Breb the Beautiful

 

Breb is beautiful: carved wooden houses with shingle roofs and verandas, and a horse-drawn sledges hanging on the back of every barn – a reminder of the cold winters here, with deep snow for much of the time.

Some have fantastic carved gates, the size of which denotes the owner’s prestige in the village and they all have a privy in the garden. There are no roads in the village, just tracks, and the houses are spread out amongst their orchards and fields. Most people walk around the village stopping to greet neighbours on the way.

 

The houses have electricity but the water is piped down from the mountain to standpipes in the gardens, so, apart from this and the satellite dishes and wellies, everything is as it has been for hundreds of years.

 

They are practically self-sufficient: each household has a horse, a pig, a couple of cows some chicken and a nicely manured veggie patch! Also a couple of fields to grow hay for the winter. We watch the gradual bloom of ‘teletubby’ haystacks over the summer, every day more and more appear.

 

Apparently one cow will eat its way through four or five of these each year! The local market reflects this lifestyle, selling livestock, horseshoes, rakes and scythe blades.

 

The women wear traditional clothing – a knee-length skirt, full and tied at the waist, a blouse and flowery headscarf; men often wear funny little hats made from birch bark and felt homespun waistcoats. We are surprised to see many of the young people still embracing this.

 

People are incredibly friendly here, – it’s difficult to believe that people who work so hard and have so few material possessions can be so cheerful, friendly, welcoming and generous – but it’s the same story the world over.

 

Duncan and Penny eventually find a couple of houses to buy, one of them  "in need of some repair" to the roof!

We spend a day up the road in Sapanta home to the "Merry Cemetery" where colourfully painted carved wooden gravestones depict a scene from the life of the deceased along with a witty limerick.

Here also we find a fantastic and newly constructed all wooden church, testimony to the woodworking skills that still exist.

The village is also hosting a festival of traditional music and dance from the region which climaxes with a stomping set from the gypsy band Taraful Codrisul.

The festival results in Basil appearing on the front page of the local newspaper along with local dignatories!

 

We wave goodbye to Penny, Duncan and the kids who catch an overnight train to Bucarest en route to the UK before heading on to Egypt for the winter.

 

We attend a wedding celebration, which starts at 8 o’clock in the evening. There is a live band playing traditional music – mad fiddles and accordions – and the villagers dance circle and line dances far into the night, and beyond, with 20 minute breaks every couple of hours for another course of food and liquid fuel. By 3 am we’ve had it and stagger back to bed. We’re amazed to hear them still singing and stamping at 7 o’clock the next morning and even more amazed when the party finally winds down at noon!!

We go to the traditional Giulesti festival in the village. It isn't a special event put on for tourists, just a good excuse for everybody to put on their Sunday best and enjoy the music and dancing.

Here's a link to a short video we made of the dancing.

We shelter here, in the cool shade of apple trees, for August whilst forest fires rage over much of southern Europe. But, all good things come to an end, otherwise how could you move on to the next good thing – in our case Jason and Edwin coming to meet us in three week’s time in Istanbul!!

Fond farewells to Juan, Lucia and Joanna at Pension Lucia, where we have been parked; fond farewells to Breb, where we are sure that we will return, and – wagons roll. We emerge, blinking onto Romania’s shocking roads.

Across the mountains of Maramures, stopping briefly here and there.

We see more of the incredible richness and diversity of traditional buildings in Romania. Each area has its distinct styles. They are particularly fond of roof, window and veranda embellishments.

 

We spend a long and somewhat smoky day on a wood-fired steam engine, chugging up and up a mountain logging trail alongside the river that they use to float the trees downstream. It is very beautiful and we afterwards hear that it features in Michael Palin’s latest TV travelogue, set in Eastern Europe.

 

Other days are spent visiting a couple of the spectacular waterfalls in the area: climbing up steep mountain tracks through beech and fir forests or wizzing over the tops of them on a ski-lift!

 

This water is put to good use lower down in the valley where it powers traditional wooden 'washing machines' - very impressive.

 

Then down, down, down, between gardens with their apple, pear and plum trees laden with fruit (most of which will be distilled into the polenca of which the Romanians are so fond!)

 

... onto the plains and the long trek south past Bucharest and over the great River Danube to Bulgaria...