Suceava Aug 4 - Aug 16

So, after some time, here is the last post of my Romania trip. My trip had 3 distinct parts. Bucharest, Brasov and Suceava. 

By now, I was a lot more comfortable and confident being back in Romania, speaking Romanian and being considered Romanian. It took some time, but I was able to get back into it. 

I was very sad to leave Brasov, but was super excited about visiting my family up north. 

After a long train ride, I arrived early in the morning in Suceava. I took a cab and went to my aunts house. 

That day, my aunt and me went to the market to get some food. I love these traditional markets. The smell, the variety, the familiar produce, the typical people. LOVE IT!!!

Look at that!! Dill, fresh dill. Just lying there, like it wasn't a big deal!!!

Olives!! OH MY GOD!!!!! So many olives!!

My grandma sitting in bed. 

This is the Suceava region tourist map, and under number 8, you can see my uncles house as a crafts display house. Fantastic!!

Then in the afternoon, my aunt and I went to the ruins of an old fortress. It was very pretty.

My foot on the cool old stairs.

They had a wax Shrek there.

And a Yoda. I had to poke him.

Friday and Saturday we stayed in Suceava, doing some shopping, wandering around the town, and spending time with my aunt and grandmother. Saturday evening my uncle came back from a trip he'd been on, and so we were ready to go to Paltinoasa, the village where they have some land and have built a house.

This is the swing.

The fireplace behind some very beautiful and aromatic flowers.

One side of their property.

The small house they built on the side, next to the original large house. They rent out the big house for holidays to tourists, and they stay in this little one.

The bedroom/living room.

Awesome wood cooking stove.

This is the large house from the back. It's got maybe 5 rooms, and can sleep maybe 20 people or even more. It's fantastic. Very rustic.

This is my aunt and me. She is my moms younger sister.

Those are my aunts pants and my uncles shirt. I didn't have any long sleeved/legged clothes and we were heading out into the forest to pick mushrooms.

Loaded with some buckets, my uncle brought some wood so we can step through the puddles that were at the base of the hill/forest.

Wild berries are super tasty.

And then we started finding the mushrooms. These are called "Galbiori", meaning Yellowish Mushrooms. They were everywhere.

We got 2 full buckets of this stuff.

I also found this amazing mushroom. My uncle called it the meat of the forest, because it's so delicious, and filling.

They also have an outdoors shower. I didn't get to actually use it because after the first day I was there, it got to be pretty chilly and didn't get a chance to shower outside. Maybe next time.

Little worm on the little mushroom.

One of the days, we had delicious "Mici" (ground meat) with "Mamaliga" (corn meal). SOOO GOOD!! Especially when you eat outside.

I helped my aunt clean and cut the mushrooms.

This was the big one I found.

Breakfast!! 

The next day, my uncle had gone on his own in the morning and picked some more mushrooms. I was very fascinated. 

There was a GIANT mushroom. Looked like someone had taken a bite out of it.

This is my cousin. I'm so happy to have a cousin. It's the only one who is relatively close to my age, and we actually have a lot of things in common, and we hung out, and we have each other on Facebook, and we talk. It's so cool. 

Then, on the last day I think, some of my uncle and aunts friends came and we had a party. We drank and ate and laughed till very late.

It was pretty cold but it didn't seem to matter.

And we kept hearing this scratching sound coming from the roof, and then this little squirly thing showed itself. So cute!! It just sat up there watching us.

And these are the current 2 house dogs that live there and sort of protect the property. They are very cute and well behaved.

My uncle started doing some of his carving. He's very talented and has made and sold many MANY wonderful things. The swing, the tables, the gates, masks, canes, hanging frames... he's made lots of things.

Roasting eggplants to make eggplant salad. My favorite!!!

Look how pretty and organized they look :).

Mmmmmm! They are almost ready!

Almost ready....

YES!!!! Now they are ready!!! I'm drooling just looking at this picture!! 

And, the next day, as usual, I wanted to go milk a cow. Since I was little, I've wanted to be one of those kids to takes out the cows for a walk and to graze. Never did that, well, now I have the chance to experience that a little, and every time I've gone to Romania, I've done this :). YAY :)

Here I am, doing a good job :).

You can see the milk coming out!!

Success!!! 

The cow doesn't seem to think so! I think I was too slow for her liking.

These were the little calves waiting for some milk too.

Yay!! Fresh milk!!

Warm fresh milk, with awesome bread and a bit of salt!! What a delicious breakfast!

And for lunch, some more mici, and beans, and sausage and delicious pickles. Proper pickles!! Not them sweet ones you find in Korea!

Pretty purple flowers! They smelled SOOO good!

COLOUR ATTACK!!!!

And then, luckily, my uncle had some time to show me how to use the scythe. It's more difficult than it looks.

"Like that, aha..."

"Hm... doesn't seem to work ... "

"OK, a little bit better..."

"YES!!"

"That's what I'm talking about!!!"

It was fantastic. But doing a whole field that way would be very intense. A good work out though.

And then, on Wednesday we came back to Suceava, because I was heading down to Miercurea Ciuc to meet up with Daniele and go to the wwoofing farm, and my uncle and aunt were going on an adventure of their own across Romania.

So, on Thursday, I got an early bus and went down to the middle of the country. I was so surprised when I got there. It turns out that whole region is Hungarian. It's in the middle of the country and they were all speaking Hungarian. I went to a shop to get some beer and sunflower seeds for the farm, and everything was written in Hungarian and the people and cashier were speaking Hungarian. I was very shocked actually.

So, after I got off the bus, I took a taxi and told him the general direction to go in, and I found Daniele waiting for me at the side of the road. I was so excited to do some real wwoofing!!

The ''farm'' is owned by two older ladies who were looking to buy some land and live their life in a simpler way. One of the ladies is from England, and the other from the Netherlands. Very very nice and friendly and open ladies.

Here are some of the pictures from the ''farm''.

They built this beautiful bench, and in front is a well that gets filled with rain water.

They had a herb spiral too :).

This is one of the dogs there. What a lady!

On one of the days when it was Danieles turn to make dinner, he decided to make a BBQ. It turned out interesting...

Lots of fresh veg to grill.

The other dog was relaxing in the grass.

Daniele was working hard!

It was a lentil burger, with potato salad, boiled eggs, and grilled veggies. 

This is the Tyrell from the Netherlands. Behind are Eva from France and Tobias from the UK.

And this is Nicolette from England.

Tobias playing with the dog.

Awwwww

This was my project for the 3 days that I stayed there.

I really enjoyed it!

There were a lot of these little geckos around.

Daniele made me smoke from the distance.

Daniele doing manly things.

Power tools!! YEAAAA!

This was the last rock I put on the wall. And then my job was done :)

After a sad goodbye, I got on the train and headed back to Suceava.

I rode on one of those old trains. It was really nice!

I had a lay over of a few hours, and there was this one dog that was going around the waiting trains and begging for food from the passengers. What a smart dog. It would just sit there and look really cute.

And people would look out and see it, and throw food down to the waiting dog. Fantastic trick :).

This was the end of my trip. After that, I only stayed another day in Suceava to pack my things and then, I went back with the train to Bucharest, from where I took a taxi to the airport. 

I was incredibly sad to leave. I didn't want to go. I was so happy here. I cried a lot when I got in Korea. I finally realized that I am done with Korea and there are definitely better things out there, and that I needed to leave now and do the things that I need to do for my own happiness. 

What an amazing trip!!!