South-East Europe

• EU & NATO member, with a coastline on the Black Sea
• Neighbours: Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Moldova
• Capital: Bucharest
• About 19 million people — one of the EU’s larger countries

Erasmus România

We speak a Latin language

Romanian is a Romance language — a cousin of Italian, Spanish and French. Not Slavic, not Russian!

Erasmus România

Wild & green

• The Carpathian Mountains cross the whole country
• One of Europe's largest brown bear populations
• The Danube Delta — a UNESCO site with 300+ bird species
• Some of Europe's last virgin forests

Erasmus România

"The best road in the world"

The Transfăgărășan — named the best road in the world by the TV show Top Gear in 2009. 90 km of mountain hairpins climbing to over 2,000 m, open only in summer. Romania has a second stunning alpine road too: the Transalpina.

Erasmus România

World firsts

• The Palace of the Parliament — the heaviest building in the world
• Timișoara — first European city with electric street lighting (1884)
• Sighișoara — an inhabited medieval citadel (UNESCO)

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You may know them

• Nadia Comăneci — first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics (1976)
• Constantin Brâncuși — father of modern sculpture
• George Enescu — composer & violinist
• Gheorghe Hagi — football legend, “the Maradona of the Carpathians”

Erasmus România

Things you use

• The fountain pen — patented by Petrache Poenaru (France, 1827)
• The Coandă effect in aerodynamics (Henri Coandă)
• Key research behind insulin (Nicolae Paulescu)

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Old & alive

• Mărțișor — a red-and-white spring charm, worn on 1 March (UNESCO)
• The "ia" — embroidered blouse (UNESCO)
• Dragobete — the Romanian day of love
• The Hora — a circle dance; everyone joins hands. We’ll teach you!

Erasmus România

Taste Romania

Come to our stand and try a bite — sweet, savoury and a little surprising.

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Craiova

• Capital of the Oltenia region, in the south-west
• Romanescu Park — its design won gold at the 1900 Paris World’s Fair
• Where the sculptor Brâncuși first studied, as a teenager
• An art museum, a university & passionate football fans

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Myth-busting

• Our capital is Bucharest — not Budapest
• Dracula is fiction — but the castles are very real
• We don't speak Russian
• Never part of the USSR · safe, modern, in the EU

Erasmus România

Let's play!

• Taste it blind — guess the snack
• Learn 5 words in Romanian
• Mini-quiz — win a treat
• Dance the Hora with us
• True or false? about Romania

Erasmus România