Sports Day and Tiff Festival in Cluj

 

Hello Guys, this week was again an amazing week. On the weekend, I participated on a Sports Day in Arad, organized by our friends that are volunteers there. Well, it was not the biggest event, apart from all the volunteers there was only one boy there in the beginning and after some more. With this boy, I played football, all day long. It was so great playing football again after so long time. Me and the eleven year old boy became very good friends now after we played with 30 degrees and ate ice cream together on the sports field. I mean we couldn’t understand each other so well but my Romanian is not that bad anymore so we could have conversation on a low level.

After playing football, basketball, ping pong and boule a whole day long, we could sleep deeply and were ready for our next destination: Cluj. Or actually the small Hungarian village called Vlaha. Maybe you remember one of my first blogposts where I wrote about this nice couple where we stayed at in November. They invited us this time to their film festival. In Cluj there was the ”TIFF-Festival” for a whole week. Therefore there was one event located in the home of Ernö and  lldíko. We arrived already on Monday to help preparing the food for the big VIP party so we spend two hours of spending 20 kg of cutting meat in the night. The next day we continued with cutting vegetables and preparing other food. At noon people started to arrive for the VIP party. They came from Brazil, Germany, Russia and thousands of other countries. It was really interesting to meet all these people and talk to them. In the evening we helped selling the tickets (we sold more than 1000) and a new Romanian film was presented on a big screen.

It was an amazing event. The only negative aspect was, that we had to get up really early on Wednesday morning to get back to Baia Mare on time for our next event. Inga presented her plays with her children from the drama community project in the village Dumbravita. After that, I presented the paintings from my Art community project. Even though we had not a lot of sleep, it was a nice day and of course in general a great week!

 

Volunteering abroad – a live changing experience

Hi everybody! This week was national week of Volunteering in Romania. Our program: going to different High schools and Universities in Baia Mare, talk about our experiences so far in Romania and promoting EVS (European Voluntary Service). Referring to this occasion, I thought I will write my blog about Volunteering and advertise the Erasmus+ program a bit.

Erasmus+/ European Voluntary Service is a program, funded by the European Union. You have to be between 17 and 30 years old, this is the only condition. Then you can apply for projects all over Europe. A sending organisation that is probably located in or near your city will help you to find projects in different countries. Then you have to write your CV, an application form and a motivation letter. Also with this, your sending organization can help you, if your English is not very good. Then you just write to a lot of projects and wait for an acception. I can really recommend (if you come from Western Europe) to go to the East. It is way easier to get accepted and a lot more interesting because it is so different from western cultures. The good thing on EVS is that you don’t need to pay anything. Your accommodation is paid (usually you stay with other volunteers in one flat, sometimes you are also hosted by a family or you live in a dormitory), you get some food and some pocket money. Besides, you get an insurance for free, a language course of the language of the country you are staying in and your flights from and back will be paid.

Apart from all these advantages it is also a great opportunity for you because of other reasons! When you want to have a change in your life, when you are tired of studying, or just want to volunteer abroad it’s just perfect. You can do a Volunteering Service up to one year, but there are also short term EVS where you will stay only for 2 months in another country. You can apply in every country in Europe even the countries that are not in the European Union like Ukraine.  There are projects from topics like Sport and Environment to children and disabled people.

For me personally, I think it is the best opportunity to discover more about other cultures and the world, but also to discover more about yourself. You will gain new skills, get to know so many different and interesting people you would not have met before and have time to think about what you want to in your life. Also volunteering makes happy. You do something good, something helpful for society, so it is not only you who gains something from your Service.

Me, the same as all the other German volunteers, I chose to go abroad after I finished High School, so that I have a break from all the studying, to enjoy life and to think about what I want to study in University. It was the best choice I could have made. Now I know that I will study Geography next year, I look forward to it after one year of not studying and also I gained so many skills and experiences that can be really useful in life. I improved my English a lot, I learnt how to prepare activities for children or how to teach. I got to know especially the Romanian culture, I am learning their language, I discovered that Romanians are loveliest people I’ve ever met. But I did not only get to know the Romanian culture. I learnt more about Denmark, England, France, Italy, Spain, Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and a lot more countries. I have friends now from so many countries. On the one hand it is sad, because you don’t see each other anymore after your service, but at the same time it gives you a great opportunity to travel around Europe and visit all your friends.

All this, we presented in about 9 different Schools and Universities. I really hope that the students got some inspiration to do a gap year and go abroad and volunteer.  Unfortunately, in Romania it is not very common to take a year off and do volunteering. I hope we could help to change this and who knows? Maybe they are sitting already on their lap tops and look for projects…

 

Mogosa Race

Buna demineata! Can you imagine? It’s in the middle of May, in Romania it’s 14 degrees and there is just rain. A lot of rain. Of course, on the worst day in May there is the Mogosa Race, which Clare and I participated in. The Mogosa Race was a 6km run in a ski area 30km out of Baia Mare. But it was not a normal run, this would be too easy. It was a race, going up a black ski slope for 2 km, then running a bit on the top of the mountain and finally down. Actually you cannot really call it a run. I’ve never had to start walking in a race after 30 seconds. It was already so steep in the beginning that it was not possible to be fast. During the climb up the slope, without breath, hurt muscles and no power, Clare and I were just thinking, why the hell we are doing this. To answer this question honestly, we were doing this because of Clare’s friend. Ildi is one of the organizers of many hiking trips, and this time also of the first Mogosa Race. So she convinced us to participate and was really happy that we did. Besides, she needed some more volunteers who mark the way and stand in different places to help the people that are running with the directions and so on. This is why a lot of friends of us came to help, and this was really appreciated because we all had to get up really really early. The organizers were so happy that we volunteers were helping, I have to admit we were 8 volunteers and without this help there wouldn’t have been so many other helpers left. So getting up really early, the first volunteers that arrived started to go up the mountain to mark the way and go to their places. Clare and I warmed up ourselves, as like I said, it was really rainy and cold. During the run we were of course warm again especially after we arrived the top. Unfortunately we couldn’t enjoy the (normally) really beautiful view, because we were kind of standing in the clouds and fog and rain. So we just tried to hurry and follow the sound of someone’s whistle. Yes whistle, the signs were not that visible anymore when you can only see the first 3 meters in front of you. So we followed the sound of the whistle. Luckily Clare could also remember the route from the last time they checked the route for the race. One girl unfortunately didn’t follow either the sound of the whistle nor the signs. She got a bit lost but got finally found by the volunteers. Anyway, we made it finally after sliding down some really slippery and muddy hills and finish after 01:07h. The slowest run ever and one of the hardest at the same time. When I could finally shower and warm myself up, I was like being in heaven. Only my legs hurt quite a bit for several days. However, it was one of the coolest and funniest races I’ve ever done!

 

We are Europe!

Hello hello everybody. Do you remember what day was last Monday? Yes, EUROPE DAY. As we are Volunteers from the European Volunteering Service, of course we had a big event. The morning started with activities in the office with two different 5th and 6th grade classes. We prepared in all the three rooms three different activities. Mathias and Clare showed them some scottish dances, Inga played a matching game with different countries, flags and words from different languages and Fi and I made friendship bracelets with the colours of the different flags in Europe. Nice and efficient, everybody had a lot of fun.

Because we had to hurry for the next event in the Old Centre, our organisation took us to a Restaurant where we ate for lunch…fast. I am pretty sure, I’ve never eaten soup so fast before. Then we rode with our bikes fast to the next program. At least the others, somehow I am always the last one that arrives, with my small bike it is not possible to ride that fast, but therefore Mathias enjoys making fun of me and my high speed when I overtake all the cars on the road. So we finally arrived at the Congress hall of Baia Mare, where was a big event with a lot of students, children and other participants that presented something referring to Europe. Also we had to present something…ourselves. We presented our A to Z power point presentation with a lot of pictures from our stay so far in Romania and talked about our experiences abroad. After this event was over, we quickly arranged the room for our next event; a European high school challenge. Eight groups of five students, all from different schools came to participate. The first part was about a creative presentation of different topics concerning Europe that we gave them in advance. They were all really nice. From singing to interviews and acting was everything included. Unfortunately not every group refer their presentation to their topic that we gave them in advance but all in all it was really good.

The second part was a Europe Quiz. 5 Volunteers 5 topics. Everyone of us lead one round. Of course I was in charge of the Geography Quiz, which was really fun. A lot of the groups were really good. Okay some of them thought that Sweden is in southern Europe but in general they had a lot of background knowledge, also in the other topics: Music, Pictures, General Knowledge and History.

In the end we gave of course prizes for the creative part and then for each round of the Europe Quiz. The prizes were some awesome and beautiful canvas that Clare and I painted all Thursday and Friday afternoon.

All in all it was a great event, the biggest so far, I guess. It was a long day but of course all the work was worth it. Besides, we learned also more about Europe for ourselves, which I think is really good and important. This event shows me again that we are not only belonging to our different nationalities. I am not only German, I am European, and I am thankful for the opportunity to do EVS. This experience shows me that we are all Europe.

 

Paştele Fericit!

 

Hello! The last week of April is over. Already eight months! Time flies. One could think that after 8 months, we know already everything about Romanians, Traditions and Romanian culture. But for those of you that never been to Romania: there is an awful lot to learn about this country. Like I wrote in the last Blog, the orthodox Easter is on the 1st of May. Because of this occasion, Ramona, our great Romanian teacher took us to her parents house who are living in a small village just outside of Baia Mare. There, we dyed Easter Eggs in the traditional way, like the people here in Maramures have already done it hundreds of years ago. First we had to clean the raw eggs and wash them with some alcohol solution. While we were doing this, we cooked some cabbage for a blue colour and onion leafs for the red. Also we need to find some leafs and flowers for the decoration of the egg which was really easy in the beautiful garden of Ramona’s parents. It was a bit tricky to proportioning the leafs at the egg but with some thin sock we could fix them a bit. Then they got cooked with in the cabbage or the onions to get the colour. The result was beautiful!

After this “hard work”, Ramona’s parents prepared (of course) a lot of food for us. We ate all the traditional things like toast with onions and fat (that was fresh grilled over the fire), then a really delicious bean soup, and after that Sarmale, which is rice in cabbage leafs basically, and it is one of my favourite romanian food. Of course we got also some Palinca adding to the all the other traditional things. It was a great day and the good weather (that was actually really bad on all the other days) made it even better.
The week continued with our Easter travels. Inga, Fi, Clare and I visited the Eastern part of Romania, the region “Moldova”. This region is the least developed one of all regions in Romania. Surprisingly, you cannot see that at all in the beautiful and surprisingly big city Iasi, which is right at the border of the country Moldova. During this trip, we noticed also how much nicer it is to travel in the summer. We just relaxed in the beautiful botanicalgarden after we walked around the whole city in one day.

Additionally, we were also really tired because we took the Overnight train on Thursday night and couldn’t sleep at all because of some drunk people next to us. This is why we slept in the next morning to have some power for our next destination: Chisinau. Probably a lot of you have never even heard about that City, even though it is a capital city, but okay, the country Moldova is really small, this is true. Anyway, it was really very interesting. Moldova is even 20 years probably behind Romania, and for a European country not well developed. The buses are older the streets are smaller and worse. But above all it is a very nice city. We were really lucky to be there during the Easter week end: Moldova is even more orthodox than Romania. This is why we went on Midnight on the 1st of May to the church to look what is happening. It was amazing. Hundreds of people were standing in lines outside of the church with their baskets. These baskets are filled with meaningful and important things of the owner of the basket because the priest will bless the baskets with holy water. But before he is doing this, the whole ceremony starts with a big concert of the church bells at midnight. All people, the priest and his colleagues in the front, went around the church three times. Then they all entered the church to have the service. It was really interesting but weird at the same time. It reminded me so much of Christmas, and to see such a big religious tradition in summer and all the Easter decorations outside was a bit confusing. It was a nice alternation though. In Germany we have the National Holiday on the 1st of May because it is the day of workers. In my region, all the young people have their own wagon with their friend group that is full of alcohol and things for a barbecue, and we take a long walk to a special grass place where everyone is going. There we have a big party. This year I had a bit different 1st of May, an interesting 1st May and it was definitely worth seeing these Easter tradition that seem so strange to us.

 

Easter, Pastele, Ostern!

Hello guys, this blog is all about the Easter-all-around-the-world-week! ”Mhhh, but Easter was already in the end of March”, you probably think now. Not in Romania. Well, there was also the catholic and protestant Easter, but on the 1st of May, there is the orthodox Easter, and because Romanians are mainly orthodox, this is the more important Celebration. During this last week, we prepared a lot of activities for children in kindergarten, primary school, secondary school and Highschool. Everyday, we went to different place. We had activities like painting eggs, tea-spoon race and treasure hunts or for the older kids a living library that showed easter traditions in different countries.

Mathias had the great Idea to plant seeds in an egg with the primary and secondary school children. So Mihai bought 70 eggs for this.. the thing was that we didn’t need the inside of the egg, so we had 70 eggs that should be eaten in this week. So we ate. We ate Fantacake, Quiche, Pancakes, Fried Eggs and big big omelette. Now surprisingly I got kind of sick of eggs. For the next months I won’t touch an omelette, I guess.

On Friday, you probably know, was Earth Day. This was why we went for our Event ”Plant for the Planet” to Dumbravita and planted a lot of roses around the school yard. The children had a lot of fun and also the teachers made photos enthusiastically all the time.

Now, as the children will have Easter Holidays, we will have a bit calmer days upcoming. The last weeks were really quite exhausting. This is why we looked forward to a calm weekend, with some friends that visited us. We relaxed in the park and enjoyed the sun. It was really great!

 

Why I love Romania

Middle of April. It’s getting warmer now. Spring is busy with making everything green and beautiful in and around Baia Mare. The city gets busier. It is really amazing where all the people hide in the winter. When we went out for a drink in the old Centre, the big square was completely empty. Now people are sitting outside, with their children, with an ice cream or with a glass of wine or a beer. Also the park where Clare and I used to run alone in the winter is busier than I’ve ever seen. Especially on the weekends, the small train for the children is going, people are selling sweets and at the playgrounds children are fighting to get a swing. It is amazing how much a season can change a place. Everything looks so different now. However, not only the weather is nicer and the trees are greener, also the people are happier. The mood of people changes when they see a bit more sunlight. It is the same with me. I enjoy running in the park without freezing and love to cycle to work without wearing a jacket. Everything is just so much nicer. And of course I try to spend every free minute that I have outside.

This is why we, Clare and I, went hiking the last week end with a big group of very sporty Romanians. From where do we know them? Well, I did not know them before, but Clare got to know these people because a woman from her dancing lessons invited her to join their weekly hiking tours. Because nobody from our flat wanted to join us, we ask our friends that are volunteers in the association “Team for Youth”. We started from the park in Baia Mare. Yes, it’s true, you don’t need to go far for going to the nature, Baia Mare is surrounded by mountains. We went up, and up…and up. It was quite hard and Chloe, the French volunteer from Team for Youth, said she will definitely quit smoking from now on. We had the best weather and even if we didn’t make breaks for lunch, there was always time to take a picture…always! Romanians really love taking pictures but at least then I don’t need to worry about taking enough pictures. Because the nature is really worth seeing and holding it in a photo. I mean I’ve never been in New Zealand but the panorama I had this week end was definitely similar to how I imagine the environment over there. And with this nice company we had (we got apples, water, beers or everything else that we needed or didn’t need and we had nice conversation in Romanian and got help whenever it was needed) it was a perfect hiking trip.

This weekend showed me again why I love Romania so much. The nature is just lovely. It is so wild and not touched by humans that makes it so special. Romanian people are at least as lovely as the nature. They are welcoming, always interested and talkative. They help you whenever you need help and like to share everything, even if they don’t have much. This country is just beautiful.

 

A few words about Languages

 

Buna prietenii mei! It’s now been more than 7 months since I’ve been living in Romania. I remember when I first arrived, how I couldn’t understand anything of the Romanian language. People told me that it is a Latin Language (so similar to French and Spanish that I both learnt at school) but nevertheless, everything just sounded so strange and weird to me. Now, with the big help of our Romanian teacher Ramona who tries to get us a bit closer to the language of the country in which we are living, we know a lot more about the language (at least some of us, some Danish people are a little bit behind…)

I only noticed how much I had actually learnt, when my two friends from Germany came to visit me last week. I talked a lot with Romanian people; reserved buses, asked for information while we were travelling and ordered food or a drink in a bar. I was very helpful for them and of course I still cannot speak and understand Romanian well but it is enough for making easy conversations. I realise how much I already became part of this country. Things like carts on the streets, which my friends found so exciting and strange, don’t surprise me anymore. The people in the rural areas with their simple lives that consist usually of driving the cattle and working on the fields- without machines of course, people that hitchhike to everywhere especially the old people, power poles and cables in every road which are definitely way lower than they usually are in western countries, old buses, crazy drivers, no cycle paths, the traditional food and drinks, … all of this, I got completely used to.

Impressions of the life in the Rural Areas from Romania

But coming back to the language. Or maybe it is better to say languages. When you are doing EVS, it is not only the language of the country in which you are living, that you learn. There are so many people from different nationalities that you work with, meet and often become good friends with. This is for instance the reason why I can say “cheers” in Italian, Hungarian, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Estonian and in at least five other languages. And even though it sometimes annoys me when people talk in their native language in front of others, it is often really interesting to listen to it. Especially when French or Spanish people are talking I quite like just trying to understand it. With emphasis on try. Unfortunately I forgot half of what I learnt at school…

But anyway, you can see, there is a lot of variety in languages and nationalities during an EVS year. This is why I will try now to write about my last weekend in Craiova in different languages. I have to admit, I had a bit of help from my international friends but some of it, I did by myself…okay not really. So enjoy reading it, if you can understand it.

 

Week-end trecut, Inga, Clare şi eu am fost in Craiova (Romanian). Nous avons rencontré nos amis qui font SEV aussi mais en Craiova (French). Craiova ist sehr weit von Baia Mare, ungefähr 550km und acht Stunden mit dem Auto (German). Es porque hemos hecho una pausa en Râmnicu Vâlcea y hemos dormido en el apartamente de unos amigos allí (Spanish). Sabato siamo arrivati a Craiova alle 3 del pomeriggio (Italian). Vores venner tog os med til den botaniske have (danish). Azutan együtt fogunk főzni (hungarian). в субботу у нас была отличная вечеринкаt (Russian). Pazar günü şehirde yürüdük (Turkish). Craiova to naprawdę piękne miasto (Polish). Den är full av skulpturer, målningar och gatukonst i allmänhet (Swedish). Deitámo-nos na relva e aproveitámos o Sol (Portuguese). Después, hemos ido a un café y hemos bebido un café delicioso (Spanish). Vakare mes įsėdom į naktinį traukinį, su kuriuo grįžom į Cluj (Lithuanian). Кoгa кoнечнo стигнaвме утрoтo вo Baia Mare бевме мнoгу измoрени (Macedonian).  Maar omdat wij ook nog een beetje werk te doen hebben, zijn wij s’ochtends op de office om ons activiteiten voor te bereiden (Dutch). Mindenhol, a világon. (Turkish). Aynı zamanda projem iyi gidiyor (Hungarian). Min billedkunstklasse har lige faerdiggjort deres delfiner og hvaler (Danish). De var väldigt stolta (Swedish). Quand je les ai racontés que nous allons prolonger le projet jusqu’au fin mai, ils étaient très contents (French). Também o meu projecto musical vai iniciar em breve (Portuguese). Przygotuję piosenkę, którą zagram na pianinie, a zaśpiewają ją dzieci ze szkoły artystycznej (Polish). A giugno presenteremo questa canzone durante un grande concerto a cui assisteranno tutti i genitori dei bambini (Italian).

В крайна сметка имахме чудесен уикенд и ще имаме още много хубави проекти, които да очакваме (Bulgarian)

Mulţumesc frumos pentru citi! (Romanian)

Solution:

Last week-end, Inga, Clare and I were in Craiova. We met our friends there, who also do EVS but in Craiova. Craoiva is really far from Baia Mare, approxamitely 550km and eight hours by car. This is why we made a break in Râmnicu Vâlcea and slept in the apartment of our friends there. On Saturday we arrived in Craiova at 3 in the afternoon. Our friends showed us the botanical garden. After, we cooked altogether. We had a nice party on Saturday night. On Sunday, we walked around the city. Craiova is really beautiful. It is full of sculptures, paintings and streetart in general. We lay down in the grass and enjoyed the sun. Then, we went to a café and had a nice coffee. In the evening, we took the overnight train back to Cluj. When we finally arrived in Baia Mare in the morning, we were really tired. But because we had some work to do, we spent the morning in the office to prepare our activities. Next week, we will have activities in primary schools and kindergartens with the topic: Easter around the world. Also my other projects are going well. My painting class just finished their dolphins and whales. They were really proud. When I told them that we will extend the project until the middle of may, they were all really happy.  My music project will also start soon. I will prepare a song that I play on the piano and the children from the Art school will sing. In June, we will present this song in a big concert to which all their parents come. So, all in all, we had a great week-end and we have a lot of nice projects to which I look forward to start/ continue.Thank you for reading!

 

I hope it was fun to read this small text about my last week in so many different languages. Maybe you realised that some languages are really easy to understand even if you never learnt them but because they are similar to your language. Maybe you found out that in almost every language, there are some universal words that everybody can understand, for example chocolate or telephone.  Or maybe you just didn’t understand anything…which is probably most likely.

At least we have one language that almost everybody can speak. One language which is used all around the world. The language that I am also writing this blog in. Yes, English is one of the most important languages, especially for those of us who travel, have international friends or live abroad.

I think, everyone once had this experience; being in a different country, where you don’t know the language and try to communicate with locals that cannot speak English. We, for example, always have this problem when we teach English to children in primary schools.  You try everything, from showing and pointing to acting and imitating, until you finally succeed and make them understand …or not.You often feel very helpless in these situations, but sometimes it works. We don’t always need languages to communicate. Language is just one of the aids that help us to express something. We can also let our feelings, our eyes, our feet and hands and lots of other things speak for us.

This is how Mathias manage to make the children understand: If they don’t know the word “shoe” just show them!

Because even if we are not from the same nationalities, we are all people that understand each other. We may have a different colour of skin, a different religion, a different culture or, referring to the topic of this blog, a different language. But in one way, we are all the same. There is one thing, that I learnt during my year abroad: not to judge people by their national stereotypes or anything else. Even though Europe consists of lots of different countries and many different cultures and languages, the friendships I have made with so many different people show me that we are all in this together. We shouldn’t only define ourselves with our nationality. We are all human. We are all one.

 

Spring!

Hello my dear readers. After a very nice dinner with my parents and my flatmates on Tuesday night, my parents finally left Romania. They really enjoyed the time over here and my mother was even asking if she can move into our flat because my flatmates are soooo nice 😀
But luckily they got the plane and had a safe trip back to Germany. Now the normal rhythm continues. I am busy with my art project. Every Wednesday, I go to the school where I can play the piano. And Clare and I are training more and more for the half marathon.

But on Friday I went with Linda, my Mentor to Budapest. There we met my friend Annika from Germany and her boyfriend Christian, because they came to visit me. We discovered together the thermal baths which are really popular and enjoyed some shows and concerts with some beers and the nicest weather.
It was a very nice weekend, but because my friends went also with us to Baia Mare, I had a nice week as well.

24 degrees. Nothing is better than to chill out on a lake and enjoy the sun when it is so nice outside. So we took the bus to Firiza where is a big lake and lay in the grass. I showed them around the town as well and we cooked nice food for everyone in the flat in the evening.

Then, the other day, we were standing already at the bus station to wait for the bus to Barsana because my friends wanted to see the famous wooden churches in the villages. But after a few minutes, we found out that the bus driver wouldn’t drive because nobody apart from us would have taken the bus. So we decided to go to Dumbrăviţa, one of the villages where I am working on Fridays. There we went up the hill where you have an amazing view of the beautiful nature and villages, and of Baia Mare on the other side. After a short nap on the hill, we went towards the river. There, Mathias made a really nice project with children from Baia Mare and from Dumbrăviţa. In teams they had to clean the river and the one team with the most full bin bags wins. In the end they had 45 bin bags, a lot of clothes and half of a car. It is scaring how much garbage in the rivers in Romania is, but at the same time amazing how fast 40 children can clean a river in 1 hour.

All in all, we had a really nice time together, it was really great that they come to visit me 🙂

 

Travelling with my parents

Hello everyone! Last week was travel week. As I wrote in my last blog, my parents came this week to visit me. After we’ve been to Cluj, we went with our rented car to some nice places around Maramureş, the region where I am living. And Maramureş has really beautiful places. From villages like Surdeşti, Breb or Bărsana to the nice nature around Borşa, parents could get quite an impression of where I am living and how the Romanian country and culture is like. A place where a coach with a horse as transportation is as common as a car, where selling (or just drinking) palinca on every fifth door of the tiny little wooden houses is normal, where old women with traditional clothes are working in the vegetable gardens and feed the animals like pigs, hens and cows that are running around in the yard, where you just go around and see a washing machine made of wood in the middle of a river, where everything is just really simple. The people may not have the most money and are really quite poor, but they are happy and warm hearted to everyone. This is what I really love about the place where I am living right now.

And also my parents are fascinated by this. Of course there are some disadvantages, for example the hiking paths. Don’t get me wrong, the paths are really really beautiful… if you know where to go. Because signs are mostly overrated in the forests. But with the help of really nice local people we found the path in the end when we wanted to see the Waterfall near Borşa. On this day it was a bit colder than the other days but it is normal in spring, I would say. But I didn’t expect at all that it could be that cold! The higher we got into the mountains, the more it snowed and when we arrived at the waterfall (after falling at least once, because the path was so icy) we saw that this waterfall was completely frozen! It was amazing… but I have to admit that I was glad when I could take a hot shower at home.

After seeing everything from the County where I am living, we headed south towards Sighişoara, Sibiu and Braşov to see some other really beautiful Cities near the Mountains of Transylvania. Sighişoara, a small but nevertheless really beautiful city was our first stop. After crossing some villages we stayed for two nights in Sibiu and last but not least the area of Braşov where you can hike very nicely and visit the Castle Bran and the Citadel of Raşnov.

In fact, I can say we had a nice week together and my parents really enjoyed travelling in Romania (apart from driving all the time for forever because of the infrastructure haha)