Top 10 Reasons to Visit Romania
Top 10 Reasons to Visit Romania
Painted monasteries, castles and fortified churches stand regally amid a wonderful landscape. In the pristine cities located in the Carpathians, former Saxon settlements like Sibiu and Brașov and ooze a certain amount of charm, while capital Bucharest is overcrowded, but full of energy and history. I'm a citizen of Romania and will expose some insights not all tourists get to know. Ten great reasons to visit Romania.
Owing to its rich medieval history, Romania is positively saturated with beautiful castles in various states of repair. The country also has a huge amount of undisturbed forest (and the largest population of brown bears in Europe), making it a great destination for nature lovers. With the Carpathian mountains running through the center of the country, the combination makes for some unforgettably memorable views.
If you're from Romania or if you've been there on vacation, we'd love to see your favorite sights!
Romania is situated on the western shores of the Black Sea. It enjoys great natural beauty and diversity and a rich cultural heritage. Romania enchants visitors with its scenic mountain landscapes and unspoiled countryside areas, and also with its historic cities and its busy capital. Over the last decade Romania had undergone a significant development and it is one of the recent members of the European Union. Tourists from western countries might still, even today, enjoy some surprising experiences in Romania. This is a large country which can sometimes be shocking with contrasts: some cities are truly Western Europe; some villages can seem to have been brought back from the past. Things for which Romania is famous include: the Carpathian mountains, sculptor Constantin Brancusi, wine, salt mines, George Enescu, medieval fortresses, Eugene Ionesco, "Dacia" cars, Dracula, stuffed cabbage leaves, Nadia Comaneci, primeval dense forests, the Black Sea, Gheorghe Hagi, sunflower fields, wolves and bears, painted monasteries, the Danube Delta, Palace of the Parliament (Romanian: Palatul Parlamentului) in Bucharest, the Transfagarasan (a scenic winding roadway among the mountains)etc. etc.
10. Merry Cemetery
You'll Die Laughing, if You're Not Already Dead
Death, when it visits this isolated town in a forgotten corner of Europe, comes laughing - in the guise, almost, of a comic book.
Merry Cemetery (Cimitirul Vesel) is number 10 on my list. This is a very interesting Cemetery, funny in a way. The Merry Cemetery is a cemetery in the village of Săpânța, Maramureş county, Romania. It is famous for its colorful tombstones with naïve paintings describing, in an original and poetic manner, the people who are buried there as well as scenes from their lives. The Merry Cemetery became an open-air museum and a national tourist attraction.
The unusual feature of this cemetery is that it diverges from the prevalent belief, culturally shared within European societies – a belief that views death as something indelibly solemn. Connections with the local Dacian culture have been made, a culture whose philosophical tenets presumably vouched for the immortality of the soul and the belief that death was a moment filled with joy and anticipation for a better life (see also Zalmoxianism).
A collection of the epitaphs from the Merry Cemetery exist in a 2017 volume called Crucile de la Săpânța, compiled by author Roxana Mihalcea.
While alive, the people of Sapanta's 1,500 hearths eke out a rudimentary existence, tilling dark brown fields with horse-drawn plows, carding and spinning wool for thick blankets woven on burnished wooden looms, tending flocks of bleating sheep and saturnine cows.
On Sundays they distill copper vats of fermented fruits for their potent liquor, tuica (pronounced TSUI-ka), attend Orthodox church services and gossip at the bus stop or the cafe dressed in colorful folk costumes.
But when a citizen of Sapanta dies, Dumitru Pop, a farmer, woodcarver and poet, gathers his notebook, chisels and paintbrushes and prepares to carve a poetic and pictorial homage of the deceased onto an oak grave marker in what villagers now call the Merry Cemetery, beside the Church of the Assumption.
The 800 or so carvings - a festival of color - show the dead either in life or at the moment that death caught them, while the poems, mostly in a simple iambic tetrametre, are a final apology for an often ordinary life.
The blue-painted oak slabs, decorated with floral borders and a riot of colors, fade and flake quickly in the harsh climate. The pictures are rudimentary, of women spinning yarn, of farmers on prized tractors, of a teacher at his desk or a musician playing the local three-stringed cello. Gheorghe Basulti, the butcher, is pictured chopping a lamb with a cleaver, a pipe at his lip. His life, which ended in 1939 at the age of 49, was apparently straightforward:
- As I lived in this world,
- I skinned many sheep
- Good meat I prepared
- So you can eat freely,
- I offer you good fat meat
- And to have a good appetite.
Ioan Toaderu loved horses, but, he says from beyond the grave:
- One more thing I loved very much,
- To sit at a table in a bar
- Next to someone else's wife.
There is the rare flash of anger, as with the epitaph for a 3-year-old girl whose name is no longer visible on the headstone but apparently perished in an auto accident.
- Burn in hell, you damn taxi
- That came from Sibiu.
- As large as Romania is
- You couldn't find another place to stop,
- Only in front of my house to kill me?
Ethnologists say Sapanta's laughing cemetery is likely a reflection of attitudes that come from the time of the Dacians, early inhabitants of Romania, and have been passed down in folklore ever since. The historian Herodotus said the Dacians were fearless in battle and went laughing to their graves because they believed they were going to meet Zalmoxis, their supreme god.
The Rev. Grigore Lutai, Sapanta's Orthodox priest, concurs. "The people here don't react to death as though it were a tragedy," he said. "Death is just a passage to another life."
I can go on and on about the hundreds of colorful headstones. but that will be for another Blog post dedicated only for this Cemetery. Let's move on to number on the charts.
9. Mind-blowing castles (including Dracula's)
The country where Dracula existed certainly has no shortage of brilliant landscapes and jaw-dropping castles hidden on rocky hilltops. The Bran Castle has the incredibly spurious connection to Stoker's narrative, but other places such as Peleș Castle or 14-century Corvin Castle are equally unique. Maramureș boasts towns and villages that seem exactly like in the Middle Ages, with hay racks, horse carts, and wooden churches. Owing to its massively rich medieval history, Romania is saturated with beautiful castles in various states of repair.
8. Virgin landscapes
Romania has an immense amount of undisturbed forests as well as the largest population of brown bears in the whole Europe, being a brilliant destination for nature lovers. The Carpathian mountains are running through the center of the country and the combination of natural beauty and villages makes it perfect for anyone who wants to hike or just visit.
The Carpathians boast a beautiful swath of rocky peaks surrounded by grooves of pine and deciduous trees. Many landscapes have not been unaltered by humans and a pretty wide network of huts offers accommodation for people curious enough to travel to the peaks.
7. Old authentic villages and medieval towns
Most people who have heard of Transylvania are familiar with the name because of Dracula, but this part of the country is home to some villages that remained unaffected by modern civilization, looking like they did two or three centuries ago. The central part of the country boasts beautifully preserved villages and medieval towns, such as Brașov, Sibiu, Alba Iulia, Cluj, or Sighișoara whose unique citadels make you feel like you've stepped back in time.
6. It's affordable
Even though it's part of the European Union, Romania is a budget destination where your foreign money goes a long way. Food and hotel prices are low compared to Western Europe (1 lb. of beef tenderloin is $3.75, a loaf of bread is $0.35, a bottle of local beer is $0.5). Cafés and restaurants can be more expensive near famous tourist sites, but they are still affordable. On the same note, admission fees for castles or museums are very reasonable and so is public transportation (metro, cabs). In addition to this, more and more low-cost airlines (such as BlueAir) have started to connect the major cities in Romania to the Western Europe for a great price. Pro tip: know that Tarom, the national airline, has bigger prices than its competitors. For tourists and visitors coming from other parts of the world, namely Asian countries, Qatar Airways provides reasonable fares with stopovers in Hamad Intnl. Airport (HIA). Turkish Airlines is another option (Cheaper than Qatar) and their hub in Istanbul connects to many of the major cities in Romania.
5. It's multicultural
An incredible reason to visit Romania is its cultural diversity. You will hear German and Hungarian in Transylvania, Turkish in Dobrogea. You will visit Orthodox, Catholic and Evangelical churches as well as mosques and synagogues. You'll eat "borș” in Moldova and ”ciorba” in Oltenia. You'll see thousands of tourists in Bucharest and people who have never seen foreigners in the Carpathians. Speaking of diversity, make sure you get your visa if you're not from the EU. If you find it difficult to get a Romanian visa, which you most likely will, opt for a Schengen Visa which also gives you entry to Romania with the added advantage of visiting other neighboring EU States on the same visit.
4. Historic restaurants and delicious food
Romanians love food. Period. Anywhere you'd go in Romania, you'll find friendly faces happy to serve you some homemade food. If you're heading for a restaurant, note that some Germanic, Turkish and Hungarian influences can still be seen in the Romanian cuisine, but it still maintains an identifiable character. The typical sour soup (”ciorba”) is quite unique as well as other foods like ”sarmale”. If you plan to visit Romania, be prepared to come back to your home country with a few extra pounds. In addition to the tasty food, this Eastern European country is home to very old restaurants with beautiful interiors, ornate woodword and painted ceilings. The most famous ones are located in Bucharest's historic center, like Crama Domnească, Casa Doina, or Caru' cu Bere.
Follow the link below to my Blog on 10 Mouth Watering Romanian Dishes:
3. The Danube Delta
The river Danube is Europe's second-longest river and marks the southern border of the country before emptying into the Black Sea. It is another mark of natural beauty, being vast protected land, great for bird-watching, fishing, boating, and hiking. This is a must-go destination if you are pure nature enthusiast and don't want to miss a great spot. It is the best preserved delta as well as the largest one in Europe, being home to over 350 species of birds living in its marshes and lakes. It is a biosphere reserve and a protected habitat.
2. The Painted Monasteries of Moldova
The northeastern part of the country is home to one of the most picturesque places of Romania. My wife's family hails from this part of the country. The group of 8 monasteries is comprised of churches that date back to medieval times (13th to 16th century). In a few cases they have been built to serve as burial places for noble families. They are absolutely unique and very well preserved. The high quality exterior and interior frescoes highlight biblical scenes from the New and Old Testament and even boast a unique shade of blue ("albastru de Voroneț”).
1. Bucharest's architecture
In the communist times, Bucharest's extremely elegant interbelic architecture earned the city the nickname of "Little Paris". Today you'll find a perfect blend of old palaces dating back to the 18th or 19th century and 21-st century modern buildings. The most shocking building in Bucharest is the colossal People's House, the craziest tribute to communism megalomania you will ever see.
This huge structure is the world's second-largest building after the Pentagon. It was built in 1984 and hosts more than 3100 rooms and 13 underground levels. You'll need a passport to visit this and it costs about 14 euros. Today it houses the parliament.
Notable mentions:
Friendly people
We have a saying in Romania ("Omul sfințește locul”) and means that nothing matters more than the people. No matter how wonderful a country is, the people will always make a difference. Romanians are famous for their hospitality and friendliness. A good thing is that you'll find people speaking English in any corner of the country. The young generation will gladly tell you insights or give advice, or at least they will point you in the best direction. The best part, any house you visit, you will be greeted with a great bottle of wine, beer or tuica.
My father in law grows a variety of grapes from which he makes different wines and tuica.
Whenever we visit i love to go down to the basement of the house under the kitchen floor where he makes and stores all his treasures of wine and the clear gold liquid - tuica.
The Transfagarasan, Transylvania
Now this is the most iconic and photographed ZigZag road in the world, featuring on innumerable car Shows around the world. Most notably British car Show TOP Gear hosted by Jeremy Clarkson. We have visited this road a couple of times and every-time it takes my breadth away. Especially if you are on a road-trip during the winter months, the fog that engulfs this scenic route among the mountains and surrounded by forests, is a sight to behold. it is an awesome must do road-trip while in Romania.
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