When a man reaches a certain age, and perhaps has become a bit of a family patriarch, he should be allowed to let his hair grow any way he wants.…

This Roma girl is posing with her big sister's wedding skirt, as if trying it on for size. Soon the younger sister will leave school. She will have had a…

This gypsy family has four kids, just as mine does (I showed them photos of my kids). The three sisters are shown in the rear, with their brother (the youngest)…

As I watched, this village blacksmith made me a nail the old-fashioned way---by hand---to take back as a souvenir to America.

There are about 500,000 Roma---"gypsies"---living in Romania. This is about 4.5% of the population. These are a proud people with a very distinctive and colorful culture, many with very limited…

Alec is a charcoal maker. He spends about eight months a year living in a camp in rural Romania that is off a dirt road off a dirt road. No…

Here in Sibiu, Transylvania they build the roofs high and steeply pitched. To let ventilation and light into the attic spaces these stylized "eyes" have traditionally been added to the…

Corvin Castle, in the city of Hunedoara in Romania, is one of Europe's largest castles. Originally from the 1400s, it has been partially destroyed and rebuilt a number of times,…

The ruined castle is Cetatea Trascaului, near Coltesti in Hungarian-speaking Transylvania (Romania). The image that looks like something out of science fiction (below) was captured at the bottom of a…

This is Daniel, my guide to all things Romanian. He is mugging it up at the Hotel Castel Dracula. Even though he hates the whole Dracula schtick as phony and…

This is Daniel Les, a well-known Romanian potter whose studio we visited in Baia Sprie, Maramures, Romania. You can see the hands of the potter at his craft by clicking…

This woman runs a watermill that uses water power and wood-fired steam to power grinding flour, carding wool, and more. Her husband has an adjacent cherry brandy still.

This fellow is ninety years old. He lives by himself. He makes wooden rakes and pitchforks for his living, and sells them in the village because they are "better than…