ROMANIA (Transylvania)

This weekend we, along with our teammate Scott, were invited to Romania by our friend Joco Varro.
Joco was born and raised in the Transylvanian (formerly Hungary) part of Romania. We first met him in Zeeland (it was another one of those God-ordained meetings) and now we all live in Budapest. Since it was Pentecost which is a holiday in Hungary we all had a four day weekend to enjoy traveling and seeing a variety of sights in Romania. We were only in the Northwest corner of the country but traveled 1000 miles over
the four days and saw some beautiful countryside. Lots of rolling hills (kind of like the Appalachian Mountains).




Joco planned a very interesting itinerary for us that included a variety of cities and villages. We stopped at the "Merry Cemetery" that has grave markers that describe the person's life or their death. They are all brightly painted and have poems that are often funny in a somber way. It was really interesting to see.





We spent quite a bit of time at a famous prison that has now been turned into a memorial museum. It was really well done. Each room explained a different aspect of prison life and the government during the time. Some rooms were a tribute to a particular prisoner. "Juliet" Visky's husband was imprisoned there and we saw his picture. Also Richard Wurmbrand was inprisoned there. If you remember his book "Tortured for Christ" it gives you an idea of the horrors of this prison.
These are "gypsy palaces". There are different kinds of gypsies...some are nomadic and some are not. The ones who live in these palaces are not. You can't really see it but the roof is all silver and shiny...very interesting. These houses were along the highway that we were driving on.





















We also toured a monastery built in the 1800s. All of the structures were made of wood. You can see the well in the foreground and the church behind it.

This is the castle in Ozd, the village that we spent most of our time in. It's where Joco worked for several years with Bonus Pastor, a non-profit alcohol rehabilitation ministry. This castle is being refurbished by Bonus Pastor volunteers to hopefully be used as a hotel or conference center to help support the ministry.






















On Pentecost Sunday it was the 100-year anniversary of the Reformed Church in Ozd present building. (The congregation itself dates back much further.) There were many out of town guests for the special service. The women sat on the left side and the men on the right. You can see the man in front of the organ is the organist. The man next to the organ is the organ pumper. The white cloth is over the communion elements. We sat up in the balcony where Cindy got some attention by fainting. Fortunately Jack caught her and Joco had someone open a window which quickly brought her to her senses. After church we joined everyone for a big traditional meal in the town hall.

Later we went to visit Joco's 84-year-old grandma who still lives on her farm in Ozd. She no longer has a horse, cows, sheep, or pigs like she used to. Now she just has her chickens. She still has a garden and you can see her with Joco in this picture in front of her well (no running water and she still only has an outhouse!)



We saw storks nesting in every village we passed through.









































On the road home Joco spotted a shepherd's house and drove up the path to see if we could get some sheep cheese. This shepherd's wife was glad to show us around and show us how she made the cheese. The cheese we bought from her was from milk that they got from the milking that morning...can't get much fresher than that! She had some sweet cheese (similar to ricotta) and some salty (it reminded me of feta). We bought a kilo of salty for 20 LEI (equal to about $7...so about $3.50/lb)