Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Need to know
Discover Tarnava Mare's office is
in the village of Saschiz, under an hour's drive from
Sighisoara. For more on activities and costs, see
W
www.discovertarnavamare.org.
142 wildFlowErs and saxon
villagEs, romania
A little weary from a morning's hiking, you sit
for a rest on the grass outside the shepherd's
wooden hut, looking across the flower-covered
fields that stretch back to the village below. Not a
bad spot for a lunch stop.
Meanwhile your guide begins to unpack the
picnic: slices of pork from local Durac pigs;
zacusca
, a tomato and pepper sauce made to
your guide's mother's own recipe; wine from the
grapes in her cobbled courtyard; and cheeses
- salty
cas
and ricotta-like
urda
- recently made
by the shepherd's wife. And of course strong
palinka
spirit, home-distilled from plums.
Meals like this on Discover Tarnava Mare's food
and culture tours are a perfect example of how
well many Romanians still live off the land. Visits
through Saxon villages in this fertile region of
southeastern Transylvania are tailored however
you want them, whether you book far in advance
or just turn up that morning. The idea is that they
are opportunities to share in the villagers' lives
for a day or more. Guests stay in local homes,
breakfasting on bread, eggs, cheeses and whatever
your host's speciality is.
It is in one of these villages - Viscri - that
Charles, Prince of Wales has bought a house,
so enamoured is he of their way of life. There
are plenty of characters here he'd probably get
along with, like Mr Pandrea, an octogenarian
beekeeper who'll allow you to taste his honeys, or
Rosalie, who makes teas with the fragrant herbs
that hang in her wooden shed.
Since 1945, Europe has lost over 95 percent of
its semi-natural grasslands due to the spread
of intensive agriculture. In the meadows of
Tarnava Mare, which have never seen an artificial
spray, hundreds of different wildflowers create
a kaleidoscope of colour in spring and summer.
Were this way of life to stop, within three years the
flowers would be gone. Every mouthful of traditional
food you eat helps these meadows, and the people
who live among them, to continue to flourish.
143 stay in a ukrainian villagE
You have to go a long way east to get to the centre of
Europe. In the Ukrainian village of Dilove, a stone
placed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1897
marks the spot. Trouble is, there's also a similar
column in Lithuania, a sculpture in Hungary, and
both Belarus and Poland have laid claim to it.
Wherever that elusive point lies, though, it's likely
to be further east than you might think.
Central Europe - if that's how we should think
of the mountainous region of western Ukraine
- is an area with few international visitors,
but already a sustainable model of tourism is
being developed in the area. The Rural Green
Tourism Association (RGTA), set up in 1996,
is a community-run volunteer organization
that helps villagers earn extra income through
hosting guests. For example you could stay in the
wooden houses of the Hutsul people in villages
like Vorokhta or Yavoriv.
Visitors can spend their time walking in the
polonyas
, the mountain meadows where cool
breezes waft across the long grasses. After a day's
hiking, expect to be liberally plied with food and
drink, all made and prepared by the villagers,
such as
banosh
(a mixture of sweetcorn, bacon and
sour cream). Hospitality is unceasingly friendly
and you'll probably get a chance to watch or join
in traditional dances (typically accompanied by
the alp-horn-like
trembita
and the
sopika
, a form
of flute) or to listen to their plaintive folk songs.
Whether it's officially the centre of Europe or not,
life here is refreshingly traditional.
Need to know
There's an overnight train from either
Kiev or Lviv to Ivano-Frankivsk, from where buses go
to the various villages. For more information on the
RGTA of Ivano-Frankivsk, nearby hiking trails, getting
there and how the homestay scheme works, see
W
members.aol.com/chornohora.
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