We picked up a rental car in Budapest with plans to drive to our next stop in Romania. Starting out, the highways in Hungary were very nice. All the major roads seemed like they were built yesterday and traffic zipped from here to there. It was a different story though when we hit the Romanian border. There must be roads somewhere in Romania that are decent, just not where we’re going. Every 5 minutes you’re driving through another little village full of obstacles. Our GPS predicted that once we hit the border, we would have about 2 hours to our destination. 4 ½ hours later, everyone was getting a bit cranky. We always enjoy getting off the beaten track, but what were we in store for this time?
The farm stay we booked was in Ieud of the Maramures region, which is along the southern border of Ukraine. Having arrived, it was as if we time-traveled back over 100 years. This area is surrounded by mountains and we're told it's very difficult to reach during the winter. In fact roads rising to the various mountain passes are mostly closed from around November until April. This limited access over hundreds of years has helped keep the Maramures traditions and lifestyles alive. I plan to write another post about some of these traditions and the living conditions, but let me just say that you really do step back in time and bear witness to simpler times and simpler lives here.
In our village, horses outnumbered cars and pavement only existed here and there. But the people were great. Everyone had to check us out as we came and went, since it's not very often they see a new face. But once you engage with the locals, they're all smiles. I would often show them the pictures I was taking of them, and they would giggle like little kids. It was all very foreign to them I'm sure.
When looking into accommodations in the area, staying with a host family was a no-brainer. We choose this farm in particular because we knew they had three kids as well. It would be two more boys for Cole to play soccer with and a girl to show Mia and Ella around. The husband and wife were also teachers, so this gave us the opportunity to drop by the local school for the full tour. They spoke very little English, which was way more than anyone else in town, so communication was a bit difficult. The kids at school were great though. Everyone was so excited to have some Americans romping around, that some of the kids just followed us everywhere we went. We never did get a real grasp on the school day though as some of the kids went in the morning, others went in the afternoon, and some days they didn't go at all. We did decipher that school is mandatory from ages 6-14, after which time the next 4 years are optional. Liviu, our host, said about 50% of the kids choose to continue, while the rest start work on the family farm.
