my world: Visiting Nicu in Hunedoara, Romania

Tuesday, November 01, 2016

Visiting Nicu in Hunedoara, Romania

I wrote about Nicu in an earlier post. Going to visit him in Hunedoara, Romania, was an important impetus for our trip. We spent 3 days with him, and he treated us like only a parent would. He must've prepared for weeks before we came, because at every meal he served at least 3 courses, all home-made, delicious food. Also, he either grew the food himself, or ordered it from farmers he knew, especially for us. It was really touching to be treated this way.

This is Tutu, Nicu's best friend and companion. Among Nicu's many virtues is that he's very good with animals. He loves animals, and when he leaves the house he always has a bag of bones and other left overs with him, which he uses to feed the many stray dogs that are on the streets everywhere in Romania. Dogs just come up to him, many of them in very rough shape, knowing that they'll get some food and kindness.

Nicu's amazing skills include foraging and food preservation. He roams the woods at all times of year, foraging all kinds of berries, mushrooms and nuts. This is in addition to growing his own garden. He can tell you about all kind of plants, what they're useful for, how to prepare them as food, or medicine, or how to use them in construction materials. These skills, which some people of Nicu's generation still have, will be gone with him, and the world will lose so much. The youth in Romania is mostly not interested in learning about them, just like they're not over here, they're into technology and more modern things, but hopefully there are still a few out there that these skills can be passed on to so we don't completely lose them.
Even though Nicu lives in a communist era apartment building, he has a root cellar full of preserves. These are some of the pickles he makes, and in the left corner are wild nuts he foraged and saved for the winter

And these are some of the grapes he grew, which he harvested for us. He also made grape juice out of them. It was all delicious. The bottles in the background have all kinds of alcoholic beverages made with fruits Nicu forages in the forest.

More preserves put away for the winter. Most of this food he actually gives away, to relatives and friends. He gave us a whole bunch too, and would've given even more if we didn't stop him out of fear of weighing down our luggage too much.

Making wine and another berry alcohol

Nicu's dining room and his whole apartment is small and very neat.

At the start of the meal

The first course for breakfast one morning: potato salad with home made mayonnaise, vegetable fritters and roasted vegetables spread (zacusca). Then followed hand-made crepes filled with home-made cheese and jams; then fruits. There was also hot cocoa, coffee and tea.

Nicu took us to Deva, a town near where he lives to visit a Dacian fortress, dating back to before the Roman conquest.

The sign says: Be careful! Vipers!
Nicu said that there are many vipers in the stone walls of the fortress. They are mostly active in warm weather and are very poisonous.

View of Deva from the fortress.

We took this crazy electric cabin to get up to the fortress. It was riding on a rail inclined at a super steep angle. The mother in me did not like that ride at all. I was relieved it only lasted about 2 minutes.

He also brought us to Cincis, a beautiful place near his town, where his son is building a house, and where Nicu spends time foraging.

This is Nicu's apartment building. He's been living in it for over 30 years. Hunedoara, the town he's in is not very beautiful - it used to be big industry during communist times, most of which has been abandoned since, so it looks kind of sad now. But it does have some nice historical parts, and even better for Nicu, it's very easy to get out of town and into the woods or countryside where he can pursue his activities.