Romanian Gypsy's at work taking hay from the fields around the town of Corbeni in the Parcul Naţional Cozia
The man stands on top of the cart and the woman does all the hard graft. This way of working still exists around these parts of the world.
The man calls out to another woman in an a-joining field and they laugh as i take their photos, with calls of facebook being banded between them, followed by gales of laughter.
The Transfagarasan Highway
More than 150 kilometres in length the Transfagarasan Highway is Romania’s most spectacular and best known road and, thanks to an appearance on BBC Top Gear in 2009, now one of the country’s most popular tourist attractions. Fully open only from June to October, the road’s highest point is at 2042 metres: the tunnel which links the northern and southern sides at Lake Balea (Balea Lac).
The Transfagarasan - as with everything else in Romania at the time, it would seem - was built from 1970-1974 on the personal orders of Nicolae Ceausescu, who, legend has it, wanted to create a strategic route across the Fagaras Mountains to ferry troops north should Romania be invaded by the USSR (as Czechoslovakia had been in 1968). This legend of course ignores the fact that a perfectly good and far quicker route around the mountains (the Valea Oltului) already existed, and that any strategic impact of a road open for only a few months each year would have been minimal. Still, who are we to question a good urban myth?
The other side of the mountain tunnel, is not quite so spectacular, but has a fabulous run down and through miles of forests that take you down to the dam
There are two spectacular roads in Romania and the best for me was the Transalpina road and is the highest road in Romania. It’s one of the famous Romanian high altitude roads, with a length of 146 km, it goes trough the Carpathian Mountains, reaching a maximum altitude of 2,145m above sea level
At the top of the Transalpina road, there wondered a Shepard and his flock of sheep
Although i asked him if i could take his photos, he was only patient enough to allow me to take one and when i tried to take more, he swirled his blanket over his shoulder and marched off muttering something.
The view down the mountainside on the other end of the Transalpina road
Further down into the valleys around the Transalpina mountains, i did happen to come apon another Shepard, who was more jovial in regards to having his photos taken.
He stood and smiled and waited till i got the shots i wanted, then i thanked him and continued on my way. If i had a mobile printer, i could have left him a wee present.
It was not long before i came into a large village, which seemed to contain a large amount of gypsy looking people, so i stopped and pointed at this womans dog, and indicated i wanted to take a photo or her standing next to it. She nodded and then as i raised my camera, she fled, quicker than you could imagine for one of such stature. There are photos that stick in your head and this will be one, as it was such a nice sight.
Having turned away from the gypsy dog woman, this lovely old lady winked at me and i grab my chance, and snapped of a shot.
Happening further along the village i passed these two, who seemed to be having a domestic. Although they never wanted their photos taken to begin with, simple smiles and laughter, got me closer to them for a few shots.
I dont know the full story of why she was crying and why he was shouting at her, but i like to think it was because she lost her son many years ago and never stopped grieving and when i turned up, she saw him in me, because she started to smile and blow me kisses. He stayed grumpy, but she smiled and enjoyed the company.
I would like to describe the scene in what was a very quiet village, with a few people milling around and a road that ran through the center, where this couple sat, watching the world go by. I would suggest a wash would do both of them good, but i dont know about their lives and the poverty and hard ship they had to endure. I wished now, that id given them money, to perhaps make a differance for a day or two, but i didnt.
