Meeting ‘The Goat Lady’ & Other Kind Strangers

Despite a lot of people having a negative opinion of Romania, those who have actually visited the country will usually tell you of the two things that impressed them most, the countryside and the friendliness of its people.

And while Bucharest certainly has a lot of friendly and helpful people, it’s a bit like judging English people on those who you meet in London. Sometimes life is moving so fast in the capital city it’s harder to witness grand gestures of kindness and the smaller moments get lost in the chaos.

If we needed the kindness of strangers confirming, all it took was less than two hours in Valea Viilor, a small village not far from Sibiu in Transylvania.

Valea Villor Fortified Church

The Gardner

it wasn’t unusual to find a tourist attraction like this so quiet. By this point in the day, we’d already stopped at two other churches in Transylvania, both of which we had to ourselves. What made this one different was the still intact wall and it’s locked gate, disappointing considering it was meant to be one of the most impressive on our drive to Sighișoara. 

Unfortunately, we’d arrived on one of the two days when the church was closed and we resigned ourselves to just taking a few pictures from the outside. Just as we were about to leave, a man who had been seeing to his garden not far from out car began to call over whilst waving his phone around in the air.

He’d phoned his friend in the village who just so happened to be the key holder and he was on his way to let us in, on his day off. What a hero, especially considering the contrast we’d experienced the day before at Cisnădie fortified church. 

The Goat Lady

Like a lot of villages in Transylvania, Valea Viilor is more or less just a straight road with houses lined along either side, this means nothing goes on without everyone seeing and that’s exactly how we met ‘The Goat Lady’. She popped over to say hello and through a mixture of English, German and Romanian we somehow became friends.

What we liked most about our new friend was her pet goat, it followed her everywhere like a loyal dog and even had a pretty little bow around its neck. This was made even more entertaining by the fact she actually had a dog. After asking if there was a bathroom nearby, we were invited back to her house to use the facilities and found the poor guy looking rather pissed off tied up in the garden.

Why does the bloody goat get to go out and explore?

And he wasn’t the only one looking a little fed up. Back in the house, our new friend’s daughter sat hard at work in the front room. She could only watch as we were gifted with homemade cheesy bread and offered drinks while the goat wandered around our feet and the dog barked out back.

The village from the church bell tower

The City Folk

As we got back to the church gates, faces full of our tasty snack, we were approached by a well-dressed couple who had clearly been looking for us. The man with the key had arrived but he didn’t speak any English, they had been waiting for us so we could be given the tour together and they could act as translators.

Over the next hour or so, our tour guide spoke in German to himself as he tried to remember the facts, Romanian to the well-dressed couple who then translated it all into English for us.

We were a little blown away by how helpful they were, they made sure we didn’t miss a single detail and even added in a few of their own little stories. Travelling from Bucharest, they were only intending to make a quick stop on route to visiting some friends but maybe without even realising it, they made this mid-morning stop at (yet another) fortified church a thousand times better.

People are lovely, espcially in Valea Viilor.

Have you been on the recieving end of a simple gesture that made a huge difference while travelling? Tell us about it below!