Romania

Romania is a country located in Southeastern and Central Europe, North of the Balkan Peninsula, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea. Almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory. It shares a border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova to the northeast, and Bulgaria to the south.

The territory's recorded history includes periods of rule by Dacians, the Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire. As a nation-state, the country was formed by the merging of Moldavia and Wallachia in 1859 and it gained recognition of its independence in 1878. Later, in 1918, they were joined by Transylvania, Bukovina, and Bassarabia. At the end of World War II, parts of its territories (roughly the present day Moldova ) were occupied by the USSR and Romania became a member of the Warsaw Pact. With the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, (December 1989 - a very violent fall of communism: national revolution and shooting the communist leader and his wife on Christmas day... we might not be vampires, but we surely are cruel) Romania started a series of political and economic reforms. After a decade of post-revolution economic problems, Romania made economic reforms such as low flat tax rates in 2005 and joined the European Union in January 1, 2007. While Romania's income level remains one of the lowest in the European Union, reforms have increased the growth speed. Romania is now an upper-middle income country economy.

Romania has the 9th largest territory and the 7th largest population (with 21.5 million people) among the European Union member states. Its capital and largest city is Bucharest (before the XXII, Bucharest was famous for being "the little Paris"), the 6th largest city in the EU with 1.9 million people. In 2007, Sibiu, a city in Transylvania, was chosen as a European Capital of Culture. Romania also joined NATO on March 29, 2004, and is also a member of Latin Union, of the Francophon of the OSCE and an associate member of the CPLP. Romania is a semi-presidential unitary state.

Famous Romanians: -just a few famous names
Literature: Emil Cioran, Mircea Eliade, Tristan Tzara (the founder of dadaism, which comes from the Romanian "da-da", meaning "yes-yes"), Eugene Ionesco
Art: Constantin Brancusi (sculptor), George Enescu (musician, check for "Ciocarlia"), Gheorghe Zamfir (musician, check the Kill Bill Soundtrack), Johnny Weismuller (actor, the famous Tarzan), Bela Lugosi (Romanian actor of Hungarian ethnicity, the famous Dracula), Alexandra Maria Lara (actress), Marcel Iures (actor), Michael Cretu (singer, band Enigma), Harvey Keitel (Dracula- half Romanian
Sports: Nadia Comaneci, Gheorghe Hagi, Ghita Muresan (the huge guy from "My Giant"), Helmuth Duckadam
Science: Nicolae Paulescu (the inventor of insulin), Henri Coanda (the inventor of the jet plane), Stefan Odobleja (the father of cybernetics).

Herman Oberth born in Transylvania- Romania was a great physicist, along with Russian Konstantin Tsiolkovsky and American Robert H. Goddard, was one of the founding fathers of rocketry and astronautics.

Linguists - Even surrounded by all those Slavonic countries, Romanians share the same religion with them, but not the same language origins. Romania is the only Latin Orthodox country, but is not 100% Latin, are still some Slavonic mixed in Romanian language.

Touristic Atractions

Dracula and Transylvania, The Merry Cemetery in Sapanta, the unique Maramures architecture, the unique style of the Bucovina medieval monasteries, the medieval looks of Transylvania, the Danube Delta, the Iron Gates on the Danube, gold and silver in Apuseni, muddy volcanoes and soooo on...

Nature
Romania is 33% mountains (lovely Carpathians), 33% hills, 33% plain lands. Also the Danube Delta and the Black Sea.

Architects
The Brancovenesc style and the Maramures style. Check the normal Romanian churches (Brancovenesc style) and the Northern Transylvanian churches & gates (Maramures). Also the Bucovina monasteries.