lying here and she’d be reading this!
For those of you passing this way
Try not to wake her up.
Because if she comes by the house
Once again she’ll be taking issue with me.
Personally I intend to do my best
To see that she remains here
Safely in her grave.

The Orthodox Church in the cemetery.

Once again the inside was stunning.

We then drove to Sighetu Marmatiei which is the most northern town in Romania. This town connects directly to the Ukrainian city of Solotvyno via a bridge over the Tisa River. So Bogdan says to us, do you want to visit Ukraine today. We say, why not. So we pass through the Romanian border and cross over the river. Half way across is a red line on the bridge and this shows the border of the 2 countries.

We arrive at the Ukraine border and get our passport stamped.

We walk to the little town of Solotvyno, where we wandered around for a while. There wasn’t much to see but it was still interesting to see part of the town.

Upon our return, we had a wonderful encounter with a Ukrainian border guard, who saw our Australian passport and was shouting to all the other guards that we were from Australia. They came over shouting “kangaroo”. They wanted to see some photos of Australia. We then got stamped out of Ukraine and continued back across the bridge back to Romania. Just like that.

We then went back into town and visited the Memorial to the Victims of Communism. There are now cafes down the lane so it was hard to get a photo.

The former prison is today the setting for a museum dedicated to what happened under communism in Romania and the other countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The cells have been transformed into museum rooms.

Outside was a memorial to the victims.

There was also a sculpture depicting the victims.

We then mingled and sampled traditional delicacies at a traditional open-air market.

We tried the Scovergi a traditional Romanian fried flatbread. Made from a simple leavened dough, they are stretched thin and shallow-fried until golden and crispy. It was topped with sour cream and grated cheese.

Last but not least the Big Nail. Why, because where this town is on the map of Romania, if you pinned it to the wall, it would usually be about where this town is located.

Then we drove to Bârsana Monastery which is a stunning, active Eastern Orthodox nunnery. It is known for its remarkable traditional wooden architecture, beautifully landscaped gardens, and towering church.

The entrance.

The church.

Outside is the toaca which is a used primarily in Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic monasteries. It is a long wooden plank that is struck with wooden mallets, and it calls people to prayer.

We then wandered around the beautiful gardens to look at all the structures.

Some more of the unusual haystacks in the countryside.

In the evening we had dinner at a hosts house and there was a traditional band that played for us.

Thursday 4th June 2026

We got up early this morning so we could take a walk around the little village of Breb.
The town church.

The gates are traditional, wooden carved gates typical of the Maramures region and serve as entrances to properties.

The village.

After leaving Breb, our first stop was the Orthodox church on the hill, a UNESCO World Heritage monument. Erected in the second half of the 17th century.

Another beautiful inside of a church.

Not the sort of parking sign you see every day.

We then headed off, leaving Maramures and headed for Bucovina. The scenery was stunning. We made a stop at the top of the mountain.

In the afternoon, we started our decent into Bucovina. We farewelled the principality of Transylvania and arrived in the principality of Moldova. (Not the country of Moldova, we are still in Romania).

The locals take great pride in their beautiful houses, heavily ornate with floral and geometric motifs. They also have covered wells in their front yards, that are usually decorated.

Our stop for the night was the Casa Humor in Gura Humorului. For dinner we decided to share a pork platter.

Friday 5th June 2026

Today we enjoyed exploring the UNESCO painted monasteries. Their exterior and interior walls are decorated with elaborate 15th and 16th century frescoes featuring portraits of saints and prophets, scenes from the life of Jesus, images of angels and demons, and heaven and hell. Deemed masterpieces of Byzantine art, these churches are one-of-a-kind architectural sites in Europe.

Our first visit was to the Voroneţ Monastery. It is the foundation of the celebrated ruler and saint, Stephen the Great. It was built in 1488 in only three months and three weeks.

It is called the Sistine of the East due to the wonderful paintings. These are all on the outside of the church.

Inside the church.

We then stopped at a museum established by a world renown egg painting artist. Egg painting is one of the traditional art forms in Bucovina.

We then had another beautiful drive through the countryside. Views of the Bucovina Valley.

Views from Palma Pass.

In the afternoon we visited the Sucevita Monastery. High walls and buttressed defensive towers surround the Sucevita monastic complex, giving it the appearance of a fortress. Founded in 1581 by Gheorghe Movila, Bishop of Radauti, it was later expanded by his brother Ieremia,the ruling prince of Moldova, who added massive ramparts and turrets.