Eastern European Research Trip – Romania!

So early in the morning, we bid farewell to our sweet little room on the Viking Ship Jarl. We board a bus and begin our trip through the countryside on the way to Romania’s capital city of Bucharest.

One of our stops includes the Village Museum, with authentic dwellings from various areas of Romania. Have a look at some traditional Romanian houses:

How did they ever thatch these roofs?

A traditional church. Notice the cross:

This house below fascinates me the most, because it includes some construction details that may have been used by people who lived thousands of years ago — and, of course, I’m think of my novel-in-progress BONE FIRE:

To best deal with bitterly cold winters and very hot summers, this house is built partially underground. The entrance slopes from ground level down several feet to the living area. My “inside” photos turned out pitch black, so let’s take a look at the thatching.

You can see that it’s made of reeds. Do you think the hollow reeds would be better insulators than straw?

Raised food caches (and houses) would have been practical in the flood plains near rivers:

Here’s a close up of the woven-work of the walls. Neolithic peoples of Europe covered this type of stick structure inside and out with a mud/clay/straw (and sometimes dung) mixture. Today we refer to that type of building material as wattle-and-daub. Here’s a close-up of the woven sticks.

Carvings adorn the door lintels.

Although for most of us these carvings  would be merely decorative, the people who lived in these houses believed the images offered protection against evil spirits and bad luck.

I could stay all day at this fabulous outdoor museum, but we must go on to other places. Our tours pause for a wonderful lunch at a beautiful restaurant in Bucharest, the Caru’ cu bere.

Our 3-course lunch includes a tart and sweet salad:

And after, entertainment!

Aren’t the wall frescoes and the woodwork in this restaurant amazing?

After a walking tour and a bus tour of Bucharest, we are dropped off at our hotel for the night, The Athenee Palace Hilton. Tomorrow, I’ll post photos of the hotel and our room.

And then…we’re homeward bound.

Happy Traveling,

Sue