At breakfast we’re told that the conference will have to be delayed due to the problems of transportation in the snow. Eventually most of the visitors do manage to arrive in Poiana Brasov, we proceed with the conference programme and, before I know it, we’re all off to a second traditional sheep-shed to repeat the same procedure as the previous night.

At the campfire at the top of a small hill we eat the same food as the previous night before being moved into an impressive wooden structure that seats over a hundred people. I have a lovely chat with Tom, one of the guests, about Romanian history, traditions, economic state and hopes for the future. I learn that the Romanian people have a lot of sympathy for the Russians and what they have been through. Tom points out that it is very easy for the western countries to point their finger today at Russia’s socio-economic problems but that we cannot appreciate their real reason and background because we do not understand how their society suffered and declined in the communist era. We discuss the issues and Tom also tells me that many Romanians are disappointed with the economic development of the country since the fall of Ceausescu. They had expected so much more, so many more palpable improvements yet these seem to take their time – too long for people to endure in many cases, hence the mass-exodus towards their fellow European neighbours .

Suddenly it is dark and about 20 waiters arrive from a hidden door carrying what looks like six-foot sabres with speared chickens and wild boar, alight. It is the most spectacular arrival of food I’ve ever encountered. I just wish we had not already consumed more dishes than I usually eat in three days. The abundance and splendour of the feast still feels weird in contrast to the poverty less than half an hour’s drive from where we happily indulge in seemingly endless gluttony.

Saturday morning and it is time for me to return home. After quite an adventurous journey in knee-deep snow back to Bucharest, I arrive safe and sound, and in time for my flight back, to the airport. I try to believe that I’m helping the Romanian economy by shopping at the airport for locally made clothes. I buy lots of lovely outfits with Euro and hope that the shop assistants are on commission. To me they are incredibly well priced but this is tourist shopping, there is no question about that. The flights home are a blur of personal analysis. It has been the most thought-provoking journey I have ever made. The best one in many ways but it has certainly shown me a part of Europe that I thought was long gone when I set out on this visit. The added bonus of spending the entire time amongst the Romanian population, not as a tourist, but as a visitor with a purpose, made it different and a lot more meaningful.