Traditional Romanian Crafts

We had the privilege of working with Ioana and her mother on traditional rag masks. They came in traditional dress to help set the stage. We learned that the masks were made for New Year's Eve celebrations and were used to ward away evil spirits, thus setting the tone for the new year. The full-size masks are actually worn to parties.

Ioana shared the tradition of the "martisoare" with the group. A "martisoare" is a small, decorative adornment, worn by women on their jacket or sweater, given by men to women, children to mothers/teachers or children to children. They are symbols of good luck and health (a four-leaf clover or a horse show, for example). Symbollically red and white thread are used to show the purity of the winter and the emergence of spring. The martisoare is given on March 1. Each person in the group received their own.

Ioana showing a martisoare.

The following are examples of full-sized masks made by Ioana and her mother:

The group getting an inttroduction to basic stitching 101

Getting closer to a finished product.

The events of the day concluded with dinner at Hanul din Tulghes,  the second of two restaurants within ASTRA Museum.  After dinner, the students headed back for journaling and reflection, asking themselves, "What was a moment today in which you felt spiritual?" and "What can you take away from today and apply to your life?"

ASTRA Museum

Tuesday morning arrived with a bite in the air and flakes falling out of the sky. The group bundled up for a morning walk through the 10 km living museum known as ASTRA. To say the ASTRA is an "open-air" museum doesn't really do it justice. And by comparing it to Greenfield Village, one trivializes the importance of the project which established the open-air museum with folk technology as its main theme. ASTRA, which had its early beginnings in 1861, contains houses and workshops of the traditional Romanian folk culture from the pre-industrial era. Over 300 houses and other buildings are situated in the forest around two lakes with over 10 km of walkways.

That's a mouthful to take in before breakfast. At 9:30 this morning, Adi picked us up to take to ASTRA (this is a bit deceptive since our hostel is in ASTRA and the pathway to the main building is outside our front door). We would spend the better part of the day discovering cultural diversity through a variety of structures.

10 km!

The church where we will have evening mass on Saturday. The Church was relocated in ASTRA from Biserica din Bezded.

An example of a two-story home, signifying family wealth. 

The temperature was just cold enough for snowflakes to fall.

                                       

                                                  The first oil refinery was not in Texas or Dubai. It was in Romania.

The view across one of the two lakes in the Museum.

The home of the gold mine owner. His home illustrates his wealth.

A gold mine!

This church is the oldest monument in the museum. It was constructed in 1672. 

Women had their own "room" in the church. It was the first room one entered.

The doorways were incredibly short. The intention was to keep the Ottomans on horseback out of the churches. The horses shied away from the short, narrow doors. 

The people of the time painted themselves into the paintings on the wall. A most noteworthy example is the painting of Ottomans on either side of  Jesus when he was crucified on Calvary. 

The story of Adam and even. Painting the stories from the Bible on walls and ceilings was an efficient and practical way to deliver the message.

ASTRA has the largest collection of windmills. They also have a good number of water mills, as well. 

An example of a home of a wealthy family. Their draft/trade is in pottery. The kiln, shown below, was in the courtyard. 

The kiln of the potter. 

Lunch came at just the right time. It was cold and damp outdoors. Everyone enjoyed good Romanian food at Carciuma din Batrani.

A visit from Madame Jeler's parents!

Monday in Sibiu!

The morning came quickly, but we were ready to go. We enjoyed a European Continental Breakfast (it was unusual for many of the students to have cold cuts, cucumbers, and tomatoes at breakfast) and then headed to Sibiu to meet our guide, Adrian.

Adi introducing himself and setting the stage for what we would see in Sibiu.

A typical street in the Upper City. This street runs along the old city wall.

We learned that there were 14 guilds in 15th Century Sibiu. They were not only responsible for manufacturing products but also were responsible for defending their "tower" along the wall. There were 14 towers along the city's wall, with 5 of them still standing today. 

We were reminded of Sibiu's importance in the 12th century when Transylvanian Saxons settled in the area. The guilds played a key role in the sustained development of the city and surrounding areas. We visited Old Town, which has a very strong German feeling to it and church-dominated square. We walked to and through the Upper Town (where we saw a lot of churches and where most of the history is) and the Lower town (with its colorful houses on cobblestone streets).

One of our stops along the walk was the Orthodox Metropolitan Cathedral, built between 1902 and 1906. The inside was massive and as the group learned, there are no pews. When worshipping, one simply stands.  Jesus suffered much greater pains than standing for services. This is the second largest Orthodox cathedral in Romania.

The exterior view of the Cathedral

An icon at the center of the Cathedral.

One example of the art that is all along the walls. People stop and pray in front of these icons and kiss the image.

Another view of the Cathedral.

We stopped by several other churches and former churches. Many priests and religious were removed from the country after WWII. On one side of the Great Square is the Roman Catholic Church and the former Jesuit Residence. It is a baroque building that was built between 1726 and 1738. There are gold chandeliers and huge pink marble columns.

The groups with Adi learning about the Great Square, including the Jesuit Residence on the left and the Roman-Catholic Church on the right.

The interior of the Catholic Cathedral.

We also walked past the Ursuline Monastery. That's what it is now. It started as a Dominican Monastery in 1474. In 1543 it became a Lutheran church and then in 1755, it became the Ursuline Monastery. It too has a baroque interior style, even though the outside of the building remains gothic.

 The building on the left is being described by Adi as the Ursuline Monastery.

We also saw the Evangelical Cathedral in Huet Square. This church towers over both upper and the lower town. One of the interesting facts that we learned was that the four towers surrounding the main spire meant that the town used a form a capital punishment for crimes. This area of the town is where a fully German school still remains, indicating the strength of the German heritage here.

A view of the Evangelical Church from the road in the lower town.

Our walk took us to the famous Bridge of Lies. It was built in 1859 and was the first wrought iron bridge in Romania. We know it more for the legends that surround it. One is about local merchants who would have disputes here and the other about the passionate but not necessarily truthful vows of young lovers. 

The students on the Bridge of Lies

A sample of the wrought iron handiwork.

The view from below the Bridge of Lies, as we walked to dinner at La Cuptor (The Oven)

At some point during the walk, Adi was asked about the significance of the sewer caps we saw all over town.  As it turns out, Sibiu - Hermanstadt was Europe's Cultural City of the Year in 2007. It was quite an honor and well deserved, as Sibiu is host to many festivals throughout the year.

The day in Sibiu was really great. There was a lot of walking, time for eating and even some time to take a look at the shops along the Pedestrian Zone. It was precisely at this time in the late afternoon that it began to rain. It was a good thing that dinner was just a short walk away.

Dinner together at La Cuptor.

A restaurant special: Bone Marrow

Another special: Pig's Ear

And yet another special: Camembert Cheese with berries and pistachios.

And that was our first day in Sibiu.

Is it really Monday?

Let's talk about Saturday and Sunday, first. We had a slight delay out of Detroit to Frankfurt. This delay proved to have been a good thing for us. Our 5:05 p.m. flight was delayed until after 7:00 p.m. We were assured that they could make up the time in the air and that we would make our connections.

There is no need to talk about the turbulence (which was remarkable) since we can talk about the next leg of our journey. Who would have believed that Frankfurt, Germany would have enough snow on the ground (and also in surrounding areas) to cause thousands of passengers to miss connecting flights. Not only did we miss our original flight, but also our second booked flight, only to be told that no flights would be taking off on Sunday to Vienna (and at least a half-dozen other cities).
What do you do when no planes are taking off, you get directed to the train station. Yes, the suggestion was that we take a Plane-Train to Vienna.

Off we went, in search of someone to help us continue our journey. Several thousand other passengers were in search of the same person. We caught a break - we were directed to Group Ticketing. At 10:26 a.m. we were told that we had been re-booked on the 11:00 a.m. flight, but that clearly we weren't going to make that, were we?  First of all, how were we to know that we had been rebooked? Second of all, how were we to know that flights were again taking off for Vienna? We were directed upstairs to another Group Booking area.

At 10:33 a.m. we were logged in and given a "take a number" kind of number.  We were "3169" and they were someplace in the low "3120s" when we got settled with other stranded passengers. Lufthansa kept the snack cart well-stocked so people were not going to suffer from hunger or thirst.  But the wait was wearing on everyone.

At 1:45 our number was called. By now we were friendly with other stranded passengers, each rooting on the other, hoping someone was getting good news. We met a very competent Lufthansa agent named Bradley. By 3:15 he had us re-ticketed all the way to Sibiu. We would fly to Munich and then to Sibiu!

Our flight from Frankfurt to Munich.

Our flight from Munich to Sibiu. We drove so long to get out to the plane that it felt like we were driving to Romania. It was cold and windy, but we knew that we were just a few hours away from our final destination.

Bradley, with Lufthansa, did well by us. We occupied 8 of 9 of the Exit Row seats.

After 30 hours of travel, we arrived in Sibiu, Romania early Monday morning. We were greeted by our guide from Carpathian Tours, Sebastian and driven to our hostel, Hanul Vestem in the ASTRA Museum.

Our mini-bus. We'll be traveling with this vehicle on Thursday morning for our excursion to Bran and Sighisoara.

After everyone was settled into their rooms (the accommodations are very nice), the pockets were emptied of all the collected Boarding Passes for this "day" of travel!

Now let's talk about Monday!