up until now, it's not been that high on many people's travel bucket lists... look, look — the bear. oh, wow. here's the bear. in the spring of 2024, the eastern european nation joined the schengen area, joined the schengen area, a group of 29 countries a group of 29 countries across the continent that allow across the continent that allow passport—free travel passport—free travel over their internal borders, over their internal borders, meaning that tourism meaning that tourism here should be in line here should be in line for a big boost. for a big boost. it's been over three it's been over three decades since the nation decades since the nation turned its back on communism. turned its back on communism. and now it's ready to show and now it's ready to show the world its the world its diverse culture... diverse culture... traditional folk music traditional folk music tourism, it's one way, or maybe the single way that some villages can survive that some villages can survive and develop. and develop.

..and dramatic landscapes. you don't want to eat a lot before you... ..you go to transfagarasan, yeah. must be something special that an accident happens with a bear. because we cannot live alone. yeah. we have to share.

every building here is wildly different. you find yourself thinking, "i wonder who lived here?" or, "what happened there?" i've been told that this is the heaviest building cubic metres of marble in its design, but also carries a weighty historical legacy. dictator, nicolae ceausescu. in the early 1980s, he ordered a fifth of the city to be razed

i mean, this isjust huge! bogdan mirica is a bucharest based journalist and grew up during the communist era. what was public reaction? or was that kind of like the start of people turning against this regime? it was one drop. all the newspapers were controlled by the... i think because, like, i haven't grown up in any environment that's been similar to that, you kind of forget, like, yeah, he controlled everything. exactly. yeah. ..of someone who lived there getting interviewed

look how great romania is! exactly. the country revolted and he and his wife, elena, faced a firing squad. more than 1,000 romanians died in the uprising, however, signs of ceausescu's legacy are still never too hard to find here. ..crossing the vast carpathian mountains, forming a strategically important natural barrier. to me, this feels more like a roller—coaster

attraction for petrolheads, like bogdan, looking to test out their driving skills in a stunning setting. this was ceausescu's master plan? ..he made it because he was, let's say, scared by the russian invasion in czechoslovakia in 1968. he laughs he asked two armies, one from the north and one of the mountain. yeah, and they used, like, 6,500kg of dynamite ceausescu's original plan was to move troops across the carpathians via the highway in the event

inaccessible because of romania's snowy winters. no wonder it got the nickname of "ceausescu's folly". you can feel the adrenaline of the car. yes! 0h—oh! bogdan, these roads, there are so many twists and turns. yeah. they laugh you don't want to eat a lot before you go to transfagarasan. there's challenges for the driver around every bend, but some of those challenges are a little hairier than others. 0h... 0oh. ithink... this could be a bear? yeah. ah, that is... hey, that was wild. yeah. first bear — in the wild. we have a large population of bears, and people tend

to get close to them and give them treats, which is... which is...is that encouraged or not? ..to feed them. for sure. wolf howls ..famed for being the main setting of the novel dracula. the story was inspired by the region's rich folklore but the tale�*s author, bram stoker, never stepped foot in the country. but that doesn't stop the gothic looking bran castle grabbing tourists�* imaginations. baby dracula tee. and the mugs.

i feel like you could have a whole house made up oh, this — the actual dracula? are you a fan of fan of dracula? yeah, of course. i'm from romania — of course i'm fan of dracula! use it as your starting point, but transylvania is huge and there is loads to see here. the landscape may look idyllic, but dotted across the countryside is a whole host of fortifications,

stepped in to try and save buildings like this from decay. so we're on the trail right now? yes, the via transilvanica trail. we're along the way. this is a beautiful way to experience romania yeah. we have many fortifications, many fortificated churches, like this one that we see here. the church of roades. roades is a really old settlement which dates back to the early 14th century, actually. you mentioned fortified church... yes. i don't think i imagined there being fortified and church in the same sentence. in the same sentence. yeah.

but in the winter of 2016, the bell tower was damaged and came tumbling down. a lot of people like yourself study architecture, then come yes. did ciprian teach you some of your tricks? yes, yes. and i'm really happy to learn. he speaks romanian, she laughs we're a great team. a great team. around it, you also go 50cm in that side and 50cm in that side. and so good. she laughs he speaks romanian

they laugh he slurps yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. that's the feeling. even the... the smell. i so love that smell. and all the... yeah. yes, yes. you know, it feels like a lot of people, especially maybe younger people, leave romania for different opportunities elsewhere. why is that? maybe for some of us to stay, at least. from the ambulance did, because of all of the work that...

bear grunts i think he is. this one? it's feeding time at the libearty sanctuary. sometimes in the evening, i pray, what shall i give tomorrow? because you see, if they have food, if they have enough space, they don't argue. they don't kill each other. because people ask me — how can they be together... and so relaxed? ..so relaxed? you'd imagine they're always going to be arguing overfood. bear grunts during the past 20 years, cristina lapis

and her team have given a home to over 130 bears here in transylvania. we try to build something not like a park or a big zoo. mm—hm. we try to...to leave the nature like in the natural environment. but it wasn't that long ago it was commonplace to see to attract customers. imagine in winter, or in summer with the heat, the bear has steel traces on her paw. and even with the shoes, it's difficult to stay on this.

cristina decided to dedicate her life to bears after meeting sadly, maya didn't survive her ordeal, and in 2002 she passed away... ..just three years before the laws that could have allowed cristina to free her came into play. she refused to live. i promised to maya that no other bear will live i respected my promise.

on a teenage hiker on a popular tourist trail. with more tourists expected to arrive since joining the schengen area, i wanted to know if cristina thought were going to increase. on those incidents? i know hundreds, thousands of cases that people with a bear. when you go in the forest, you assume that you... not only with a bear, with a wolf, with another animal, with a wild pig. but important is to make noise.

you are coming and goes away. is also a good idea to never go alone as there is safety in. , and make sure numbers and make sure everyone in the group is properly briefed on the best way to respond. if you come across a bear that may be a little too close for and struggle.

you find castles, you find the mountains, we have villages. all over europe, beautiful rivers and everything, but this kind of amazing wonder, you cannot find it i'm travelling deep into the delta with marius potolea, who calls this part of romania home. the mighty danube river meets the black sea after crossing ten countries. it's so hard to find this peace in other places. and itjust goes... oh! that is a cormorant.

he's one of the best swimmers from the delta. like a raptor. a different experience, right? yeah. communities living alongside nature, mainly relying sander, sander fish. sanderfish? yeah. marius and his wife, claudia potolea, turned their backs on a busy life in bucharest to set up a guesthouse called the travelling couple in the village ofjurilovca. hi, there. how are you? hi, there. good to see you. hello! a little bit of bird watching.

you can see cormorants, you can see pelicans, storks, swans. we are quite surrounded by wildlife and birds... yeah. ..in these waters. this is full—on nature. yeah. so, this house is like 100 years old already. claudia grew up injurilovca and is part of the lipovan community. the lipovans are ethnic russians who fled to romania in the 18th century to escape religious persecution. since then, they've maintained their cultural identity, customs and beliefs. i was baptised here. that was the place where my grandmother used to sit. yeah. it means a lot to you. yeah.

and grandma, you'd all wear similar traditional... yes, yes. ..outfits to church? so, this is the traditional outfit for the church. that you could see. i thought so. it's a lot of blue. yeah. on the streets, the houses. sweet, so i don't want you to, you know, less bones yes, 0k. until you pass the first test.

..guest house business, yeah. yeah. then the war came and, again, it was uncertain what's... ..what's going on, what is going to happen. how about the locals, though? of tourists, some locals will be like, "we don't want you. "go back." is growing like this. there are many people that... ..that are coming from abroad. they used to work in italy, in spain, because they didn't have any working opportunities here. and now they have — they are coming back. tourism, it's one way, or maybe the single way that the lady next to her said that she wants you. yeah. laughter

folk music plays they sing folk song when you travel, you often get the sense that everyone's doing the same thing, in romania, it feels different. but it's emerged out of that and it's now ready to show the world everything that makes it so unique. folk music continues

hello there. we've got a wintry mix of weather settling snow will be mainly confined to the hills, reverting back to rain across southern areas north out of iberia, squeezing the isobars together, bringing the windy weather. across the country for this weekend, so a little less cold before more cold weather returns around this area of high pressure for next week on an easterly wind. so this evening and overnight, cloudy skies for large parts areas, but we'll see accumulating snow across the hills of wales — 1—5cm here — and some snow, perhaps, for the pennines,

some of this snow getting in a little bit further north but the rest of scotland and northern ireland a little less cold further south and east, where we have the cloud, the breeze and the rain. so for saturday, it's a rather grey picture. we'll have further spots of rain maybe some wintry showers for eastern scotland. the best of the sunshine, again, developing across the south—east later in the day. temperatures range from around six to eight or nine degrees. so that's how saturday is looking. through saturday night, it looks like that cloud spells to develop. across northern england and into southern scotland. where skies are clear, then we're likely to see frost and maybe some fog, because the winds will be lighter.

we're drawing an easterly wind again across the country. that will be noticeable across north sea coasts. brighter. should be more sunny spells around, but some areas could stay cloudy all day. and temperatures 6—9 degrees — that's a little above the seasonal norm. but into next week, temperatures drop below the seasonal norm. it turns colder, easterly winds. a lot of dry weather because of high pressure, but there will still be some rain northern and eastern areas.

live from london, this is bbc news. ajudge has blocked president trump from placing hours before it was due to happen. joe biden's security clearance.

hostages in the latest exchange of the gaza ceasefire deal. and the uk government demands access to encrypted data stored by apple icloud users worldwide to help tackle crime. hello. i'm nicky schiller. welcome to programme. blocked some of president donald trump's plans which had notified workers that almost all staff at the world's a few hundred.

headquarters, where crews were seen removing the signs.