Transylvania

When I was young, I always dreamt of being able to step back in time, to discover a world that I thought was lost. I wished to find the secret portal portrayed in so many stories and myths that would be able to transport me into a different era of time. My grandfather would always tell me about Meschendorf, the Saxon village in Romania where he was born and grew up. The bedtime stories always sounded more like a fairy tale, and a grand exaggeration of how things really were. I could not imagine a village in Europe where people lived in similar conditions as my schoolteacher would describe England hundreds of years ago before the Industrial Revolution. Little did I know that in years to come I would be able to visit Meschendorf, and feel like I have been transported to a time way before I was born. Through this journey I was able to record stories from past residents revealing a culture that survived from the 11th century through to the 19th century almost unchanged, but is now facing extinction. The only things that are remaining are the memories encapsulated within its past Saxon residents, in one of Europe’s least known, but most fascinating regions, Transylvania.Continue reading “My first arrival in Meschendorf (Transylvania, Romania)”