The flag and the coat of arms...
I'm going to forego talking about the history of the place because I don't really feel like writing a research paper - and it seems uber complicated and very dense. Romanian Holocaust Remembrance Day is coming up on Thursday, so I might write a bit about the horribly unfortunate history of the Jewish people in the country but for now... some fast facts. Romania is approximately the size of Oregon, and the capital, Bucharest, is latitudinally in line (more or less) with Portland, Montreal, Venice and Bordeaux. However! The city doesn't get Montreal weather (thank goodness) - the average temp for January is -1, and that's about as low as it goes. Well, not really. The Carpathian Mountains sound gorgeous (just gorgeous dahling) and, to state the obvious, it can get chilly in the mountains. It can get chilly in the Prairies too, but ha! I'm out of here. The 1500 kilometre-long mountain range (also known as the Transylvanian Alps) is purportedly the most unspoilt in Europe; it measures in as the second most extensive range in Europe, and accounts for roughly a third of Romania's territory. Very impressive. Romanian forests are home to 60% of Europe's brown bear population, 40% of it's wolf population AND part of Europe's only healthy population of wild lynx. The Danube Delta is also home to a variety of flora and fauna; it sounds like there's a massive influx of pelicans there in the Spring - scary.
The lynx - a gorgeous animal...More than half of Romania's 22 million people live in towns and cities (Bucharest: 2.2 million), and get this: apparently, each of the country's 30,000 towns are no more than 64km from the next one - a reality that dates to feudal times when a day's travel with a horse and cart was limited to this distance. Interesting. So the population is a tad dense, at least in the cities. It sounds like the rest of the country - the rural population and the smaller towns - is sort of slow to move out of the past, and much of the country has been time-machined still. I'd love to see this, but moreoever, would love to be able to communicate with people in smaller towns and villages in the country. I'm not sure how friendly they'll be but ??? When we were in Greece we found the country folk super friendly, but couldn't communicate much other than Hi, How are you, I'm from Canada and I don't understand you - doh. The Romanian language is Latin-based, and apparently closely related to Italian SO! My hopes are that even if I can't really understand them, they might be able to capiche my Italian. We'll see. It can't be worse than Russia. Also, much of this is dependant on whether or not we have a car AND how much time we can find to travel.
Romania, as we all know, is home to Transylvania and the legend of Dracula. Based on Vlad Dracula (also known as Vlad the Impaler - does NOT sounds like a guy you'd want to meet), who was horrrrrible bloodthirsty and heartless, the legend sounds like a potential reality when you think of old, dark, spooky forests and windy country roads... eep. According to Romania's tourism website, Vampires hang around crossroads (!!) on the Eve of St. Andrew (Nov.29) and St. George's Day (Apr.23), so ummm I'll be staying home those days. Anyways, it sounds like there are LOTS of places to visit - Romania sounds beautiful; it's all about having the time and the means to get around and see some of this stuff. For now... it's time to pack.
Hope I don't ever see this dude.
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