Crossing the border was more fun than we thought. We spent half a day preparing – cleaning, mounting things so no cables were sticking out anywhere, hiding stuff in the trunk, and so on. We prepared all our documents and slowly approached the border crossing. We chose a smaller one where trucks don't go. Nobody was there. Just one booth in the middle. We stopped and started speaking English to the customs officer. He wanted our IDs and vehicle registration. After a moment he called a colleague who spoke English better, and that guy wanted to see the trunk. So Leo got out and went to open the back doors for them. By then, probably all the customs officers on duty had gathered around and were peeking inside. We didn't understand them, but we caught the phrase 'luxury apartment' even in Romanian. So they were like, okay then, wished us a safe journey and let us through. The inspection lasted about 3 minutes. We started our Iveco, it enveloped the customs station in smoke, and we quickly left the area, excited to see what Romania would show us!

First stop was at the nearest gas station. To travel Romania by car, you need a rovinieta. You basically pay for the roads. For driving on them. And the price depends on the vehicle and time period. So it cost us a nice 18 euros. When you read almost any blog about traveling through Romania, everywhere it says the road quality is very poor. We just hoped it wouldn't be that bad when we'd already paid so much for it! :D

We knew we needed to cover a big chunk of distance. First, to actually get somewhere – Romania is big and offers us a lot, but we also have limited time. And second, to at least partially charge our batteries. This time of year is pretty bad for sunlight, so the only thing charging our batteries is the engine... and the longer it runs, the more charge we accumulate. After about 3 hours, including a shopping stop, we arrived at a small parking lot by a wooden church. And we kind of fell into bed and fell asleep.

A wooden church that was being cheerfully dismantled by a little squirrel.

But morning was worth it. The church was like something from a fairy tale, and so was the surrounding area. We spent the whole morning here, working online, but also working on the van. It had rained all night and water got into our fuse box and something short-circuited a bit, so it was making weird sounds and we were drying it out... just so we wouldn't catch fire when starting up!

I ran over here to pee and immediately got a nice photo out of it!

Around three in the afternoon we decided to keep driving despite our fuse box's constant protests. Our destination was a national park in northern Romania – Maramureș. Just more mountains, you know! The fuses stopped buzzing after a while. Probably when it dried out completely, which fulfilled Leo's wish that only the water burned out, not the connections.

So we keep going, pushing uphill, and when we're finally crossing the pass at about 1050m and it looks like it'll be all downhill from here, the van starts making different sounds. So Leo stops to check it out. He discovers coolant is leaking from the radiator. We're done for today. And it looks like for a while. After taking it apart, it turns out we have a pretty big hole in the radiator. That's not good. What to do? It's already dark outside, we're somewhere on a hillside, surrounded only by dogs. So we're going to fix it. We need to somehow seal that hole. The best option seems to be this putty stuff we carry for these situations. It looks like modeling clay, has two parts, and when you mix them properly, it hardens. And it really holds up well! So we patched it up and let it dry overnight.

Taking apart the van to get to the root of the problem.

In the morning, the weather is lousy. It's drizzling and doesn't look like it'll stop anytime soon. We go to try putting the radiator back together. And look – one part holds, but the other is leaking. So again. We did this about 2 more times before it really stuck. And we moved on. Every so often we checked the coolant level to see if it was leaking again and how much was there. So far so good. Just to be safe, we then bought some powder at a gas station that you pour into the coolant to seal smaller holes and leaks. There is a risk it might clog something it shouldn't, but we're willing to take that risk and pour it in. We'll see.

The road leads through villages in the Maramureș region, where time has stopped. They have wooden houses with large carved gates and woven fences. Churches everywhere, wooden or painted. The hilly surroundings gradually rise into mountains reaching heights of almost 2000 meters above sea level. And that's where we stop for another night. Somewhere in the fog on a mountain meadow. It shows something around 1500m. Why not?

And that fog kept getting in the way. If it were clear, I'd probably sit outside the whole time just looking.

In the morning I run outside expecting views... well, there's a lot of fog, but when it really blows, you can see somewhere. We head out for a shorter walk to see even more. The Maramureș National Park spreads around us. It's beautiful and almost untouched by tourists. There's trash here too (like all over Romania, everywhere, by roads, in forests, just everywhere), but it's not that bad ;). We spend the rest of the day working, both on the computer and around the van.

In the evening we move on again. Now we're heading to visit the painted monasteries in Bukovina, a historical region in northern Romania that extends beyond the border into Ukraine.