Transylvania

Romanian is sooo cool. It has so many different backgrounds and influences that when I listen to it, almost sounds like a mixture of languages. That is definitely a generalization, but let me give you some examples. Thank you is “merci” (same as French); potato is cartolfen (same in German) yes is “da” (same in Russian). There are Latin and Slavic roots all over the place.  There is a lot of Latin based because the Romans colonized Romania in the 1^st century B.C., A German king later ruled Romania in the 14^th century, Russia had it’s influences too.

Transylvania is SO pretty. There is a huge mountain range and tons of really cool medieval castles and towns. The air is fresh and things are completely beautiful no matter the season. There are a lot of ski resorts that I would say are almost equivalently cool as in the mountains of Utah.

There are two stereotypes that I have heard a lot of people have about Romania, neither of which are true: 1: Everyone is a vampire here. 2) Romania is full of gypsies.

If I say Romania, is the first thing you think of a vampire? Well pop culture has made vampires seem like the dominant characteristic of Romania. This came from the Book “Dracula” by Bram Stoker and was later made into a movie. It was a myth based off of Vlad the Impaler- who used to impale and torture his enemies (the Turks from the Ottoman empire who were invading at the time). He would try to make their death as long and agonizing as possible. This story was somehow exaggerated and shifted to Dracula the blood-sucking vampire. Even the castle that he allegedly lived in pleasantly wasn’t as touristy as I would have expected- there were only a couple of shops selling vampire products and there was only one room in the castle that mentioned Vlad the Impaler and the book Dracula. Maybe I should read the book to see what all the hype is about. In reality, Transylvania is just a really pretty place. I got to go see three castles while I was there: one of which is the castle imaged as the castle that was “Dracula’s”.

The other stereotype I think is mostly only popularly known in Europe. When gypsies are seen in Western Europe people automatically think they are from Romania and vice-versa, if a person if from Romania people assume that they are a gypsie. I thought that being a gypsie was the title of the profession, like someone who begs. Wrong. Gypsies are an ethnic group that is stereotypically beggars. Most people think it would be dangerous to go to Romania because of the association with gypsies. I met some girls at the hostel I was staying at last night who are teaching English in Spain, they said that everyone they told that they were going to Romania for vacation told them that it is really dangerous and scary (even though they had never been there). When I was in Spain last summer I heard a lot of bad talk about Romanians. A lot of Romanians are really annoyed with this stereotype because gypsies make up a small proportion of Romania and even then not all gypsies are thieves or beggars. When people in English say “You got Gyped”, it is referring to gypsies- which can actually be thought of as racist considering it is an ethnic group. Roma is the preferred and more politically correct title.