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[ti:The Silent Village]

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[00:01.50]Lesson 48

[00:03.21]The silent village

[00:11.20]Why was the village silent?

[00:16.27]In this much-travelled world,

[00:18.47]there are still thousands of places which are inaccessible to tourists.

[00:23.30]We always assume that villagers in remote places are friendly and hospitable.

[00:29.32]But people who are cut off not only from foreign tourists, but even from their own countrymen can be hostile to travellers.

[00:38.02]Visits to really remote villages are seldom enjoyable--as my wife and I discovered during a tour through the Balkans.

[00:47.75]We had spent several days in a small town and visited a number of old churches in the vicinity.

[00:55.71]These attracted many visitors, for they were not only of great architectural interest, but contained a large number of beautifully preserved frescoes as well.

[01:07.05]On the day before our departure, several bus loads of tourists descended on the town.

[01:13.61]This was more than we could bear, so we decided to spend our last day exploring the countryside.

[01:21.89]Taking a path which led out of the town, we crossed a few fields until we came to a dense wood.

[01:29.65]We expected the path to end abruptly, but we found that it traced its way through the trees.

[01:36.17]We tramped through the wood for over two hours until we arrived at a deep stream.