Thursday 1st June – set off from campsite after best sleep while camping in Romania so far – possible best sleep while in the tent of the trip so far. Perfect temperature and not much barking during the night. The campsite has a rescue service for motorbikes and Robert that runs it gave me his number in case I had any problems – really good of him but glad I didn’t need to use it. Don’t want to tempt fate but Bertie Bike seems to holding up and touch would so do I.

My wee sister introduced me to Marius, who she had met in Romania – Marius is a tour guide. Marius has been fab and given me a list of places to visit – The Merry Cemetery, the wooden churches of the Maramures and now the painted monasteries of Bucovina. Route planned – distances looked doable but somehow I thought I’d done my big hill for this part of the trip – no idea why I thought this – this was harder than yesterday and the sun was out so toasty hot – but so worth it – much more open today and the scenery was beautiful.

After the descent carried on to Vatra Moldovite where the first of the painted Monasteries – “Moldovita” is – following the signs to it and then quickly stopped when I saw a funeral procession, carrying the coffin from the church and starting to cross the road to the graveyard on the otherside – definitely not appropriate to cycle through and I headed back the way I came to find the elusive tourist info.

Didn’t find the tourist office and it was just a little town – think it may have just been a info board somewhere. Now wondering if I wanted to see another church – the quick glance I’d had, nothing particularly different about it – maybe I was all churched out?? Much dithering and googling then ensued – no campsite nearby – was the next one too far away / shouid I book room in hotel? Decided to have another look for tourist information and in doing so realised that the monastery was a little beyond the church I’d stopped at and it was definitely worth a look and glad I didn’t bypass it.

“The purpose of the frescoes was to make the story of the Bible and the lives of the most important Orthodox saints known to villagers by the use of images.” – borrowed from the www.

Moldovita Monastery

Monastery done – time to resume hunt for somewhere to stay. There is a hotel not too far away but I ask at the village shop / bar – the 2 often double up – if there is a campsite nearby – one fellow points me in the direction of Vila Lulu and tells me there is camping but when I get there doesn’t seem to be the case and all rooms are booked – however I’m allowed to camp on a wee bit of grass, have use of the toilet and have a good meal at the hotel.

The villages I’ve been going through over last couple of days have been pretty small and not much in the way of shops – the one in this village and at the one I stayed at the previous night have been 1/2 shop 1/2 bar – I think the bar does more trade than the shop – both shop and bar not very well lit – the shop very old fashioned and not a huge amount of choice and everything is done over the counter – hardly anything on the shop floor itself, not that there is much room to be fair – and even the biscuits are bought by weight.