A Romanian couple to promote traditional Romanian costumes in their sabbatical year trip

A Romanian couple – Alex and Andreea Maruseac- is on a worldwide motorcycle trip for almost seven months now: they started in August 2012 from Alaska, and then they went to the South, passing through Canada and the United States, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and reaching Panama in December. Then, they took a boat across the Darien Gap and began their South America leg of the trip in Colombia. As a personal belief, they thought of this journey as a great opportunity to discover and know the world. Moreover, Alex and Andreea are wearing in this trip traditional Romanian clothes: the traditional shirts, bandanas and brau, the traditional Romanian belt.

How did you select the national costumes you are wearing? What area are they from? What do they stand for?

The national costumes were a present from our parents, given before the departure. My father selected the costumes and they are from Bucovina region of Romania. For me, they represent more than anything else the love and care shown by our families.

Who had the idea of presenting yourselves with the traditional Romanian costumes?

The idea came rather naturally to Andreea before leaving on the trip. On a motorcycle you have very little space for luggage but we decided to make room for the two national costumes. But I have to make one point very clear: our intention is by no means to make a show with this idea or any kind of “grand presentation.” Rather, our idea is much more humble: starting from the fact that we do value our traditions, we thought that having the national costumes with us will help creating a positive dialog over Romania with those interested in our country.

What do the costumes represent for you?

Most of all, they are the link to “back home”. So you could say that taking them with us in fact signifies taking along in the journey lot of “home”.

What was the feedback received from the inhabitants of the places you visited after seeing you in traditional Romanian costumes?

Better than we were thinking. We are quite shy people and at first we were a little bit reluctant to show our national costumes, thinking that they would be “out of place.” Instead, people everywhere genuinely interested in the origin of the costumes, their story and our project. So we could say that the national costumes started a lot of very interesting and constructive conversations. And in the end, we hope that, at least a little bit, we helped creating a positive image for Romania.

Do you consider yourselves cultural ambassadors of Romania?

No. Far from us such thoughts. Our intention is more humble. We just want to discover the world and also to help people we meet on the way to discover a little bit about Romania, if they wish. But we never thought that our journeys in terms of making any noise about whom we are or where are we coming from. We think that the best way of helping Romania’s image is by being polite and respectful every where we go.

How are you financing this trip?

By ourselves. And we are by no means rich. We’ve worked around five years to put money aside. The interesting thing is that we didn’t know from the very beginning that we are going to do this. In fact, five years ago, we didn’t even know each other. But the pieces fell into place one by one and by the end of 2011, we made the decision that we are going to try to start this journey, even though at that time we didn’t know if we will have enough funds to finish it. And we still don’t know that aspect as a matter of fact.

How did you decide to take a career break to take on this project?

No doubt it was one of the hardest things to do. After years of working into a multinational you get into certain habits and you get accustomed with a certain life (working hours, escape breaks and so on). But taking a career break was a prerequisite for the project and I am feeling very grateful that it was possible for me to take a sabbatical year. Unfortunately Andreea was not as fortunate and she had to quit. We are both optimist though that, career wise, we will find the best solutions once we get back home.

More about their worldwide trip can be read on their blog, information in both English and Romanian.