Romania trip with Original World

I traveled to Romania with Original World (131 Camino Alto, Ste. E-3, Mill Valley, CA 94941; 888/367-6147, www.originalworld.com), May 21-June 1, 2007. The land price was $1,490 plus $250 single supplement.

The price included all breakfasts and some lunches and dinners. Each lunch not included ran me about $4 and dinner with a shared bottle of wine, $12. Romania is relatively inexpensive. Food generally was good to excellent.

Our group found it impossible to use any type of credit card. The restaurants or stores either didn’t accept them or their machine was “out of order.” We couldn’t use ATM cards at the main Romanian bank but could at other banks.

Accommodations were neat and clean, ranging from basic to good. In Maramures we stayed in guest houses, in rooms that family members had moved out of temporarily for us. Our hosts were pleasant and helpful and the food was good. We had unlimited amounts of tuica, a potent double-distilled brandy.

I felt the nicest hotel of the trip was Casa Wagner Brasov, right on the piazza in Brasov, an attractive city.

Our guide/driver, Christian Iancu, was well informed, personable and helpful in all ways. Christian had some difficulty getting all the luggage belonging to our group of 12 into our Mercedes van. This would have been less of a problem had not several members of the group traveled with two or more large bags.

In Bucharest, I was disappointed with the Museum of the Romanian Peasant and the outdoor Village Museum. The highlight there was a fine dinner at a lakeside restaurant, where we were entertained with traditional music featuring solos on violin, bagpipe and panpipe and a group of eight dancers.

We drove to Sibiu through Wallachia and the Carpathian Mountains. Farm plots were long and narrow and we saw plows each drawn by a single horse but no tractors. The mountains and the Ost Valley were heavily treed and quite beautiful. When we arrived in Sibiu, people were preparing for the International Film Festival. We saw a splendid fireworks display that night to mark the festival’s opening.

Sighisoara is a small medieval town where we saw two fortified churches. When we arrived it was crowded, the only time on our trip we were aware of large numbers of tourists. Later in the day it was much quieter and more attractive.

We drove a long distance to Vadu Izei in Maramures, an area relatively free of modern changes, although we did see some TV satellite dishes. We were there on Pentecost, second in importance only to Easter in the Romanian Orthodox church.

The brightly painted wooden headstones with their portraits of the decedent and lines that each may have spoken make the Merry Cemetery a “must see.” A service was in progress in the adjacent church when we arrived. Nearly everyone was in authentic dress. Later we saw a huge procession going to an altar on a hill, where another service was held.

The highlight of the trip, for me — the fabled painted monasteries of Bukovina. Five of these are UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

We visited the Black Church near Brasov plus Bran Castle and the much more interesting Peles Castle, absolutely magnificent with its fantastic woodwork, mosaics and furniture, before ending the tour back in Bucharest.

JOHN K. MEINERT

Rio Verde, AZ