Blogs from Harghita, Transilvania, Romania, Europe

A very nice roadtrip through the mountains. On Friday afternoon we left Bucharest and headed towards Predeal via DN1. The trip was quite bad because it was very crowded after Comarnic, especially through Sinaia. On Saturday I went on one of the nicest drives yet: from Predeal to Brasov, via Rasnov and Poiana Brasov (where the view was beautiful), then North through the mountains up to Gheorgheni, West towards Praid and then back South, passing through Zarnesti and Rasnov. The villages there look very nice and there are quite a few fortified evangelical churches (in pretty much every large village). Also, the route from Gheorgheni to Praid is very nice (both the view and the drive). On Sunday we headed to Intorsura Buzaului and had a car crash in Prejmer... It was not too bad, but ... read more

Ever since I know Monica she was telling us stories about her summer vacantions spent in Borsec and promising us that someday she ll take us there just to have a taste of her paradise. First thing that comes in my mind when you say Borsec is the bottled mineral water winner of a gold medal for carbonated waters. I also knew that Borsec was a great tourist destination 20 years ago because of the natural mineral water springs and I might have been with my parents when I was 3-4 years old.... little have I known! Last week was her birthday and instead of partying in a club or dinner in a restaurant, we packed our bags and Friday morning we were on our way to Borsec. Borsec is located in North-Eastern part of Romania ... read more

Part five of my Transylvania series. There is something about getting to know a place. The more often you visit, the more you learn of its web of life and death. I have been to the the village of Szentpeter four times now in 8 years. Over those eight years I have seen many small changes in the village. During this visit I became more acutely aware of the circles of life and death in a small village. In 2005 I interviewed a young man named Arpod, he was 31 then, and he still lived with his mother. During our interview I asked him about his dreams for the future. He talked about getting married...about raising children....and he had a sparkle in his eyes when he shared. This time when I visited, he had a wife ... read more

I climb one of the lush green hills surrounding a small village. I am on one shoulder of the Homorod valley in Romania and looking either way I can see a necklace of small villages stretching out for many kilometers. There is an order here you don't see in many places anymore. Each village sits tight and compact on the land. Each is surrounded by fields that sustain the people as they have for hundreds and hundreds of years. You can be lulled into thinking this could never change. I am in Transylvania; an area of Romania surrounded by the Carpathian mountains and populated by a nationalistic Hungarian minority. Things are peaceful now but for decades the brutal Communist leader Nicolae Ceauşescu threatened to destroy this beautiful necklace. His plan was to bulldoze these tiny villages. ... read more

Hello again all, below is a reprint of an article we have submitted for publication regarding Chris' experiment in social-entrepreneurism with Agora... Recently, a group of 11 American and British volunteers gripped sticks and cheese graters with a mix of anticipation and consternation as blackened loaves of sourdough potato bread emerged from a traditional wood fired oven. A couple of grandmothers handed a loaf to each volunteer and stood back smiling… This somewhat surreal scene occurred on a late July day in a small village in Transylvania - though the idea was born nearly 9 months earlier in a slightly more mundane strategic planning meeting. At that meeting, Peace Corps Volunteers Chris Worman and Alecia Ball, and partner organization Agora, were discussing the future. Agora, like many Romanian NGOs was facing an uncertain funding future due ... read more