Rarely there comes such an unexpected moment that it captures you heart and soul. Such was the case when I was surfing the net over the last few snowy days and encountered an experience of a book that had me searching for more.
During the holidays in my inbox was an email from Toast with a little gift, a man by the name of William Blacker reading from his book about his adventures in Romania. I'm a die-hard nomad at heart. These days of being snowed in have left me with an extreme case of wanderlust. William, I hope he doesn't mind if we're on a first name basis from here, was just what I needed.
In 1989 as the Berlin wall fell, William Blacker drove East into the unknown of Eastern Europe, and then he drove a little further east until he found himself in the middle of winter, in the midst of village life in Romania.
"Snow lay heavy on the ground....the trees beside the road were white with frost, and I had entered a country frozen in time." William Blacker
Along the enchanted way, William meets a group of German speaking villages who have been there for over 500 hundred years, actually they are speaking Saxon.... as in Anglo-Saxon.
From there he lives a good but hard and humble life with an old couple who live as their ancestors have for the last several centuries.
If meeting the Middle Ages in the 20th century isn't exciting enough for you then a little gypsy camp life outta shake things up a bit.
After meeting two gypsy sisters, Willaim lands himself in yet another culture within a culture. Singing and dancing in the middle of the night, smashing windows, stolen altars, knife fights, and a little romance add yet another dimentsion to this ancient modern tale.
Why is William sharing this story with us? Because Romania is changing and he wanted to hold it the way he lived it.
You can live the experience of this book here as well as purchase it from Toast. Amazon UK also has the book available.
Our photos today are William Blacker's. Enjoy!
