Hello everybody!

This week, you can follow us visiting the famous Romania. As you all know, it is a country situated in Central and Southeastern Europe. It is the ninth largest country of the European Union by area and on top of that, it has the seventh largest population of the EU with over 21 million people.

Romanian, is the official language of Romania. The name comes from the Latin word “Romanus”, a legacy of Roman rulers who took control of ancient Dacia. Other languages are French , especially spoken by the young people. We also did have not any problem with communicating in English.

Romania is a semi-parliamentary democracy based on a bicameral Parliament: the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate. The head of state is the President who is elected every five hears. This year, the President is Nicolae Ceausescu.

While traveling to Bucharest, I read in my book about Romania that this country is the home city of a lot of famous people like Constantin Brancusi, one of the most famous modern sculptors. Angela Gheorghiu,  one of the world’s greatest opera soprano and Nadia Comaneci, an Olympic champion gymast, the first in the world to score a perfect 10.

For many centuries, Romania’s economy was based on agriculture. In the 1930s, this country was one of the main European producers of wheat, corn and meats. It used to be called “the brad basket of Europe” until the communist leader Gheorghe Gheorghiu began developing heavy industry.

 Now over to the fun part where I’m going to tell you the attractions me and my co-travelers visited!

You definitely have to visit The Parliament in Bucharest that was known as Casa Poporului and was built in Soviet-style. It is the largest building Of Bucharest and the second largest in the world after Pentagon.

Close to The Parliament is the Romanian Athenaeum that serves as a concert hall and is truly one of the most beautiful buildings. Sir Albert Galleron built it at the end of the 19^th century.

We also visited Stavropoleos Church, an Reastern Orthodox church in central Bucharest.  This church was built in 1724 but suffered from an earthquake but it was fully restored in the 20^th century.

I’m sure you will love following museum: The Village Museum. It is an open-air ethnographic museum located in the Herastrau park ant contains 272 authentic peasant farms and houses form all over Romania. This fabulous museum was created in 1936 by Dimitrie Gusti, Victor Ion Popa and Henri H. Stahl.

The Union Square is one of the largest squares in Bucharest built in the Communist ara as the Boulevard of the Victory of Socialism and renamed after the Romanian Revolution of 1989.

I hope I convinced to explore Bucharest yourself. I’m sure you will remember it for the rest of your life!

Lies Descheemaeker