A few months ago I had one of the best experiences in my life: I spent ten days in Romania in a Youth Exchange. We were forty people plus the organizers, and we stayed in a city called Râmnicu Vâlcea - the capital of Vâlcea County, three hours away from Bucharest.
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| Photos: Rafaela Silva |
If you think this was all about partying and sightseeing, think twice. We worked hard - a lot. We had a schedule full of activities, workshops, debates and cultural exchanges. But yes, we also did have a lot of free time, which we used to hang out with each other and, of course, party a lot.
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| Piața Universității, Bucharest. Photo: Mihail Macri |
The activities were a lot of fun, and the experience of trying to communicate in languages that were not my own was exciting. I could only speak portuguese with my fellow portuguese friends: with everyone one, there was only English. There was people from several european countries: Porugal, Spain, Italy, Lithuania, Romania (obviously), Greece and Hungary. But when we were outside the walls of the pension, we had do try and use Romanian sometimes.
I met so many awesome people, did so many amazing things and learned so much that I can't even talk about everything: it was so much! The food was not as good as the one I am used to (portuguese food is the best, ya'll), the pension had a few problems (let's not talk about that), but other than that, Romania is a beautiful country. And very peaceful! If you think that a east-european country has a mandatory condition of being dangerous, you should reconsider your prejudices. Romania is a very safe and very nice country.
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| Tower of the Evangelical Cathedral, Sibiu. Photo: Fabian Grohs |
I did not get the chance to visit Bran's Castle - the famous Dracula castle -, but that's fine. Apparently, the castle is not that awesome and, as we all know, there was never a Dracula there. But I did visita a beautiful, gorgeous, amazing town in Transylvania called Sibiu. Sibiu is one of the biggest cities in Romania, and a very touristic too, because of it's history, beautiful cathedrals and the streets in general. I got to visit the Orthodox Cathedral and the Evangelical Cathedral; I had lunch in a super cool restaurant (pizza, because why not?), where I had the best iced tea of my life; I walked around the streets, which are so romanic and beautiful; and most of wall, I took so many stairs that I could barely walk the next day.
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| Piața, Sibiu. Foto: Constanta Kleo |
Of course I did visit Râmnicu Vâlcea too - actually, we even had a treasure hunt there! It is a nice town, that reminds me a lot of Portuguese towns, surrounded by green and the countryside, but full of people and urban things on the inside.
Fun Fact: Romania has one of the fastast internet in the world and Râmnicu Vãlcea is famous for it's great hackers; so much that it is knows as 'Hackerville'.
About Bucharest: we only spend there a total of, maybe, thirty minutes, but it was quite enough to realize how beautiful the city is. Of course I would love to have spend more time there - it saddens me not to. But I am glad I got to visit it for a little bit. The architecture is amazing! Absolutely wonderful buildings everywhere. Also the palace of the Parliament is beautiful, but I never got to see it in person.
I learned so much about the romanian people, the romanian language, and the romanian history, and I will forever carry those memories with me, just as I will always carry the wonderful people I met there in my heart.
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| Bucharest in the Morning. Photos: Rafaela Silva |
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| Beautiful Sibiu. Photos: Rafaela Silva |
Romanian 101: A few things you could learn in romanian!
Thank you: Multçumesc
Good morning: Buna dimineata
Good evening: Buna seara
Good night: Naopta buna
Hello: Buna or Salut
Goodbye: La rivedere
Excuse me: Scuzați-mă
Cheers and Good Luck: Nôroc
With or Pleaseure or You're welcome: Cu păsere
Sergiu and Adelina: if you are reading this, I LOVE YOU! You are the best facilitators in the world and thank you so much for everything!
