May Day at Roznov pad Radhostem

May 1, 2012 - Roznov pad Radhostem ... Wallachian Open Air Museum

This was quite the adventurous day.  We did not have class that day due to it being a national holiday so we a took a field trip to this open air museum.  It really reminded me of a Stuhr Museum in the Czech Republic but a bit cooler.  They had several villages set up, not just one.

We mistakenly went to the wrong village when we were looking for the one that had the May Day celebration later on.  The first one we went to was pretty cool.  It had a lot of smaller buildings, everything was made of wood, even had a man making wooden spoons while we watched.

Elin doesn't look so thrilled here.

Hand carved wooden spoon maker.

We weren't sure what these mini-huts were about but they looked interesting, kind of hobbit sized.

Everything in the first village was amazing, all created from natural wood.  Very picturesque. 

Of course, Thea and Caleb couldn't resist playing in the water!

After some asking, Dr. Clark found the right place for the May Day celebration.  We ventured up a huge hill to the village that we needed to go to.  As we were walking around, Jed pointed out the markings above the door seen below.  He said they were to bring good luck.  The K, M, and B are to represent the three kings and the year to bring good luck upon the house and family.

Not sure if this grave is real or not but it seemed pretty authentic to me!

The trees were in bloom all over this place and just added to the feel of spring in the air.

They created so much by hand here, even the baskets.

We found this May Day pole and thought we had missed the celebration, we hadn't.

Traditional broom making.

When I said they make everything by hand here, I meant it.  Above are the sheep used to spin the wool that she was spinning in the picture below.

This was the schoolhouse (above).  Below is the interior of what a traditional schoolhouse may have looked like.  They sat in almost church-like pews with a high bench that acted as the desk in front of them to do their work on.  It was small and I am sure the teachers then had many challenges trying to teach all levels of students at one time.

I love windmills, this one was just picture perfect with the beautiful day we had.

There was even a guy riding around with a horse-drawn cart to transport items around the village.

The inside of a traditional church.

I thought this was really cool seeing how the fence was put together.
It would have taken so much time and work to do this.

All of the people in the village were dressed in traditional clothing...right down to the double layer wool socks.  It was warm out there that day, I cannot imagine how hot they got!

This is what the inside of a traditional home looked like, I was amazed by the makeshift baby cradle that hung from the rafters.  They were commonly seen in most of the homes we looked at.

This working windmills was beautiful.  It earned two pictures on here!

Ann and I showing how much fun we were having! We truly loved this place!

Inside this building was a weaving loom, another location had a woman working the loom.  So much work to weave cloth or a blanket, we take it for granted how easy it is now to buy cloth by the yard or a shirt off the rack.

Handmade goods were everywhere!

The May Day celebration was so cool!  We got there just in time to see the small band playing traditional music (above) and the girls dancing a traditional dance (below).

Ann and Caleb enjoying the show!

Above are beehives and below is a hand woven hive.

Now THIS is a May Pole!  Tradition is that a town or village would put up a May Day pole and have people stand guard for two weeks.  During that time, other towns or villages might come and try to take your May Day pole.  It wasn't something hostile but it was more of a game.

Hey Ann!  Look how big those rabbits are! 

Now for the drinking of the Slivovitz.  Dr. Clark raved about how good and it was and as we left the village they were serving shots of it in the concession stand.  Caleb managed to get his down without too much choking.  Ann couldn't finish hers.  Dr. Clark loved each and every drop!

We finished our day at a small bar and grill that had some amazing food.
We were all completely wiped out at this point...see Elin below.

Yolima and I were still smiling after a fun day!
This was my fantastic meal, I really don't think there was anything (besides the tripe soup) that I didn't like.  I think the biggest difference is that they make everything fresh on a daily basis.

After a big day of finding they right places and a lot of walking, it was time to head back to the train station.  Little did we know that we were so close to missing our train, that we had to run to catch it.  And then when the ticket person came around, Dr. Clark did not have a return ticket like he thought for us.  Thankfully, we were able to buy one right there for us.  And then when we got to the connecting train station, we had a downpour.  Thankfully, there was a cover over the waiting area by the tracks.  

It was quite the adventurous day and I am glad we went there.  The only thing that would have helped would have been a guide book in English so we knew what we were seeing.  I had a great time this day!