On our ride we saw a number of these partially-finished houses built by the Gypsy or Roma people. The style has elements that reminded us of the Roma's south Asia roots. Like a majority of people in Romania, the Gypsies were victims of a countrywide Ponzi scam in the early 1990's. Many people had a very short period of being rich, followed by a decade being absolutely poor again. Grand houses were started but never finished.

The church of Saint Michael and the monument to King Mathias were reminders of the old boundaries. They are in the town of Cluj-Napoca (Romanian)-Kolozsvar(Hungarian). It is now in Romania yet they honor a great Hungarian hero. Klara tells us that the current town mayor is anti-Hungarian and is threatening to tear down both the monument and the church. We'll see if such destructive ethnic animosity bears its divisive fruit.

The region we were visiting is home to the Szekely Hungarians. In towns and villages, their homes are decorated with elaborate gates such as these. This particular collection honors the tomb of Orban Balazs, a 19th century writer who wrote the first travel guide to the region.

Cousin Tibi had arranged a special tour of the salt mines at Parajd. The mine first opened in 1776 and is now several layers deep. Each layer apparently has massive caverns where the salt has been mined and removed. We visited the top layer which now serves as a health spa. Staying in the dry air is reputed to be beneficial for all sorts of ailments. There is even playground equipment for kids to keep them active while they soak up the healthy air.

We also visited the health resort of Borsec. The place itself looked anything but healthy, at least from a business standpoint. There were a number of empty or abandoned hotels that looked like leftovers from another era. Maybe the money lost on the infamous Ponzi debacle caused this world to stop ten years ago?

Another resort with more salt. Bear Lake is fed by a salty hot spring. There was no one enjoying the waters during our early Spring visit but advertisements from just last Summer showed crowds still enjoying this small sea.

This was the entrance to a spectacular gorge named Bekas-szoros. (The prosaic translation is "Frog Pass".) Altar Rock guards this entrance.

At the narrowest point, the road had to be blasted out of the rock. The overhang reminded me of the pass in the Wyoming Rockies that led to the redoubt of the old Hole-In-The-Wall Gangs made famous in bad Hollywood movies. We kept an eye out for bandits.

Driving out from the gorge, the snow-fed stream added to the scene. Some Springs, these same Carpathian streams become destructive torrents. This year the problem apparently was the reverse, not enough snow and the prospect of drought.

In response to earlier droughts, the government built a water storage reservoir near the small village of Bezidu Nou. The village was to be flooded but many residents resisted the inevitable move. Ultimately, the totalitarian regime simply let the flood waters rise and the town drowned. In this dry year, the small church is once again visible but it too will sink back into the lake when the rains or snows return.

Transylvania's most famous resident was not Hungarian. The story of Count Dracula was based on a 15th century prince named Vlad the Impaler. This was his home and castle. Mr Impaler got his unflattering name by placing criminals onto stakes alongside roads. Legend has it that crime was low during his reign.

Dracula Park also has recreations of local village and farm buildings. We have a similar "outdoor museum" in Kyiv and in fact the houses look the same. After all, there probably is little difference in the traditional life of peasants from one slope of the Carpathians or the other.

Horse carts were everywhere we went in Romania. This particular driver appeared to be celebrating Easter in the traditional fashion: drinking palinka (note plastic coke bottle). We half expected them to be crashed around the next corner but I guess having a sobor horse is an advantage to drunk-driving one of these rigs instead of a car.