An old letter from Romania

Hello, my friends.
I am Romania. Do you remember me? Or at least heard about me?

My ancestors have been here for more than 2000 years, but my birthday is considered to be December 1st, 1918, when all of my parts were put together and all my people were alowed to call themselves, legally, Romanians...

Because you are about to meet three of my daughters (Daniela, Micaela and Monica, all teachers, each of them from a different historical province of my territory (Banat - in the West, distinct part of the larger Transylvania, Moldavia - in the East and Valachia, in the south), who will speak in my name during their journey in the New World, I thought I should write to you and introduce myself first.

Here is something about how I look:
comprised of nearly circular steps, my landscape climbs toward the Carpathian Arch, then goes down to the middle of the country, where you can find wide valleys and hills covered with pastures, orchards, vineyards and crops.

Outward, plains and plateaus form the lowest level, with cities, large agricultural areas and hiding rich underground resources, followed inward by belts of hills with wells, orchards and vineyards.
The highest stepping stone, the mighty Carpathian Arch offers vast forests, raging waters that are sources of energy and depressions inhabited by man from the time of our ancestors, pasture hills where discrete flowers full of color and fragrance get lost among the grass. They are the Carpathians Mountains, that close the giant Transylvanian amphitheater.

To the south, in a wide blue arch, the Danube embraces the landscape in wet meadows, pastures and cornfields, also carrying its waters to the Black Sea, the old Pontus Euxinus of the ancient world, useful waterway in our time.






And here are some of my beautiful places:
- the Nature:

Mountain Landscapes

The Danube Delta

Danube Gorge

Wild Carpathia documentary

The Fagaras Mountains

The Bride's Veil Cascade, Rachitele, Cluj

- the cities (old and new, big and small):

Timisoara

Lugoj Municipality's Official Documentary

Our Hometown Lugoj

Romanian Cities part 1

Romanian Cities part 2

Romanian Cities part 3

Monasteries and Churches

Victor Socaciu - The Church of Love

Castles from Romania

The Peles Castle

"Dracula" 's Castle :) (Bran Castle, Vlad, the Impaler's Fortress, actually)

- the people:

50 people, one question (social experiment)

Romania - people, trades, tools

Water Mills in Rudaria, Caras Severin, Banat