It's rare for me to update this site, for one reason or another. However it's time to answer the odd question.
A few people have asked where to ride in Romania. Well, I'd recommend Kalnoky or Daksa. The former is more sophisticated, the latter wllder and somehow more unique. The former has seven of my best horses, the latter is operated by perhaps the best equestrian guide in Romania.
Some wonder where I am. Far from Romania, distant too from where I stopped two years ago. Separated from my former home by the mountain and the plain and the sundering ocean. If anyone wants to speak to me then do post a comment.
Why the secrecy? Well I am fed up with the idiotic posted abuse of certain small-minded Romanians too lazy to leave their festering land yet too jealous to forget me, and with the tedious scrounging of those who have travelled far around the globe yet cannot shed ingrained ways. Just remember: I worked long and hard to publicise your nation, whilst you trashed your homeland and bit the hand that fed you. Enough! I am beyond your reach.
Now I am a railroad engineer again, and I love my old job - if serving a different road in a remoter place. The iron road is my home, my fellow engineers are my family and friends. The lonesome whistle, the rumble of a long freight train across the plain, the roar of a fast passenger express, these are my music. That and the neigh of a horse and the sound of him eating good hay. This is not a bad life now that I live amongst the honest and the hardworking.
I am Orthodox still, and now have the opportunity to attend an English-speaking congregation. For this I am very grateful. For a while there were a few Romanian members, however their leaders back home ordered them to leave their fellow Orthodox - Russian, Greek, Serbian, American, etc - and form a tight nationalistic cell where they could ignore both history and modern thought.
Deeply do I miss the high mountains, and the horses that I rode and led there. I miss Cornel with whom I worked so closely. Yet I left with relief - a strange duality indeed. I carry that which was good in my heart still, and the rest I try to forgive.
Hi, Mr. Julian!
Do you remember me? I was visiting you at Lunca Ilvei, in 2003, in reason to start a co/operation with you, for some harnesses making or repairing. Maybe you remember our business together did not worked, but I remember with big pleasure about you, about your extraordinary horses and about the landscapes, mountaines and everything there. I know that a lot of time is past, but I just get the news about your leaving and I felt very sad. I decided to write to you just becouse you have to know that exists in Romania people who regret your leaving and who really apreciated you. I am very sorry firstly for the horses, (including your lost horses), for all the Romanian horses, they lost in you maybe the strongest deffenser and the best friend. I am a fair horse lover and you were maybe the most serious person that I meet in Romania, who could study and analyse the Romanian horses problems.
I readed your blogs and you are perfect right about Romanin people, Romanian gouvernment, and everything. If you like restart comunicate with me, the pleasure will be mine. If not, anyway you know I totally apreciate you and the activity that you done in my country. All the best for you, for your wife, for your friends, for your animals, for your horses!
Cristian.
Posted by: Cristian Similaru | May 03, 2010 at 06:12 AM
Hi Julian,
It's nice to get an update from you! For some reason I was never able to get your new blog after you left Romania, but maybe that is over now too since you have moved on.
The post above is refreshing. I'm glad that somebody in Romania appreciated you and your concern for the horses.
I'm curious about your new location but won't post any guesses because I know that unfriendly people have tried to track you down.
Last summer I had the chance to travel in your homeland, mostly by train and may have passed close to your former location on the way to Devon. The countryside was lovely!
Best wishes in your new endeavors.
Joanne
Posted by: Joanne Filkins | May 03, 2010 at 03:07 PM
I'm glad to see from the first comment there were some there who appreciated what you offered even if most didn't get it. Change is hard and far too many go kicking and screaming in resistance. Unfortunately those are the ones exploited by the corrupt who are really the only ones who stand to gain from keeping anyone stuck in the past.
Posted by: risingrainbow | May 11, 2010 at 07:32 PM
Hi Julian,
I hope to see you again sometime,
Sorin
Posted by: sorin fodor | May 20, 2010 at 09:53 PM
hey there
i'm glad that i finally found a way to get in touch with you. hope you will answer me and wee can keep in touch. you can't imagin how much i miss you guys, i really do
JOE
Posted by: Ioana Tarnovean | June 16, 2010 at 11:14 PM
Hey there, glad to have an update. I like the high mountains.
Posted by: Rugged Maniac | July 13, 2011 at 04:07 AM
What a great looking adventure! I would love to travel the world on horseback. Horses have always been very close to my heart, this trip would be a dream come true. What kind of horse packing equipment do you use?
Posted by: horse packing equipment | March 20, 2012 at 02:26 PM