Hiking through Saxon villages

Walking is a good way to come up and close to a culture. You see, smell and feel the texture of a country so much better when you are moving at this very slow speed through the open. I like walking, or hiking if you prefer. And today was a brilliant day for it.

We started in the Roma village of Brateiu. Hidden under a thick layer of milky fog, there was a certain magic quality to the outskirts of this simple village. To be sure we were on the right way, we asked villagers several time. The goal was to hike from Brateiu via even smaller villages Atel and Dupus to the rather large Biertan. All of them are former Saxon villages, a trading and farmer people with its roots in Germany. They did very well and amassed fortunes and riches, which they safeguarded with heavily fortified churches.

The trail from Brateiu to Atel was a muddy one, winding over pastures, over a hill and next to a forest. Reaching the outskirts of Atel, we were met by cows, but surprisingly also buffalos. At least they looked like them, Indian style. Now, the fog was beginning to melt away under the warm sunshine, and we could enjoy the looks of a big fortified church in the center of the village, looking distinctively medieval and rather forbidding.

Continuing, we once again asked the friendly villagers for directions and was shown the way out of the village and into some open field. A little Roma boy followed us for a while, leading his bike. We passed his home in the outskirts of the village and his mother came out and said hello.
Further on, a Roma man and woman with a little child in tow were heading the same way as us, walking. He had a very peculiar outfit, feather in hat, curious glimmer in the eyes and proudly clutching a pair of binoculars. It was good we could follow them for awhile, because here there were not really a road, just grassy fields climbing up a slope, where we connected with a little path trough the forest. Here and there, walnut trees were spilling there tasty load onto the grass.

Dupus, the next village, was even smaller, so small in fact, that it wasn’t marked on any of the maps we looked at. But as always, the locals were helpful giving us directions (third bridge to the left, then straight on). Crossing more meadows and then passing over a foresty hill, we reached a quitet valley, save for some dogs, and finally Biertan.

The fortified church of Biertan is one of the finest of its kind, being encircled by no less than three walls and protected by a number of defensive towers. It sits on a hill, overlooking a very quaint village, with brightly painted houses and slopes dotted with vineyards and fields. Just below, there is an excellent restaurant, where we had a hearty lunch.
Afterwards, sitting on a bench on the main square, I felt that this was one of the best days of the trip, so far.