Radio România Internațional

Tag: landscape

  • Via Danubiana

    Via Danubiana

    Work is in progress, in Romania, for an ecotourism route, meant to provide the explorer with one-of-a-kind experiences, ranging from the natural and cultural heritage to the landscapes, unique in Europe. The Danube Gorges, the Iron Gates, the islands and islets the river forms in its course, the Danube Delta or the spectacular areas where the river flows into the Black Sea, all these are but a few of the Danube’s attraction points. The project has been developed by the Greener Association. With more on the association itself, here is its PR director, Alexandra Damian.

    „We have been developing projects in several fields since 2008, when the Association was founded. We seek to build a culture of responsibility and of the volunteering for people and nature, in Romania. We plant trees, we get involved in combatting river Danube’s pollution with plastic, we have a large-scale program With Clean Water, where we carry activities of sanitation on banks of the Danube and its tributaries. We installed several floating dams in a bid to stem the flow of waste that are carried by the course of the river and its tributaries, and, basically, we promote the natural areas that can be found in Romania, so we somehow get closer to nature in a way we have forgotten to that, sort of, as of late. “

    Through the creation of a wide-scope ecotourism route along the Danube, tourists who love natural areas will discover the tremendous potential the area offers. Also, the local community will benefit from a sustainable economic development. With details on that here is the Greener Association’s PR director, Alexandra Damian. But how the idea of the Via Danubiana came about?

    ” The idea of the project has laid dormant for a couple of years now, with us, it existed in a drawer. We very much wanted to create this ecotourism route since we all know the Danube offers unique experiences. From the point where it enters Romania and all the way to the point where if flows into the Black Sea, we come across many beautiful places, a natural and cultural heritage, landscapes which are unique in Europe, reason enough for us to bring to the fore one of Romania’s less-promoted areas. “

    In the region, a series of protected areas and Natura 2000 sites have been identified, while the trail crosses forest areas along the shore, islands, canals and islets. As we speak, these are not accessible to the lay public because of the lack of infrastructure and poor promotion. We continue to map the more than one thousand kilometres river Danube flows in Romania.

    “We’re speaking about the mapping of the natural objectives, of the cultural and historical assets, of the local cuisine, all that can be found along the river. In the initial stage, we marked the segment flowing through Giurgiu County along a distance or around 100 kilometers, a zone which is rich in protected areas, in Natura 2000 sites, in cultural and historical objectives, which are very important yet very little promoted. The route we have mapped also goes through shore forests, islands, canals, islets lovers of nature will definitely want to discover. In September we placed the first milestone in Giurgiu County’s commune of Gaujani, at the Youth Educational Centre. It is one of the milestone points along the route. We’re next going to place two other milestones, in two other strategic points along the route. “

    The route offers a great many ways to spend your leisure time, only one hour’s drive from Bucharest. For the lovers of nature, the area benefits from an attractive list of species and can become the perfect place for birdwatching and the observation of the fauna and flora that are typical for river Danube. Along the route, we come across several natural protected areas, with more than 300 species of extremely rich flora and fauna, with very important invertebrate species, birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals.

    From a cultural and historical point of view, there are several points of interest, which are nonetheless unbeknownst to the lay public and hitherto un-signalled, such as the ruins of Mircea the Elder’s fortress in Giurgiu, a period half-buried house or the range of bunkers in Slobozia. Also, for those who love the local cuisine, some of the culinary traditions can be revitalized, such as the pies that are specific for the Romanian-Bulgarian space, riparian to the Danube Delta, the pepper salads or the salads prepared with aubergines baked on glowing embers, or the goose thick soup. All the details needed for the journey along the Danube have already been published in a Traveller’s Guide you can access at viadanubiana.ro.

    “We have already launched the site. There we have GPS coordinates for those who want to walk along the trail, at viadanubiana.ro. We’ve also published a Traveller’s Guide in Giurgiu County. We very much want those who love nature, those who are into outdoor walks, those who love the Danube and the Delta, we want them to come join us. Given that, as we speak, we only map a segment, 100 out of the 1,000 kilometres, they can get involved in all sorts of ways so that we can extend the route, so we can map just as we’ve mapped Giurgiu County and the other regions along the Danube. Also, donations are welcome, products can be bought in the shop that has especially been created for Via Danubiana. They can obviously get involved as volunteers in the activities we are going to stage and can of course become ambassador of the new route. “

    At vianubiana.ro you can access the whole range of options for the lovers of nature to get involved, in a bid to support the project. So far, appeals to volunteering have been successful, said Greener Association’s PR director, Alexandra Damian. Volunteers from outside Romania have also joined in.

    “We’ve had, we’re open and, of course, we shall continue to have volunteers from many countries, especially along the river. We had volunteers from Germany, Austria, Ukraine who helped us in the activities we have staged so far. That’s for sure, we wait them to join us in the future as well. “
    Who has walked a segment along the Danube at least once, they’re sure to have unforgettable memories, related to the impressive landscape offered by the river in certain areas, or to the historical vestiges people come across along the route or to the traditional food carefully prepared by the locals. Added to that are the species of birds and animals that are typical for the region and which, on the banks of the river, they can find food, resting or nesting areas. Furthermore, the Danube’s Romanian segment flows through 11 of Romania’s main 28 protected areas.”

  • Jeno Major’s Romania

    Jeno Major’s Romania

    We’re still early into the summer season and we’re extending an
    invitation to you all: why don’t you join us for a radio journey at the heart
    of the archaic Romanian village? Our guide is an actor with the Gong Children
    and Youth Theater in Sibiu, Jeno Major. Passionate about photography, whenever
    he has some time off, Jeno Major travels around the country, far and wide, in a
    bid to have snapshots of people and breathtaking landscapes.     Jeno Major:


    It happened eight
    years ago, it just happened at one fell swoop. I was a very passionate angler
    and after I gave up fishing I changed my life, I began with photography. At
    present, I have also started to include human beings in the landscape since they render
    the frame livelier,
    I also took advice from Sorin Onișor, a good friend of mine, whose workshops I ‘ve
    been to when they first kicked off and from whom I learned so many things. First
    off, the relationship with the people as I was afraid to take pictures of
    people, that is why I photographed only landscapes…the relationship with the people
    is pretty difficult, as you all know, yet he had a gift, well, he still has
    that gift, as we speak, that of interacting with people, he can enter people’s
    hearts in just a few seconds and I tried to learn a little bit from him and, in
    time, I could photograph people myself, I could include people in my
    landscapes, in a bid to put life into the latter, as he also said, as he was
    saying they were barren, without people in them. And that’s how I began to
    get acquainted with the village life and make ethnographic photography. I had
    no relatives in the countryside, as a child, I didn’t have any contact with the
    livestock, with all things rustic, rural, with the villages. Now I have the
    opportunity to do that through photography. I can’t stand mingling with many
    people, I don’t like the the hullaballoo, I hate the crowds. That is why I take
    refuge, whenever I can, on the hills, in nature. I have liked nature and the trekking
    even since I was little and that’s what I do now, whenever I have some time
    off.


    Sunrises or sunsets over mountain ridges, mist lifting above a
    village, isolated trees, people mowing, an old woman fetching firewood, a
    shepherd climbing down with his sheep, a cow on a hilltop, forgotten trades, all
    of them, through Jeno Major’s photographs, tell the story of places in deep
    Romania, some of them unbeknownst to Romanians themselves. Jeno Major:

    We still have, as compared to other countries in Europe and
    beyond, the world over, that kind of archaic characteristic, the tradition,
    the traditional apparel, the church, the chaise, the wagon, the hay…you cannot find such things in other countries. Foreigners ask me, when they see the
    haystacks in my photographs, what are these…They haven’t seen something like
    that for several hundred years. They ask me if there are
    people living there. That’s what the archaic traits and the Romanian tradition consist of. We still have God-forsaken villages in the Apuseni Mountains,
    mainly, the place where you can travel a couple of hundred years back in time. If
    you take a picture there you cannot date it exactly. The most beautiful place I
    like best, in Romania, in terms of landscape photography and more, like I said
    I make ethnographic photography as well, is the Ponor Fundatura of Sureanu
    Mountains. There you can return a couple of dozen times, a couple of hundred times,
    and each time the situation is different. Mist,
    steam, frost, steaming haystacks, people with their
    livestock at every bend, in every corner…after each rock there is something to
    photograph. It is one of the most beautiful places in Romania, if you ask me…The
    hay wagon, bulls drawing a yoke, the peasant in traditional apparel, the innate hospitality
    of the villagers who live in those remote villages, deep in the mountains, who do not have very good access roads to those villages…There, people are humbler,
    closer to God, more faithful, more kind-hearted…You know how village people are
    like! That is why foreigners come over, because they cannot find something like
    that anywhere else. They had something like that a long, long time ago, only
    their great-great parents had something like that 200, 300 years ago. We still have those things.


    The Ponor Fundatura, the Ponor Dear end, is
    recurrent in Jeno Major’s stories. However, says he, and he doesn’t claim to be
    the Center of the universe, the entire archaic, traditional Romania is extraordinary.
    As for the peasants inhabiting it, elderly people, they are still hospitable,
    open and warm-hearted, something you don’t see that much of, in today’s world.


    I can still
    remember an old woman from Maramures, she was 92. I think she’s gone, the poor
    thing, she passed away, that’s for sure, as that happened in the early days of
    my photography undertaking, it was 6 or 7 years ago and I don’t know if she is
    still alive…I went to see her and she was working in a house made of clay
    bricks, with an earthen floor, a bulb hanging down from the ceiling with a yellowed
    newspaper around it, a table and a bed. On that table there was a crust of bread. tI was like a movie scene; it was something fantastic. Her face was reflecting
    the light from the window as she was seated in bed. It was a wonderful frame! First
    time, we had some small talk, she told me the whole story of her life, of her
    children’s life, of her nephews who were abroad, as you need to make friends
    with somebody and after that, in five or ten minutes’ time, any villager opens
    up, they are like an open book, they tell you everything straight away and offer
    everything. What I’m trying to say is that, actually, that woman, that old
    woman, when we left, she had six eggs under a broody hen, they were the only
    ones, I don’t think she had something else around the house, it was the only
    food she had but she deprived herself of it and gave them to me. There were more of us photographers,
    we refused her, we didn’t want to take them, but she insisted so much that we
    left accepting the eggs, and other things as well…


    According to the connoisseurs, Jeno Major’s
    photographs are not just landscapes or mere portraits, they are priceless
    testimonies of a world gradually disappearing in the grinder of modernity. He
    admits that himself.


    Unfortunately, yes, I think that, given the
    pace things are moving at, I think that in one, maybe two generations at the
    most, the entire archaic and traditional traits will become extinct, because
    there are many people from all over the country who have left, from Maramureș,
    Bucovina, Transylvania, from everywhere. If you talk to the village people,
    there isn’t a single family without at least one member, a child, a nephew, a
    brother, who are gone abroad, and they return with a tiny bit, with a little bit of money,
    I don’t know how much money they make the years they’ve been hanging out there to
    make a buck, they bring down those very beautiful houses they have and
    build some…how shall I put it…some kitschy houses. It is incredible, what happens,
    and the traditional houses disappear, unfortunately. Something should be…I don’t
    know, something should be done about that so we can keep them, but I don’t
    know how something like that should be done.


    Let us make the most of all these beautiful things while we can because,
    gradually, they will become extinct! Or at least that’s what Jeno Major says. All
    the beautiful things will only remain in the photographs of those who, just
    like him, might be nostalgic as they say, in a couple of years’ time: That
    used to be my Romania!