My Travels in Transylvania, Romania: The hunt for Romanian painted easter eggs, flea market, pulled over bt the Romanian Police...Ooops! and good company!

So yesterday I drove with my great friends Patrick and Christalle to the area SW of Sibiu that is called, Marginenii Sibiului which is a small collection of villages that apparently have stuck with their traditions and customs and still dress in the traditional black and white Romanian dress. Well...we didnt see any of them! LOL! We did come across a flea market of sorts though and it was interesting to see them selling tools, underwear, clothes, vegatables and also chickens right out of the back of their vans. I decided against buying a chicken just yet. :-) We drove to a village that according to my guide book is fames for its painted eggs; we found no eggs; but we did find a beautiful village with probably the nicest houses in all of Romania that I have seen so far. It must be the mafia or business owners that live there...or both. But no painted eggs!

On the way back I did not see a traffic light and ran through the light...all the traffic lights here are so small and they are on the side of the road instead of hanging in the middle of the street like I am used to...so I blew through the light! oops! next thing I know a rather good looking Romanian Police Officer is standing in the highway waiving the car in front of me and myself to the side of the road. At this point my heartbeat increases dramatically! Uh Oh! She starts rambling off something in Romanian to me and I must have looked like a deer in headlights all I could say is, "Am înţeles doar un pic român. Eu vorbesc engleza"...or something to that affect; meaning I only understand a little Romanian I speak English. i gave her my DL, Passport and Intl DL and she spoke to me in broken english about paying attention to the lights and watching my speed...Thank God she spoke some English! She went away, let me sweat a bit and then came back and gave me my documents and stated that if I was a Romanian I would lose my driving privleges for one month. I tried to express to her that in America the traffic signals are Mare (Big), but that here in Romania I have a hard time seeing them (I pointed to my eyes to make that reference) and she said in you need glasses! Haha! OMG I am so glad she just let me go after that, no ticket, no fine, no Romanian jail. I will be careful next time and watch those darn lights. This morning I saw my friends Patrick & Christalle off; it feels as though I have known them for a long time, even though it was only 2 days...they will be sorely missed and hopefully I can visit them in Cyprus soon.

Below is photos and video of the wonderful scenery today.

Tom

Once we reached the foothills the view, air and the natural beauty was fantastic!

The flea market in Orasul Saliste

If you need a chick, you will find it here!

Vendor selling scythe blades and handles.

Even though I have a picture of the entrance sign to the alleged "painted egg" village; unfortunately, I did not take pictures of the town...guess I was awestruck at how beautiful the houses were.

In the next few photos you will see the shepards or sheep flock owners drying out the wool from the spring cutting. Won't see this in the states anytime soon.

Lots of beautiful horses in the foothills of Marginenii Sibiului with many young ones.

You can tell that this dog and this horse are friends...very cool...they just hang out together all day.

Never seen a grey banded crow before.

Traditional Romanian hay piles

At this Romanian Othodox Church the priest was extremely friendly and I spoke with him in Romanian for a brief time about my family and he about his. Fantastic! The people are actually understanding me know and I am understanding them!