Oltenia • 2023 • episode "S2E5" • Flavours of Romania

Category: Travel | Subtitle:

Riding across Oltenia, Charlie checks out a "glamping" resort and eco-hotels, enjoys the view from a sky hammock and takes in Craiova's arts scene.

Make a donation

Buy a brother a hot coffee? Or a cold beer?

Hope you're finding these documentaries fascinating and eye-opening. It's just me, working hard behind the scenes to bring you this enriching content.

Running and maintaining a website like this takes time and resources. That's why I'm reaching out to you. If you appreciate what I do and would like to support my efforts, would you consider "buying me a coffee"?

Donation addresses

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

patreon.com

BTC: bc1q8ldskxh4x9qnddhcrgcun8rtvddeldm2a07r2v

ETH: 0x5CCAAA1afc5c5D814129d99277dDb5A979672116

With your donation through , you can show your appreciation and help me keep this project going. Every contribution, no matter how small, makes a significant impact. It goes directly towards covering server costs.

Flavours of Romania • 2018 - 2023 • 19 episodes •

Oltenia
46:48
Oltenia

We begin our journey in Oltenia, once known as Wallachia minor, and one of the least promoted regions in Romania.

2018 • Travel

Muntenia
44:00
Muntenia

This week we are exploring Muntenia, also known as Greater Wallachia, a region once presided over by Vlad the Impaler, whose famous cruelty as a ruler spawned the legends that inspired Bram Stoker's iconic novel, Dracula.

2018 • Travel

Dobrogea
44:33
Dobrogea

Dobrogea is a region rich in history and modern ethnic diversity not least because it incorporates Romania's only stretch of coastline. Here the Danube Delta, Europe's largest wetland fans out into the Black Sea.

2018 • Travel

Moldova
44:13
Moldova

The next leg of my journey takes us north to Moldova, an ancient region covering the Easternmost part of the country. Originally twice its current size, it included northern Bucovina and Basarabia, now the separate and not to confused with the Republic of Moldova.

2018 • Travel

Transilvania - Part I
43:18
Transilvania - Part I

This week we are exploring Romania's largest and most iconic region,mistaken by many Americans and others as a country in its own right. In fact Transylvania is a name that most of the western world still associates with Dracula, werewolves and folk legend. But this land beyond the forest defies all preconceptions and remains one of the most culturally important and beautiful parts of Eastern Europe.

2018 • Travel

Transilvania - Part II
43:41
Transilvania - Part II

The second leg of the journey through Transilvania. We pick up our journey in the fields just outside the scenic village of Crit.

2018 • Travel

Banat & Crisana
47:06
Banat & Crisana

The Banat region borders on Serbia and Hungary, so its capital, Timisoara, is a very multi-cultural, cosmopolitan city, and provides the main social and economic hub for western Romania.

2018 • Travel

Maramures
48:10
Maramures

In this our penultimate episode, we reach the remote and beautiful Maramures, a region that has stoically resisted the influence of everyone, from Emperor Trajan, right up to Ceausescu.

2018 • Travel

Bucovina
45:24
Bucovina

Famed for its painted churches, this is a region that's replete with ancient monuments.

2018 • Travel

East Transylvania
67:08
East Transylvania

In Transylvania, Charlie's awed by a restored medieval clock tower, samples artisan cheese and donkey milk, and visits a theme park in a salt mine.

2023 • Travel

Moldavia
71:52
Moldavia

Charlie briefly abandons his Harley in the wilds of Moldova, visiting rock climbers and a "hobbit hotel." Then, he samples the stew at a monastery.

2023 • Travel

Dobrogea
76:13
Dobrogea

In Dobrogea's fragile Danube Delta ecosystem, Charlie tours by boat and bicycle to visit the region's picturesque beach and fishing villages.

2023 • Travel

Muntenia
77:04
Muntenia

Charlie visits Romania's capital of Bucharest and its massive Palace of Parliament, then learns how to make a clay oven and dines at a unique resort.

2023 • Travel

Oltenia
77:56
Oltenia

Riding across Oltenia, Charlie checks out a "glamping" resort and eco-hotels, enjoys the view from a sky hammock and takes in Craiova's arts scene.

2023 • Travel

Banat
64:34
Banat

Charlie meets an architect trying to save the decaying spa at the Baile Herculane resort in Banat, then visits Timi?oara, Romania's "Little Vienna."

2023 • Travel

Crisana
66:45
Crisana

In Cri?ana, Charlie appreciates the historical monuments of the region and recounts the story of St. Ladislaus and the origins of the Oradea Fortress.

2023 • Travel

Maramures
87:49
Maramures

As autumn begins, Charlie visits an authority on Maramure? history and culture, feasts on a traditionally-prepared lamb and forages for mushrooms.

2023 • Travel

Bucovina
77:21
Bucovina

After a winter break, Charlie gets back on the road. In Bucovina, he enjoys smoked trout, kayaking and a sojourn at a restored traditional community.

2023 • Travel

West Transylvania
124:34
West Transylvania

Charlie wraps up his explorations in western Transylvania, where he descends into an ancient Roman gold mine and drinks a locally made palinca.

2023 • Travel

You might also like

Crete
22:26
Crete

In the first episode, Julia visits the picturesque, rustic and rugged island of Crete, a favourite island with British holiday-goers, but Julia steps away from tourist trail and heads deep into the heart of the island to explore the Dikti Mountains and its striking plateau of windmills.

S1E1 • The Greek Islands with Julia Bradbury • 2020 • Travel

East Transylvania
67:08
East Transylvania

In Transylvania, Charlie's awed by a restored medieval clock tower, samples artisan cheese and donkey milk, and visits a theme park in a salt mine.

S2E1 • Flavours of Romania • 2023 • Travel

Part 1
46:35
Part 1

Joanna begins a 2,000-mile journey across Japan in Hokkaido, where she meets one of the most important animals in Japanese culture, the red-crowned crane. She arrives in Sapporo during the middle of the annual Snow Festival and meets members of the local indigenous community, before travelling into the Fukushima exclusion zone and taking a bullet train from Nagano to Tokyo.

Part 1 • Joanna Lumley's Japan • 2016 • Travel

The Coffee Trail with Simon Reeve
58:46
The Coffee Trail with Simon Reeve

Adventurer and journalist Simon Reeve heads to Vietnam to uncover the stories behind the nation's morning pick-me-up. While we drink millions of cups of the stuff each week, how many of us know where our coffee actually comes from? The surprising answer is that it is not Brazil, Columbia or Jamaica, but Vietnam. Eighty per cent of the coffee we drink in Britain isn't posh cappuccinos or lattes but instant coffee and Vietnam is the biggest supplier. From Hanoi in the north, Simon follows the coffee trail into the remote central highlands where he meets the people who grow, pick and pack our coffee. Millions of small scale famers, each working two or three acres, produce most of the coffee beans that go into well known instant coffee brands. Thirty years ago Vietnam only produced a tiny proportion of the world's coffee, but after the end of the Vietnam war there was a widescale plan to become a coffee growing nation and Vietnam is now the second biggest in the world. It has provided employment for millions, making some very rich indeed, and Simon meets Vietnam's biggest coffee billionaire. But Simon learns that their rapid success has come at a cost to both the local people and the environment.

2014 • Travel

The Norwegian Fjords: Life in the Twilight
51:31
The Norwegian Fjords: Life in the Twilight

Norway’s fjords are a little-known wilderness. Billions of herring darken the waters and orcas feast on the banquet. Salmon leap up waterfalls and colourful sea slugs glow in the deep. Diving below the surface, award-winning filmmaker Jan Haft reveals the extraordinary diversity of life hidden within the deep waters. It’s an intimate portrait of a unique landscape - in the dark, icy grip of winter, under the magical glow of the northern lights, and during the long polar nights of the midnight sun.

2018 • Travel

Hidden Spain
50:00
Hidden Spain

Spain is found at the crossroads between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, resulting in diverse landscapes, ancient cultures and magnificent wildlife.

2020 • Travel