Last week I attended the premiere of Wild Carpathia 2 at BAFTA in Piccadilly in aid of the European Nature Trust. There was a good crowd and we rubbed shoulders with Crown Princess Margarita of Romania, Mrs Maria Grapini, Romanian Minister for Tourism, four times Olympic Gold medal-winning canoeist, Ivan Patzaichin, and Romanian folksinger, Grigore Lese. The drinks sponsors appeared to be the Corcova winery from the south-west corner of Romania, and I am delighted to say that they took their duties very seriously, for the enjoyment of all!
But the highlight for me was Grigore Lese playing and singing, very emotionally and powerfully, to a backdrop of some great images of Romania by the Scottish photographer Max Milligan who is working on his next book about Romania in 2014. See Romania a Portrait on Facebook.
There are some really wonderful videos on Milligan’s website showing him at work in Romania, probably one of the last places on earth where you can experience such unique landscape and wildlife, plus see amazing architecture and meet remarkably friendly people, and do this more or less on your own without crowds of tourists. The Romanian tourist ministry has a lot of work to do, but of course at the moment it is good for those of us who want a quieter and more authentic experience .
You can enjoy more of Milligans’s videos here.
The first Wild Carpathia movie is found here.
Please visit the European Nature Trust website to find out more about their work preserving the wild spaces of Scotland and Romania and maybe get involved.
Patrick Leigh Fermor 
Tom, thank you so much for your kind comments. I am especially honoured to be mentioned on this site as I met Paddy a couple of times and we shared a birthday, 11th February, precisely 50 years apart. I used two quotes from his ‘Three letters from the Andes’ book in my ‘Realm of the Incas’ and was glad to be able to thank him in the flesh.
I greatly regret not having discussed his Romanian exploits with him, as my interest in the country coincided with his last days.
As I type, I am basking in the Mara Mures sunlight and making a third video in the series. Gregore Lese’s music will be used in the next slideshow selection.
Max – I am very envious. Tomorrow I fly to the heat of Iasi – 36 degrees they say – but I will be amongst friends and colleagues for the week. We were in the Mara Mures two years ago and stayed in Breb. It is all very lovely, but watch out for the sheepdogs!! It would be good to catch up sometime. Tom
John, if only there were too many trees in Romania. Sadly, the greatest ancient forest in Europe is being turned into cheap kitchen furniture at an alarming rate. The videos are just a diary of a book in progress which will benefit from editing.
For a wider selection of pictures (which were mentioned above) please see the following video:
Nice photos, though a bit too many trees, which could be anywhere. But I drove across Romania in 92, beautiful (in parts).