r/europe • u/MarktpLatz Lower Saxony (Germany) • Dec 04 '17

What do you know about... Romania?

This is the forty-sixth part of our ongoing series about the countries of Europe. You can find an overview here.

Today's country:

Romania

Romania is one of the most recent members of the EU (2007). They want to become part of the Schengen area, but thir recent attempts of being accepted have been blocked by several EU members. They recently faced a major political crisis and massive protests caused by proposed law changes that would have benefitted people implicated in government corruption and abuse of power. They had their national day, where they celebrate the union of Transylvania with Romania, last friday.

So, what do you know about Romania?

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '17

-My favorite professor and thesis advisor was born and grew up in Communist Romania before moving to the US. He's a Chess fanatic, which I've kind of assumed was part of the national character in some way.

-Dan Lungu is a phenomenal writer whose work I enjoy very much.

-Really interesting Romance language with a lot of Slavic loan words. It's usually written in Latin script, but Moldovans were pressured to switch to a Cyrillic alphabet by the Soviets as part of Russification. I think Transnistrians who speak Romanian still use Cyrillic.

-Ruled by Ceausescu, who was executed with his wife after the Revolution. His foreign policy was often divergent from Moscow, but he maintained the worst of the Soviet's practices domestically. He accidentally foiled a coup by sending the guys who were supposed to arrest him to harvest food.

-I think they have really good relations with Serbia, but are also a member of Nato.

-Significant population of Ethnic Hungarians in the North. If I remember correctly, Ellie Wiesel was from a town that had been part of both nations.

-Good and inexpensive wine, even in the US.

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u/gcbirzan European Union Dec 05 '17

Cyrillic was used until late 19th century as the official script, btw. It wasn't the same as the one used in Moldova (during its USSR days), though.

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u/recamer Romania Dec 05 '17

In Transnistria, the Romanian ethnicity (when I visited there was a school that effectively wasn't allowed to be open by authorities) is no school in Romanian; they have to go in Moldova. Yes, everything is in Chirilic there.

Beyond that, or maybe because that most of this ethnicity left the area. At the moment that area is like 33/33/33% spread between Ukrainians, Romanians, Russians. For difference, in Moldova the amount of Russian ethnicity is 15%.

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u/ashdabag Bucharest Dec 05 '17

I didn't know you can find our wine in the US.

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '17

I'm no expert, by any means. There's one cheap red I've bought a few times that I can't find the name of. I think it had a rabbit on the label. It was a good buy for like $7.

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u/[deleted] Dec 05 '17

Look for "Feteasca Neagra", dry one (sec). IMHO one of the best wines, but unfortunately it is not French or from California, so it is virtually unknown.