Romania

The castle of Bran in Transylvania is the home of Dracula, so we are made to believe at least. So what would make a souvenir salesman happy? Well, a big smile from Transylvania might help.

Where: Str Grâului, Sibiu. Outside of the Filadelfia Pentecostal Church.

Who: Roma members of the Filadelfia Pentecostal Church.

Eat and drink: Great meats (lamb, pig, kabobs), white wine or soft drink

Topics discussed: Pride, prejudices, discrimination, happiness and sorrows.

... with Emil Kalderar, copper smith in Brateui, Transylvania, Romania.

I meet Emil in one of the tidiest villages I’ve ever seen. Everybody seams to be working and the houses are gigantic! If you want to make a good palinka (Romanian plum brandy) Emil is the right person to sell you the utensils. His 50 litre copper cauldrons are guaranteed to last 250 years, how many bottles will you be able to make during those years?

Initially, when I set out on the first journey as part of this project, the plan was to cover tree countries (plus Transnistria which is not a recognized country) in a week. Those were Moldova, Rumanian and Slovakia.