Pension Kristal

This is the village of Sacel in Maramures, one of the remotest corners of the European Union, where villagers have preserved a way of life which most of the continent cast off centuries ago. Too far from Bucharest for its identity to be crushed by Ceausescu. We are in a rural destination, near Steam Train, an old and important train which use as a fuel water, near Happy Cemetery . Romanian villagers still use horse-drawn carts, coffin-shaped with rubber wheels. I watch as a husband and wife haul a wooden wagon into the road, harness their horse with a bridle hung with lucky red tassels, and then, perching on a plank balanced across the cart, bump off towards their field.