Oval-shaped Romania is the largest eastern European country apart from Russia and Ukraine. It lies on the Black Sea and, moving anticlockwise from the southwest, shares borders with Bulgaria, Yugoslavia (Serbia), Hungary, Ukraine and Moldova. The forested Carpathian mountains account for one third of the country's area; another third is covered by hills and tablelands full of orchards and vineyards; and the final third comprises a fertile plain where cereals, vegetables and herbs are grown.
If people didn't prosper under Ceausescu, bears did! He allowed no-one but himself to hunt them, the result being that the Carpathian mountains are now home to 60% of Europe's bears. Some 40% of Europe's wolves also live there, along with stag, wild boar, badger, deer, fox, and the green woodpecker, jay and grey owl. Romania's main drawcard for twitchers is the Danube Delta, home to 60% of the world's small pygmy cormorant population, the white grey egret, bee-keeper and white-tailed eagle. The protected Delta has the largest unbroken reedbed in the world. The Carpathian mountains boast the least spoilt forests in Europe, rich in beech, sycamore, maple, poplar and birch. Some 1350 floral species have been recorded in the Carpathians, including the yellow poppy, Transylvanian columbine, saxifrage and edelweiss. Romania has 11 national parks, including the Retezat mountains in the Carpathians, and more than 500 nature reserves.
You don't go to Romania for the weather. The average annual temperature is 11°C in the south and on the coast, but only 2°C in the mountains. Romanian winters can be extremely cold and foggy, with lots of snow from December to April. In summer there's usually hot, sunny weather on the Black Sea coast. The majority of Romania's rain falls in the spring, with the mountains getting the most, the Danube Delta the least.
Ancient Romania was inhabited by Thracian tribes. In the first century BC, Greece established the state of Dacia there to counter the threat from Rome. Dacia fell to Rome in 106 AD, becoming a province of the Roman Empire. Faced with Goth attacks in 271 AD, Emperor Aurelian decided to withdraw the Roman legions south of the Danube, but the Romanised Vlach peasants remained in Dacia, forming a Romanian people. By the 10th century, small Romanian states emerged, and their consolidation led to the formation of the principalities of Moldavia, Wallachia and Transylvania. From the 10th century the Magyars spread into Transylvania and by the 13th century it was an autonomous principality under the Hungarian crown. In the 14th century Hungarian forces tried and failed to capture Wallachia and Moldavia.
Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries Wallachia and Moldavia offered strong resistance to Ottoman Empire expansion. During this struggle the prince of Wallachia, Vlad Tepes (known as the Impaler, because he rarely ate a meal without a Turk writheing on a stake in front of him), became a hero; he later became associated with Dracula. Another heroic figure at this time was Moldavian prince Stefan cel Mare, whose name now appears on countless street signs in Romania and Moldova. Transylvania fell to Ottoman control in the 16th century, and after this Wallachia and Moldavia paid tribute to the Turks but retained their autonomy. In 1600 the three Romanian states were briefly united under Mihai Viteazul, prince of Wallachia, after he joined forces with the ruling princes of Moldavia and Transylvania against the Turks. Unity lasted only one year, after which he was defeated by a joint Habsburg-Transylvanian force, and then captured and beheaded. Transylvania came under Habsburg rule, while Turkish suzerainty continued in Wallachia and Moldavia until well into the 19th century. In 1775 the northern part of Moldavia, Bucovina, was annexed by Austria-Hungary. This was followed in 1812 by the loss of its eastern territory, Bessarabia, to Russia. After the Russo-Turkish War of 1828-29, Ottoman domination over the principalities finally came to an end.
After 1848 Transylvania fell under the direct rule of Austria-Hungary from Budapest, and ruthless Magyarisation followed. In 1859 Alexandru Ioan Cuza was elected to the thrones of Moldavia and Wallachia, creating a national state, which was named Romania in 1862. Carol I succeeded him in 1866, and in 1877 Dobruja became part of Romania. Romania was declared a kingdom in 1881, with Carol I as king. He died at the start of WWI and was succeeded by his nephew Ferdinand I who, in 1916, entered the war on the side of the Triple Entente. His objective was to liberate Transylvania from Austria-Hungary. In 1918, Bessarabia, Bucovina and Transylvania became part of Romania.
After WWI, numerous political parties emerged in Romania, including the Legion of the Archangel Michael, better known as the fascist Iron Guard. Led by Corneliu Codreanu, this party dominated the political scene by 1935. Carol II, who had succeeded his father Ferdinand I to the throne, declared a royal dictatorship in 1938, and all political parties were dissolved. In 1939 he clamped down on the Iron Guard (which he had previously actively supported) and had Codreanu and other legionaries assassinated. In 1940 the USSR occupied Bessarabia, and Romania was forced to cede northern Transylvania to Hungary by order of Germany and Italy. Southern Dobruja was also given to Bulgaria. These setbacks sparked off widespread demonstrations, and the king called in General Marshall Ion Antonescu to help quash the rising mass hysteria. Antonescu forced Carol to abdicate in favour of his 19-year-old son Michael, and then imposed a fascist dictatorship with himself as conducator (leader). In 1941 he joined Hitler's anti-Soviet war. In 1944 with the Soviet Union approaching Romania's border, Romania switched sides.
The Soviet-engineered return of Transylvania to Romania helped the Moscow-backed communists win the 1946 elections. A year later King Michael was forced to abdicate, and a Romanian People's Republic was proclaimed. A period of state terror then ensued, in which all pre-war leaders, prominent intellectuals and suspected dissidents were rounded up and imprisoned in hard-labour camps. In the late 1950s Romania began to distance itself from Moscow, pursuing an independent foreign policy under Gheorghe Gheorgiu-Dej (1952-65) and Nicolae Ceausescu (1965-89). Ceausescu condemned Soviet 'intervention' in Czechoslovakia in 1968, earning him praise and economic aid from the west. If his foreign policy was skilful, his domestic policy was inept and megalomanical. Most of his grandiose projects (the construction of the Danube-Black Sea 'Death' Canal and the behemoth House of the People in Bucharest, and systemisation) were expensive failures. His Securitate (secret police) kept the populace in check, recruiting a vast network of informers. The advent of Mikhail Gorbachev in the late 1980s meant that the USA no longer needed Romania, and withdrew its 'most favoured nation' status. Ceausescu decided to export Romania's food to pay off the country's mounting debt. While Ceausescu and his wife Elena (his first deputy prime minister) lived in luxury, his people struggled to live, as bread, eggs, flour, oil, salt, sugar, beef and potatoes were rationed; by the mid-1980s meat was unobtainable. In 1987 protest riots in Brasov were crushed. On 15 December 1989, as one communist regime after another collapsed in eastern Europe, Father Laszlo Tokes spoke out against Ceausescu from his Timisoara church. That evening a crowd gathered outside his home to protest at the decision of the Reformed Church of Romania to remove him from his post. Clashes between the protesters and the Securitate and army troops continued for the next four days. On 19 December the army joined the protesters. On 21 December Bucharest workers booed Ceausescu during a mass rally and street battles between army troops and Securitate and the people began in the capital. The following day the Ceausescus tried to flee Romania, but were arrested. They were tried by an anonymous court, and executed by firing squad on Christmas Day.
It is now believed that members of the National Salvation Front, which took over government of Romania after Ceausescu's death, had been plotting his overthrow for months before the December 1989 demonstrations forced them to act earlier. Initially a caretaker government, it was elected to power in 1990, led by Ion Iliescu. Student protests against its ex-communist leadership were crushed when 20,000 coal miners from the Jiu Valley were brought in to stage a counter riot. The miners were drafted to Bucharest again a year later to force the resignation of reform-minded prime minister Petre Roman. Iliescu and the National Salvation Front were reelected in 1992, but rampant inflation, unemployment, and allegations of government corruption, meant that in 1996 Iliescu was voted out in favour of Emil Constantinescu, leader of the reform-minded Democratic Convention of Romania. Since his election, inflation has fallen, steps have been made to improve social benefits, and there have been attempts to shelve grievances between ethnic minorities, and improve relations with Hungary. However, his main achievement to date is giving the Romanians hope. Fewer young Romanians are fleeing their homeland, preferring to make the most of promised future opportunities.
Bucovina's painted monasteries were the first in the world to be adorned with frescoes on the outside. Painted in the 16th century, these frescoes also went beyond the confines of religious art, conveying political as well as religious messages. Painting on glass and wood, a traditional peasant art, has been widespread in Romania since the 17th century and remains popular today. Romanian literature draws heavily on the country's rich folklore heritage coupled with its turbulent history as an occupied country inhabited by a persecuted people. In the 15th century an oral epic folk literature emerged, and writings in the Romanian language took shape in around 1420. Modern literature emerged in the 19th century. Romania's best known writer internationally is playwright Eugene Ionesco (1912-94), an exponent of the 'Theatre of the Absurd'. Literature became a tool of the communist party from 1947 onwards. Since 1990 many works have been published attesting to the horrors of the communist period. Folk music and dancing have long been popular in Romania. Couples dance in a circle, a semicircle or a line. Modern gypsy music has absorbed many influences and professional gypsy musicians play whatever village clients want.
Romanian is closer to classical Latin than it is to other Romance languages, and the grammatical structure and basic word stock of the mother tongue are well preserved. Speakers of French, Italian and Spanish won't be able to understand much spoken Romanian but will find written Romanian more or less comprehensible. Romanian is spelt phonetically so once you learn a few simple rules you should have no trouble with pronunciation. Romania is the only country with a Romance language that does not have a Roman Catholic background. It is 86% Romanian Orthodox, 5% Roman Catholic, 3.5% Protestant, 1% Greco-Catholic, 0.3% Muslim and 0.2% Jewish. Unlike other ex-communist countries where the church was a leading opposition voice to the regime, the Romanian Orthodox Church was subservient to and a tool of the government. Today it is hierarchical, dogmatic and wealthy. Romanians are extremely hospitable. They will welcome you into their modest homes, feed you until you burst, and expect nothing in return other than friendship. Don't rebuff it.
Those who live to eat will find life pretty dull in Romania. Restaurants tend to offer the same things with tedious consistency: grilled pork, pork liver, grilled chicken, tripe soup and greasy potatoes. Romania's most novel dish is mamagliga, a hard or soft cornmeal mush which is boiled, baked or fried. In many Romanian households, it's served as the main dish. The other mainstay of the Romanian diet is ciorba (soup). The sweet-toothed won't starve: typical desserts include placinta (turnovers), clarite (crepes) and saraille (almond cake soaked in syrup). Romanian wines are cheap and good. Tuica (plum brandy) and palinca (distilled three times as much as tuica) are mind-blowing liqueurs taken at the beginning of a meal. Noroc! (Cheers!) Avoid the ubiquitous Ness, an awful instant coffee made from vegetable extracts, and try cafea naturala, a 'real' coffee made the Turkish way, with a thick sludge of ground coffee beans at the bottom and a generous spoonful of sugar.
Money & Costs
Currency: Romanian leu (plural: lei) (L)
Relative costs:
- Budget meal: US$5
- Moderate restaurant meal: US$5-10
- Top-end restaurant meal: US$20 and upwards
- Budget room: US$20-40
- Moderate hotel: US$45-90
- Top-end hotel: US$130 and upwards
Accommodation will be your biggest expense in Romania. Cheap accommodation is scarce in Bucharest. Expect to pay at least US$25 for a double room with shared bath in any hotel within walking distance of the centre of most Romanian cities and towns. Accommodation in private homes in the countryside starts at US$10 a night, including a home-cooked breakfast. The cost of dining is rising - Romanians can't afford to eat out, so most restaurants are geared to 'rich foreigners'. In Bucharest it's tough to eat for less than US$5 per head, not including alcohol. Eating out is cheaper elsewhere, and a bottle of good Romanian wine can be as little as US$1.50. Seeing a film or play costs about US$1, entrance fees to museums are about 20 cents. Public transport is dirt cheap by western standards. US$1.70 will take you approximately 100km by bus or comfortable express train. Petrol is around 40 cents a litre.
It's easy to cash travellers cheques in Romania, but not very easy to replace stolen ones. Only American Express has an office that issues replacements in Bucharest. Cash-dispensing ATMs accepting Visa/MasterCard are becoming increasingly widespread in Romania. Credit cards are widely accepted in hotels, restaurants and shops. They are essential for hiring a car, unless you want to pay cash up front. Marked, torn or very used notes will often be refused at exchanges. Ensure whatever currency you bring is in good condition.
Tipping is not common in Romania, though you should always round up the bill to the nearest 500 lei. Some bartering, but not much, goes on at flea markets. Taxi drivers drive a hard bargain, so always haggle.
Romania's capital - named after its legendary founder, a shepherd called Bucur - lies on the Wallachian plains, between the Carpathian foothills and the Danube river. In the 1930s it was known as `the Paris of the East'. Since then, earthquakes, WWII bombing and Ceausescu have combined to destroy much of its prewar beauty.
In the 1980s Ceausescu bulldozed 7000 homes and 15 churches in historic southern Bucharest to build a Civic Centre. The focal point of what locals dubbed 'Ceausima' is the ginormous 12-storey House of the People, intended to be the largest building in the world - it's actually the second, after the Pentagon. Ceausescu - who was executed just as it neared completion - intended it to house the president's office, central committee and all the state ministries. The Iliescu government did not know what to do with this white elephant - many people wanted it demolished - but in 1994 decided to use it to house the Parliament and to host international conferences. There are guided tours, so you'll get a chance to gawp at the ornate 1000-room interior as well as the mesmerising exterior.
For a taste of the old, head for central Bucharest, where the 16th century Old Court Church contains beautifully preserved frescoes. The George Enescu Museum displays the musician's manuscripts and personal belongings. Also here is Romania's very own Raffles, the Athenee Palace Hotel, centre of early 20th century decadence, and the meeting place of Olivia Manning's characters in The Balkan Trilogy. It has just had a US$50 million facelift and is the city's classiest and most expensive hotel. In western Bucharest you'll find Ghencea Civil Cemetery, final resting place of the Ceausescus. Nicolae's grave is quite ornate and decorated with flowers and candles, but Elena is apparently less revered by those who still mourn their overthrow. Their son Nicu (Transylvania boss, drunkard, playboy and one-time partner of the Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci) is buried close by.
With an unbeatable train service linking Romania to western Europe and Russia, there is little reason to travel to/from Romania by bus. Romania's public bus system is virtually nonexistent while fares offered by the numerous private bus companies operating buses to the west rarely compete with the inexpensive comfort offered by trains. The exception to this rule is Istanbul. The bus (12 to 14 hours) is substantially cheaper and faster than the train (171/2 hours) - and they've banned smoking on it, which is just as well since most Romanians and Turks smoke like the proverbial chimney. There are plenty of trains from western Europe, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Turkey, and Moldova, Ukraine and beyond. Between May and September a ferry plies the Black Sea between Constanta and Istanbul. There's no departure tax when leaving Romania, but you have to show your exit card - that's the wee piece of paper they placed in your passport when you entered the country and which you've probably lost by this stage.
Train has long been the most popular way of travelling around Romania. Trains provide a frequent service to most cities, towns and larger villages within the country. There are five different types of train: personae are so slow that they generally travel with the doors open so passengers can leap on or off when the train is in motion; accelerat are faster, more expensive and less crowded; rapid and expres trains travel reasonably quickly and serve international as well as domestic routes; and inter-city trains are no faster than the others (apart from personae trains) but are twice as expensive and twice as comfortable. Seat reservations are obligatory for all trains (except personae) and this is included in the fare.
Most Romanian roads are best suited to 4WD. They are in poor, potholed condition. Other hazards include horse-drawn carts piled high with hay, cows, pigs, drunkards and playing children! Similarly, if you want to cycle, the potholed roads makes the going tough for anything less than a robust touring or mountain bike. Boat is the only way of getting round much of the Danube Delta. Most towns within Romania have local buses, trams and trolleybuses, and Bucharest has a Metro underground system. Taxis are available in all cities and towns, but can be more expensive for foreigners.
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