When I was invited to work with students in an international school in Bucharest, Romania we jumped at the chance to visit a ‘new-to-us’ country. I didn’t know much about Romania and we didn’t have nearly enough time to explore the sights and the history of the country. But what we did see was fascinating. Did you know that the fountain pen was invented in Romania? And it was a book, of course, that made the country famous.
Romenia is a socialist republic after having been under communist regime for many years. This still shows in much of the architecture and infrastructure. We stayed in the capital city Bucharest. I knew I’d like a city that starts with ‘Book’!
Parliament’s Palace in Bucharest
While I worked in school, Kees toured the city. He saw the Parliament Palace, the second largest administrative building in the world, second to the Pentagon. It IS gigantic. He took a hop on-hop-off bus for a tour of the city but was not overly impressed with the city itself. Lots of large ‘Soviet era’ buildings in between older, often poorly maintained, buildings with eastern architecture from long before the communist era.
Old buildings crowded in by large apartment blocks.
We were surprised to see that a high percentage of the population still smokes in Romenia. But the bakeries are second to none! The breads, the croissants, the pastries… tantalizing in bakery windows everywhere. Compared to North American standards the food is excellent and cheap in Romania, although prices can change rapidly.
We were also surprised to hear that the Romanian language sounds very similar to Italian. To us, Romanians sound and gesture just like Italians and many words look similar, for instance ‘formaggio’ is cheese in Romanian. Of course, we could have known that Romanian would be a Roman language and is most closely related to Italian. And like Italy, the country is also a major wine producer.
We also learned that Romania is fairly new to the European Union (2007) and is in the process of switching over to euros but is still using Lei or RON.
We quickly learned to watch out when getting into a taxi in Romania. The fare per kilometer is noted on the fender outside of the taxi. But fares (per kilometer) differ between companies by as much as 400%. So it’s a good idea to check before you get in any taxi.
Romania still shows its long communist history in its soviet style buildings and antiquated road and rail systems. Compared to for instance the Czech Republic, it seems light years behind. But the country has its own charms and landmarks as well as beautiful countryside.
The Romanian railway system, for instance, seemed to us like an exact replica of the Märklin model train designs Kees had as a boy 60 years ago. On our weekend off, we decided to take one of these trains to see what is perhaps Romania’s most famous landmark: Bran Castle in Transylvania. I loved it that the impressive international school’s sport team is called the Vampires and I still wear their jacket with pride.
The conductor
The train trip was very interesting and allowed us to see a good part of Romania. At first outside the city farm lands, large and small farms. Old-fashioned haystacks dotted the farm land. Later the train took us up into the mountains until we reached Brasov. There we switched to a taxi which took us further into the country to the village where the castle is located.
Bram Stoker is said to have based the archetypal vampire Count Dracula on the Romanian prince Vlad Tepes, also known as Vlad the Impaler, because he was fond of impaling his enemies and standing them along the roads.
Farms with haystacks
Obviously, we were curious to see the castle. Dating back to the 1200’s, the castle has served as a medieval fortress as well as a royal residence.
Interestingly, author Bram Stoker never even visited but the castle which helped to put Romenia on the map, and is now famous as Dracula’s castle. He merely based his story in the castle of which he had a sketch. You can even buy blood soaked vampire teeth in the gift shop. I didn’t feel the need for that as a souvenir, but I did buy a lovely, hand embroidered blouse to take home as a reminder of a beautiful, industrious country.
Bran Castle
Emma came with us to explore Romania.