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Last Week in Romania

 Monday the 26th of August was our last night in Casa Butnarului, staying in the valley. We did spend the day at Casa Victoria and Martin gave us a proper walking tour of the forestry on and surrounding the farm, his depth of knowledge is quite astonishing. We spent the next few days and nights living at Casa Victoria, helping with maintenance and finishing our surveying, photographing, writing and editing of our booklet. By Wednesday we had finished the booklet, it contained information about the different buildings on the farm: their original uses, techniques for building, other important cultural notes, and Monica's restoration that maintains mostly the original form. She seemed very happy with it as it gives her a tangible result in passing on cultural heritage to us that can be used in an easy way to disseminate to more people, so the importance of these sustainable farmsteads is not lost in the ever growing modern world. We believe there should be some form of protection and ...
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Returning to Rimet

 On Monday the 19th of August Martin picked us up from Sibiu and took us back to Rimet. But before we left the city we stopped off at a 1 lei store, a place that Martin knew well as he loves searching for cheap finds in weird places. It was good fun rummaging threw the piles of clothes, I picked out a nice jacket and pair of jorts, of course 1 lei each, which is about 33 pence. Martin collected 4 sparkly shirts that he claimed was our knew archaeology uniform, that we would later surprise Monica whilst wearing. We did the 1 and a half journey back but instead of going up into the mountains to Rimet, where Casa Victoria is, we went into the valley below to stay in a village called, Geoagiu de Sus, quite famous for its monastery.  We stayed in a lovely property called Casa Butnarului, so check it out if you ever want to stay in the mountains of Transylvania, or Casa Victoria for that matter. Monica's foundation is called Satul Verde, look it up! The rest of the week we travelled...
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Trip To Sibiu

 15/08/24 Today we travelled from the mountains of Rimet to the city of Sibiu, the same Sibiu that we landed in five days ago. It is a fortified medieval town that is reminiscent of an old Germanic town with its long lasting architecture from the 12th century Saxon settlers. We spent the first evening exploring the city, the main part being the historic centre, an area surrounded by the fortified Saxon walls, the main feature being a large square dotted with bars, restaurants and other shops, many being a bit touristy.  The next day, Friday, Monica took us to the traditional crafts festival that was happening all weekend, this was the main reason for our visit. It took place at Muzeul Astra, an outdoor walk around museum that had featured many historic buildings from medieval times all the way up to quite contemporary, many of the structures were original and moved to present the traditional ways of living throughout time in Romania, mainly Transylvania. The crafts festival wa...
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Arriving at Casa Victoria and Excavations

 13/08/24 Today Monica picked me up from Teius train station. She gave me a lift out of the town and up to the mountains, we picked up Martin, the GRAMPUS heritage director, on the way and continued to the farmstead where we would be staying. The drive was spectacular yet slightly nerve wracking because as we gained altitude we saw some amazing views of the mountains but at the same time the roads became narrower until you would struggle to describe them as roads. A dirt track took us into the farmstead where we would stay. This was Casa Victoria, a group of old farm buildings situated on the side of a mountain in the Truscan Mountains, Transylvania. Monica had bought this farm off Victoria, the old owner, but it had become run down and the buildings derelict, over the past few years her and GRAMPUS had taken students and volunteers to help renovate this site and keep alive the heritage that it holds. Our job would be to survey these buildings to help in this survival of heritage a...
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Arriving in Romania

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 Saturday 10th August 2024 Today was the day I left for my placement in Romania with GRAMPUS Heritage, an organisation that offers and funds opportunities to different countries, mainly around Europe to work and learn from a different culture. My placement description is an archaeological one, as I am an archaeology and anthropology student it was perfect for me. In more detail it is to survey vernacular buildings in the Rimet, a group of villages located in the Apuseni mountains of Romania, near Aiud and Alba Iulia. I am very excited as I will be joining a group of other students, including my friend Ethan from Bournemouth University. Plus, I have already organised to meet my other friend, Natalia, I also met her in Bournemouth but she is Romanian and her family are from Alba Iulia, so I have arranged to meet her there as it is on the route to Rimet from Sibiu, the city I will land in tonight.  I travelled to Luton airport ready to fly at 8:20pm, I met the other students I am...
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