Day 114: Sea of Tourists at Sea of Galilee

(Her: Joanna)

Because there is no bus running during the time of Sabbath, our plan to bus to the Sea of Galilee fell through.  With the time that we have, joining a tour was the best option though it was a bit pricey.   I was really excited to see these places that I have heard from church and the bible where Jesus lived his life and started preaching the gospel.   The story about his first miracle in turning water into wine (Cana), feeding 5000 people with only 5 pieces of bread and 2 fishes (Tabgha), and the place where his first few disciples started to follow him are all stories that I have grew up with (Capernaum).  I cannot tell what I expect from these places exactly but I am hoping I can find or feel traces of Jesus.  

Boy, was I disappointed.  Despite the fact that the Sea of Galilee was a beautiful place to spend a summer holiday, the places where significant events happened in Jesus life are now no more than any regular touristy place.  I cannot see or feel any association to the holiness I was expecting.  On the contrary, all these places are very touristy.  The worst was the Jordan River where Jesus was baptized by John.  Inside me, it hurts to such a religious place to be so commercialized.  There are different sizes of “Holy Water” you can buy and for the convenience of the tourists, the price is even in US dollar; tourists rushed to buy shirts with Jesus’ icon on and have a deep into the Jordan River; a full complex of souvenirs.  

Day 112 - 114: Jerusalem – Where is the holiness of the Holy Land?

(Her: Joanna)

Throughout our journey thus far, we came across a few where a few popular religions live “happily” and “peacefully” together, such as Sarajevo in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sofia in Bulgaria.   But none of these cities were these religions “live” together as dramatically as Jerusalem.  Muslim, Christian, and Jews with the same origin all live actively in this small city.  The somewhat “peace” in Jerusalem is thank to an order or rule book that the Ottoman Empire lay down detailing how the city will be run base on the snap shot when the order was recorded to eliminate any argument.  Whoever wants to change anything, everyone has to agree (which is nearly impossible).  It is quite bizarre that the same Muslim family has been locking the door of the Church of Sepulchre for over 500 years.

Bizarre and crazy are the perfect words to describe Jerusalem (and of course fascinating).  I have never seen so many religious people in one place.  Let alone religious people from 3 religions.  Everywhere you see people praying. 

Jerusalem is divided into 4 quarters – Jews quarter, Christian quarter, Muslim quarter and Armenian quarter (yeah…this is an odd one).  It is total craziness to see a street full of Muslim with ladies all covered up and see Orthodox Jews just around the corner who also dressed in black but with fashionable curly sideburn and big hat.

It seems like that the location where the foundation stone is seems to be the point of conflict.  The foundation stone is situated where the Dome of Rock in the Muslim ruling but this object is both the holy of holy for both Muslim and Jews.  Christians seems to be out of this conflict. 

It is quite bizarre to see people are so intensively touched by the holy objects and speculated location of where Jesus or Prophet Mohammed had been.  There is no evidence where exactly the places are but people just treat these places as the holy depending on your religion.  For example, there are 2 places where Jesus were crucified, died and was buried; there are 2 tombs of the Virgin Mary.  

I was bought up from a Catholic family.  I have always thought that the most important thing is my spiritual relationship with God being a person with a religion.  Rituals and ceremony are solely to assist a person’s relationship with God.  Being in Israel with so many people of different religion cramped in one country was an eye-opener for me to see how differently each religion and each person interpret the meaning of religion and their relationship with God.  Being on this land, I understand why religion has always been in the history of man a source of conflict.  I don’t feel that the Holy Land is a holy place.  What I see is the nature of human being – unfortunately, the ugly side of human being.    

Day 111: What I saw in Palestine… - Bethlehem, Palestine

(Him: Charlie)

The Palestine/Israel conflict makes news every other day, but until being here in person, I have to admit that I am quite oblivious about the true situation. What I have witnessed here, Israel or Palestine depending on who you speak to, is a one-sided tragedy that everyone should know about…

The plot of land, bounded by Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, used to be Palestine. After the WWII, the British who controlled the area at the time, allowed Jewish people in Diaspora to settle on this land. Over the next few years, the massive immigration continued grew, and on 1948, the State of Israel was founded, within the land of Palestine, and has been here ever since. The Jewish people believe this is the “promised land” given by god, but Palestinians and the Arabic nations believe that the Jewish people stole their land.

Fast forward to a few wars later, Israel managed to triple its size, and displaced millions of Palestinians from the Israeli area. Today, Palestinians in the area mostly reside in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and even these areas are under strict controls by the Israelis.

On our trip to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, we witnessed a lot of unfair treatment to Palestinians. We saw the Palestinians were being yelled at while crossing the border from Jordan. We passed through numerous check-points that were set up to restrict the movement of Palestinians. We witnessed the segregation walls and electric fences between West Bank and Israel. Apparently, these fences and walls were erected well into the Palestinian territories based on the internationally recognized border. We also witnessed pockets of Israeli settlements inside the West Bank, which are fenced and secured by armed forces. Apparently, Israel has a long record of human right violations.

In talking to some Palestinians, they feel helpless about the current situation. Undoubtedly, Israel is overpowering Palestine, who is in dire poverty. It is ashamed that the Arabs lost so badly in previous wars against Israel and conceded so much land, but Palestinians these days are happy just to have a full control of the land they have, namely West Bank and Gaza Strip, and carry on with life. On the other hand, Israel doesn’t seem to keen on loosening its grip on Palestinians’ neck. To get a sense of what Israel is thinking, we bought of copy of the Jerusalem post, and we found it rife with articles about the Israel/Arabic politics and there’s even an article criticizing the two-state solution.

To me, as an outsider, the two-station solution is the best solution for the current situation for a couple of simple reasons. 1. Israel can say what they want about the “promised land”, but they took it away from the Palestinians after all. 2. Ideally, it would be nice to integrate the two communities and share the land, but given the historical problems, it would be wise to each have their own area to avoid mass displacement.

Day 108: Cleanest Me in 30 Years - Amman, Jordan

(Him: Charlie)

Turkish Bath, Hamam, is world famous, so we definitely should not miss out. But we decided to have it Amman instead of two simply reasons – less touristy and much cheaper. So the cleansing begins…

The experience was an authentic one right from the beginning as we first walked into the Ottoman style dome architecture. The bath building, which is decorated with nostalgic furniture, central fountain, antiques, and lamps, creates a serene setting for bathers seeking complete relaxation. With a cup of Turkish tea in my hand and listen to bird chirping in the background, I was ready for the cleansing.

As with other things in these Muslim countries, women and men are always separate. So Jo and I actually had a different time slot of our bath. The process of Turkish bath goes like this: you first enter a steam room for sauna, and then you jump in a hot water bath. After that, you will be in for a world-renown full body scrub. The person scrubs you would also clean you with soap and wash you down, before releasing you to a full body massage. Finally, the bath would end with a relaxation on a heated marble slab and a dry sauna.

It’s an excellent experience for me because I’ve never been pampered like this, and definitely never been scrubbed so meticulously before. And for Jo, a bonus would be seeing the normally all covered up Muslim women in bikinis during her women section.

Day 108: Ramadan and the Lively Cities - Amman, Jordan

(Him: Charlie)

Ramadan has always been a remote concept to me. I heard of it in Canada, but never really understood what it is, but this time Middle East, I was fortunate enough to experience this holy event.

As a background, Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. Muslims worldwide observe this as a month of fasting. The month lasts 29-30 days. While fasting from dawn until sunset Muslims refrain from consuming food, drinking liquids and sexual relations. Ramadan is practiced as a way of reflection and to please god.

During the month of Ramadan, we visited two Muslim countries, Turkey and Jordan (Lebanon is actually 50:50 split between Christians and Muslim), and experienced Ramadan first hand – great experience!

First of all, as tourists, Ramadan could pose some challenges to us. Not only it was difficult to find food during day time, when we actually found it, we would also have to consume food and drinks discreetly as a courtesy. There were a few times where we forgot about Ramadan and almost had to starve for the day. But luckily, we were always able to find some restaurants open for tourists.

Inconvenience aside, Ramadan is an intriguing event and presented us some of the liveliest city life we have seen. Everyday, just before people break the fast, many families would gather in public space and prepare for the end of the daily fasting. You would see people sitting in front of food and drinks waiting for the Call to Prayers from the nearest mosque. It must be a great feeling to enjoy the food and drink after a day of endurance. As the night progresses, the city would become increasingly lively – street vendors chanting, cars honking, restaurants bustling – until 1-2am, creating a stark contrast from the streets during the day. For 30 days straight, the end of daily fasting was celebrated like a festival!

At the end of the Ramadan, people would celebrate it like people celebrating Christmas in the western culture (or so we heard). So I was really looking forward to the celebration. We even timed it such that we would “enjoy” this in a big city, Amman. However, what we didn’t know was that the “celebration” is literally the same as Christmas in the western culture, meaning people stay home and stores are closed. So on the day after the end of Ramadan, the street was essentially empty. Well, I guess that’s part of the experience/learning curve. Good to know.

Day 107: Welcome to the “Yellow City”

(Her: Joanna)

You can literally feel you are in Jordan.  The dryness of Jordan felt like all of the moisture in my skin was being suck out of me.  Jordan is very different from all the cities we had been to so far.  Like how the picture depicted in my child bible, it is yellow and with buildings with 1 -2 stories high covering the endless number of hills that make up the city of Amman.

Jordan is the first country that I have been to who you will definitely feel 100% welcome.  No matter where you go, a local will say “Welcome” to you.  I think “welcome” may be the first or only English word they know.  It is such a pleasant feeling to be greeted and welcomed when you visit a foreign country.  

While you think that everyone in Jordan is nice and friendly, little did you know that when a female is walking on the street alone, the local might be commenting that you are a whore in Arabic while you think they are saying "Welcome" in Arabic - true story from a friend we’ve met who strolled on the street with her friend who knows Arabic.

Day 106: What a Small World

(Her: Joanna)

Guess what?  We bumped into the family from German who we did the jeep tour with at Wadi Rum at the resort across where we were staying.  We ended up moving into their resort and spent a day of amazing time with their kids.  This couple let their kids to freely explore and try things.  It was great to see parents who give so much freedom to their kids.  It is difficult for parents to do as I saw from the mom’s facial expression and eyes that she was afraid the kids to get hurt or fall but this freedom to explore is critical to develop the self confident and independence of the kids.  Miran and Marsha are 2 active and energetic kids with very cute face. 

Day 105: Unexpected Gem For Beach Bumps in Jordan

(Her: Joanna)

Surprise!  Boy, that’s why I love backpacking.  You just never know where you will end up going and staying.  Because visiting Petra and Wadi Rum took less time than what we expected, we have 2 days to chill somewhere.  It had been non-stop go-go-go the last couple of weeks.  We were dying to just have a do-nothing day.

Since Linda, an Aussie girl we’ve met at Amman who we travelled with since then, planned to go to Aqaba to chill at the Red Sea, we decided to tag along instead of going back to Amman.  

What a great, pleasant surprise!  Aqaba is GORGEOUS here.  The sea is so blue here (if the sand is a bit more fine, it would be just perfect) and the town Aqaba, unlike other towns we’ve been to in Jordan, looks like a total sea side resort town.  

What’s better?  I get to scuba dive in the Red Sea for an affordable price and for only $12 CAD, you get a private room with AC and ensuite bathroom plus a pool and a roof top terrace.  Resort, chilling mode was definitely on.  It was like a day dream to be in the desert then sun tanning in a beach all within a day.  

I thought there was no way I could enjoy beaches in the Middle East because of the conservative culture here in the Middle East.  Another surprised that we found a very touristy area in the South Beach 12 KM south of the city center where the traditional conservative culture is loosen up a bit for foreigners.  

Putting icing on a cake, the sandy (not super great sand) beaches with straw beach umbrella was almost empty and free of charge and there are no beach vendors harassing you to buy stuff so we can truly enjoy the beach!!!!  

Day 104: Endless Sea of Stars

(Her: Joanna)

After so many days seeing ruins and touristic sites in cities, Wadi Rum was my perfect nature fix.  Despite the heat and dryness in this desert reserve, I had a ton of fun here.  The scenery here reminded me of the Grand Canyon.  Everywhere is cover with yellowish and reddish sand and rocks.  The size of the mountain in the desert was magnificent.  And the different type of composition and shape of the rocks are just impressive.  I definitely regretted not to bring my climbing shoes with me with so many great bouldering surrounded me.  We joined a 5 hours jeep tour with this camp and saw sand dunes, canyon, and dozens of weirdly shaped rocks.  What makes this tour even more fun was the kids (Miran and Marsha) of a German family who were on the tour with us.  We were climbing up a steep hill and stone bridge to see a panoramic view of the desert, climbing and running down the sand dune and rock climbing up walls in the desert. 

What’s better than the sky in the desert to see sun set and stars?  The sky seems endless in the desert.  It looks like there are millions of stars in the sky in the desert.  Shooting star seems to be less shy to make their appearance in the sky of a desert.  The stars are so much brighter and twinkle more actively.  With the sound of wind or perhaps the sound of the desert, it is the most soothing feeling.  It is a memorable day that I will not forget.

Day 103: Petra by Day

(Her: Joanna)

To minimize the time being in the heat and sun, and massive flock of tourists, we entered Petra before 8 AM.  It was perfect.  We got to the Siq and the Treasury with just a few people.  And the number of donkey/horse/camel owners, and souvenir sellers to urge you to buy or use their service were less. 

We met a kid, Oman, who spoke better English than most adult Jordanian we have encountered, persistently trying to sell us his donkey service.  I’m truly impressed with his skill in offering us different price for different routes to lure us into hiring him.  If he had a camel instead, I would have definitely taken his offer.  Eight hours later, we bumped into Oman again.  Seeing so many tourists, Oman recognized me and attempted for the last time to get me to take his donkey - impressive kid.

It was hard to imagine that Petra used be a place with rivers and trees.  It is all dry land right now.  I can imagine that this city must be a beautiful place with magnificent buildings caved out of rocks.  The details of the decorative craving on the building exterior wall are already decayed but the few preserved in the museum showed that the building used to have really impressive craving.  I found Petra impressive but required some imagination to make it magical.

Day 102: Petra by Night

(Her: Joanna)

Petra was one of the stop that I have been waiting for since the start of the trip to visit.  It was an amazing experience to visit at night and listen to traditional Beoduin (Jordanian who live in the desert) music in front of the Treasury filled with candles.  You can hear the silence of Petra and feel the loneliness of the musician when there’s no tourist talking or people flashing their camera.   I cannot wait to see Petra in the day time.

Day 101: Wearing Too Much Is Wearing Too Little Amman

(Her: Joanna)

The Lonely Planet guidebook already gave me heads-up that the Middle East is more conservatively dressed than Western society.  In high thirty degree Celsius temperature, I have worn my light cotton T-shirt that covers my shoulder and long airy pants thinking that this is so covered up for this kind of temperature. 

Boy, was I wrong!  When I was walking through the market in Amman, firstly, there are proportionally less women in the market buying groceries than Asia or North America; secondly, 95% of the women are fully covered up with headscarf, long sleeves shirt/dress and full length pants/dress; thirdly, people were giving me so much attention either because I’m a foreigner or I have worn “too little”.  I instantly felt that I should probably wear long sleeves too.  I was a bit uncomfortable walking through the market and was clanging onto Charlie.  Everyone we’ve met was really friendly and welcoming us on the street but I was experiencing some kind of cultural shock and being a foreigner, I have no concept of what the socially acceptable standard is and being uncomfortable to be caught in between being respectful to a culture and not knowing. 

Being lived in the “Western” society, I was exposed to bikinis, tanks, g-strings, and short shorts.  I was a bit culture shock by seeing most of the ladies in Amman all covered up.  I completely forgot that I used to be part of a mildly conservative society in HK: you wouldn’t see too many short shorts on the street even in the summer, t-shirt covering the shoulder is more common than tanks, and even when girls wear tanks, they would wear something to cover their cleavage.  I guess when you grew up in that culture, you don’t even put second thought to the option of wearing less even when the weather is unbearably hot.  

Day 100: Are we waiting for another massacre in Syria? - Beirut, Lebanon

(Him: Charlie)

The visit to Lebanon, once again, reminds me of war. This time around, the war reminder is much more real and much closer physically. It’s hard to imagine that shelling and bombing are just on the other side of the Lebanon-Syria border. Over there, less than 100km away, life in displacement, life in hunger, life in bloodshed, life in horror, has become a usual business. This tragedy is unfolding just like the Bosnian War, which was frustrated by futile negotiation and cease fires. Also similar to the Bosnian War is the conflicting interests at the UN Security Council. The delay in any sort of intervention at the expense of the loss of valuable lives every day!!

I feel ashamed by the selfishness of China & Russia, for not agreeing to intervene with force. The reasoning from them may sound legitimate in a normal sense (outsiders shall not forcefully intervene a country’s internal affair & bring down a government), however, what happens when the citizens have clearly made their choice by fighting to death? Our responsible international community should facilitate Syrian people to make their selection, not just send in “humanitarian aids”! – a 3-year-old would tell you that fighting should be stopped first, in order to make a selection.

So what happened to Bosnia in 1995? After years of futile negotiation and failed ceasefires, a NATO strike was finally triggered after a massacre in Sarajevo. The strike quickly brought fighting parties to serious peace talk and the war ended in no time!

By the same pattern, it looks like the world is waiting for another massacre in Syria before the next move!

Sigh… the history of human being is no doubt a history of invasions and devastation.

Day 99: Re-thinking Lebanon - Beirut, Lebanon

(Him: Charlie)

We were disappointed by Beirut at the first impression, almost entirely because of a false expectation, but by Day 2, we’ve found the charm of the City – its people. We’ve come to find out that Lebanese are exceptionally friendly.

On our day-trip to Beit-ed-dine, a grandiose palace in the mountains, we must have struck conversation with at least half a dozen Lebanese. From passengers on shared taxi, to random bystanders, to even a chatty president’s guard (yes, an on duty president’s guard at Beit-ed-dine (the president’s summer residence), all of them were very welcoming and made sure we had a good time in Beirut. In Jo’s words, their smiles are very genuine. I’d say Lebanese are probably the most welcoming and friendly people we’ve seen so far.

The conversation we had with the guard allowed us to learn more about this country, which just had a serious armed conflict with Israel in 2006. Even to this date, many regions within the country are still plagued by armed conflicts among various groups. Poor economy in combination with unaffordable living costs resulted massive emigration and severe brain drain in the country.

Interesting facts:

• A lot of Lebanese emigrated to Brazil, so many expats in Beirut are from Brazil, particularly Sao Paulo.
• There are a lot of Filipinos and Indians in Lebanon as foreign workers. They are everywhere on the street.
• Lebanon is not dominated by Muslim, but an almost even split between Christians and Muslim

 (Rural Lebanese town in the mountains)

 (Lebanon's national symbol - Cedar)

Day 98: Confusion in Beirut - Beirut, Lebanon

(Him: Charlie)

Lebanon is bonus. It was never on the list of countries to visit due to the Syria situation, which prevents any land border crossing. However, when booking the flight from Istanbul to Amman, we found out that we could have a stopover in Beirut for a low cost, so we decide to spend 4 days here to explore the country.

The expectation for Beirut was high – chic, modern, and developed, so I have heard before arrival. But what met us on the ground was completely different picture – hassling taxi drivers, chaotic (super aggressive) cars, derelict buildings and littering problems, all made me wonder if I’d been reading about a different country.

After walking for a whole afternoon, the confusion didn't go away. Instead, it got worse. While buses are cheap, other necessities in daily life are quite expensive (food for instance). It appears that there are a lot of rich people in Lebanon, and there is a large proportion of poor as well. There is a small pocket of luxurious buildings and shops in downtown Beirut, but it could hardly be any representation to the city. So what’s the city really like?

(Building relics close to the city centre - probably damaged 2006 Israeli invasion.) 

(Mosque in centre and stop sign in Arabic) 

Day 94: A land of difference - Bucharest, Romania

(Him: Charlie)

Romania is one of those countries that offer you a wide variety of tourist attractions. From grandiose monumental buildings in Bucharest to rustic remote villages; from spooky Transylvania castles (think Dracula!)to delicately crafted wooden churches. We had an ambitious plan to visit them all, and the only answer to that is renting a car.

The good thing about having our own transportation was that we could stay at pensions in small villages (we are used to calling settlements “town”, but our proud host in Saschiz (near Sighisoara) insisted it’s a village).

The rustic rural area of Romania is fascinating. We came across a monthly market place, where cattle and horses are traded and local delicacies are served. Apparently, Asians are rare in this part of the world. When Jo and I walked among the horse carriages and food tents, we felt like we were aliens descended on earth, as we attracted a great deal of curious stares on every move we made. Though the staring was intense, people were actually very friendly. In the northern city of Sighetu Marmatiei, Joanna received a bag-full of apples from a local old lady, probably as a gesture of welcoming.

The thing we didn’t know about driving in Romania is how treacherous the roads are in northern Romania. We had to drive really slowly on most of the roads due to winding and narrow roads. We estimated 3 days for the road trip, but by day 2, we knew we wouldn’t make it back to Bucharest by Day 3. So, as usual, the plan was changed again. Unfortunately, in order to spend a bit more time in Romania, we had to forego the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria.

Highlights in Romania:

 (local farmer on a horse-drawn wagon, on his way to the market place)

  (Fascinating wooden churches in Maramures, Romania)

(Spooky Dracula Castel)

Day 94: Powering Through Romania

(Her: Joanna)

Like Charlie said, we definitely underestimated the size of Romania and the quality of the roads.  Wanting to travel from Southern Romania to Northern Romania within 3 days, we later learned that it is impossible unless all you do is just driving.  Since we had heard that the places we wanted to visit in the Northern part of Romania is not easily accessible by public transportation.  Without the luxury of time, we decided to rent a car to drive around ourselves.  What we did not expect is how rush and tiring it would be.  

Scenery that we had seen were just spectacular.  Transylvania lives up to its reputation of beauty.  Driving through the winy roads up and down mountains with crisply green trees and misty air is something different.  May be it is the foggy and chill air making this place more mysterious and attractive (after all, from legends, it is where vampire lives).  I will definitely come back to spend some time to explore this place more.  

Travelling north of Transylvania was painstaking.  The beautiful highways in Southern Romania up to Transylvania deceived us.  There’s only country roads that passes through a town every a few kilometer.  We dare not driving pass the speed limit as we got caught speeding at a “school zone’ (yes…dead in the center of summer holiday, the school zone is in effect) and on the way, we saw a lot of police catching people speeding.  

(P.S. We had a close call when we drove through Transylvania where an old pick-up truck lost control at a turn and drifted/slid side-way toward us.  I felt my stomach was coming out of my mouth.) 

It seems like that the whole Romania is revamping their roads and building highways.  We drove through 30+ kilometer of construction.  Though the drive was long and painful, it was all worth it after we saw the villages in the country Maramures.  It was a whole different world.  

We saw people especially older ladies dressing in traditional costumes – for the ladies, they dressed in black puffy dress, long sleeves pull over shirt or sweater, and a bandanna; for the men, they dressed in a light color long sleeve shirt with a darker color vest and a dress pants, and a cowboy like hat but with a round top.  

There are cars but wagon seems to be a preferred way for the locals to transport goods and travel.  There are also wooden churches in each town we passed.  A lot of homes have this wooden gate with fine crafting on it.  There are also a few homes with their exterior wall decorated with colorful tiles.  There was just so much for the eyes to see in this area.  I’m glad that we decided to drive, there doesn’t seems to have frequent bus, if there is, passing by these towns.  Local usually hitchhike.  Then, we later found that it is a common practice for the hitchhiker to pay the driver, which is very different from everywhere else we’ve been to where hitchhiking is free.  

To return the favors we enjoyed hitching rides from other kind drivers, we picked up a Polish couple to give them a lift to town on our way.

Day 92: Overcoming My Stereotype

(Her: Joanna)

Interacting with Romanian in Romania definitely surprised me.  From the interaction with the few Romanian I experienced in Canada, my impression of Romanian is that they are not the friendliest type, are strong characters and express their opinion very boldly and bluntly.  Gosh! Am I wrong!  We have met some friendliest people in Romania who reached out to help us when we look lost on the street multiple times; we were welcomed at the pensions we stayed with great hosts; greet with curious Romanian in Northern Romania who tried to speak and communicate with us; and random old couples who are street vendors warm-heartedly gave me half a dozen of apples because I am a foreigner visiting their home town.  This experience taught me a lesson in what prejudice is.  A few bad apples can create erroneous prejudice and misunderstanding.  Hence, keeping an open mind especially to a culture, a nation and a country is important to avoid unnecessary conflict.  

(the old lady who gave me a bag-full of apples)

Day 90: Celebrate Death?

(Her: Joanna)

In the village of Săpânţ (Maramureş county), there is a “Merry Cemetery” (Romanian: Cimitirul Vesel).  All the gravestones are colored blue and on the gravestones written a funny summary of the life of the person buried there along with a craved picture that illustrate the character of the person.  If the person died in a tragic death, at the back of the gravestone will also have a summary of how they die with a funny twist.  I quite like the idea.  

 

(the happy cemetery - funny stories are written on graves to commemorate the departed)

Here is a sample of what’s on the gravestone:

"Here I rest. Manaila Ion Mahumesc is my name and I have been the boy of Nani. There are few people like me. I was a nice guy and handsome. But I have not been lucky because I died as a young guy and my body is now destroyed in the earth. Dear mother and wife, God should take care of you and my children, because I loved all of you very much. And I wait that we will meet again."

End of a life should be celebrated.  It should be the life of the person and what they did or achieved we shall remember.  Death is a normal stage of life.  If a person spent a colorful and well lived life, their departure should be celebrated in a happy note. 

For more translation of the gravestone, visit to this page http://papillontravels.net/sapantaindex.htm