- 1. OVERCOMING PREJUDICES THROUGH FAIRY TALESCOMENIUS school
partnerships 2012-2014 Rgas Juglas vidusskola Riga, LATVIA Avcilar
lisesi Istanbul, TURKEY Profesionalna gimnaziya "IVAN
HADZHIENOVKazanlak, BULGARIA Grup scolar CONSTANTIN BRANCOVEANU
Horezu,ROMANIA
2. Romania is a country, located at the crossroads
ofSoutheastern and Central Europe, on the LowerDanube, north of the
Balkan Peninsula and thewestern shore of the Black Sea. Romania
shares aborder with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraineand
Moldova to the northeast and east, and Bulgariato the south. 3.
With 238,391 square kilometres, Romania isthe ninth largest country
of the EuropeanUnion by area, and has the 7th largestpopulation of
the European Union with over 22million people. Its capital and
largest city isBucharest the 6th largest city in theEuropean Union.
4. The coat of arms of RomaniaAs a central element it shows a
golden eagle holding across in its beak and a mace and a sword in
its claws.It also consists of the three colors: red, yellow,
andblue, which represent the colors of the national flag. 5.
Romanian currencyThe leu, plural lei,is the currency ofRomania. It
issubdivided into100 bani.Romania is among the fewcountries in the
worldwhich use plastic orpolymer banknotes. Theyare cleaner, more
difficultto forge and last longerthan the paper ones. 6. Romania
has magical castles, medieval towns andamazing mountain trails to
go hiking. Brasov,Sighisoara, Sinaya, Sibiu and the Danube delta
areplaces full of charm and favourite tourist destinations. 7.
Bucharest was alsoknown as the LittleParis. With a quarterof the
population inRomania having studiedFrench and Romaniabeing the
mainFrancophone country inthe region, its notamazing that you
canfeel the spirit of Parishere. Romanians havetheir mini Arch
ofTriumph, RomanianChamps-Elysees andCharles de Gaullestatue. 8.
Historically, French was the predominant foreign languagespoken in
Romania, but English has since superseded it. 9. The Palace of
Chaushescuor The Palace of Parliament -the second largest
administrative building inthe world after the Pentagon. 10. The
Palace of Parliament It took 20,000 workers and 700 architects to
build it. Thepalace boasts 12 stories, 1,100 rooms, a 328-ft-long
lobbyand four underground levels, including an enormous
nuclearbunker, and another four in different stages of completion.
Itwas built at the cost of 3.3 billion dollars and the demolitionof
nearly the whole historical part of Bucharest twentychurches, two
monasteries and a stadium. 11. Romania was the only Eastern Bloc
countrywhose Communist government was overthrownviolently. 12. In
most international rankings, Romania is among the firstplaces in
the world based on the speed of its Internetservice, being
surpassed by Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan,and Latvia.There isnt
underground cabling in Romania, so itscommon to see cables hanging
above your head inthe cities. 13. There are bicycle lanes almost
everywhere inBucharest. In some place they are even two-way! 14.
Romanian creativity is impressive the park in front of the Palace
of Parliament has turnedinto a real jungle of tyres. 15. The horror
story of Count Dracula was inspired by Vlad III,Prince of
Wallachia, who lived in the 15th century andwhose reputation for
excessive cruelty spread all overEurope and brought him the name
Vlad the Impaler. 16. Oin is a Romanian traditional sport, similar
in manyways to baseball and lapta. 17. Some traditional Romanian
dishes are chifteles, mici, sarmale,pork stew with garlic and
onions, doughnuts with cream andcheese, various ciorbe, iahnie de
fasole and various appetizersmade of eggplant, peppers or other
vegetables.Some of the dishes were influenced by Turkish cuisine as
Romaniawas under the rule of the Ottoman Empire for 276 years. 18.
During the centuries Romanians have dealt with trade pottery,
furriery, weaving. 19. Foreigners are greatly impressed by Romanian
hospitality.The Italian traveler Niccolo Barsi said There arent
peoplemore hospitable than the Romanians. 20. Mrior (Martenitsa in
Bulgarian) is an old Romaniancelebration similar to Bulgarian Baba
Marta. On March the1st, people give friends and relatives talismans
made fromwhite and red thread or wool.According to a legend the
custom dates back to the 7thcentury and is connected with Bulgarian
Khan Asparukh. 21. Bulgarian-Romanian relations 22. Mamaliga, Roma,
Chaushescu, Danube bridgeand the Romanian Revolution, broadcast
live on TV,form the popular image of Romania among Bulgarians. 23.
The oldest extant document written in Romanian isNeacu's letter
(1521) and was written using Cyrillicletters. The Cyrillic alphabet
remained in use up untilthe late 19th century. 24. During Bulgarian
Revival a lot of Bulgarianrevolutionaries found refuge in free
Romania inBucharest, Braila, Brasov Bulgarian national heroeslike
Hristo Botev and Vasil Levski prepared from therethe liberation of
Bulgaria from the Ottoman Empire. 25. Today two bridges over the
Danube connect Bulgariaand Romania, shortening the distances and
drawingthe two peoples together.Danube bridge 1 TheBridge of
Friendship connectsRuse and GiurgiuDanube bridge 2connects Vidin
and Calafat. 26. The two neighboring countries joined together the
bigfamily of the European Union in 2007. 27. The economic crisis
forced a lot of Bulgarians andRomanians to emigrate abroad in
search of better-paidjobs, parting with families and friends. 28.
The most common stereotypesthat Bulgarians have about Romania 29.
1. Romania is a place, haunted by vampiresThere are no vampires in
Transylvania. Also, theres nothingcreepy about it and people living
there dont have thatfunny accent youve heard in Hollywood films.
Whatvampires really do nowadays is attracting tourists andbringing
money into the country. 30. 2. Romanians were under
Russianinfluence during the CommunismRomanians dont speak Russian.
People were forced tolearn Russian during the Communism but this
hasntbeen the case since 1990. 31. 3. Most of Romanian population
are RomasRoma people (so-called Gypsies) make up only 2.5%
ofRomanias over 22 million people. A surprising number ofpeople
seem to think Romanians are the minority. 32. 4. Budapest is
Romanias capital cityBucharest is Romanias capital city, while
Budapest isactually Hungarys. This is something that many peopleget
wrong. 33. 5. Younger Romanians want to emigrate into a
WesternEuropean country and admire things modern andWestern, while
the older generations tend to recallthe security of jobs and life
that Communism offered. 34. From Bulgaria with love!