A Little Bit of History Lesson About Romania

Our hotel, Radisson Blu provided us an excellent reading book in our room pertaining to Romania. It was fascinating to know that fossils of the oldest human bones (Neanderthal) was found in present day Romania almost 35,000 years ago.

During the Dark Ages this territory was fought over and conquered by numerous tribes or peoples including the Goths, Visigoths, Huns, Gepids, Avars, Bulgarians and eventually Slavs.

“The earliest written evidence of people living in the territory of the present-day Romania comes from Herodotus in book IV of his Histories written c. 440 BCE. Herein he writes that the tribal confederation of the Getaewere defeated by the Persian Emperor Darius the Great during his campaign against the Scythians.^[11] The Dacians, widely accepted as part of the Getae described earlier by the Greeks, were a branch of Thracians that inhabited Dacia (corresponding to modern Romania, Moldova, northern Bulgaria and surroundings)”. – Wikipedia

Being in Istanbul yesterday, it was interesting to connect Turkey’s history during the Ottoman Empire’s rule and that of Romania who resisted in vain despite seeking assistance with other Balkan states.

Like many of the Eastern European countries, Romania became a satellite of the former USSR. It was a stable country until the Red Army occupied it in 1944. Romania’s deterioration continued under the communist regime of Nicolae Ceausescu (he was summarily executed in 1989) who ruled for forty years. The fall of the Berlin Wall and the disintegration of the Soviet Bloc returned Romania to Europe.

Today, Romania continues to grow economically along with the other European Union countries (Romania joined the EU in 2007). It has a stable population of over 19 million. Like Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian and Catalan, Romanian is a Romanic language (I recognized lots of word with Latin roots).

This morning, Trini and I decided to go out and do some exploration. We donned our favorite water-resistant jackets on top of layers and layers of clothing. Careful of avoiding slippery ice we slowly trudged the sidewalks choosing the fresh snow from the slushy ones (more slippery). A few folks (some women) were shoveling their store fronts which we were thankful.

Several blocks after we started, we decided it was time to go inside a café to get warm and eat breakfast. French Bakery, a cozy café with bicycles hung on the walls for decor was the first open one we saw. We sat there for over an hour just like most of the customers (young ones who just wanted to use the free WiFi).

Warmed up and hunger satisfied, we went looking for a supermarket to buy fruits and bottled water. After asking at least three locals who were very eager to help, we found a small but well-stocked supermarket.