What is up with Romania?

A lot of people might think, what is up with Romania? Some people from North America honestly don’t know much about it. Some have some Romanian friends, here and there, some who interested in politics know about Ceausescu, and some who are ignorant will bring up Dracula and Vampires.

But seriously, what is Romania all about? How is it like? What is there to see from a tourist point of view? How are the locals? Is it true what they say?

The regions

Romania is a very complex country. From its history, to its battles, to its fusion. Many countries fusioned together to form today’s so called Romania, but if you get to know the country a little bit more, you will soon notice that many countries still live inside of Romania today. Someone from Transylvania is very different from someone from Oltenia or Muntenia. People from Moldova are different from the ones in Crisana, and so on. Small country, but big cultural differences are still present inside. And by differences I mean the people, the customs, the food, the accents and the dialects. Even the traditional typical uniform is different from region to another. But together we all form one.

The fish shaped twelfth-largest country in Europe has it all: from the many hills of the Transylvanian region, to the high Carpathian Mountains. We have rivers, lakes, forests, plains, a delta and the Black Sea. Our soil is rich in natural resources and our wildlife is very diversified. Even today you can find bears and wolfs living in untouched nature. We have big cosmopolitan cities filled with young people wearing the latest fashions and we also have small rustic villages stuck in the 19th century. We have old medieval castles and many UNESCO world heritage sites. We have values and are religious. We also pay big importance to tradition. In 2013 I brought my French-Canadian boyfriend to Romania for ten days and he was amazed. An article about that will follow. Until then, if you want to know more about Romania`s tourism visit it`s official tourism site or the page on wikitravel.org.

From the EU

The rest of Europe has a very bad opinion of us, the Romanians. They see us a thieves, killers, murderers, mafia, gypsies, beggars, communists… whatever bad word there is, we have been named. Racism…I feel it from my fellow Europeans. They make me feel the way no North American has ever made me feel… different. Some hear my Eastern European accent and they just freeze. As if something bad is about to happen. In my mind I know what just happened. But I am at work, I must continue acting professionally and pretend I didn`t notice. But I did notice. And it hurts, every time.

Some dare expressing their true feelings to me about Romanians. A French man once told me that in France he has a Romanian neighbor who gets beaten by her Italian husband, but that`s OK…because she `deserves it`. An English man once told me that he is so satisfied with my service, that he swears he will never say anything bad about Romanians ever again…not even about the thieves. Small comments like that hurt like a knife. And I could never express my true feelings to the people saying these hurtful things to me because I was stuck behind my professional barrier, where my true opinions could not be voiced for the sake of the company I was representing.

The truth

But now I am not at work and let me tell you who we are. Us, the Romanians, have had a life of hardship and of struggle. We are honest hardworking people who strive for a better future, just like anybody else in the world. There is hunger and poverty in our country, corrupt parliaments drives our nation in desperation. People are fleeing the country in hopes of getting an honest job abroad, to bring back some money, to help their families who cannot afford to pay their bills. We have to deal with rejection, stereotypes and racism every day. Many do not get a chance to prove themselves on the workforce. Poverty leads to desperate people..desperate people make bad choices… yes, there have been cases of Romanian criminals abroad… these images have been plastered all over the media. Television and the Internet propels like venom bad images about our nation into other people’s brains. Stereotypes get formed. And once those are formed, there is no turning back. Never do you hear a success story about any of us. Making it into the real world. The CEO of Air Canada is Romanian, did you know that? We have one of the highest literacy rate in the world, did you know that? Most of us have at least one University degree, did you know that? We excel in domains such as computer science, art, music, fashion, literature, sports, etc. We even make our own car. Brancusi, he was not French, he was a Romanian who walked from Romania all the way to Paris, did you know that? Today the French name him as one of their own, almost ashamed to admit he is one of us. International supermodels rule the world from the catwalks from Milan to the ones at Victoria`s Secret. No wonder we are seen as one of the most beautiful women in the world.

Our language is Latin. We do not speak Russian, nor Ukrainian or Bulgarian. We don`t even understand it all. We understand Spanish and Italian like a one way street because they cannot understand our language in return. Many Romanians speak at least one language. All the Romanians I know speak 3. My parents speak 4 and I speak 5. We are intelligent, hard working and honest people. And we are sick of being stereotyped as evil.

We are one. We are united. We are Romania.

 

 

Click here to see my pictures from Romania.