The three musketeers

Welcome back friends!

<!--[if !vml]--><!--[endif]-->Today, I’m going to talk about the unique culture of Romania. As Jorick said in our previous blog, the first impression we got from Romania was very good.

The name “Romania” was first used when the three regions were united in 1859. Walachia, Moldavia and Transylvania had a great reflection of the nations language and culture. These three ‘musketeers’ are fairly uniform. But the Hungarian community in Transylvania is an exception. They consider themselves as Hungarian people. Also the gypsies, who are called ‘The Roma’, aren’t culturally related.

The flag of Romania reflects also the three regions. It consists of blue, yellow and red vertical stripes. Yorick already told us that Bucharest is the capital and largest city of Romania. It is located in the center of the southern region of Walachia, one of the three regions. Between the two world wars, Bucharest was also a cultural center called "the Paris of the East". We were curious to know more about their unique culture. Online, we found some information about certain cultural signs including the National Art Museum, the national theater and the country's largest university. We decided to visit these attractions once we arrived at Bucharest but unfortunately; we hadn’t enough time due to our interest in the Romanian literature and humanity.

During the communism, the Romanian government forced artists to join unions, which supported them but censored their work. Nowadays, there is more creative freedom. We didn’t see much of that creative freedom because the financial support has decreased.

EminescuMihai is considered the greatest and most influential Romanian poet, particularly for the poem Luceafărul. But the national literature also consisted of ballads and folklore. The most popular folktale is that of Dracula. The vampire from Transylvania! It gives me the creeps when I think of that story.

Close to our guesthouse, there were a couple of musicians playing on the street. Before planning this trip, we wanted to learn the hora, the national dance. It was so funny! We danced on the street with those musicians. An experience to never forget!

I hope this you enjoyed reading my blog! See you next time.

Isabella

http://www.everyculture.com/No-Sa/Romania.html#b / http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania#Culture