Greetings from rural Romania!
After a smooth 2 hour train ride I was met at the station depot by Mr. Saure, an agronomist engineer who volunteered to show me around town. He spoke very little English – so we headed right to the local museum where we were met by Dan who spoke very good English. This museum is not your typical village museum – rather it encompasses 40 acres of which a number is set aside for orchards, a demo vineyard and many building representing the types of residences you would find in various parts of the country.
Mr. Saure then introduced me to several of his friends – one a farmer had setup a small table in front of his farm and house and was selling fresh tomatoes and grapes by the side of the road. Then over to another friend who was whittling away his day by fishing for carp in his small pond and drinking beer conveniently cooled in the icy water from a spring on his property.
Then it was on to meet my host family. The grandparents – their son and his wife and their two children all live in the same house. No one in the family owns a car so they bike to work or walk as needed. With an orchard, a number of animals and a small farm, much of what they need comes from their land. We have fresh warm milk in the morning and evening as their cow is milked twice daily.
Making spirits from locally grown prunes is very common in this area. Like other families, the family I was staying with had a number of large containers of fermenting prunes in their backyard.
:)) Indeed, this sounds like a typical rural Romania village homestay! Enjoy your stay and have a great time in our country!
PS: What region/county are you in?
Oh, I got it, you’re in Golesti, near Pitesti! If you stop by in Craiova, do drop me a line! 🙂
Hi Dana – yes, was just recently in Golesti – what a museum 🙂 – I’ll have an article coming out in the next few weeks about my experiences – not sure if you know VillageLife.ro – but they are the good people who hooked me up with the village homestay near Golesti.
Fantastic. This is exactly what I would like to do when I visit rural Romania. My great-grandparents grew up in small villages west of Timisoara and I look forward to visiting that area soon.
David, I didn’t know the site VillageLife.ro , but it looks very very nice! 🙂
PS: The world is sooo small! I was checking the “about us” section on VillageLife.ro and I realized the founders had been members of the same students organization I was in, AIESEC (maybe you heard of it). Nice! 🙂
Dana – yes it is! Yes I am familiar with AIESEC. Did you see my blog post on how I discovered Village Life ? Very coincidental! http://www.davestravelcorner.com/blog/europe/village-life-romania/
Nice story!
I’m very glad you enjoy Romania! 🙂
It looks so beautiful, and friendly! One place I’ve never visited – must put that right. What is the language situation like? I speak no Romanian at all – would I be able to get by with say German, or French?
Hi Jennifer- Italian would be easier to get by on – but there are many Germans that visit Romania and a number of people speak German. English is also spoken by a number of people especially in Bucharest. I was able to pickup on a number of words in Romanian either the same or very similar to Spanish and Italian 🙂
@David: I’m thrilled to hear that you had a great time. Rural life and traditions are definitely among the best things Romania has to offer a traveler.
@Dana: All four of us are AIESEC alumni. I did my traineeship in Bucuresti where I met Alexandra, and Alma and Rox. Let us know if you’re ever there – would be nice to get a coffee or something.
-Greg
Greg – how long are you in Chicago for? I might make a trip out that way before the end of the year. One of my winemaker friends from Napa commutes every 2 weeks between ORD and SFO.
I’m working on a feature article on Village Life for my site – I’ll let you guys know as soon as its done.
~ Dave
@Greg: I’ll put this on my “must do” list for when in Bucharest. For the moment I’m in Craiova, so if you come here, coffee’s on me! 🙂
@Dave: I’ll be here through election day (Nov 6), plus a few weeks after – probably until Thanksgiving. Definitely let me know if you’ll be in town.
@Dana: I’m looking forward to whenever that chance comes 🙂 . Alexandra is in Bucuresti now, and I’ll be back around early Dec.
Greg – sounds good. It would be after the 6th and before the end of November. I’ll let you know.
Hi,
I am India (Mumbai). Me and my husband are planning to do a road trip through Romania towards 1st week of August. During our 3- 4 days stay in the Romania, we would love to stay in a village / countryside homestay / self-catered houses cooking our meals at times and having home-cooked meals too.
Can you suggest us?
Regards,
Hi Gitika – yes, here is the full article I wrote about this experience: http://www.davestravelcorner.com/journals/destination-europe/village-life-in-romania/
Trips can be booked through Village Life.
Hope this helps and have a great time!!