Romania is a land of a thousand faces.
The crossing point between the Occident and the Orient
and a melting pot of different cultures.
It is also a country unlike any other in Europe.
With over 60 percent of the Carpathian Mountains
weaving through it,
Romania is the custodian of Europe's last great wilderness area,
its largest remaining forest
and two thirds of its surviving alpha predators.
But increasingly this unique country's natural and cultural heritage
is under threat from reckless development
and a race to modernize which is often destroying
the very things that could ensure prosperity
and a sustainable livelihood for generations to come.
The next leg of my journey takes us north to Moldova,
an ancient region covering the Eastern most part of the country.
Originally twice its current size
it included northern Bucovina and Basarabia,
now the separate and not to confused with Republic of Moldova.
My starting point is the historic capital of Iasi,
one of Romania's foremost centers of culture
and its second largest city.
But as with life,
you often learn more on the journey than you do at the destination.
One the outskirts of a small village, appropriately named Frumoasa, "beautiful",
was a scene that for the moment
is still iconic to large parts of the Romanian countryside.
Having driven past traditional haymaking so often before
this time I felt compelled to stop for closer look.
-Hello. -Hello.
-Charlie. -Nicu.
We are preparing the hay for winter, for the animals.
It's a tradition in our family, in our area
when our family has to do the hay
all the others families gather to help us.
They all come back from wherever they are.
And when they have to do their hay we are going to help them.
It is such a lovely tradition
and obviously it is vitally important as well.
It is vitally important
because it's providing the food for the animals for all the winter.
And I've noticed that the haystacks look different in different parts of Romania.
There are three types of haystacks yes,
for example you see here, they are a little bit slimmer.
Yes, and taller.
And taller because it is a type of herb, you see?
OK, so it depends a lot on what's growing.
Fascinating, I never knew that.
This particular herb you make it slimmer and taller.
Would you like to come with us to eat lunch?
That is extremely kind.
After we eat our brother will make a haystack for you.
Please, take a seat.
Hello.
My brother, he was saying that this is our little social network,
our little Facebook because after we eat we are talking about...
-All the local gossip. -All the local gossip, yes.
And other stuff...
Other things you can't say on camera, yeah. Absolutely.
You can imagine it!
How long does it takes to build all the haystacks?
Like a week or two.
So everyone here is going to work for at least a week to do this.
At least yes, they are working with us, they are helping us.
-Work hard eat hard. -Yes.
In this moment you forget about all the hard labor,
you forget about the weather
and you just enjoy a good meal in the middle of nature with the family.
In fact I would give up all the money in the world
just for these moments of tranquility
and a shelter above your head and that's enough.
It's greedy to ask for more.
For us the family is the most important thing.
-This is the hard part. -Making it deep enough?
The wind will blow it over if you don't.
If you are not making it deep enough, absolutely.
And now he is starting.
-At first you put on it with your hand. -Yeah.
Otherwise it will reach the dirt and it will start rotting.
Yeah, OK, so it's got to be off the ground
to stop the moisture from coming up.
So you pack it up tightly and it acts like the thatch on a roof.
Exactly.
Congratulations, look at that, a finished haystack, a thing of beauty.
In our community as my brother said, the making of a haystack was a proof of...
Of manhood.
So you weren't a man until you can make a good haystack like this.
Well Nicu thank you so much.
It was a pleasure to share this experience with you.
I am on my way up to Iasi but I wanted to stop here just outside Husi
because there is a fantastic example
how young people are embracing tourism in rural areas.
Her name is Alina
and she set up a horse riding business when she was 14 years old
and she's bringing people here to take them ridding in the forest.
-Alina, hi. -Hello.
-Who is this? -Rafian and Phil.
Phil, the horse? Great So, I'll be riding Phil.
I'll just jump on I guess, so off we go.
-Phil is having a baby. -Phil is having a baby?
So Phil is a girl, I should have noticed, really.
OK, I'll be very gentle with you.
-Right which way should we go? -This way.
Right through the woods, lovely. Okay, I'll follow you.
So this is the usual route you take tourists yeah?
Through the forests and through the vines, I love it.
What was it like setting up a business? How did you start?
I started when I was 14,
but I've been fond of it ever since I was a little girl.
The first time I rode a horse was at a neighbor.
Since then I've always wanted a horse.
I begged my parents for two years to buy me a pony.
Then they bought me my first horse, then the second one,
they reproduced and this is how I made it here.
And you've now got friends working with you, haven't you?
Kind of like a cooperative.
Yes, I have two friends who help me every day.
And a caretaker in the morning, while I'm at school.
So tourism is still pretty underdeveloped?
We don't really have tourists, mainly local people.
-So not many. -Or from Iasi, Brasov. Barlad.
Last summer, a family from America came with their three year old daughter.
Americans, OK.
And I pulled it through. I mean we were able to communicate.
Their daughter was very passionate about it. I mean she was three.
Although there are more and more places
providing riding holidays and hikes by horseback,
it was great to see how young people like Alina
are waking up to the opportunities offered by a burgeoning tourist trade.
In fact tourism
is now a subject widely offered in Universities across the country.
Which brings us to our next destination.
Welcome to Iasi, often described as the capital of culture,
and home to the five universities and over 60,000 students each year.
I'm here for a spot of much-needed self-improvement
and the chance to see some of its more educational attractions.
For example it is no surprise
that Iasi also boasts Romania's oldest and most extensive Botanical Gardens,
responsible for numerous conservation initiatives
including helping to identify and protect Carpathia's diverse flora.
For my first stop I had an appointment with senior researcher Tiberius Balaes.
Tell me the University owns the botanical gardens,
so education is a very important facet.
-What else are you doing here? -Well...
Our institution plays several rolls:
we are doing research, we are doing preservation,
we are maintaining in our living collections rare plants,
plants that are endangered, we are assessing the wild biodiversity,
we are going to wild habitats and doing the research there,
but we are also involved in a project for bioremediation,
the restoration of natural eco systems through biological methods.
That have previously been damaged by man presumably?
Yes, unfortunately we have a big negative legacy
from the Communist period with its industrial activity
specific for those times.
It seems to me to be a common theme as I travel around the country
that this is happening with everything, from forests to mycology,
to many of Romania's natural resources.
There isn't necessarily enough legislation
and there isn't necessarily enough founding
to implement that legislation.
Yes, we all have to do more as a society.
There are several NGO's involved in promoting good practices,
but we are still a few,
we had to fight stronger for these causes.
Well maybe that can be another role for botanical gardens, campaigning?
Yes we are involved in promoting campaigns and public education.
Because if the next generation respects nature more
then it won't be quite as bad as it is now.
And it starts from when you are a child.
Yeah, exactly.
Moving on from the study of botany
it was time to swot up on Romanian Literature
with a visit to the house of famous writer
and children's author Ion Creanga.
A good friend of poet Mihai Eminescu,
Creanga was one of the key figures in 19th century literature.
A defrocked Romanian orthodox priest,
he became famous for his volume of Childhood Memories,
short stories, and often ribald anecdotes.
Creanga was a colorful and controversial character
whose works are still studied and provide a fascinating insight
into the social mores and folklore of his day.
He used to sit here in the summer with his friend Mihai Eminescu
and they gazed out over the hills here,
there were a lot less houses in those days
and not these trees and a beautiful view...
and they used to write poems and stories together,
probably had a tuica.
As a poet myself this is truly amazing. I am jealous.
It would have been wonderful to have been there and just heard them.
It's a moment, a priceless moment in the cultural history.
The impact that Ion Creanga has had on Romania's culture, it's been huge.
Not only did he write teaching books for kids,
the first teaching book, how to read, how to write, et cetera,
but his children stories have endured and his very life and his musings
have provided a unique insight into how life was like in the 19th century.
Probably the grandest center of learning in Iasi is the Palace of Culture,
home to no less than four museums and containing 299 rooms.
Constructed in 1906 and not completed until 1925
it is a truly awe-inspiring neo-gothic pile.
It would require days to see everything, so to get a flavor
I took an abridged tour with resident guide Coralia Costas.
Coralia, hello.
-Hello, welcome to the Palace of culture. -Thank you very much.
I had no idea it was this enormous.
You can spend a whole day here and not see everything.
Yes, there are many things to discover in here,
I have been working here for very many years by now
but I still find out new things every day.
So...
This is the Voievods hall.
You said I'll say "wow", didn't you?
Yes, everybody does so!
It was designed at the beginning as a festival hall
and the name is due to the medallions which are in the upper part of the room
starting with Decebal
continuing with the roman emperors Traian and Aurelian.
So this is a portrait history of Romania.
Yes, indeed. It's the history of Romania in portraits.
-Another very opulent looking room. -Yes, indeed.
It's called now the Henri Coanda hall
because of the material used to decorate it.
It's not wood although it looks like wood, yes, it's a special mixture.
It looks completely like wood.
Yes, it imitates the oak wood,
but is a special mixture of plaster and a special kind of resin.
And the murals on the wall?
The murals on the wall were added later on in the 1970's.
They were painted by contemporary artists of the moment,
there are buildings of various regions, let's say, of the city of Iasi.
Here we have the educational city
with the central University library and the University in the back.
In the middle we have the historical center of the city
and on the other side we have the industrial quarter of the city.
What's interesting, from everything that you've been saying is
it's clear that Iasi is kind of the center of academia
from a historical point of view for the whole of Romania.
Yes, it was the starting point of the academic life of Romania,
it was here that the first modern Romanian University was founded in 1860.
And it's got four of them now.
Yes, we have four universities, state universities.
No wonder there are so many kids
wondering around this city the whole time.
Everywhere we go we see children and students.
-Yes. -Yeah.
Well I'm sorry that we didn't had time to show you the science museum
or the ethnographic museum
but then if you saw it all there would be less incentive to come here
and experience it for yourself.
And you really should, it's amazing.
Out in the Moldovan countryside beyond Iasi,
a different kind of culture proliferates
and indeed provides a way of life for many of its residents.
Namely, viticulture.
With gentle hills, south-facing slopes, porous soil and plenty of sunshine,
this is an ideal place for growing grapes.
I have come here to the town of Cotnari
to meet a family who have become rather successful at it.
But before seeing how,
I was due to meet son and heir Remus Deleanu,
at the crumbling manor house
he wants to transform into a five star retreat
to accommodate the new breed of enotourists
keen to experience the fruits of Romania's burgeoning wine industry.
-Remus. -Hello, Charlie.
-Hi. -Welcome.
-What a lovely building. -Yes, thank you very much.
It is one of the historic buildings around this area, it was built in 1901.
It is called Castel Vladoianu.
Actually now it looks like it is in a good shape,
but it needs a little bit of restoration.
We will do this in two or three years.
It's going to be a tremendous hotel, five stars.
Let's go inside and take a look please.
After you.
Thank you.
Look at this!
So the restoration work has already started.
Yeah we just started, but we are trying to do this with small steps
because there are a lot of things we have to restore.
We want to make it look good, we want to bring good restorers.
We want to choose a good architect
that can deal with the restoration exactly like it was 100 years ago.
There is a lot of work and we have to be careful about how we do this.
Your family they bought this when you were young, didn't they?
Yeah, actually I remember when I was eight years old
I used to come here with my parents.
It brings up very nice memories indeed for me.
Let me show you upstairs to see the next part of the building.
OK.
So as you might notice
these are the original stairs built over 100 years ago.
They've survived very well, haven't they?
Yeah. This means building something with great quality.
Yeah.
They still look very very good.
Look at this!
What's upstairs?
I don't know I haven't been there.
-You haven't been there. -No.
We have to go have a look.
Clearly caution is required.
Yes, please be careful where you step...
What an amazing attic.
The potential for this...
You didn't know this was up here at all did you?
Actually I didn't know about this. It's like a hidden gem.
It was a hidden treasure.
Very nice, boutique attic bedroom with balcony.
-Yeah, right, good idea! -Yeah.
Actually in front of us you can see one of our wineries
and to be honest it is the smallest one.
-That's the smallest? -Yeah.
Well I'd be interested to see the largest.
-OK. -Alright.
It was just a five minute drive around the hill to reach the main winery,
but I felt like I had been zapped years into the future.
-Yeah, I see what you mean. -Yeah.
-One million bottles. -One million bottles per year?
-No, per month. -Per month?
-A modest quantity of alcohol! -Pretty modest...
Wine production came quite a long way since the days of the Dacians, doesn't it?
Yeah, the principles do remain the same,
only the technology has evolved a lot.
Our first stop, down a dizzying array of different stairs was the wine cellars,
deep underground to maintain a steady temperature all year round.
We have over 100 barrels in every cellar.
Have you ever thought about expanding the business a bit, you know
growing the business?
I am open for new ideas.
I can't believe how much wine you've got down here!
-That is absolutely extraordinarily. -Yeah, thank you.
From this labyrinth of barrels we ascended to the "Vinoteca",
or library of wine.
Let me show you.
This is amazing.
Yes, we have a few hundred thousand bottles here.
A few hundred thousand bottles?!
Do you know exactly how many or did you lose count?
Actually we have about one million.
So this is one of our main stars, a bottle of Grasa from 1956.
-Be very careful. -Yeah, absolutely!
Be extremely careful!
-It is a big responsibility. -Yeah. Look at the dust on that!
-Yes, it's great, pure. -A thing of beauty.
Is there much decay with the corks?
Yes, in some cases there might be a little bit of decay
and we have a guy checking the bottles all the time.
-That's his job? -Yeah.
-Being down here checking bottles? -Yeah.
-All day long? -Yes, all day long.
If there is a chance of one being rotten, he removes it carefully
because first you have to preserve the quality of the wine
and replace the bottles with new corks.
It must be a very frustrating job.
You can't really have a quick tipple while you are down here
so you are experiencing all these amazing wines every day
and you just have to put the corks back.
-I'll put that back. -Extremely carefully.
-Right. -Let's go.
After you.
Remarkable though it is, this endless corridor of bottles
reminded me of the Catacombs beneath Paris or Rome.
The scale of this
is similar to the tunnels that just go on and on
and you see skulls and skulls and skulls on either side.
This is a much nicer version of that experience.
The experience is much more different, it's a nice one.
-Not a creepy one. -Not a creepy one exactly.
Back at ground level, it was time to test my palette,
with a little help from Remus's brother Victor.
Charlie, nice to meet you.
So over to you really.
For a start we will have six wines,
they are all local varieties that you can find in our vineyard.
This is actually my favorite wine.
That's lovely, bit of leather, pine...
What's the Paris collection?
Because in Romania when we taste rose wine
we think about love and Paris is the city of love.
-So it's a wine for lovers. -Yeah.
-Cheers! -Cheers!
After a most informative and relaxing hour
tasting a comprehensive selection from Cotnari's labitinth cellars...
What a fantastic color, that's gold.
I was left with just one question.
Have you considered making any sparkling wines?
I know it's not traditionally done here in Romania
but with the with the variety of grapes you have here...
You're right,
we've just launched on the market three different types of sparkling wine.
Let's make a comparison:
we are going to take a bottle of champagne and two sparkling wines.
So I'll have to work out which is the champagne in this case?
What do you want me to do? Shall I just go outside?
I'll leave you guys to it.
-Yes. -Right.
OK, bring it on.
OK, I'm seeing more effervescence, more mineral
coming from this glass than these two
so my first impression would be that this is the champagne.
I'll try this one first
because I think this is the odd one out by looking at it...
but not conclusive at this stage.
I'm not tasting a great deal of difference
between glass number one and glass number two
and it might be because we've already had six wines
that's a possibility which I can't discount
so I'm hoping this is the odd man out.
-You see it is not easy. -Hang on.
Might be a bit harder than you expected.
That's the champagne.
-Wrong. -Seriously?
Yeah.
In that case may I revert to my original thesis
that it was glass number one?
Oh, you are so wrong!
-Again? -Yeah.
You see you cannot tell any difference in color,
you cannot tell any difference in the size of the bubbles
or the amount of the bubbles
and I can't tell any difference in the taste.
All I can say is congratulations.
I know I'm no wine expert
but if I can't tell the difference and I really couldn't,
this is another string to the bow of Romanian wine makers.
Thank you very much, great to meet you both.
A couple of miles outside Cotnari sits the remains of a building
which has enormous cultural significance
not just for this area but for the whole country.
The Latin School built here in 1562 was one of the earliest in Romania.
It paved the way for higher education in Moldova
and set the groundwork for Iasi
to subsequently become the historic seat of learning it is today.
However as I discovered, little remains of it,
either in memory, or in the flesh.
OK, so a bit of suspension of disbelief is required here.
You have to imagine 200 kids studying here for five years:
Latin, a bit of arithmetic, rhetoric, and they had dormitories.
There'd be teachers.
There'd be the hustle and bustle of daily school life;
a far cry from today.
The floor of the tower was littered with ancient stone tablets
that rather than lying here in the dirt,
might merit their own place in the Palace of Culture.
One of the first references to the Latin college
was by a writer who taught here called Iohannes Sommerus
who wrote a series of eulogies and in one of them he said the following:
"Meanwhile I have to raise my children and also walk on humble ways
until they learn the basics of Latin
and are able to express themselves correctly".
There you are, it's the root of all rhetoric,
the genesis of species, the basis of learning
and it is sad to see one of the first places that taught Latin
in such a state of disrepair.
Look at this, it's a jungle.
You would think someone might at least come and trim it, but no.
The local authorities will tell you they can't do anything
because they need permission from Bucharest
because this is an A grade building.
That hasn't stopped people in the past
attempting to restore it in a hopeless fashion.
Look at the pointing there done with modern cement
completely incongruous with the materials they originally used to make this.
Meanwhile it's just going to sit here until it falls down.
Imagine how it must have sounded
and now listen,
nature reclaiming the works of man.
And this is happening all over Romania.
Until we find a way through the bureaucracy
and also when funds are available to implement them in the right way
instead of messing it up like Rupea Castle,
then thousands of historic monuments, medieval buildings like this one,
are in danger of being lost.
Hello, are you going to munch some of those weeds over there please?
Nature's lawn mowers!
Five minutes further up the road is an even older monument,
a Thracian iron age hill fort
with commanding views across the surrounding countryside.
For a while it included a covered museum
that sheltered a section of exposed earthworks
but even that is now being absorbed back into the landscape
like the structure it was once designed to protect.
Not that I want to labor a point, well that's not strictly true,
but this charming museum was built 50 years ago
was supposed to protect this segment of excavated fortress.
It hasn't really happened.
It would have been better if they'd just left it.
Moldova is peppered with ancient ruins like these,
all in various stages of disrepair.
One of the most impressive is Neamt Fortress,
overlooking the town of Targu Neamt.
Founded in the 14th century
and subsequently enlarged by Stephen the Great,
this impressive castle successfully repelled the Ottomans in 1476
but was eventually abandoned in the 1700s.
To learn more about its history and recent restoration
I met up with local expert Vasile Diaconu.
-Vasile, hi. -Hello welcome.
Thank you very much.
Impressive.
Yeah, it's the northern part of the fortress, the outcourt.
It played an important role in the defense of this fortress.
And these circular bastions are for adding strength to the walls, yes?
Of course, they are circular because it was an important measure
that could not be destroyed with cannon balls
or catapults or other weapons.
Here is the second entrance of the fortress.
It was built in the time of Stephan the Great
but the first entrance you can see in front of us.
-This one here? -Yes.
OK, so this is the original inner courtyard of the first build.
Yeah, because Peter the First built
a small fortification with four towers.
Why did he build a castle here?
It was an important reason because
this fortress protected the commercial roads of this area,
the roads which connect Moldavia with Transylvania
or the southern part of Moldavia with the Northern part of Moldavia
with the Suceava area.
It was the capital as you know.
So in some ways it was like a police station for the local area?
Yes, it was a kind of a police station
because inside here there were a lot of soldiers.
At the same time it was also an administrative center.
-A center of administration. -Yeah.
Why do people do this?
It's something about luck.
It looks like Aladdin's cave down there.
I think you might need to send someone down there every year
to fill up a sack towards the maintenance of the castle
otherwise I bet you someone else will do it.
You'll have money all the way to the top eventually.
I know this is a reconstructed room but it does feel very authentic.
At present we propose that in the middle ages here
was the place for the court.
-So they had a court of law here. -Yes, they had a court of law.
I heard that was also a mint, is that right?
Yes. Because the archeological evidence proved that in the 17th century
here in a room of this fortress,
there was an illegal place where they faked money.
Without the king's knowledge or with the king's knowledge?
With the king's knowledge.
-Really? -Yes.
Fascinating.
So it was a center of law and order but it was also an illegal mint.
-Yeah at the same time. -At the same time.
Twelve kilometres South of Targu Neamt is Varatec,
a secluded Romanian Orthodox monastery run entirely by nuns.
Founded in 1785 it is still thriving today
with a bakery, workshops and a team of skilled artisans
whose creative and artistic output
not only pays for the day to day running costs
but also raises money for a host of good causes.
Within the walls of the monastery, a chapel, museum, dormitories
and workshops surround neatly tended gardens and shady bowers.
This peaceful exterior belies the fact that behind closed doors,
Varatec is a veritable haven of industry.
My penultimate stop on our whirlwind tour of Moldova
is a hidden gem located in Tarpesti just around the corner from Varatec.
Welcome to the Popa village museum,
founded in the 70's by local sculptor Nicolae Popa
who after being imprisoned for fighting against communism,
devoted the rest of his life
to defending and preserving Romanian heritage.
The result is a prestigious collection of folklore,
art, sculpture and cultural curiosities
that has not only brought fame to this small corner of Neamt county
but is drawing visitors from around the world.
The museum is now run by Popa's son, also called Nicolae
who kindly made time to give me an insight
into the life and works of his father.
-Hello. -Hello.
How do you do?
-How do you do? -Fine, thank you.
I am just totally in trance by your museum. It's so beautiful.
It's the result of the work and passion of a person
who wanted to save the national heritage of the country side.
A person who left this place and saw in '64,
let's say the signs of modernization of the village
and thought it would be very important to gather all these objects
that were threatened to disappear.
Because the modernization began in an unpleasant way, through destruction.
The human tendency is to get rid of everything that is old,
and my father panicked.
He said that if everything goes on in this way,
everything that reflects our past and history will be gone in a few years.
He would gather all of them and found a museum.
He gathered over 4,000 objects.
When he founded the museum, my father thought to start
with a presentation of the history of the cultural life
and the materials of the local community,
starting with the ancient times, so from the archaic period,
all the way through the Neolithic period, the Cucuteni period
then the Dacian period, feudal period, modern age, so to this day.
Tell me about the origins of the dance of the goat and the dance of the bear.
A part of the tradition was lost.
We try to preserve as much as we can from the past folklore.
For example, I want to make you a surprise,
and show you the bear and the goat, how they used to be.
With the children from this area. Let's see.
I tend to think that they are as old as the shamans or the archaic societies.
In our culture, the mask has had an almost social significance,
because 100, 200 years ago, on the New Year's eve,
it was the only time in which you could criticize everything bad
that had happened in the community,
you could criticize the notables, even the mayor of the village,
in case they did something wrong to the community.
You see, the masks are very different.
The idea was to mend your ways,
you were criticized, but you had to mend your ways.
If you didn't do so,
the following year some of your features were accentuated.
Your nose was getting longer, for a drunkard,
would grow bigger years and so on.
Well done!
I don't feel entirely comfortable applauding that
because the dance of the bears
really documents the historical abuse of these beautiful creatures.
They go to the forest, they take a baby bear,
they bring them back, put them in a pen of hot coals
and of course they singe their paws and they start to do that.
They bang a drum at the same time
so after a while the drum becomes associated with the pain
and they just start to do that, the bear would dance.
They then take it to the villagers and perform
and they even got them to massage the locals
doing a little bit of a dance on their back.
So every year we watch this dance
we are effectively commemorating the torture of these bears.
I didn't really want to know that.
Do you think there is a hope for the future
that these traditions will be preserved by the next generations?
Of course. Every time I see groups of children visiting the museum,
I feel grateful, thinking that my poor dad was right.
He had a premonition, that the people of the post-industrial world,
will look for this archaic cultural landmarks,
that their parents forwent.
And I see more and more young people who are interested in the tradition
the history of the people, the cultural landmarks,
and this thing makes me happy.
Another bonus of a trip to Tarpesti's most hallowed attraction
is that visitors also have the chance to spend a night at the museum.
In small communities like this one everyone knows everybody else,
and as we were leaving
I had the good fortune to bump into Nicolae's next door neighbor Catinca,
who very sweetly invited us over for a late lunch
and the chance to experience
a Moldavian take on the traditional Poale in Brau pie.
Come in.
Catinca!
I'm Charlie, nice to meet you.
Thank you so much.
Let's start. I added salt, yeast, cheese,
a pinch of sugar, one egg and vanilla.
Very sweet aroma coming of the vanilla
so it's already starting to smell like confectionary.
I'm not sure how this is going to work with cheese,
it's kind of the sweet and the sour.
I have this recipe from my grandmother.
OK, from your grandmother.
From my grandmother, you know.
-With local milk. -Yes.
Tonight you should come to milk a cow.
Deal, OK.
No, look.
I don't mind a pastry hand.
I'm going to milk a cow tonight apparently, good.
I don't know if you will be able to milk it.
I think I can probably milk a cow still,
but this is what I'm talking about when we describe the good life:
There are no artificial additives here,
there's no growth hormones, no antibiotics, there's nothing,
these are natural eggs from free range chickens,
this is milk from her cow.
Most of the ingredients have come from this garden let alone further afield.
I think it's ready.
Now it has to rise until the bowl is full.
I think we wait now for about 20 minutes for the dough to rise
and meantime we now have a chicken in the room as well as a cat
so it's turning a bit into a menagerie in here.
It is a very very tame chicken.
It's looking for the cat.
That's why it came here.
This is very, very cute because they are clearly quite good friends,
I hope so otherwise it's going to be a loud squawking in a moment.
Thank you for the eggs by the way.
Where I've put...?
Now, I will take a tiny piece of dough
and I will make a very small cake.
We add cheese, we spread it so that we won't have only dough.
Beautifully done, just so simple.
Is it OK like this?
God help us!
It's a bit too much flour.
He's lefty.
Too much?
-Is it OK? -It's OK.
-Like this? -Yes, crammed.
This is terrible. It doesn't look as good as yours.
-It's OK. Put it there. -OK.
Well done! You'll make a good husband.
I clearly need a wife.
I just love the use of the feather,
people go and buy expensive brushes to glaze their food
but hey, just use a feather.
It's just as good and it's free and there's an endless supply out there.
Like this.
It's so heavy.
So that looks as good as I thought it would.
They are both tasty and beautiful.
The glaze on the top is giving that lovely sheen.
Looks absolutely delicious.
This is it.
-How is it? Is it good? -It's good.
Does it smell good?
Does it have that something to captivate you?
It's delicious.
While we were watching the pastry rise in the oven the cows came home.
-Are we milking the cow now? -We're milking the cow.
I'm going to leave that there.
I'm going to get kicked I'm sure of it.
-Here? -Come in.
I haven't done this in 25 years but it's like riding a bicycle,
you never forget.
Look at that straight from the cow, udderly beautiful, only two minutes old.
This is what I mean by fresh milk.
And who needs a coffee maker we've already have the foam.
I'm off for a cappuccino.
Thank you very much. Good bye.
After saying farewell to Catinca and her family
it was time to head into the sunset
and leave this outrageously hospitable region behind.
Next week we will be traversing the vast and varied hinterlands of Transylvania
and attempting to cram it all into less than an hour.
Not an easy task as we will be tracking bears in the wild,
presenting more weird and wonderful dishes...
fairy tale eco-retreats...
breathtaking drives, medieval villages, citadels, cob castles
and more roads less travelled.
All exclusively in Flavors of Romania.