ROMANIA
SEPTEMBER 9 TO SEPTEMBER 20, 2024
SEPTEMBER 11 TO SEPTEMBER 22, 2025
Package Price: 6-8 PEOPLE $ 5400.
Package Price: 4-5 PEOPLE $ 5995.
QUAINT VILLAGES AND TRADITIONAL LIFE PHOTO EXPERIENCE
Where else can you better connect to a new culture than in remote villages where customs and traditions are best kept? To witness the culture of Romania as a whole, this photo tour will take you to bucolic villages of Maramures region, medieval towns of Transylvania and to the beautiful painted monasteries of Bucovina. You will meet fascinating people that carry on traditional crafts, you will capture charming landscapes but you will also get in touch with locals that will show you their quaint way of life.
What's Included
*Price is per person, single occupancy.
Airfare from/to your home cities, airport transfers, meals not listed above, alcohol, personal expenses, visas if required are not included.
A deposit of $ 500 is required to reserve your space.
ITINERARY
Day 1
Welcome to Romania! You will arrive in Bucharest from where this photo tour starts.
Day 2
Today we will travel to Sibiu and on our way we will stop by a glass making workshop. Here you will be able to see the process sand goes through to becoming a water glass or a wine decanter. You will also have the chance to photograph the handy employers that shape and pack the glass products.
Sibiu is a beautiful medieval town built by German-Saxons and has defensive walls, towers and eye-catching old buildings. You will roam the cobbled streets of the old town and you will have a blue hour shoot here.
Day 3
Once a year the shepherds from the most famous shepherding region of Romania gather at a market to sell their sheep and exchange experiences. It is a true celebration as it is the time when shepherds complete the annual transhumance by returning with their flocks from higher pastures to the valleys and prepare for winter. The event is a tremendous opportunity to learn about shepherding as it was done centuries ago and still is and also photograph the people practicing this fascinating occupation and lifestyle.
In the second part of the day you will get to see sheep grazing in the mountain pastures guarded by many shepherd dogs. We will photograph them in this environment in the beautiful afternoon light.
We will leave Transylvania behind and we will head north to the bucolic Maramures region.
As we make our way into Maramures and observe the land dotted with haystacks, people working in the fields or traveling by horse carts, we will make stops to take it all in.
One of the most iconic attractions in Maramures are its traditional wooden churches. You will visit one of the many across the region, the one in Surdesti village, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Day 5
We will start the day with a visit to a famous potter from the region and its fascinating workshop. The man has a very interesting character and the work that he does is truly impressive, specializing in Dacian pottery and human faces. You will be able to photograph him while he gives shape to the clay.
The town of Sighetu Marmatiei had one of the greatest prisons from the country during communist regime. Turned now in a museum, the Memorial of the Victims of Communism is a place where people go so they can learn about the communist times, the life that people had during it and its impact on the people of Romania. You will visit the museum and you also have the opportunity to photograph the cells where the most important political opponents were detained.
In a small village you will meet a hat-maker and traditional shoe-maker but also a family that grinds the corn using a water-powered mill, washes the carpets in a traditional washing whirlpool and distillsHORINCA, a strong and tasty local brandy (Americans would simply call it moonshine but for Romanians it is truly part of the culture).
Day 6
Being a Sunday we will pass by one of the local churches to see how people come to church for the Sunday mass, many of them proudly wearing their traditional clothes.
Then we will travel to Bucovina region, crossing the mountains through a pass with beautiful landscape. There will be plenty of photo opportunities along the way so we will stop a few times to take advantage of them.
Day 7
Today you will visit the most beautiful painted monastery from Bucovina region, the ones in Sucevita which has some of the best preserved frescos to this day from all painted monasteries in the country.
Then we will visit the workshop and museum of a local artist who paints eggs and has created true masterpieces some of the eggs taking days or even weeks to complete.
Next we will have the chance to photograph a steam train in motion, as it runs through villages and forests.
In the late afternoon we will hope for some great weather with clouds and sun as we will be in a place which offers wonderful landscape photography opportunities with mountains, fences, forests and old barns.
Day 8
We will head back to Transylvania region, to the medieval town of Biertan. On our way we will stop at winery where we will have lunch and wine tasting.
Biertan is a charming village of German-Saxon heritage and has one of the most impressive strongholds from Transylvania. You will wander through its streets so you can get a feel for the place, its architecture and get an insight into the life of the locals.
Day 9
At sunrise you will photograph Biertan village, set in a beautiful landscape, among gentle hills and guarded by St Mary’s fortified church.
Then we will meet a gypsy family in a nearby village that will give us insight to their way of life. The man is a coppersmith so you will be able to photograph him while working.
We will then have lunch at a small-scale organic farm where you will also learn about their traditional farming techniques.
The next stop will be at a group of charcoal workers where you see how charcoal is made by slowly burning large quantities of wood for a long period of time. The place offers great opportunities for photography as, while the people carry on their activity, the smoke arise from the wood, creating an idyllic atmosphere.
Day 10
You will spend the day in Viscri, another village of German-Saxon heritage, with well-preserved colorful houses and cobbled-stone roads. You will visit the local bakery which has a very interesting way of making bread: they first burn the bread on the outside and then beat it with a stick and “polish” it afterwards.
In the second part of the day we will travel by horse drawn cart to a sheepfold up on the hills where we will see the shepherds milking the sheep and making cheese.
Day 11
In Viscri most families have a cows which are taken to pasture every morning by hired herdsmen. It is a time when the village wakes up to life, the cows walk freely around sunrise down the village while locals who just milked them bring the milk to the collection center. It is an interesting time of the day to be out and photograph.
Another visit will be at the blacksmith, whose steel objects are still on high demand in the area as agriculture is the main occupation of people from these rural areas. We will see him making horseshoes or other objects made from metal.
In the afternoon Raul will present a slideshow with pictures taken during the trip, we’ll have another tasty home-made dinner and share impressions from the trip.
Day 12
You will spend a relaxing morning in Viscri and then hit the road to Bucharest where you will spend the last night of your trip.
In the afternoon you will have some time to explore Bucharest which offers an interesting mix of Byzantine, French, Communist and Romanian architecture and has the buzz of the many of the big European cities.
Day 13
You will travel back home, departing from Bucharest’s airport.
