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Romania is a land of a thousand faces.

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The crossing point
between the Occident and the Orient,

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and a melting pot of different cultures.

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It is also a country
unlike any other in Europe.

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With over half of the Carpathian
mountain range weaving through it,

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Romania is the custodian of Europe's
greatest surviving mixed forests,

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and two thirds of its alpha predators.

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As well as native Romanians,
it's home to Hungarian,

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Saxon,

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Roma,

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Serbian,

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Greek,

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and many more diverse peoples,

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united by the borders of a nation

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that stretches to the mouth of the Danube.

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However,
Romania's natural and built heritage

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is under threat from reckless development

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and a race to modernize which often
destroys the very things that could ensure

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prosperity for generations to come.

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Welcome back to our two-wheeled tour

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around Romania's
nine great historic regions.

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In this fourth episode,
we've reached Muntenia.

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We commence our journey starting in
the capital city of Bucharest,

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just 37 miles from the Bulgarian border.

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It is the most densely populated city
in South-Eastern Europe,

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and until 1989, the seat of power
for the Communist party,

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lead by the late Nicolae Ceaușescu.

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I'm on my way to visit
his lavish headquarters,

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ironically dubbed The People's Palace,

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still the heaviest and second largest
building in the world,

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weighing in a whooping 4.10 million tons.

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It's now the House of Parliament
for the Romanian government,

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and it's jointly occupied by the Senate
and the Deputy Chamber.

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We've been granted exclusive access

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to see what usually goes on
behind the closed doors,

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with the help of my guide Francisc,

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who's waiting for me in one of its
cavernous lobbies.

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Francisc.

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{\an8}- Hello, Charlie.
- Hey!

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- Good to see you.
- Good to see you too.

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- Thanks for coming.
- My pleasure.

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- This really defies the descriptions.
- It is pretty impressive.

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There's more than four million tons,
the weight of the palace.

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And also the lights, as you can see,

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there are 2800 chandeliers
in the building.

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Ceaușescu must have been very desperate
to make a big impression.

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Yes.

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The amount of labour and the costs and
the materials involved in building this.

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He wanted a big building and to be honest

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then he build this palace they destroyed
one fifth of Bucharest.

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Nobody builds a building like this
just to show humility.

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Let me show you the chamber of the Senate.

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This is where the action happens.

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Legislators, they make the laws over here.

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They have the atomic precision clock.

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What was this originally intended for?

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Still for the big meetings
of the Communist party before.

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What's very strange seeing this
is that the Communist regime is all about

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being down to earth,
about not having the grandeur,

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places like the imperial Băile Herculane,

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they were painting over the marble
because it was relevant to the bourgeois.

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And here we have a building
that is more opulent, more extravagant.

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Because the purpose, the original purpose
was to show off the power and the might.

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- Yes.
- They realized that they couldn't impress

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with Communist apartment buildings.

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I think it nicely demonstrates the fact

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that no political regime
ever truly succeeds,

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you know, look at that.

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- Power corrupts.
- This is Communism.

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Yes, but not of the textbook.

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Everybody is equal, but some people
are less equal than others.

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This was the balcony where he was supposed
to have his speech.

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But he never did.
He died before it was finished.

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Yes, because the Revolution came beforehand.

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And yet, even though Ceaușescu's dead
and this was costing billions,

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they had to carry on.

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Yes, because they built more than
60 per cent just in the 80s.

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They started in 1984 and eventually
finished in '97.

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All this was the whole view
of a new Communist city,

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according to Nicolae Ceaușescu's view.

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Michael Jackson was here,
on this balcony, in '96,

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we have the picture and everything.

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- But he didn't dangle a baby over.
- No.

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That was in Germany,
I think it was somebody's else tour.

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He was the first one, the first VIP,
75,000 people at his concert

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on the big stadium.

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This is where everybody was supposed
to be received before

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by Ceaușescu and his wife.

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And they were supposed to walk
on different stairs, the same time,

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to make sure they'd impress everybody.

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And after that, take the people
in the big reception halls,

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this way, over here.

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This is the biggest one.
It's 2.200 square meters.

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I read somewhere that he also wanted
to have a dome that can be removed

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on the palace,
so he could get a helicopter in.

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They had some ideas,
but they abandoned it.

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They never did it.

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And the car park is vast.
I once saw a program

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where cars were driven through
the car park.

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- Yes.
- At high speed.

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And I was thinking,
I always wanted to do that.

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According to some sources,
the palace is like a gigantic iceberg,

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far bigger underground than it is above,

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with numerous unspecified levels
delving deep beneath the city.

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However, I was happy just to visit
one of them

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for the chance to travel
in the thread marks of <i>Top Gear</i>

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and take a quick ride through
the cornucopia of concrete corridors.

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Bucharest is a vast city,
divided into districts

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and packed with museums, malls,

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art galleries, night clubs, parks
and ritzy new restaurants.

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I'm stopping for lunch at one
of the most exclusive

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to see how Romanian cuisine is evolving
in this competitive environment.

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Welcome to our modest little restaurant.

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It's palatial!

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{\an8}It was a lot of work and it went a lot
against the times when we did this,

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but we said we want to put something
on the map

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which is really about the past brought
in the present,

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and made to last for many, many
hundreds of years.

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A lot of old buildings in Bucharest
are in a terrible state, aren't they,

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and it's a long going problem
that many are facing collapse.

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I don't think the main challenge
is the people don't see value in them,

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what can I do with such a house, you know,

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how many restaurants can you do,
what kind of restaurants.

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So in a way, that's what we tried to show
and it was a huge gamble,

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that we could do such a restaurant,
in such a place,

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make it work,
create a viable business model

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and a product that people really love
and would want to come back to.

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So open plan kitchen,
which is almost mandatory these days.

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Well, yes, not easy to do,
but this is the soul of our restaurant.

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{\an8}Cătălin is the one that's conducting
this particular soul.

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{\an8}- Cătălin.
- Hi, Charlie, nice to meet you.

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Nice to meet you. So what's the style,
I mean, in terms of the creative process,

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how's that work for you?

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For example, coming some ideas,
I put them on the paper,

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I speak with my sous-chef, Sorin.

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And it's easy to put on the paper, a menu,
but when you start to practice,

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it's really hard to find a good flavour.

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- Trial and error.
- Yes.

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For example, we have some dishes,
and we tried for three months.

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That must be kind of fun
at the same time, right?

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Sometimes it's fun.

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The experiment is quite enjoyable
when you get it right, it's satisfaction.

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Sometimes it's a little bit too expensive,
to practice...

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- Every day.
- Yes.

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- Because the food, you know...
- Yeah, the ingredients are not cheap.

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But we are lucky also because our farmer
it's here in the kitchen,

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and all the vegetables we buy from him.

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Welcome to our small little room.

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- It's cosy.
- It is cosy.

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And we also try to have a story here,
as well, with the blue.

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Yes, I like the blue.

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At the moment, Romania doesn't have
a reputation internationally

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as a gastro-destination.

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Do you think there's any hope of that
changing in the near future,

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having Michelin reviews of restaurants?

156
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Thank you.

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When Michelin decides to come to Romania,

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then they'll be able to evaluate,

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because, at the moment,
they're not present in Romania.

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So we, as far as the world is concerned,

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we can have five thousands
three star Michelin restaurants...

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- But no one will know.
- No one will know.

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Are people surprised when confronted
with a place like this

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and they come here for the first time,

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especially Romanians who aren't
necessarily entirely used to

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this degree of sophistication?

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They are, you know, kind of taken aback
because they do not imagine,

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when they taste, they realize
where we are, Bucharest, Romania,

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Eastern Europe, the flavours,
they are very from here,

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but the look doesn't fit with their story,

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because they're not used to people
in this field to be so careful

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when it comes to details, to work so much.

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You know Romanian food
better than most people.

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We believe in such a place
you eat with your eyes,

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you eat with all your senses,

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you don't eat just with your tongue.

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If your eyes are saying
I'm gonna eat leaf,

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as it approaches your tongue,

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but then you're like,
this is beetroot, it's crispy.

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- It's transcending into art.
- Yes.

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That's what makes it so interesting.

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And also confusing for people,
which we love.

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I always make this comparison.

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People ask me what is exactly,
what is that you do.

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And I say,
listen, restaurants are like museums,

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most restaurants are like, you know,
traditional restaurants,

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they are like The National Museum of Art.

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There it's very clear what's cool.

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The painting with a lot of security
around it must be good art.

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Lots of tourists, must be good art,
we will not compete with that.

191
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We are like contemporary art museums.

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When you go to a contemporary art museum,
you look at things,

193
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you're like,
what is this supposed to say to me.

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A contemporary art museum in society
is about challenging,

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it's about redefining your expectations,

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it's about saying
you thought normal was this,

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but if you look at normal
from this particular lens,

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you might find something very surprising.

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So this is the purpose
of such a restaurant, I think,

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to challenge our beliefs

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and to show
there's something much more authentic

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behind the bigger picture.

203
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With so much going on
every day of the week,

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Bucharest is also becoming a destination
in its own right,

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for the many international travelers
who come to explore Romania.

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Probably its top attraction
is the historical Old Town,

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which largely survived the bombing
during the start of The Second World War,

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and subsequent decades
of Communist neglect.

209
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Today it's brimful of bars, clubs
and eateries

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which cater to the discerning
and less salubrious visitors.

211
00:12:09,640 --> 00:12:12,880
Walking around the Old Town
you can see why back in 1900

212
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Bucharest was known as Little Paris,

213
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not just because of its architecture,
but because of the fashion

214
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and the relationship
that people living here had with France.

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Much of that architecture
has now been lost,

216
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but you can still see its vestiges
over here,

217
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in the streets,
in the buildings, in the ambiance.

218
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What ads to the charm of the Old Town
is the unfinished buildings,

219
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that haven't been yet renovated.

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It's gives the same kind of vibes
as the ruined bars in Budapest.

221
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It's work in progress, it's evolving,
this is how it is,

222
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it's tatty around the edges,

223
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it's a bit rough, it's a bit ready,
but it's lots of fun.

224
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And if you ever doubted for a moment

225
00:13:05,480 --> 00:13:09,960
you're experiencing <i>un petit peu</i>
to little France,

226
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behind me, it's the Moulin Rouge.

227
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Just North of Bucharest

228
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is an area of forest and farmland
dissected by the serpentine Snagov lake,

229
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actually an enlarged segment
of the Ialomița river

230
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which is now a natural reservation

231
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and a riverside retreat
for the rich and famous

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who have weekend houses away
from the hustle and bustle of the capital.

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Here, besides its gentle shores,
there's a little island

234
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on which stands a small
and unassuming church

235
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with an enormous claim.

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Below its metal roof,
painted walls and a flagstone floor,

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it's the alleged final resting place

238
00:14:14,240 --> 00:14:19,360
of the man who inspired Bram Stoker's
immortal tale of Dracula.

239
00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:29,080
In episode one we visited the alleged
birth place of Vlad Țepeș,

240
00:14:29,160 --> 00:14:30,560
Vlad the Impaler,

241
00:14:30,640 --> 00:14:35,520
and now we came to visit
the alleged final resting place.

242
00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:38,040
But there's some evidence to support

243
00:14:38,120 --> 00:14:41,120
his affiliation with this church
in this monastery.

244
00:14:41,200 --> 00:14:43,840
He built the dome above us

245
00:14:43,920 --> 00:14:48,040
and he built a prison for thieves.

246
00:14:48,120 --> 00:14:50,720
He also built a bridge
across to the island,

247
00:14:50,800 --> 00:14:54,040
and, interestingly,
he built an escape tunnel.

248
00:14:54,840 --> 00:14:58,840
Why would you need an escape tunnel
when you're dead and buried?

249
00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:09,120
On the outskirts of Bucharest,

250
00:15:09,200 --> 00:15:11,160
in the corner of a small field,

251
00:15:11,240 --> 00:15:13,360
it's the workshop of craftsman

252
00:15:13,440 --> 00:15:16,600
who's revived an ancient Dacian
culinary tradition

253
00:15:16,680 --> 00:15:19,280
and turned it into a thriving business.

254
00:15:28,200 --> 00:15:31,560
This is George and he makes
portable clay ovens

255
00:15:31,640 --> 00:15:35,240
of the type used by shepherds
for thousands of years.

256
00:15:37,000 --> 00:15:41,680
{\an8}You can see here the oldest clay ovens
in Romania.

257
00:15:41,760 --> 00:15:46,320
Today, as you can see,
we've got plenty of ovens.

258
00:15:46,400 --> 00:15:51,480
They have a traditional Romanian name, <i>țest.</i>

259
00:15:51,560 --> 00:15:56,880
First of all, they can be found in Romania
since the Dacian era,

260
00:15:56,960 --> 00:15:58,280
that is 2000 years ago.

261
00:15:58,360 --> 00:16:03,440
As regards raw materials
there are three of them.

262
00:16:03,520 --> 00:16:05,160
Clay or kaolin,

263
00:16:05,240 --> 00:16:08,480
horse manure as a binding element,
and water.

264
00:16:08,560 --> 00:16:11,280
They look as if they might be
a bit fragile.

265
00:16:11,360 --> 00:16:16,800
No, they are not fragile,
they resist to over 300 degrees Celsius,

266
00:16:16,880 --> 00:16:21,040
and the product baked inside
is very well cooked

267
00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:22,480
and it's much more tastier

268
00:16:22,560 --> 00:16:27,000
than food baked in a classic,
standard oven, on gas or electric.

269
00:16:27,080 --> 00:16:33,040
I'd like to ask you Charlie
to try to make together...

270
00:16:33,120 --> 00:16:35,120
- Now?
- Yes, now... A <i>țest</i>.

271
00:16:35,200 --> 00:16:39,960
Here, under this tarp,
we have the raw materials.

272
00:16:40,040 --> 00:16:43,880
It's blended by feet. Let's see.

273
00:16:48,120 --> 00:16:51,240
It's a bit like when you're doing
the wine harvest,

274
00:16:51,840 --> 00:16:53,800
but this is the horse poo harvest.

275
00:16:55,360 --> 00:16:58,520
It's started to change consistency a bit,

276
00:16:58,600 --> 00:17:02,640
a little bit creamier,
squeezing up through my toes.

277
00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:06,599
A little bit stinky, this is smelly work.

278
00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:08,800
How long would you have to do this for?

279
00:17:08,880 --> 00:17:11,720
About four hours.

280
00:17:11,800 --> 00:17:17,319
We have a couple of <i>țest</i>
made by me the other day.

281
00:17:17,400 --> 00:17:20,960
And drying time in the sun
approximately how long?

282
00:17:21,040 --> 00:17:23,640
They have to be dried for about ten days.

283
00:17:23,720 --> 00:17:28,400
After that you turn them upside down
and leave them for another ten days.

284
00:17:28,480 --> 00:17:35,080
First of all, Charlie, the upper clay
should be pushed down to the base,

285
00:17:35,160 --> 00:17:36,880
down to this mark.

286
00:17:36,960 --> 00:17:43,560
Now, we'll take it with our hands
and fill the upper side.

287
00:17:43,640 --> 00:17:49,160
It should be bigger
and have an upward point

288
00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:52,640
to look like a hat or a <i>clop.</i>

289
00:17:52,720 --> 00:17:56,160
We go like this, put some water
and do like this.

290
00:17:56,720 --> 00:17:57,560
Yeah.

291
00:17:58,240 --> 00:17:59,880
- And you get up here.
- That's it.

292
00:17:59,960 --> 00:18:00,880
Please.

293
00:18:01,800 --> 00:18:03,080
What's the reason for this?

294
00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:06,160
Its role is to leave a hole inside,

295
00:18:06,240 --> 00:18:09,800
so that we can lift it
and put it down on the hearth.

296
00:18:09,880 --> 00:18:11,640
So, there...

297
00:18:12,240 --> 00:18:14,080
As straight as possible. Perfect!

298
00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:15,880
Like this. It's OK.

299
00:18:15,960 --> 00:18:21,280
Daniel's bringing us our mark,
our personal logo.

300
00:18:21,360 --> 00:18:24,080
One in the middle and one up here.

301
00:18:25,640 --> 00:18:27,360
- That's it.
- Perfect!

302
00:18:27,440 --> 00:18:29,120
- Thank you.
- Well done! Bravo!

303
00:18:30,040 --> 00:18:33,880
Now we're making some bread
to eat together, Charlie.

304
00:18:34,680 --> 00:18:39,960
I'll shape it
and you'll sprinkle it with tomatoes.

305
00:18:40,040 --> 00:18:41,440
We put it inside for baking.

306
00:18:44,760 --> 00:18:46,600
Embers should be all around it

307
00:18:47,360 --> 00:18:49,880
to prevent the heat from coming out.

308
00:18:49,960 --> 00:18:53,280
- And there?
- Here? We'll roast some chicken.

309
00:18:55,440 --> 00:18:59,560
Twenty minutes later, our bread is ready.

310
00:18:59,640 --> 00:19:01,080
We'll see it now.

311
00:19:03,480 --> 00:19:06,200
A nice Romanian taste
and some healthy food.

312
00:19:06,280 --> 00:19:10,120
That is the way bread was cooked
thousands of years ago, isn't it?

313
00:19:10,200 --> 00:19:11,040
Yes.

314
00:19:16,480 --> 00:19:19,240
- Tell me please if it's done.
- Perfect.

315
00:19:19,320 --> 00:19:24,320
The <i>țest</i> chicken is very juicy
and so tasty.

316
00:19:24,400 --> 00:19:28,880
What first gave you the idea to start
making this ovens?

317
00:19:28,960 --> 00:19:32,760
The idea came from my grandma.

318
00:19:32,840 --> 00:19:37,320
Her <i>țest</i> had been broken
and she was supposed to get a new one.

319
00:19:37,400 --> 00:19:40,840
I helped her to make a new one,
I learned how to do it

320
00:19:40,920 --> 00:19:45,480
and I thought there might be some other
people who want to eat healthy,

321
00:19:45,560 --> 00:19:49,000
nice and tasty food,
but they can't get it.

322
00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:52,040
So I started making lots of them
to help more people.

323
00:19:52,120 --> 00:19:54,840
This is something that people
can make at home,

324
00:19:54,920 --> 00:19:57,240
providing they have some clay and a horse.

325
00:19:57,320 --> 00:20:00,640
Of course. Anyone who has courtyard house

326
00:20:00,720 --> 00:20:06,480
can make it in order to cook
in a traditional way.

327
00:20:06,560 --> 00:20:09,480
Thank you for having us here
and thank you for showing me.

328
00:20:09,560 --> 00:20:11,640
And hopefully, people who see this,

329
00:20:11,720 --> 00:20:14,960
might be inspired to make one
of these ovens themselves.

330
00:20:15,040 --> 00:20:17,440
Or if you don't want
to get your feet dirty,

331
00:20:17,520 --> 00:20:19,680
you can always give George a call.

332
00:20:19,760 --> 00:20:20,560
Thank you.

333
00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:23,320
Thank you for coming, Charlie,
and please come again.

334
00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:25,200
- Thanks a lot, George.
- Thank you.

335
00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:27,200
- Bon appetite.
- Likewise.

336
00:20:32,600 --> 00:20:34,480
Leaving the south lands behind us,

337
00:20:34,560 --> 00:20:37,000
we drive up into the Carpathian foothills,

338
00:20:37,080 --> 00:20:38,440
north of Buzău.

339
00:20:41,920 --> 00:20:45,640
We're here to visit Romania's most recent
environmental triumph,

340
00:20:48,280 --> 00:20:52,760
1.036 square km nature reserve in geopark

341
00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:56,040
which has just achieved
UNESCO world status,

342
00:20:59,400 --> 00:21:02,720
thanks in part to my old friend
Thorsten Kirschner,

343
00:21:02,800 --> 00:21:05,680
who showed us around the mud volcanoes
in season one.

344
00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:12,680
I'm heading back to his historic <i>conac</i>,
or manor house near Berca,

345
00:21:14,120 --> 00:21:17,640
that he and his wife, Giranda,
have now opened as a hotel...

346
00:21:17,720 --> 00:21:19,960
- What a change!
- Yes!

347
00:21:21,280 --> 00:21:23,440
... with Mediterranean style accommodation

348
00:21:24,400 --> 00:21:27,440
and freshly foraged organic cuisine.

349
00:21:30,120 --> 00:21:32,280
- So, we've got the pool.
- Yeah.

350
00:21:32,360 --> 00:21:33,760
What's that? A bar?

351
00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:34,760
- Yes.
- A bar?

352
00:21:34,840 --> 00:21:35,640
- Yes.
- Great.

353
00:21:35,720 --> 00:21:37,680
{\an8}- How many rooms?
- Five.

354
00:21:37,760 --> 00:21:40,360
- Five rooms.
- Yeah. It's a small location, you know.

355
00:21:40,440 --> 00:21:43,440
Because the guests must feel like home,

356
00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:48,280
and if you have a bigger place
then it's something else.

357
00:21:48,360 --> 00:21:50,360
And also it's all about the food,
isn't it?

358
00:21:50,440 --> 00:21:51,280
Of course.

359
00:21:52,960 --> 00:21:54,480
- If I know you!
- Yes.

360
00:21:54,560 --> 00:21:56,240
All of the things that you served

361
00:21:56,320 --> 00:21:59,880
when I spoke to you last,
was coming from the garden.

362
00:21:59,960 --> 00:22:01,880
- Is that still the case?
- Yes.

363
00:22:01,960 --> 00:22:05,880
It's seasonal, it's regional
and it's with a little bit of twist.

364
00:22:05,960 --> 00:22:08,200
So, what have you prepared?

365
00:22:08,280 --> 00:22:11,880
In front of us,
you can get the wild garlic,

366
00:22:12,520 --> 00:22:18,720
so I have made a pesto out of this
with pinion or pine nuts

367
00:22:18,800 --> 00:22:23,680
and our cheese that we're making here,
the goat cheese.

368
00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:28,680
So you make the pesto and you put it
in a pan, a frying pan,

369
00:22:28,760 --> 00:22:33,320
and you add a little bit of cream,
to be creamier, and this the cooking.

370
00:22:33,400 --> 00:22:37,120
It has to stay on the fire one minute.

371
00:22:38,400 --> 00:22:43,280
This is the final touch,
to crumble a little bit the cheese.

372
00:22:43,360 --> 00:22:47,560
- And it'll taste smoky flavour.
- Beautiful.

373
00:22:48,840 --> 00:22:50,040
Like this.

374
00:22:50,120 --> 00:22:56,360
And then you put the pine nuts
or the walnuts on top of it, like this.

375
00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:01,160
This is the signature dish for spring.

376
00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:06,160
It's very nice to be back.
Thank you for having me.

377
00:23:06,760 --> 00:23:08,880
- It's our pleasure.
- Yes, always.

378
00:23:08,960 --> 00:23:12,120
Thorsten, I also hear
congratulations are in order,

379
00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:15,240
you're part of the team
that has created this.

380
00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:17,120
Is it a UNESCO geopark reserve?

381
00:23:17,200 --> 00:23:21,960
{\an8}Yes, it's in fact, UNESCO global geopark,

382
00:23:22,040 --> 00:23:26,320
{\an8}called Buzău land or Ținutul Buzăului,
in Romanian,

383
00:23:26,400 --> 00:23:29,200
and it's part of the UNESCO
worldwide network.

384
00:23:29,280 --> 00:23:33,880
It was a large team and they worked more
than 15 years on this topic,

385
00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:36,200
so I helped in the end to promote a bit

386
00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:40,160
and we are really grateful to have it

387
00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:44,640
because it's a big opportunity for Buzău,
for sustainable tourism

388
00:23:44,720 --> 00:23:47,720
because a geopark means
we have geological phenomena.

389
00:23:47,800 --> 00:23:52,840
We try to promote rural tourism,
sustainable tourism

390
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:56,760
and I think
that'll be a game changer for this region.

391
00:24:00,360 --> 00:24:02,680
Having reversed to four wheels,
as advised,

392
00:24:03,280 --> 00:24:07,440
I'm going in search of one of Romania's
most unusual phenomena.

393
00:24:12,960 --> 00:24:16,560
Situated on a hillside,
near the village of Lopătari,

394
00:24:16,640 --> 00:24:21,600
there's an alpine meadow where the ground
is perpetually on fire.

395
00:24:23,240 --> 00:24:27,440
This eternal flame is caused
by gas pockets

396
00:24:27,520 --> 00:24:29,400
that sit deep underground

397
00:24:29,480 --> 00:24:31,680
and they ignite on their way
to the surface.

398
00:24:33,080 --> 00:24:37,000
It's easy to see how people
with no knowledge of Geology or Chemistry

399
00:24:37,080 --> 00:24:40,240
might attribute this to the forces
of the supernatural.

400
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:43,720
In fact,
when Bram Stoker was researching Romania,

401
00:24:43,800 --> 00:24:45,360
as the location of his book,

402
00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:46,960
he might have read about these

403
00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:49,680
and there's a scene where Jonathan Harker

404
00:24:49,760 --> 00:24:53,120
had been taken by carriage
to Dracula's castle, at night,

405
00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:54,440
and he looks out of the window

406
00:24:54,520 --> 00:24:58,400
and he sees fairy lights,
flames dancing in the darkness.

407
00:24:58,480 --> 00:25:01,880
There's a local legend for the people
of the villages here

408
00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:04,520
playing the heroes, as they usually do,

409
00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:08,160
captured and entombed a demon
under the ground

410
00:25:08,240 --> 00:25:11,600
and these flames are the result
of his struggles to get free.

411
00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:22,120
The area of the geopark also incorporates
large deposits of salt,

412
00:25:24,520 --> 00:25:27,880
which exude from the hillsides and cliffs
in several places,

413
00:25:30,200 --> 00:25:34,160
crusting the rocks and fishes
in different shades of white.

414
00:25:42,800 --> 00:25:43,840
Tasty.

415
00:25:43,920 --> 00:25:45,960
Just needs a bag of French fries
and battered cod.

416
00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:50,600
See how the rain dissolved the salt
and created these crystalline structures.

417
00:25:51,280 --> 00:25:54,120
The local people here take the water
from this gorge

418
00:25:54,200 --> 00:25:57,240
and use it to preserve
their pickles for the winter.

419
00:25:58,120 --> 00:26:01,920
This is very, very primeval landscape,
millions of years old,

420
00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:05,640
back to the time when it was a salt sea.

421
00:26:05,720 --> 00:26:10,120
And as waters receded, deposits of salt
were laid down in the earth.

422
00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:12,960
You can see the top there,
we've got layers of salt

423
00:26:13,040 --> 00:26:14,880
and as it comes down is whiter and whiter.

424
00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:18,720
There is, in fact,
the second largest salt cave in the world,

425
00:26:18,800 --> 00:26:20,080
just below my feet.

426
00:26:20,160 --> 00:26:21,200
We can't get into it, sadly,

427
00:26:21,280 --> 00:26:23,080
because it collapsed, with the rain,

428
00:26:23,160 --> 00:26:25,160
but it's over a kilometre long.

429
00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:28,880
Hopefully, that's something
they can unearth in the near future

430
00:26:28,960 --> 00:26:32,640
and will be another feather in the cap
of local tourism.

431
00:26:38,840 --> 00:26:42,720
Perhaps the most mysterious
and intriguing feature of the geopark

432
00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:46,640
has less to do with geology
and more to do with the people

433
00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:49,240
who once inhabited this wild region.

434
00:26:52,960 --> 00:26:58,600
Hidden in the mountains around Colți
is Romanian's alternative to Stonehenge,

435
00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:03,480
a series of spectacular cave churches
hewn from remote cliffs.

436
00:27:05,800 --> 00:27:09,720
While many believe they were made
by religious hermits in Medieval times,

437
00:27:09,800 --> 00:27:14,680
there're also scholars who attribute
their origins to the pre-Christian era.

438
00:27:16,880 --> 00:27:19,600
Whether or not they were created
by the church,

439
00:27:19,680 --> 00:27:21,520
they have now been assimilated by it

440
00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:25,800
and have since been periodically
occupied by solitary monks

441
00:27:25,880 --> 00:27:27,760
and even the occasional nun.

442
00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:33,480
Many of them can only be reached
by either a long hike

443
00:27:33,560 --> 00:27:35,080
or some technical driving,

444
00:27:35,160 --> 00:27:36,440
preceded by a shorter one.

445
00:27:40,400 --> 00:27:44,880
First stop is Schitul Fundătura,
<i>schit</i> meaning church.

446
00:27:47,920 --> 00:27:51,120
This small oval dwelling is camouflaged
by the trees,

447
00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:55,120
and unique in that it was carved
from a single boulder.

448
00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:01,440
You can see the etchings
on the walls and the ceiling,

449
00:28:01,520 --> 00:28:05,040
it looks as if it was literally
hollowed down with a fork.

450
00:28:05,120 --> 00:28:09,600
It's had many people associated with it,
it's had mystics, it's had monks,

451
00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:14,440
and it's also had 12 nuns living here,
according to the stories,

452
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:16,880
how that worked, I'm not so sure.

453
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:21,200
They must have had slept like sausages
in here at night,

454
00:28:21,280 --> 00:28:24,720
unless, of course, they had
a wooden church adjacent to the rock.

455
00:28:25,400 --> 00:28:28,680
But any trace of that
has long since vanished in the forest.

456
00:28:32,240 --> 00:28:35,720
My guess this hole here would have
served as the chimney.

457
00:28:35,800 --> 00:28:39,480
You'd have put your fire here to stay
warm in the winter time.

458
00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:46,560
Bijou, it's not five star,
but you could survive.

459
00:29:00,080 --> 00:29:03,200
To reach the next two,
require a drive around the mountain

460
00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:05,480
and back up another treacherous dirt road,

461
00:29:09,360 --> 00:29:11,840
to a grassy meadow high in the hills,

462
00:29:14,680 --> 00:29:15,920
followed by another hike.

463
00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:32,000
This is the church of St. Joseph
and is the oldest of the cave churches,

464
00:29:32,080 --> 00:29:34,400
probably dating back to the Bronze Age.

465
00:29:34,480 --> 00:29:37,080
It might have been a dwelling
or it could been a temple.

466
00:29:37,160 --> 00:29:40,800
You can get an idea of how it looked like
by the holes in the rock.

467
00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:44,080
The square ones probably would have taken
beams that stretch out here

468
00:29:44,160 --> 00:29:47,760
with supports and correspondingly the roof
would have extended out

469
00:29:47,840 --> 00:29:49,360
to create a pavilion.

470
00:29:49,440 --> 00:29:51,720
None of these root networks would have
been here,

471
00:29:51,800 --> 00:29:53,120
it would have been completely flat,

472
00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:55,360
and maybe the forest wouldn't have
existed either,

473
00:29:55,440 --> 00:29:58,360
so you would have had a clear view
right across the valley.

474
00:29:59,120 --> 00:30:01,480
They're always much smaller in the inside,

475
00:30:01,560 --> 00:30:03,640
but you have everything you need here.

476
00:30:03,720 --> 00:30:09,200
If I'm not mistaken, there's a plaster,
they plastered over the rock.

477
00:30:09,280 --> 00:30:12,880
And this would probably been put here,
so they can paint on it,

478
00:30:12,960 --> 00:30:14,600
so the monks can create murals

479
00:30:14,680 --> 00:30:18,040
and beautiful depictions
from the Testament.

480
00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:19,880
It would have been very colourful,

481
00:30:19,960 --> 00:30:23,680
but also gets dirty very fast
because as you can see here

482
00:30:23,760 --> 00:30:26,000
all this it's still coating the walls from

483
00:30:26,080 --> 00:30:29,840
when they light the fire,
and you need to light the fire, a lot,

484
00:30:29,920 --> 00:30:32,280
especially if you're living here
all year round.

485
00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:44,960
Back down the trail
on a jutting peninsula of stone

486
00:30:45,040 --> 00:30:47,440
is the cave of Dionisie Torcătorul,

487
00:30:51,960 --> 00:30:55,560
named after a monk who lived there
in the 19th century

488
00:30:55,640 --> 00:30:56,720
and used to spin wool.

489
00:30:57,480 --> 00:31:00,600
But again,
its origins are probably much older.

490
00:31:10,120 --> 00:31:12,880
You have to admit this is a pretty good
defensive position.

491
00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:14,320
If you're under attack,

492
00:31:14,400 --> 00:31:16,280
you just pull up the ladder.

493
00:31:16,360 --> 00:31:18,560
Obviously in those days it was wooden.

494
00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:22,440
I need to say that you also would be
safe from bears.

495
00:31:27,280 --> 00:31:31,720
What I love about these cave churches
is their timelessness.

496
00:31:32,320 --> 00:31:36,360
I don't mean their past, their history,
I mean their future.

497
00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:38,680
Forget about this ladders,

498
00:31:38,760 --> 00:31:41,360
forget about the great cathedrals
of the world,

499
00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:43,320
the opera houses, the bridges,

500
00:31:44,040 --> 00:31:45,520
all the cities of man,

501
00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:49,160
in fact, us, as a species,
we'll all be gone,

502
00:31:49,240 --> 00:31:52,120
but this'll still be here
in a million year time.

503
00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:03,440
The last cave on my list is Aluniș,

504
00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:06,800
which some argue dates back
to the Geto-Dacians.

505
00:32:09,800 --> 00:32:11,800
According to inscriptions on the wall,

506
00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:15,400
believed to refer to the veneration
of the sun and water.

507
00:32:19,400 --> 00:32:23,760
This is also one of the oldest
Orthodox places of worship in Romania,

508
00:32:23,840 --> 00:32:26,280
established in 1274.

509
00:32:29,400 --> 00:32:33,120
The entrance to the cave is protected
by a small wooden church.

510
00:32:33,200 --> 00:32:36,240
Weekly services is still held to this day.

511
00:32:40,440 --> 00:32:43,880
A few doors down from the church
is the Aluniș village school,

512
00:32:43,960 --> 00:32:49,120
recently reopened as a community centre
by an industrious local NGO.

513
00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:55,360
I've stopped by to meet Iulia,
one of its founding members.

514
00:32:57,480 --> 00:32:59,040
Tell me about the kids coming here.

515
00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:03,320
{\an8}We're a non-profit organization,
Aluniș Art Centre,

516
00:33:03,960 --> 00:33:05,840
We are artists moved here

517
00:33:05,920 --> 00:33:10,240
and we're working with local people
to revive the traditions.

518
00:33:10,320 --> 00:33:13,040
We have the pottery classes
that we offer free

519
00:33:13,120 --> 00:33:14,880
for all the children in the area,

520
00:33:15,600 --> 00:33:17,840
as well as for the children
around the country,

521
00:33:17,920 --> 00:33:21,560
but from difficult backgrounds.

522
00:33:22,600 --> 00:33:26,720
Basically, Buzău has a history
of 6000 years of pottery,

523
00:33:26,800 --> 00:33:29,200
which has been interrupted 30 years ago

524
00:33:29,280 --> 00:33:32,400
by the physical death of the last potter.

525
00:33:32,480 --> 00:33:35,240
So we had to rebuild it from the ground.

526
00:33:35,320 --> 00:33:40,840
So, first of all, we have two ladies
working in the pottery atelier,

527
00:33:41,600 --> 00:33:44,080
we've been teaching them from the basics,

528
00:33:44,160 --> 00:33:47,800
we brought teachers from Bucharest
to restart this tradition.

529
00:33:47,880 --> 00:33:49,240
- Fantastic!
- Yes.

530
00:33:49,320 --> 00:33:55,520
This is the old technique which is quite
like the oldest in the world, by hand,

531
00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:58,960
and the new technique is by the wheel.

532
00:33:59,040 --> 00:34:01,000
We have electrical wheels of course.

533
00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:03,440
It is shaping up very well, look at this!

534
00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:06,040
It's beautiful! Congratulations!

535
00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:07,960
This is the old school of the village

536
00:34:08,040 --> 00:34:11,360
which was basically abandoned
for ten years

537
00:34:11,440 --> 00:34:13,880
because there are no more children
in this village.

538
00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:18,080
So it was really... how to say...

539
00:34:18,159 --> 00:34:22,120
- Derelict and unloved.
- True.

540
00:34:22,800 --> 00:34:24,400
It's a very good way to put it.

541
00:34:24,480 --> 00:34:25,880
And we just renovated it,

542
00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:28,280
it started as a small art centre,

543
00:34:28,360 --> 00:34:33,880
where we hope to receive art residents
to stimulate a bit its activity

544
00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:36,560
and attract a certain type of tourism
to the area,

545
00:34:36,639 --> 00:34:40,560
people which have as interest nature
and love for arts,

546
00:34:41,360 --> 00:34:42,520
and these are the people

547
00:34:42,600 --> 00:34:45,040
who are always giving back
to the community.

548
00:34:45,120 --> 00:34:50,040
How do the children react to seeing
these cave churches and this landscape,

549
00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:51,440
it must be quite exciting for them.

550
00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:53,360
- They are fascinated.
- I bet they are.

551
00:34:53,440 --> 00:34:54,239
A lot of mysteries

552
00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:56,800
and they always ask about ghosts

553
00:34:56,880 --> 00:35:01,040
and if we see spirits
and if we see balls of fire.

554
00:35:01,120 --> 00:35:03,120
Going back to the ghosts, do you?

555
00:35:04,280 --> 00:35:05,080
Well...

556
00:35:05,160 --> 00:35:07,360
I've heard stories. There are...

557
00:35:07,440 --> 00:35:11,760
- I had a chat with one.
- So you have seen a ghost.

558
00:35:11,840 --> 00:35:14,600
Yes. I follow more
the reaction people have

559
00:35:14,680 --> 00:35:17,480
and what's happens in their life
after they visit us

560
00:35:17,560 --> 00:35:18,960
and it's so interesting.

561
00:35:19,720 --> 00:35:22,320
There are some friends of mine who came

562
00:35:22,400 --> 00:35:24,600
and after they had just visited,

563
00:35:24,680 --> 00:35:28,440
they got children and I make fun
that we can advertise this.

564
00:35:28,520 --> 00:35:30,480
A fertility clinic!

565
00:35:32,080 --> 00:35:34,360
But it's quite interesting,

566
00:35:34,440 --> 00:35:38,840
each person reacts differently,
but it definitely changes them.

567
00:35:48,960 --> 00:35:51,240
Due west in the hills above Ploiești,

568
00:35:51,320 --> 00:35:53,800
there's a new and much talked about hotel.

569
00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:59,320
What might very well be the most luxurious
hobbit holes in the world.

570
00:36:03,160 --> 00:36:04,800
This is Casa Timiș,

571
00:36:04,880 --> 00:36:07,520
centred around a restored manor house,

572
00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:09,920
in a small valley surrounded by vines.

573
00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:17,160
I dropped in to see what all the fuss
was about.

574
00:36:20,280 --> 00:36:21,240
Interesting design,

575
00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:25,880
Provencal mixed with English manor house,

576
00:36:25,960 --> 00:36:29,480
some tartans on the walls
with a wee flavour of Scotland,

577
00:36:29,560 --> 00:36:35,240
beautiful view, due west,
so good for sunsets later.

578
00:36:35,320 --> 00:36:39,160
Yeah, I think it's maybe the most
glamorous hobbit house

579
00:36:39,240 --> 00:36:41,080
I've ever stayed in.

580
00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:42,160
Quite a long way.

581
00:36:46,040 --> 00:36:50,400
Even the bathroom is extravagant
without being over the top.

582
00:36:51,960 --> 00:36:54,080
Hand painted sink

583
00:36:56,080 --> 00:36:58,080
and a walking wet room.

584
00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:00,960
Very, very stylish.

585
00:37:04,960 --> 00:37:10,360
Over the manor house I tracked down
resident celebrity chef Nico Lontras,

586
00:37:10,440 --> 00:37:13,840
who's internationally acclaimed
for his reinterpretations

587
00:37:13,920 --> 00:37:15,440
of classic Romanian dishes.

588
00:37:17,400 --> 00:37:19,520
- Welcome to my kitchen!
- Thank you, sir.

589
00:37:20,240 --> 00:37:23,560
- I see I arrived in a nick of time.
- Yes, right in time.

590
00:37:23,640 --> 00:37:26,120
We're doing two different starters
and two different main courses.

591
00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:27,800
We already build up the starters.

592
00:37:27,880 --> 00:37:32,000
This is wild boar tartar with pickles
and with the...

593
00:37:32,080 --> 00:37:35,880
Why, because we see wild boars
running around here.

594
00:37:35,960 --> 00:37:40,520
And then we have <i>bulz</i>,
which is a traditional recipe,

595
00:37:40,600 --> 00:37:41,880
but we do it in our own way.

596
00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:43,400
We serve it with ...

597
00:37:43,480 --> 00:37:45,680
- Beetroot.
- Right, beetroot.

598
00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:47,160
And pastrami of duck.

599
00:37:47,240 --> 00:37:49,040
Now we're gonna build up a dish

600
00:37:49,120 --> 00:37:51,640
which is, I think is the most
fascinating dish

601
00:37:51,720 --> 00:37:52,720
we have in the menu today.

602
00:37:52,800 --> 00:37:56,360
Because this is the deer filet.

603
00:37:56,440 --> 00:37:58,560
In the way to connect to this land,

604
00:37:58,640 --> 00:38:02,440
we chose an ingredient like
the Jerusalem artichokes,

605
00:38:02,520 --> 00:38:05,480
which in Romania
we used very much in the old time.

606
00:38:05,560 --> 00:38:08,160
And then we have beetroot puree.

607
00:38:08,240 --> 00:38:12,000
This is the red wine sauce
with fruit from the forest.

608
00:38:12,080 --> 00:38:14,440
So there'll be a reduction of red wine.

609
00:38:14,520 --> 00:38:17,240
- Yes.
- Presumably and forest fruit.

610
00:38:17,320 --> 00:38:22,080
And cooked very slowly. For example,
in here there're two bottles of wine.

611
00:38:23,080 --> 00:38:24,000
Reduced down to this.

612
00:38:24,080 --> 00:38:27,240
Reduced down to this
with like 200-300 grams of fruit

613
00:38:27,320 --> 00:38:31,400
and then is taking the fruit
and the wine, the alcohol is evaporated,

614
00:38:31,480 --> 00:38:33,520
and you have just the right...

615
00:38:33,600 --> 00:38:35,600
- Sweetness and sourness.
- Correct.

616
00:38:36,560 --> 00:38:40,320
We'll gonna start
with the simple version of plating.

617
00:38:41,040 --> 00:38:44,200
I'm gonna use two spoons of beetroot,

618
00:38:45,280 --> 00:38:49,720
we gonna use two spoons
of the Jerusalem artichokes puree,

619
00:38:50,760 --> 00:38:53,240
because we like to create colours.

620
00:38:53,320 --> 00:38:56,080
I'm gonna put the meat,

621
00:38:56,800 --> 00:38:58,240
I have four small pieces.

622
00:38:58,320 --> 00:39:00,320
Now I'm gonna put the sauce,

623
00:39:00,960 --> 00:39:03,200
each piece of meat need to get sauce.

624
00:39:04,960 --> 00:39:07,280
Of course, salt is keeping
everything together.

625
00:39:07,360 --> 00:39:09,920
And then, fruit as well.

626
00:39:10,600 --> 00:39:13,320
And then,
from the same Jerusalem artichokes,

627
00:39:13,400 --> 00:39:14,240
I made chips.

628
00:39:15,040 --> 00:39:18,240
I think every single ingredient
has to be used in a different way

629
00:39:18,320 --> 00:39:20,040
to give texture and colour.

630
00:39:20,120 --> 00:39:24,080
It's so artistic you don't really want
to tuck into it. It looks incredible!

631
00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:26,320
I wanna take a photograph of it
before I eat.

632
00:39:26,400 --> 00:39:29,440
- So we'll be taking this outside.
- Of course.

633
00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:32,080
And hopefully you'll tell me
a little bit more

634
00:39:32,160 --> 00:39:33,920
about your influences as a chef.

635
00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:37,760
I am trying to discover the old Romania
to be able to do the new Romania.

636
00:39:37,840 --> 00:39:41,760
So the dishes we're doing now in the <i>conac</i>

637
00:39:41,840 --> 00:39:43,760
we're trying to be based

638
00:39:43,840 --> 00:39:46,680
on the Romanian
historical gastronomy culture.

639
00:39:46,760 --> 00:39:49,720
Of course,
we are in the middle of Dealu Mare,

640
00:39:49,800 --> 00:39:51,960
I have to connect to what is here.

641
00:39:52,040 --> 00:39:57,040
But before that, Romania means
so much more about gastronomy culture,

642
00:39:57,120 --> 00:40:01,040
because all the influences from all
the regions it's making sense.

643
00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:05,080
What I learned in all these years
is that Romanians have to stop saying no,

644
00:40:05,160 --> 00:40:07,280
this is not Romanian,

645
00:40:07,360 --> 00:40:09,600
you have to connect to the place you are,

646
00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:11,960
and create the dishes
with what you have around you.

647
00:40:12,040 --> 00:40:16,880
Old recipes were made in old times
from old reasons.

648
00:40:16,960 --> 00:40:20,840
We are not in that time when you come
to fill up your belly.

649
00:40:20,920 --> 00:40:23,520
- You are coming to this place...
- To have an experience.

650
00:40:23,600 --> 00:40:26,480
To have an experience and to enjoy
and don't rush,

651
00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:31,040
enjoy the view,
enjoy the food, enjoy a glass of wine,

652
00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:33,160
look around, breath,

653
00:40:33,800 --> 00:40:37,680
and go home charged with all these
and talk about it.

654
00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:45,200
After a late lunch, I was joined
on the patio of my own private back end

655
00:40:45,280 --> 00:40:49,000
by owner Cristina Timiș for a signature sundowner

656
00:40:49,080 --> 00:40:51,520
consisting of a lavender gin and tonic.

657
00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:54,480
How did it all begin?

658
00:40:54,560 --> 00:41:00,960
{\an8}Everything began on August 1st, 2018
when he came here.

659
00:41:01,040 --> 00:41:03,080
It was love at first sight.

660
00:41:03,160 --> 00:41:04,320
At that time,

661
00:41:04,400 --> 00:41:09,200
here it was just the manor house
and four hectares of vineyards.

662
00:41:09,280 --> 00:41:15,120
I had a powerful dream to make here
something very special

663
00:41:15,200 --> 00:41:19,760
and different from all has to offer
the hospitality in Romania.

664
00:41:19,840 --> 00:41:22,280
Everything I've done here,

665
00:41:22,360 --> 00:41:26,440
I've done from my own perspective
as a tourist,

666
00:41:26,520 --> 00:41:28,400
and a very demanding one,

667
00:41:28,920 --> 00:41:31,680
and as a mother perspective,

668
00:41:31,760 --> 00:41:35,880
who wants to take her children
and family just in secluded places,

669
00:41:35,960 --> 00:41:39,080
everywhere and anytime
in connection with nature.

670
00:41:39,160 --> 00:41:43,760
The kind of people that come here,
you have people coming from abroad,

671
00:41:43,840 --> 00:41:45,480
a lot of fun, visitors as well.

672
00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:47,040
Yes, a lot of.

673
00:41:47,120 --> 00:41:50,120
It's quite a sort of multicultural feel.

674
00:41:50,200 --> 00:41:51,600
- Yes.
- And the design as well.

675
00:41:51,680 --> 00:41:54,800
I like to be, because, you know,
my vision for this place

676
00:41:54,880 --> 00:42:00,480
is to write history in international
hospitality, not just in Romania.

677
00:42:00,560 --> 00:42:01,480
I think that's very cool.

678
00:42:01,560 --> 00:42:08,400
The vision I proclaimed three years ago
now it becomes reality.

679
00:42:20,880 --> 00:42:22,400
For the next part of the journey,

680
00:42:22,480 --> 00:42:24,760
we join on the National Road One,

681
00:42:24,840 --> 00:42:27,160
which winds north towards
the Prahova Valley,

682
00:42:27,240 --> 00:42:29,080
to our next destination,

683
00:42:30,200 --> 00:42:32,960
the Royal Palace of Peleș in Sinaia.

684
00:42:36,360 --> 00:42:40,880
With a few hours to spare, I decided to go
in search of a small reservoir,

685
00:42:40,960 --> 00:42:42,480
deep in the Bucegi mountains,

686
00:42:42,560 --> 00:42:45,760
with one of the most iconic views
in Romania.

687
00:42:49,520 --> 00:42:53,320
This is Lake Scropoasa
in the Cheile Orzei gorge,

688
00:42:53,400 --> 00:42:57,440
the source of the Ialomița river,
which we last encountered in Snagov.

689
00:43:00,400 --> 00:43:03,360
There's a well beaten track
down to a wooden bridge

690
00:43:03,440 --> 00:43:06,400
from where you can take pictures
of the mouth of the canyon,

691
00:43:09,760 --> 00:43:13,800
with its weird assortment
of wooden sheds clinging to the rocks,

692
00:43:14,400 --> 00:43:18,200
reminiscent of America
back in the days of the gold rush.

693
00:43:21,160 --> 00:43:23,880
Maybe it's because of the power
of Instagram,

694
00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:28,520
but this has become one of Muntenia's
most photographed landmarks.

695
00:43:29,720 --> 00:43:33,440
So much so that some bright spark
obviously decided

696
00:43:33,520 --> 00:43:36,360
more illumination was required.

697
00:43:39,360 --> 00:43:42,440
It's a bit strange to find a lamp post

698
00:43:42,520 --> 00:43:47,080
on a hiking trail in the mountains,
20 km down a dirt road.

699
00:43:48,600 --> 00:43:51,040
Reminds me of a... wardrobe.

700
00:43:51,120 --> 00:43:52,120
Narnia!

701
00:43:52,720 --> 00:43:55,960
However, I'm sure the bears appreciate
the illumination at night

702
00:43:56,040 --> 00:43:59,240
when they are foraging
for wild raspberries

703
00:43:59,320 --> 00:44:01,600
and lost their sense of smell.

704
00:44:03,200 --> 00:44:04,040
Very good.

705
00:44:22,240 --> 00:44:24,960
Further down the mountain
sits Peleș Castle

706
00:44:25,960 --> 00:44:29,960
perched regally on a forested hill,
above the town of Sinaia.

707
00:44:35,080 --> 00:44:39,000
Restituted back to the royal family
after the fall of Communism

708
00:44:39,080 --> 00:44:41,120
and now open to the public,

709
00:44:41,200 --> 00:44:44,320
it was constructed
by king Carol the First of Romania,

710
00:44:45,040 --> 00:44:48,560
also known as king Charles,
according to my guide Costin.

711
00:44:59,800 --> 00:45:00,720
- Costin.
- Hello!

712
00:45:00,800 --> 00:45:01,640
Hello.

713
00:45:02,240 --> 00:45:03,600
{\an8}Good morning.

714
00:45:03,680 --> 00:45:06,160
- Charlie. Nice to meet you.
- Costin. Nice to meet you.

715
00:45:06,240 --> 00:45:10,800
The castle was built by the first king
of Romania, king Charles the First.

716
00:45:10,880 --> 00:45:14,040
- Who came to Romania in 1866.
- Show me the highlights.

717
00:45:14,840 --> 00:45:16,080
Now we are in the vestibule.

718
00:45:16,160 --> 00:45:18,240
Yes, I see,
we came through the side entrance.

719
00:45:18,320 --> 00:45:20,840
This is the main entrance of the castle,

720
00:45:20,920 --> 00:45:24,360
where king usually invited his guests.

721
00:45:24,440 --> 00:45:27,440
It took 41 years to build the castle.

722
00:45:27,520 --> 00:45:31,360
Most of the artists that were involved
in here were from Germany and Austria,

723
00:45:31,440 --> 00:45:32,840
chosen by the king.

724
00:45:32,920 --> 00:45:38,160
He took a lot of art history classes
at Bonn university, so he knows.

725
00:45:38,240 --> 00:45:40,680
So he was a highly educated man
and he knew exactly what he wanted.

726
00:45:40,760 --> 00:45:43,320
He had impressive collections
in Peleș Castle,

727
00:45:43,400 --> 00:45:46,640
and one of the most impressive one
is the weapons collection.

728
00:45:46,720 --> 00:45:50,360
The full collection counted about
5.000 weapons.

729
00:45:51,160 --> 00:45:55,240
Very important in here is the sword
up there on the fireplace,

730
00:45:55,320 --> 00:45:58,720
which is a German execution sword.

731
00:45:58,800 --> 00:46:01,640
On the blade of the sword there is
engraved a text,

732
00:46:01,720 --> 00:46:03,880
in the old German language,
in translation,

733
00:46:03,960 --> 00:46:08,360
"when the sword will be above your head,
God will offer you eternal life."

734
00:46:08,440 --> 00:46:10,240
I know it's hard to believe,

735
00:46:10,320 --> 00:46:12,800
but back then it was an honour
to be beheaded with that one.

736
00:46:12,880 --> 00:46:17,320
They probably didn't see that
in the last few seconds of their life.

737
00:46:17,920 --> 00:46:22,760
But that sword has actually been used
to behead nobles.

738
00:46:22,840 --> 00:46:25,120
- Nobles, German, Saxons.
- Many people.

739
00:46:27,080 --> 00:46:29,840
Over here, that's the music room.

740
00:46:30,680 --> 00:46:32,560
- Look at the stained glass.
- The queen's temple.

741
00:46:32,640 --> 00:46:35,360
Because she was a musician herself.

742
00:46:35,440 --> 00:46:36,480
Yes, she was a musician,

743
00:46:36,560 --> 00:46:39,000
she was a translator,
she was a writer, she was a painter.

744
00:46:39,080 --> 00:46:39,880
That's by her.

745
00:46:39,960 --> 00:46:43,040
Yes, the painting down there
done by queen Elizabeth.

746
00:46:43,120 --> 00:46:45,320
We have to pass to the reception halls

747
00:46:45,400 --> 00:46:49,080
where we'll gonna find two large
Venetian chandeliers,

748
00:46:49,160 --> 00:46:51,360
which were made of Murano glass,

749
00:46:51,440 --> 00:46:53,080
which is known as the best glass
in the world.

750
00:46:53,160 --> 00:46:55,880
You will see in here the theatre hall,

751
00:46:55,960 --> 00:47:00,080
the place where Sarah Bernhardt played,
over there.

752
00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:03,000
Right in the back there's the royal baths.

753
00:47:03,080 --> 00:47:06,800
And all around the room you'll see
the frieze in here

754
00:47:06,880 --> 00:47:10,600
which was painted by the world known
Austrian painter Gustav Klimt.

755
00:47:10,680 --> 00:47:13,640
This is a door to be used
in case of emergency.

756
00:47:13,720 --> 00:47:15,440
What do you mean by emergency?

757
00:47:15,520 --> 00:47:17,880
King said that's a lot of wood
in the castle,

758
00:47:17,960 --> 00:47:20,160
and if a fire starts during the night

759
00:47:20,240 --> 00:47:22,840
you have to escape as quickly as you can
from your bedroom.

760
00:47:22,920 --> 00:47:25,200
So this is why each important bedroom
in the castle

761
00:47:25,280 --> 00:47:27,080
had a secret door like this one.

762
00:47:27,160 --> 00:47:30,960
So it wasn't for the purposes
of illicit access.

763
00:47:31,040 --> 00:47:31,840
No.

764
00:47:31,920 --> 00:47:34,920
- Are you sure about that?
- I'm hundred per cent sure.

765
00:47:36,720 --> 00:47:39,240
This is the royal bedroom
for the king and queen.

766
00:47:39,320 --> 00:47:42,120
It is important to notice that
Charles I and Elizabeth

767
00:47:42,200 --> 00:47:43,880
shared the same bedroom.

768
00:47:43,960 --> 00:47:45,880
Usually back then, in Europe,

769
00:47:45,960 --> 00:47:48,920
royal members used
two different apartments in the castle.

770
00:47:49,000 --> 00:47:51,600
Now we'll see the biggest

771
00:47:51,680 --> 00:47:54,400
and also the most impressive apartment
in the castle.

772
00:47:55,040 --> 00:47:57,800
And it seems to be also
the most expensive one,

773
00:47:57,880 --> 00:48:00,240
this was for guests,
this was how you show your wealth.

774
00:48:00,320 --> 00:48:04,640
They spent for this apartment
about 12 million dollars.

775
00:48:05,240 --> 00:48:08,800
- The equivalent or actually that?
- That time money.

776
00:48:08,880 --> 00:48:11,120
You said the royalty,
even visiting royalty,

777
00:48:11,200 --> 00:48:12,760
slept in separate bedrooms.

778
00:48:12,840 --> 00:48:14,800
So, the king was there.

779
00:48:14,880 --> 00:48:17,480
- Look here, closely.
- This is a cupboard.

780
00:48:17,560 --> 00:48:19,880
- It looks like a wardrobe.
- Another wardrobe.

781
00:48:19,960 --> 00:48:23,520
- Another secret door.
- A secret door.

782
00:48:24,200 --> 00:48:26,360
Which leads to the queen's apartment.

783
00:48:26,440 --> 00:48:28,720
So through the wardrobe. Like in Narnia.

784
00:48:28,800 --> 00:48:35,000
Exactly. There's a lot of Narnia context
coming out at the moment wherever I go.

785
00:48:35,080 --> 00:48:38,680
This is really beautiful
and this would be her sitting room.

786
00:48:38,760 --> 00:48:39,760
The sitting room, yes.

787
00:48:39,840 --> 00:48:42,320
We're gonna find
a lot of Italian ceramic in here.

788
00:48:42,400 --> 00:48:45,600
We'll see, right here,
the queen's bedroom.

789
00:48:46,320 --> 00:48:48,160
It's a little smaller.

790
00:48:48,240 --> 00:48:49,760
- The bed.
- That's not so small.

791
00:48:49,840 --> 00:48:51,480
- This is a queen's size bed.
- Of course.

792
00:48:51,560 --> 00:48:55,040
But imagine that in this bed
the second queen of Romania, Mary,

793
00:48:55,120 --> 00:48:57,320
gave birth to her first child, Charles II.

794
00:48:57,400 --> 00:49:00,680
So much history has taken place
within these walls.

795
00:49:00,760 --> 00:49:03,840
It's flabbergasting how much work has gone

796
00:49:03,920 --> 00:49:06,600
into creating every single detail
in the palace

797
00:49:06,680 --> 00:49:11,440
and I imagine also
the effort that's needed to maintain it.

798
00:49:11,520 --> 00:49:15,680
Yes, we have to. King Michael I,
last king of Romania,

799
00:49:15,760 --> 00:49:19,080
when he came back in his home here,
in 2007

800
00:49:19,160 --> 00:49:22,680
he said that this castle will be forever
open for the public,

801
00:49:23,360 --> 00:49:26,200
so we have to maintain it
for the future generations.

802
00:49:31,360 --> 00:49:35,440
To reach the west side of Muntenia
we have to negotiate the Bucegi massive,

803
00:49:38,760 --> 00:49:41,480
which takes us around to the north,
past Bran

804
00:49:41,560 --> 00:49:43,360
and up towards Rucăr, in Târgoviște.

805
00:49:46,640 --> 00:49:48,920
On our way, I'm making a quick detour

806
00:49:50,480 --> 00:49:53,640
to explore the stunning
Dâmbovicioara gorge

807
00:49:55,840 --> 00:49:59,200
which cuts to the edge
of Piatra Craiului National Park

808
00:49:59,280 --> 00:50:00,760
and back into Transylvania.

809
00:50:18,560 --> 00:50:21,760
It's easy to see why this dramatic setting

810
00:50:21,840 --> 00:50:25,640
is used as a backdrop for the epic western
<i>Cold Mountain</i>

811
00:50:25,720 --> 00:50:28,080
with Nicole Kidman and Jude Law.

812
00:50:43,320 --> 00:50:44,360
That's the end of the gorge

813
00:50:44,440 --> 00:50:47,200
and I think I've been adversely
ridden back into Transylvania.

814
00:50:47,280 --> 00:50:50,880
If you come all way up here
you leave most of the people behind

815
00:50:50,960 --> 00:50:55,920
and you have this wild and unspoiled place
almost entirely to yourself.

816
00:50:56,680 --> 00:51:00,160
I had to do it on the bike because
we wanted to show you the whole thing.

817
00:51:00,240 --> 00:51:03,240
My advice is leave the car down
in the town,

818
00:51:03,320 --> 00:51:05,200
take the time and walk all the way
up here.

819
00:51:05,280 --> 00:51:08,160
It's one of the most beautiful hikes
you can do in Romania.

820
00:51:17,400 --> 00:51:21,920
One of Romania's more abundant
culinary resources is the truffle,

821
00:51:23,800 --> 00:51:27,240
which includes
both black and white varieties.

822
00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:30,240
Finding them, however,
is a tricky business

823
00:51:30,320 --> 00:51:34,080
and requires expertise,
both human and animal.

824
00:51:34,880 --> 00:51:37,520
I've come to the forests
surround Târgoviște

825
00:51:37,600 --> 00:51:40,120
to meet truffle hunter Marius Herghelegiu

826
00:51:40,800 --> 00:51:43,000
who's taking me on a mining trip

827
00:51:43,080 --> 00:51:46,320
to harvest Romania's illusive black gold.

828
00:51:53,520 --> 00:51:54,360
Marius.

829
00:51:56,160 --> 00:51:57,360
- Hi.
- Hi.

830
00:51:57,440 --> 00:51:58,880
- How are you?
- Very well.

831
00:51:58,960 --> 00:52:00,960
I think we might leave the bike
as we're going...

832
00:52:01,040 --> 00:52:02,480
Yes, we can leave the bike here.

833
00:52:02,560 --> 00:52:04,120
...deep in the forest.

834
00:52:05,040 --> 00:52:07,480
In my car we have dogs, you'll see.

835
00:52:07,560 --> 00:52:10,960
Where we would be without dogs?
I guessed we'd be using pigs.

836
00:52:13,760 --> 00:52:15,560
Probably pigs use to eat them, don't they?

837
00:52:15,640 --> 00:52:20,720
Yes, pigs want to eat them,
dogs are doing it for fun.

838
00:52:20,800 --> 00:52:23,880
Yeah. And they'll eat a biscuit,
I believe.

839
00:52:23,960 --> 00:52:24,840
- Yes.
- Yeah.

840
00:52:25,520 --> 00:52:27,640
- It's not entirely... is it?
- Yeah.

841
00:52:44,640 --> 00:52:48,720
- So this is mostly oak and beech.
- Yes.

842
00:52:48,800 --> 00:52:49,680
And some hawthorn.

843
00:52:51,560 --> 00:52:53,400
This looks good. Around here.

844
00:52:56,440 --> 00:52:58,560
Good job, Luna.

845
00:52:58,640 --> 00:53:00,320
Look. This is a truffle. Bravo.

846
00:53:00,400 --> 00:53:03,400
As you see it's eaten by snails.

847
00:53:05,520 --> 00:53:07,560
It's a good one. Smells good.

848
00:53:10,600 --> 00:53:13,640
Smells like my socks.
Exactly as they should.

849
00:53:14,840 --> 00:53:17,120
- After a day on the bike.
- Yeah.

850
00:53:17,960 --> 00:53:21,120
- This is a summer truffle.
- Yes, this is a summer truffle.

851
00:53:21,200 --> 00:53:25,680
Summer truffles are from when?
From June till August?

852
00:53:25,760 --> 00:53:30,160
{\an8}Yes. And the autumn truffle starts
from September to December.

853
00:53:30,240 --> 00:53:35,640
It's interesting that trees somehow
communicate with each other,

854
00:53:35,720 --> 00:53:38,240
with connection made by a fungi.

855
00:53:38,320 --> 00:53:42,600
This mycelium connects this tree
from above with this one

856
00:53:42,680 --> 00:53:45,640
because they change nutrients,
they change information.

857
00:53:45,720 --> 00:53:47,880
They exchange information
via the mycelium.

858
00:53:47,960 --> 00:53:51,840
If a fire starts there
all the trees in this valley,

859
00:53:51,920 --> 00:53:56,440
in a few minutes or half an hour
develop carbon dioxide,

860
00:53:56,520 --> 00:53:57,560
it is very interesting.

861
00:53:57,640 --> 00:53:58,760
- To protect.
- Yes.

862
00:53:58,840 --> 00:54:03,640
- It's almost like the Avatar, the film.
- Something like that.

863
00:54:03,720 --> 00:54:07,080
There's one big forest consciousness
and everything is linked.

864
00:54:07,160 --> 00:54:10,600
One question I am fascinated in
as well as is

865
00:54:10,680 --> 00:54:12,040
how do white truffles fit in?

866
00:54:12,120 --> 00:54:16,440
The white truffle which is the most
expensive is very, very rare,

867
00:54:16,520 --> 00:54:18,600
and you need special conditions,

868
00:54:18,680 --> 00:54:22,200
special combination of trees
and a lot of moist.

869
00:54:22,280 --> 00:54:24,400
So the equation is far more complex?

870
00:54:24,480 --> 00:54:28,360
Yes, far more complex and that is why
it's so rare and so expensive.

871
00:54:28,440 --> 00:54:30,560
- We do have it in Romania?
- Yes, we have.

872
00:54:30,640 --> 00:54:37,160
I think 85 per cent of the truffles
sold in Europe, maybe in the world,

873
00:54:37,240 --> 00:54:41,400
is coming from Romania, Hungary, Serbia,
Bulgaria, Croatia.

874
00:54:41,480 --> 00:54:43,760
But the Italians...

875
00:54:43,840 --> 00:54:45,880
They like to hang on to the idea...

876
00:54:45,960 --> 00:54:50,240
They handle the market, so they say
all the truffles are from Alba,

877
00:54:50,320 --> 00:54:52,360
this is an Alba truffle.

878
00:54:52,440 --> 00:54:54,720
There is a sad part of this story.

879
00:54:54,800 --> 00:54:56,960
The sad part is the truffles

880
00:54:57,040 --> 00:54:59,080
are harvested by some poor people

881
00:54:59,160 --> 00:55:02,520
who earns just few money
for these truffles.

882
00:55:02,600 --> 00:55:06,280
But on the end in luxury restaurants,
this high price...

883
00:55:06,360 --> 00:55:08,040
Someone's paying a hundred pounds a plate.

884
00:55:08,120 --> 00:55:12,760
Yes, but this people who harvest truffles
are poor people,

885
00:55:12,840 --> 00:55:14,240
like in diamonds.

886
00:55:15,120 --> 00:55:18,960
Only in truffles there's no blood.

887
00:55:20,480 --> 00:55:21,520
She found something.

888
00:55:23,120 --> 00:55:24,480
Well done, Gresy, well done.

889
00:55:24,560 --> 00:55:25,560
It's a black truffle.

890
00:55:25,640 --> 00:55:27,320
Bravo.

891
00:55:27,400 --> 00:55:32,360
The fungi we know above the ground
are spreading the spores with wind.

892
00:55:32,440 --> 00:55:35,520
The fungi under the ground need
something else to spread the spores.

893
00:55:35,600 --> 00:55:40,720
They develop some smell
to attract animals.

894
00:55:40,800 --> 00:55:45,800
They eat the truffle, they poop over there
and they spread the spores.

895
00:55:45,880 --> 00:55:49,840
And that's why this truffle is so smelly.

896
00:55:49,920 --> 00:55:51,880
- So flavour.
- So it wants to be found.

897
00:55:51,960 --> 00:55:54,200
- Yes.
- I thought I knew about truffles,

898
00:55:54,280 --> 00:55:58,080
but as it turns out,
I barely scratch the surface.

899
00:55:58,840 --> 00:56:02,400
So we just have to go and find someone
in Târgoviște

900
00:56:03,360 --> 00:56:04,520
that might be prepared

901
00:56:04,600 --> 00:56:07,800
to cook them on extremely short notice
for dinner.

902
00:56:07,880 --> 00:56:10,040
There's gotta be a restaurant,
I'll knock at the door.

903
00:56:10,120 --> 00:56:11,960
- All right. Let's go.
- Let's go.

904
00:56:12,040 --> 00:56:12,880
Shall we?

905
00:56:13,520 --> 00:56:17,040
Come on, Bella, come, babies.

906
00:56:20,800 --> 00:56:24,480
I think we've got a table reserved
for us over there.

907
00:56:24,560 --> 00:56:27,600
I'll see her and go to have a word
with the chef.

908
00:56:27,680 --> 00:56:28,520
Okay.

909
00:56:29,920 --> 00:56:31,000
- Mario.
- Hey.

910
00:56:31,080 --> 00:56:32,040
How are you?

911
00:56:33,480 --> 00:56:35,520
{\an8}Thank you so much for doing this
at last minute.

912
00:56:35,600 --> 00:56:37,800
Let me show you what I've got.

913
00:56:38,880 --> 00:56:39,880
What?

914
00:56:39,960 --> 00:56:42,360
What does he got in his pockets?
Have a look.

915
00:56:42,440 --> 00:56:43,400
Truffles!

916
00:56:44,680 --> 00:56:47,800
Some are truffles from this afternoon.

917
00:56:47,880 --> 00:56:49,200
Gold! This is gold.

918
00:56:49,280 --> 00:56:51,560
- Black gold?
- Yes.

919
00:56:51,640 --> 00:56:53,080
What can we make with these?

920
00:56:53,160 --> 00:56:56,680
I make you pasta? Risotto?
Or something else?

921
00:56:56,760 --> 00:56:57,760
Pasta sounds great.

922
00:57:15,160 --> 00:57:17,600
Looks sensational.
Thank you for doing this for us.

923
00:57:17,680 --> 00:57:19,320
Thank you very much.

924
00:57:19,960 --> 00:57:21,800
From the ground to the table.

925
00:57:21,880 --> 00:57:26,560
This is the very definition of slow food
in a very short space of time, obviously.

926
00:57:26,640 --> 00:57:29,720
It's only travelled ten kilometres
to get here

927
00:57:29,800 --> 00:57:32,840
and we're eating it a few hours later.

928
00:57:33,920 --> 00:57:34,720
Completely fresh.

929
00:57:34,800 --> 00:57:36,160
- Enjoy.
- Enjoy

930
00:57:45,800 --> 00:57:49,680
Târgoviște was the capital of Walachia
during the Middle Ages

931
00:57:52,640 --> 00:57:55,680
and the seat of power
for Vlad the Impaler.

932
00:57:58,720 --> 00:58:03,560
I'm here at his former palace
to find out more about this iconic figure

933
00:58:03,640 --> 00:58:07,880
with the help of archaeologist
and historian Mihai Năstase.

934
00:58:10,360 --> 00:58:13,360
{\an8}- Mihai. Greetings. Good morning.
- Good morning.

935
00:58:13,440 --> 00:58:15,960
{\an8}- Nice to meet you.
- I like your office.

936
00:58:16,040 --> 00:58:18,880
Thank you very much.
It's really a big office, as you can see.

937
00:58:18,960 --> 00:58:21,120
It must have been very impressive
in its heyday.

938
00:58:21,200 --> 00:58:22,360
Definitely it was.

939
00:58:22,440 --> 00:58:25,000
I'm trying to imagine
what they looked like.

940
00:58:25,080 --> 00:58:26,640
No drawing? We don't have any drawings?

941
00:58:26,720 --> 00:58:27,960
No, unfortunately, not.

942
00:58:28,040 --> 00:58:29,360
- That's a shame.
- Yes.

943
00:58:29,440 --> 00:58:34,960
It's sad, but there are only sketches
with the palace in the state of a ruin.

944
00:58:35,040 --> 00:58:40,080
The oldest part of the buildings
dates back to 1400s, something like that,

945
00:58:40,160 --> 00:58:41,560
early 15th century.

946
00:58:41,640 --> 00:58:42,520
Correct me if I'm wrong,

947
00:58:42,600 --> 00:58:46,960
this was the capital
of Southern Romania at that time.

948
00:58:47,040 --> 00:58:50,440
Yes, it was the capital of Walachia

949
00:58:50,520 --> 00:58:54,360
from 1420's till 1660.

950
00:58:55,160 --> 00:58:59,880
It's so sad that it's fallen so far
from its original state.

951
00:58:59,960 --> 00:59:03,680
The main cause for the state
you see it today

952
00:59:03,760 --> 00:59:05,520
it's the fact that it was abandoned.

953
00:59:05,600 --> 00:59:08,960
So Vlad Țepeș governed from here.

954
00:59:09,040 --> 00:59:13,600
Yes, this was his centre of power,
of course.

955
00:59:13,680 --> 00:59:16,680
He was a bit of a hero of his days

956
00:59:16,760 --> 00:59:19,000
because he kept the ottomans out,
didn't he?

957
00:59:19,080 --> 00:59:20,720
With brutal taxes.

958
00:59:20,800 --> 00:59:23,880
He had successes against the Czechs,

959
00:59:23,960 --> 00:59:28,800
but he is not only popular for his...
let's say foreign policy,

960
00:59:28,880 --> 00:59:31,880
but he's also very popular for his
inner policy

961
00:59:31,960 --> 00:59:36,040
in order to create
a centralized government.

962
00:59:38,040 --> 00:59:42,480
- Basically, a one person government.
- An autocracy.

963
00:59:42,560 --> 00:59:47,560
Yes, but the context of that time
it was of this nature,

964
00:59:47,640 --> 00:59:52,520
that this kind of policy was welcomed
by the masses.

965
00:59:53,480 --> 00:59:56,280
And those who misbehave
got a stake in their bottom.

966
00:59:56,360 --> 01:00:00,800
Yes, if you look at this,
it was like justice for all

967
01:00:00,880 --> 01:00:04,640
and everybody was equal
in front of justice.

968
01:00:04,720 --> 01:00:07,000
But it was not in the terms of today,

969
01:00:07,080 --> 01:00:12,200
but it was in the terms that it was
a universal punishment for every offense.

970
01:00:13,080 --> 01:00:15,400
Despite the legends about him,

971
01:00:15,480 --> 01:00:17,440
some of them they are really bad

972
01:00:17,520 --> 01:00:23,680
some of them they are quite idyllic
to a certain way, a certain perspective.

973
01:00:23,760 --> 01:00:27,280
Would you say there is any kind
of comparison to be made between

974
01:00:27,360 --> 01:00:31,000
the perceived brutality
of the Ceaușescu reign

975
01:00:31,080 --> 01:00:35,520
and the Țepeș era?

976
01:00:35,600 --> 01:00:41,400
Ceaușescu definitely tried
as all the modern tyrants

977
01:00:41,480 --> 01:00:48,040
to take and embody the past
into their rule and into their being,

978
01:00:48,120 --> 01:00:53,840
and of course, Vlad was a figure
of righteousness, of justice,

979
01:00:53,920 --> 01:00:56,520
of the authoritarian ruler,

980
01:00:56,600 --> 01:00:59,440
but who was making good for the people.

981
01:00:59,520 --> 01:01:02,200
But you can't fall foul of that as well

982
01:01:02,280 --> 01:01:07,160
because if you have such a flimsy
legal process

983
01:01:07,240 --> 01:01:10,360
then it can backfire rather spectacularly.

984
01:01:10,440 --> 01:01:15,960
Yes, I would say that history teaches us
a lot of examples

985
01:01:16,040 --> 01:01:18,000
that who draws the sword
dies by the sword.

986
01:01:18,080 --> 01:01:22,680
Dies by the sword. As we will see
just around the corner.

987
01:01:27,640 --> 01:01:31,880
Across town, we reach a non-descript
military building

988
01:01:31,960 --> 01:01:34,760
on the side of a long avenue of trees.

989
01:01:35,400 --> 01:01:40,280
Now open to the public, this is the place
that quite literally witnessed

990
01:01:40,360 --> 01:01:43,320
the final heartbeats of the Communist era.

991
01:01:45,880 --> 01:01:51,000
On the 25th of December, 1989,
an exceptional military tribunal

992
01:01:51,080 --> 01:01:56,000
convened here, in this building,
to judge, sentence and execute

993
01:01:56,080 --> 01:01:58,600
Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife, Elena.

994
01:02:01,240 --> 01:02:05,480
They were held overnight on camp beds
in a small front room

995
01:02:05,560 --> 01:02:10,760
before being marched across the corridor
and sat down before the waiting jury.

996
01:02:12,680 --> 01:02:15,520
This is the room
where the trial took place.

997
01:02:15,600 --> 01:02:18,400
Ceaușescu and his wife sat
on those two chairs over there,

998
01:02:18,480 --> 01:02:19,400
in the corner.

999
01:02:19,960 --> 01:02:21,480
{\an8}He dismissed any defence

1000
01:02:21,560 --> 01:02:25,480
{\an8}because he refused to acknowledge
the legitimacy of the tribunal.

1001
01:02:26,160 --> 01:02:28,080
The judges sat here

1002
01:02:28,960 --> 01:02:32,640
and just over an hour later,

1003
01:02:32,720 --> 01:02:34,320
his sentence was passed

1004
01:02:35,040 --> 01:02:37,440
and he's taken out to be executed.

1005
01:02:37,520 --> 01:02:41,240
It's really strange being in this room

1006
01:02:41,320 --> 01:02:44,960
and seeing it exactly as it was
apart from him over there.

1007
01:02:45,880 --> 01:02:48,120
It is as if they have just left

1008
01:02:48,200 --> 01:02:50,520
and the whole proceeding happened

1009
01:02:51,880 --> 01:02:54,800
hours ago rather than 30 years.

1010
01:02:55,800 --> 01:02:59,560
Between 2:40 and 2:45 p.m.,

1011
01:03:00,320 --> 01:03:03,440
Ceaușescu and his wife
were taken out here.

1012
01:03:03,520 --> 01:03:08,160
It was very rushed and they were
placed against this wall,

1013
01:03:08,960 --> 01:03:12,800
and three guys with AK-47 opened up.

1014
01:03:12,880 --> 01:03:16,720
There was no direct order,
they knew what they had to do,

1015
01:03:16,800 --> 01:03:19,880
and it was a sense of urgency
to get on with them.

1016
01:03:19,960 --> 01:03:22,200
And suddenly it was all over.

1017
01:03:22,280 --> 01:03:25,040
You can see the bullet holes behind me
in the wall,

1018
01:03:25,120 --> 01:03:28,720
you can see the body line of Ceaușescu
and his wife where they fell.

1019
01:03:28,800 --> 01:03:30,520
And at that moment in time,

1020
01:03:31,200 --> 01:03:33,760
Romania ceased to be a Communist country.

1021
01:03:34,440 --> 01:03:38,120
Or so one may think.

1022
01:03:38,200 --> 01:03:41,160
However, there are still vestiges
of that old way of life.

1023
01:03:41,240 --> 01:03:43,520
It's been a slow evolution ever since,

1024
01:03:43,600 --> 01:03:50,560
and it's taken decades for Romania
to grasp fully the concept of democracy.

1025
01:03:50,640 --> 01:03:52,360
We still have corruption in this country,

1026
01:03:52,440 --> 01:03:58,120
we still have the media in the pockets
of certain politicians,

1027
01:03:58,200 --> 01:04:03,200
and the old guard who, for a long time,
control things behind the scenes.

1028
01:04:03,960 --> 01:04:05,880
But it's a bit like being a teenager.

1029
01:04:06,440 --> 01:04:10,280
You have to go through this process
of change, it's awkward, it's difficult,

1030
01:04:10,360 --> 01:04:13,360
it's never easy till you come out
the other side.

1031
01:04:13,440 --> 01:04:18,360
And Romania now step by step
is growing to a brighter future,

1032
01:04:18,440 --> 01:04:21,640
but not without a huge amount of pain
along the way.

1033
01:04:24,720 --> 01:04:26,720
THE PLACE WHERE THE CEAUȘESCU SPOUSES
WERE EXECUTED

1034
01:04:26,800 --> 01:04:28,680
DECEMBER 25TH, 19892:45 P.M.

1035
01:04:30,920 --> 01:04:32,960
Leaving recent history behind,

1036
01:04:33,040 --> 01:04:35,840
we're now journeying
into the distant past.

1037
01:04:39,440 --> 01:04:43,520
I am on my way to an archaeological dig
outside Târgoviște,

1038
01:04:43,600 --> 01:04:46,440
on the flood plains
of the river Dâmbovița.

1039
01:04:49,240 --> 01:04:53,800
My Satnav has brought me to a field
outside the village of Geangoești,

1040
01:04:55,880 --> 01:04:58,760
where archaeologist Ana Ilie
has been working

1041
01:04:58,840 --> 01:05:01,080
to unearth a prehistoric site,

1042
01:05:04,200 --> 01:05:08,960
the remains of an adobe village inhabited
over six thousand years ago.

1043
01:05:11,200 --> 01:05:13,200
- Good afternoon.
- Good afternoon.

1044
01:05:13,280 --> 01:05:15,040
- Welcome.
- Charlie. Glad to meet you.

1045
01:05:15,120 --> 01:05:19,120
- Come and see my beautiful site.
- Your beautiful site.

1046
01:05:19,200 --> 01:05:21,480
Yes, my exciting site, actually.

1047
01:05:21,560 --> 01:05:25,520
I don't wanna walk in the wrong place
cause I know how important that is.

1048
01:05:26,600 --> 01:05:27,760
How did you find it?

1049
01:05:27,840 --> 01:05:31,640
{\an8}The site was found in 1969

1050
01:05:31,720 --> 01:05:36,160
{\an8}by the history teacher from the village
which is nearby.

1051
01:05:36,240 --> 01:05:38,480
The village is there, Geangoești,

1052
01:05:39,280 --> 01:05:42,240
and the river is two kilometres far away,

1053
01:05:42,320 --> 01:05:45,120
south, Dâmbovița river.

1054
01:05:45,200 --> 01:05:48,760
- We are in the bed of this river.
- So this is the flood plain.

1055
01:05:48,840 --> 01:05:50,480
Yes, the flood plain,

1056
01:05:50,560 --> 01:05:53,680
but the terrace is nearby,
where the forest is.

1057
01:05:53,760 --> 01:05:58,080
This community
of Gumelnița-Karanovo culture

1058
01:05:58,160 --> 01:06:01,520
they loved to have water around them.

1059
01:06:01,600 --> 01:06:07,480
We have knowledge they exploited all kind
of fish and molluscs,

1060
01:06:07,560 --> 01:06:12,160
but here I didn't any bones because
the site doesn't preserve the bones,

1061
01:06:12,240 --> 01:06:13,520
it's very acid.

1062
01:06:13,600 --> 01:06:16,040
What sort of things have you found
recently?

1063
01:06:16,120 --> 01:06:21,480
Today we found this figurine,
a lot of pottery,

1064
01:06:21,560 --> 01:06:24,440
because pottery is very common here.

1065
01:06:24,520 --> 01:06:29,880
These artifacts are linked
to specific their beliefs,

1066
01:06:29,960 --> 01:06:31,520
religious beliefs.

1067
01:06:31,600 --> 01:06:35,040
- It looks like a fertility symbol.
- Could be.

1068
01:06:35,120 --> 01:06:40,000
Some specialists say they are toys,
but they are not.

1069
01:06:40,080 --> 01:06:43,880
This is a voluptuous figure,
if you look at the curves of the back.

1070
01:06:43,960 --> 01:06:45,440
Look at that.

1071
01:06:45,520 --> 01:06:51,000
No, because usually it can be much larger.

1072
01:06:51,080 --> 01:06:54,600
It has quite a large posterior,
so I'm thinking fertility might be a...

1073
01:06:54,680 --> 01:06:58,680
Yes. Can be one utility of this.

1074
01:06:58,760 --> 01:07:02,640
You don't find masculine representations
in earth.

1075
01:07:02,720 --> 01:07:06,240
So rare. There are seven in Gumelnița,

1076
01:07:06,320 --> 01:07:09,600
north to the Danube, Gumelnița culture,

1077
01:07:09,680 --> 01:07:12,280
and I discovered here another four.

1078
01:07:12,360 --> 01:07:14,160
But that's all.

1079
01:07:14,240 --> 01:07:17,000
Usually,
there are feminine representations.

1080
01:07:17,080 --> 01:07:22,960
Masculinity in that period was actually
represented with horns.

1081
01:07:23,040 --> 01:07:26,720
With horns.
So it's been a very productive site.

1082
01:07:26,800 --> 01:07:31,880
Yes and what is interesting for me,
as archaeologist,

1083
01:07:31,960 --> 01:07:35,520
is to find what is distinct
from another sites.

1084
01:07:35,600 --> 01:07:38,120
And this one was a big surprise

1085
01:07:38,200 --> 01:07:44,640
because the way they built houses
is not like I have seen.

1086
01:07:44,720 --> 01:07:46,960
But I have read about them.

1087
01:07:47,040 --> 01:07:49,040
- And here you see it.
- And here I can see them.

1088
01:07:49,120 --> 01:07:52,160
- Tremendously exciting.
- Yes, indeed.

1089
01:07:52,240 --> 01:07:58,320
To have in pre-history a house
with upper level, where they lived,

1090
01:07:58,400 --> 01:08:03,880
because I found on top of this
an oven like this one, collapsed,

1091
01:08:03,960 --> 01:08:08,160
and to find that makes you keep going.

1092
01:08:10,680 --> 01:08:12,760
Before heading on to our final stop,

1093
01:08:12,840 --> 01:08:16,479
the historic town of Curtea de Argeș,
in western Muntenia,

1094
01:08:16,560 --> 01:08:18,880
I grabbed a quick roadside snack.

1095
01:08:22,920 --> 01:08:25,800
One of my favourite things while
traveling Romania is

1096
01:08:25,880 --> 01:08:28,560
whether on spring, the summer or autumn,

1097
01:08:28,640 --> 01:08:32,600
there's a huge range of fruits,
vegetables, nuts,

1098
01:08:32,680 --> 01:08:35,800
wild mushrooms, things grown
and things foraged,

1099
01:08:35,880 --> 01:08:38,600
just waiting for you to stop
and fill your bags.

1100
01:08:39,880 --> 01:08:45,040
Hi. One kilo of peaches
and one kilo of plums. Please.

1101
01:08:45,120 --> 01:08:48,359
A kilo of plums and a kilo of peaches.

1102
01:08:53,439 --> 01:08:54,479
Sensational.

1103
01:08:54,560 --> 01:08:57,840
Who needs to stop at the gas station,
buy a curly sandwich

1104
01:08:58,520 --> 01:09:01,680
when you have this kind of things
right on the side of the road.

1105
01:09:04,319 --> 01:09:05,479
Onwards.

1106
01:09:10,920 --> 01:09:13,800
Riding north-west,
the landscape changes again.

1107
01:09:17,080 --> 01:09:19,920
This is an area rich in mineral wealth,

1108
01:09:22,880 --> 01:09:26,399
where timber and farming
are not the only available resources.

1109
01:09:46,720 --> 01:09:50,600
I've only travelled 12 kilometres
from Târgoviște,

1110
01:09:51,399 --> 01:09:55,320
and already it feels like
we're on a different continent.

1111
01:09:56,360 --> 01:09:59,080
What landscape does this remind you of?

1112
01:10:01,680 --> 01:10:02,520
No?

1113
01:10:03,120 --> 01:10:04,120
Here's a clue.

1114
01:10:16,720 --> 01:10:18,320
Yep, you guessed it.

1115
01:10:18,400 --> 01:10:19,560
We're in Dallas, folks.

1116
01:10:26,720 --> 01:10:28,720
Welcome to Curtea de Argeș,

1117
01:10:28,800 --> 01:10:30,520
or the court on the river Argeș,

1118
01:10:32,200 --> 01:10:35,880
which served as a second capital
of Walachia during the Middle Ages,

1119
01:10:35,960 --> 01:10:37,600
alongside Târgoviște.

1120
01:10:42,920 --> 01:10:45,240
I'm here to visit its famous monastery,

1121
01:10:47,720 --> 01:10:50,800
which has one of the most beautiful
churches in Romania.

1122
01:10:52,640 --> 01:10:56,240
Built 500 years ago
by prince Neagoe Basarab,

1123
01:10:56,320 --> 01:10:59,800
the story of its construction
is riddled with legend,

1124
01:11:04,080 --> 01:11:07,320
as I found out from curator
and priest Adrian Enache.

1125
01:11:08,960 --> 01:11:14,320
{\an8}This church, the Cathedral
of the Voivode Saint Neagoe Basarab

1126
01:11:14,400 --> 01:11:18,280
{\an8}was built at the beginning
of the 16th century.

1127
01:11:18,360 --> 01:11:20,840
It is unique owing to its architecture.

1128
01:11:20,920 --> 01:11:25,200
Everything you see outside
is exclusively carved stone.

1129
01:11:25,280 --> 01:11:27,440
I've never seen anything like it
in the whole of Romania,

1130
01:11:27,520 --> 01:11:30,320
I mean, the architectural style is unique.

1131
01:11:30,400 --> 01:11:34,320
It's definitely unique as it includes

1132
01:11:34,400 --> 01:11:37,000
Armenian, Arab, Persian,
Georgian elements,

1133
01:11:37,080 --> 01:11:39,560
therefore we have all cultures.

1134
01:11:39,640 --> 01:11:42,000
And what is specific to the cathedral

1135
01:11:42,080 --> 01:11:45,800
are the two spires,
spiral-like spun, twisted.

1136
01:11:45,880 --> 01:11:49,120
They were a first in our country.

1137
01:11:49,200 --> 01:11:51,040
They are spun backwards,

1138
01:11:51,120 --> 01:11:53,200
so at a certain imaginary point
they connect,

1139
01:11:53,280 --> 01:11:55,680
suggesting there's only one God.

1140
01:11:55,760 --> 01:11:58,800
We may say that here science and religion
come closer and blend

1141
01:11:58,880 --> 01:12:00,120
in a harmonious way.

1142
01:12:00,200 --> 01:12:04,560
There are numerous symbols associated
to this spiraling spires.

1143
01:12:04,640 --> 01:12:07,000
We'll see that the North spire

1144
01:12:07,080 --> 01:12:10,400
offers an image of God descending
towards humanity,

1145
01:12:10,480 --> 01:12:13,800
and the South spire suggests that humanity
is ascending to God,

1146
01:12:13,880 --> 01:12:16,720
and we have this encounter man-God.

1147
01:12:16,800 --> 01:12:20,840
It's a very special legend,
actually, it's a myth,

1148
01:12:20,920 --> 01:12:25,880
the myth of creation sacrifice
that is present in all Balkan countries,

1149
01:12:25,960 --> 01:12:31,440
at a bridge in Bulgaria, in Serbia,
Albania and it originated in Greece.

1150
01:12:32,320 --> 01:12:36,880
On these walls is painted
the legend of Master Manole.

1151
01:12:36,960 --> 01:12:41,040
It starts here,
in the southern part of the hall,

1152
01:12:41,120 --> 01:12:43,880
with the voivode's decision

1153
01:12:43,960 --> 01:12:49,120
to built a church there
like no other before.

1154
01:12:49,800 --> 01:12:53,080
Then, we can see them making the sketches.

1155
01:12:53,160 --> 01:12:55,200
But as the legend says,

1156
01:12:55,280 --> 01:12:58,520
what the workers built during the day,
collapsed during the night.

1157
01:12:58,600 --> 01:13:02,760
The next painting shows Master Manole,

1158
01:13:02,840 --> 01:13:06,280
with his team
of "nine masons, greatest of them all"

1159
01:13:06,360 --> 01:13:09,080
tries to explain the voivode
that it was collapsing.

1160
01:13:09,160 --> 01:13:14,640
The same painting shows us
that the prince is adamant,

1161
01:13:14,720 --> 01:13:19,880
he won't give up the idea of having
a church built exactly there.

1162
01:13:19,960 --> 01:13:24,080
So, Master Manole is forced
to find new solutions.

1163
01:13:24,160 --> 01:13:25,880
The next painting shows us

1164
01:13:25,960 --> 01:13:29,200
that Manole is told by a voice,
while dreaming,

1165
01:13:29,280 --> 01:13:31,400
that they won't be able
to built the church

1166
01:13:31,480 --> 01:13:37,000
unless the first of the wives
who comes in the morning, with food,

1167
01:13:37,080 --> 01:13:39,520
is walled in alive within the walls.

1168
01:13:39,600 --> 01:13:45,200
Manole share this dream to his colleagues,

1169
01:13:45,280 --> 01:13:47,880
"the nine masons, greatest of them all".

1170
01:13:47,960 --> 01:13:54,040
All of them decide to wall in
the first wife who comes next morning.

1171
01:13:54,120 --> 01:13:59,720
But Manole was the only one
who kept his word,

1172
01:13:59,800 --> 01:14:05,240
while the others warned their wives
not to come.

1173
01:14:05,320 --> 01:14:11,760
So the first woman that comes
next morning is Ana, Manole's wife.

1174
01:14:12,520 --> 01:14:17,760
When Manole sees Ana
coming to be walled in,

1175
01:14:17,840 --> 01:14:21,400
he climbs the scaffolding

1176
01:14:21,480 --> 01:14:24,680
and prays to God to stop her.

1177
01:14:24,760 --> 01:14:27,520
God fulfills his wish,

1178
01:14:27,600 --> 01:14:30,400
sending rain, storm and hail on earth.

1179
01:14:30,480 --> 01:14:32,840
As we can see in these paintings,

1180
01:14:32,920 --> 01:14:38,200
Ana overcomes all obstacles
and arrives at the site.

1181
01:14:38,280 --> 01:14:40,760
Manole tells her it's a game

1182
01:14:40,840 --> 01:14:43,200
and while his colleagues are eating,

1183
01:14:43,880 --> 01:14:47,120
he walls her in.

1184
01:14:47,200 --> 01:14:49,640
Then, the walls no longer collapsed.

1185
01:14:49,720 --> 01:14:56,720
But the church remained unfinished,
because the prince ran out of money.

1186
01:14:56,800 --> 01:15:02,760
So the prince's wife, Despina Milița,
decides to offer her last jewels

1187
01:15:02,840 --> 01:15:04,760
so that the church could be finished.

1188
01:15:04,840 --> 01:15:08,960
So there are two sacrifices,
two offerings.

1189
01:15:09,040 --> 01:15:10,680
From a literary point of view,

1190
01:15:10,760 --> 01:15:14,240
Ana is the spiritual sacrifice,
Manole's soul itself,

1191
01:15:14,320 --> 01:15:16,880
and Despina's jewels represent
the material sacrifice,

1192
01:15:16,960 --> 01:15:19,160
and the church is finished.

1193
01:15:19,240 --> 01:15:21,840
Having the blessing
of His Eminence Calinic,

1194
01:15:21,920 --> 01:15:23,680
Archbishop of Argeș and Muscel,

1195
01:15:23,760 --> 01:15:26,880
you are the first one allowed to visit
this palace.

1196
01:15:26,960 --> 01:15:28,320
- What a privilege!
- Feel like home.

1197
01:15:28,400 --> 01:15:29,440
Here, in Curtea de Argeș,

1198
01:15:29,520 --> 01:15:32,400
you are home indeed,
as we are all God's children,

1199
01:15:32,480 --> 01:15:36,360
and especially you,
by doing what you are doing,

1200
01:15:36,440 --> 01:15:39,480
you bring joy to so many people
who can't come here,

1201
01:15:39,560 --> 01:15:42,160
but you help them see this place.

1202
01:15:43,960 --> 01:15:46,560
That's all we have time for in Muntenia.

1203
01:15:46,640 --> 01:15:50,000
Join us again as we continue west
into Oltenia,

1204
01:15:50,080 --> 01:15:54,840
one of Romania's more mysterious
and less well known historic regions,

1205
01:15:55,600 --> 01:15:58,960
but one that hides a multitude
of natural and cultural treasures.

1206
01:16:01,880 --> 01:16:04,160
We'll be hanging out in the mountains,

1207
01:16:05,360 --> 01:16:10,160
and venturing beneath them as we leave
no stone or building unturned

1208
01:16:10,240 --> 01:16:12,920
in search of more delights
and local delicacies.

1209
01:16:15,800 --> 01:16:19,960
I will be riding one of Romania's
most famous serpentine mountain roads,

1210
01:16:20,680 --> 01:16:25,040
and traveling to the city of Craiova
for a night of fun and festivities,

1211
01:16:25,120 --> 01:16:27,360
but with strings attached.

1212
01:16:29,960 --> 01:16:34,520
Plus, we will also be joining friends
for a trek along the Via Transilvanica,

1213
01:16:35,520 --> 01:16:38,400
Romania's answer
to the Camino de Santiago.

1214
01:16:39,880 --> 01:16:45,640
All this and much more in the next episode
of <i>Flavours of Romania</i>.