The day 26 of november,
we take the bus to Bărbătești.
Bărbătești is a
commune located in Vâlcea County, Romania. It is composed of four
villages: Bodeşti, Bărbăteşti, Bârzeşti and Negruleşti.
The population of this
commune is 3.861 residents.
In the bus, we met a
girl that help us, she responded our questions and called the council to
inform about our arrival.
When
the bus stopped in front of the council, the bus driver accompanied us to enter in
the building.
After they talked with
us about:
- The origin
of Bărbătești name: According to the legend, three brothers, Barbat,
Costea and Dobrea had a big argument, so they decided to split and create their
own community, respectively Bărbătești, Costesti and Dobriceni
- Another legend is about
the monastery Mănăstirea Pătrunsa: The legend says that the inhabitants of
Bărbătești were fighting against the Ottomans and a lady of that village was
pregnant and to save herself and her baby who carried in her womb, fled the village
and hid in the mountains, there gave birth to a child who later decided to
build the monastery as a symbol of such a miracle to which it gave its name.
-The story is about an important celebrity whose name were Ticarel, Ticarel is known in the community
as the Romanian Robin Hood. He was a rebel who lived in the mountains and as
Robin Hood also Ticarel robbed the rich to give to the poor.
Also they talked with
us about the local problems and for the community the biggest problem is that
young people leave the village to go to work for other countries and the
village without young people is an aging village.
When we asked about the
traditions, they showed us traditionals clothes, dances and songs and they gave
us some presents. A belt, gold belt, whom won in a dance competition and a book
about Bărbăteşti.
Also they gave us a two
traditionals recipes: Sarmale and Cozonac
And one of the best part of the day were when they invited us to have lunch
with them and try the tradional food: Mămăliga with cheese, meat pork and of
course Țuică!
When the lunch finished we went out to visit diferent
places where they made by traditional methods Țuica and Palinca.
So they took us to visit diferent natural places
and after Dumitru Tîrcală invited us to drink a coffee and met him family,
because we only had met one of his daugther, Denisa. In his house we met the
other daugther Ariana and his wife Alina. And we felt truly like at home. They
not only invited us to their house, also gave us jams, syrups, natural juices
and a nice conversation.
To finish the day in the town, Alina went to the bus
stop with us...
Bărbătești
is not a big commune but their residents made us feel at home.
