My Romania Placement

 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...

 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...

 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...