Sighet

Sighet is right near the Ukrainian border, which is across the Tisa river a mile north of town. It's the hometown of Nobel laureate and holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel. It's also the home of a notorious prison during the Communist era where the government imprisoned priests, liberals, radicals, and the usual suspects. Most of them didn't survive.

They were a lot more women wearing head scarves up here. Life moves a bit slower even though I got caught in a traffic jam. In these villages and cities in Maramures there is usually just one main road through town. Given that Romanians are prone to just stopping in the middle of the road to pick flowers or talk to neighbors, this can be problematic.

After my hike to the Cock's Comb, I found a cheap local place for lunch. I wasn't too hungry so I ordered soup and three mici sausages. I thought they were small sausages like Cevapi from Serbia. There were a dollar each so I ordered three. Boy was I surprised. Each one was as big as a bratwurst! I was able to finish two at least.

I wandered around town and went to an ethnic culture museum and saw many interesting traditional costumes there. And then I went to the Communist prison. These are always depressing but I feel it's important to see them. It was a word-heavy museum and it was all in Romanian but I got a booklet with translations in English. I kind of skipped through a lot of it but I got the gist alright.

One thing I learned is that the prisoners were forced to dig a canal that was to connect the Black Sea with the Danube. Countless thousands died on this project. The purpose was so the Russian Navy could sail up the Danube to invade Yugoslavia if needed. Tito kind of said "fuck you" to Stalin and that pissed him off to no end. But they gave up before finishing.

Then I made a brief visit to the childhood home of Elie Wiesel. These museums are all within a few blocks of each other in the very walkable city center. My next stop was a very freaky cemetery just up the road.

More photos of videos are here.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/iUP4p41e8r8H4NYq9Weiterlesen