Vacations Blog

Unique tradition, wonderful landscapes and virgin forests along with friendly and open people, Romania makes a great place to visit and once visited, you’re surely coming back!

Unique tradition, wonderful landscapes and virgin forests along with friendly and open people, Romania makes a great place to visit and once visited, you’re surely coming back!

A few years ago if you had asked someone where Romania was they would have said, “I don’t know”. These days almost everybody has heard in one way or another of this small country, what they don’t know is that Romania is a great place to come if you want to experience things in a more laid back fashion. In Romania you can hike, visit the Black sea, the monasteries or just find out about the Romanian culture.

Transylvania

Transylvania is the place that sparks the imagination: Dracula, dark spooky castles, mountains covered in mist…well Transylvania does have all that and more.
Ok, ok maybe there isn’t a real Dracula that drinks everybody’s blood, but there was a Vlad Tepes that ruled his people with an iron fist. It is from him that the Dracula legends came from.

Brasov is the place to go if you are interested in seeing monuments dating back to the 14th century, there are the Black Churches and a, “must see” is “Castelul Bran”, the castle where the prince Vlad Tepes lived and reigned.

Also while you are in the area make sure you visit the “Peles Palace”, it was built in 1883 by King Carol.

The Peles Palace was built in a sophisticated architecture and it is right at the foot of the mountains that gives the place a story like landscape.

Another place of interest in Transylvania is Sighisoara , this town is one of the oldest medieval cities in all of Europe! Cobblestone streets, ancient towers and secret passages, Sighisoara has them all!

Wherever you chose to go in Transylvania you can be sure to find people still living in their traditional ways, you will get to see people dress in the traditional clothing and you will get to eat homemade cheese and traditional food. What more could a person want?

Maramures

No place in the world can compare to this small corner of Romania (in the north of the country); people have kept their traditions for generations, and this truly is a place where change comes with scant steps. The best time of year to come to Maramures is either in the winter or the spring.

During the winter holidays, people dress up in big sheepskin costumes (as a popular tradition of the place)and wear big ugly masks representing different animals, now these costumes have big bells on them and the men run up and down the streets making the bells ring. In December, in Sighet (a small town of the county), all the different people, with their costumes, come from the surrounding villages celebrating and having fun with different contest in town. If you want to see something unique, this is the place to come!

During the spring, especially around Easter, you can see people in their colorful, traditional clothes taking baskets of food to the priest to be blessed. The churches in Maramures are usually very big with huge bell towers in them, to call everybody to church on Sundays.

In Sapanta, a village near Sighet, is the “Cimitirul Vesel”, or the “Merry Cemetery”; in this cemetery all the headstones have poems or short stories about the people buried there. This is the only place in the world where you can find something like that!

The Black Sea

If you like the sea, go to the Black Sea! Huge expanses of golden sand for sunbathing, beautiful water and gorgeous florae and fauna. There are places to go all up and down the coast where you can find good hotels and just nice spots for vacation.

The Danube Delta

People that went to wonderful and famous places all around the world claim that The Danube Delta is a place they will never forget. This gorgeous landscape is formed by Danube River after a 2860 Km of flowing from Germany to the Black Sea. The river, in its course, gathers the tributary streams from 10 different countries, and no wonder that at its final, it covers a surface of 2681 square kilometers, and it is increasing every year with 40 m because of the 67 million tones of alluvial deposits brought by the river. If you go there, you will be surprised by over 1200 different species of plants and trees, more than 300 species of birds, which is the richest collection from all Europe, and 100 types of fish.

This natural reservation is unique in whole Europe! If you want to see nature in its beauty, there is the place to go. Many other places are waiting for you to visit. Virgin woods and spots that will make you feel one with nature.

With friendly people and a whole lot of locations to see and enjoy, Romania has something for everybody and that makes it a great place to visit!

By Claudia Miclaus

The Valley of the kings is a place full of history and all its visitors can surely reassure you of that. Egypt and his mysteries are waiting for you to discover them as well!

Gates of the King, better known as Valley of the Kings, is a valley that can be found in Egypt where tombs for the Pharaohs were built for about 500 years; not only the pharaohs but basically if you were rich enough and powerful enough in the Egyptian society, then you got to have your tomb built there. This valley can be found along the west bank of the Nile river right across form Thebes now known as Luxor. Even though the name is in the singular, the “Valley” is actually made up of two valleys, the East Valley and the West Valley.

This is arguable the most famous archaeological sight in the world, we have had archaeologists digging in the dirt in these valley for many years…what made it famous though is the fact that it was here where they discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen; you know the tomb that had the curse of the pharaohs on it?

The Hills of Thebes have one hill in particular that dominates all the rest, it is known(translated) as “The Peak” and it is thought that this is what gave rise to the pyramids of the Old Kingdom. They think that because the hill is being seen on the form of a pyramid when you look at it from the right distance.

The Isolation of the area allowed the tombs to be guarded because of the reduced access. It is strange that what has come to be a symbol in the world’s eyes of ancient Egypt ( the pyramids on the Giza Plateau) really is not the way they did things back then; most of the tombs that can be found were cut out of rock, even most pyramids have sections in them that were cut out of solid rock, you can even find solid rock tombs that date back thousands of years! So what is with the pyramid craze?

There was a time when Egypt was not united, they had separate rulers and separate ideas; when the country was united, at long last the pharaohs wanted to show off their new power and the only way that they could think of to do this, was to build these huge elaborate tombs that told everybody what great people they were.

The Valley itself has about 63 tombs, the first being that of Thutmose the first and the last being Ramesses X. Like I mentioned before, even though the valley is called “Valley of the Kings”, there were all kinds of nobles buried there and nobles wives and children, so instead of calling it “Valley of the Kings” they should have called it “Valley of the Rich and Powerful”.

During the eighteenth dynasty, the only people that got to have big beautiful tombs were the kings themselves; when somebody was buried that was not of royal blood, they got to have a much smaller tomb, basically a chamber cut into the rock, this tomb was usually near the tomb of his master…kind of interesting when you think about it.

There was a little village called Deir el-Medina, this is where the workers lived; they built the tombs and decorated them. People have been interested in this place for a while, this has been he sight for major modern Egyptological exploration…before this it was just a place for tourism (a few hundred years ago of course). The strange thing is that even though they have been exploring this place for years, only eleven of the tombs have ever been completely recorded….now why is that? Eleven out of 63.

The Gate of the King, it might be gate of the King but almost all of the tombs have been ransacked…so much for having even a little bit of respect for the dead.

Today tourism is going on good in the valley, there are usually about 16 tombs open to the public (never at the same time of course). Photography is not allowed and people are expected to touch nothing and to walk in single file through the tomb not making a sound (don’t want to disturb the dead you know).

The Gate of the King is an interesting place with an even more interesting history. I highly recommend visiting if you ever get the chance!

By Claudia Miclaus

London’s bridges offer great views of the city but of course each bridge has its story and distinctive personality and some of them are loaded with history. Discover them!

I do not know under how many bridges of Thames, the heroes of the English writer Jerome K. have passed, “Three in a boat…”, but I have numbered at least four of them dating back in those times: Chelsea Bridge, Westminster Bridge, Blackfriars Bridge and Tower Bridge. These, as well as seven more, cross Thames, through all London.

Vauxhall

Built in 1916, this is the first London Bridge on which trams circulated. It is unique because of the bronze figures placed at its endings, figures that represent the Agriculture, the Architecture, the Beautiful Arts, Education and Science. A closed illustration for the creativity of the human kind is the Tate Art Gallery built for the decoration of the bridge. The gallery received the first 65 paintings from a noble of the last century. Today, the rooms of the Tate Art Gallery are full of thousands of paintings and sculptures, a true national collection, from the Renascence till our days.

Lambeth

On the four peaks of the bridge, your eyes are caught by the pineapple fruits carved there to remind of John Tradescant, a landscape painter from the court of Charles the 1st, the illustrious gardener that brought the pineapple in England. On one of the banks of the river, the huge building of the Lambeth Palace virtuously shows its dignity, the London residence of the Canterbury archbishop.

Westminster

The Westminster Bridge is particularly visited, especially for nocturne pictures of St. Stephan tower, which hosts the well-known horologe Big-Ben; of the Congress Palace and of the two towers of the Westminster Abbey, all reflected in a fairy-like light and out of the ordinary in the same time, due to the hue of yellow and green. This tower, as simple as it looks, has been around for almost 150 years.

Waterloo

The Waterloo Bridge, a grandiose construction believed to offer one of the most beautiful views of London, was designed by Lord Giles Gilbert Scott .It was made from reinforced concrete and stone, with women as workers, during the last world war (well…hopefully last world war). Crossing Thames between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge, Waterloo Bridge is a road and a foot traffic bridge. Its name is given in the memory of the Waterloo Battle where the British won the victory in 1815.

Don’t miss the splendid view offered by the position of this bridge!You can see in a unique panorama the Wesminster, London Eye to the west and the Canary Wharf as well as the City of London in the est.

Blackfriars

Has the name of a XIII - century monastery, but it belongs to the XIX century, more exactly to the year 1869, when it was laid between the two sides of Thames. This bridge offers a gorgeous view of the Saint Paul Cathedral and of the old centre of London; on the left of the river as well as on the right, you rediscover the Shakespearian Globe Theatre. This right side displays, just as within a parade, dozens of monuments, connected with the world of theatre, of the movie, of big shows, and unnumbered large manifestations.

London Bridge

The history of this bridge goes back in time to the era of the roman invasion, from the first decades after Christ, when the capital city of England was named “Londinium”.

No later than 1179, King Henry the 2nd ordered the building of a new bridge, having at the half a chapel dedicated to the one that was Saint Thomas Beckett. It is known that the traitors’ heads were exposed at the extremities of this bridge in those dark times. Compared to other bridges in London, the London Bridge of today offers the largest traffic capacity.

Tower Bridge

As its name says, Tower Bridge belongs, symbolically to the well-known Tower of London, situated near by. Tower Bridge is an emblem for London, with its two twin towers and the two mobile components between them. The mobile parts of 1000 tones each can rise in only 90 seconds, with the help of a super machine.

Built between 1886 and 1894, Tower Bridge became a tourist attraction in no time due to its spectacular galleries, where the history of its building and the ingenuity of its machines is revealed. It is worth mentioning the fact that Tower bridge also offers an extraordinary view of Thames.

Discover the charm and distinctiveness of the London bridges!

By Claudia Miclaus

Did you know that the first country who organized sports at a national level is Britain? Although art might not have been their strongest point, they have things to be proud of nowadays.

Sports

Britain is known to be the first country to organize sport as national activity. In the second half of the nineteen century it organized an exported a number of games, notably football, rugby football, hockey, lawn tennis, golf and cricket. The initial purpose behind organized sports was to provide an outlet for youthful energies at public schools. It was generally believed to have character - building qualities for future leaders! However, it was not long before local businessmen began to organize football and other sports as recreational activity for their workforces. Football clubs quickly sprang up in towns and cities all over Britain, and football was rapidly taken into working-class culture. The Saturday afternoon match was an occasion which working - class men would attend, supporting their local team.

From the 1960’s, however, the character of football began to change. A fundamental reason was the financial one. As match attendances dropped, club sought external help from sponsorship and advertising. Commercial companies found this profitable. For example, Cornhill Insurance began to sponsor English ‘test’ cricket in 1980 at a cost of £4.5 million.

Beforehand only 2 per cent of the population had heard of Cornhill, while by 1985, 20 per cent had done so, Cornhill had almost doubled its turnover. The decline in spectators forced club managers to make their sporting events less occasions for local support and more displays of spectacular skill. Football clubs started buying and selling players.

Football had become big business, and immediately began to attract private investors. Multimillionaires and commercial enterprises soon took an interest and several bought control of particular clubs.

Over a century ago, the novelist Anthony Trollope listed the sports ‘essentially dear to the English nature’. These included hunting, shooting, rowing and horseracing. He was, of course, referring to the ‘gentleman class’, which through the public school established football, rugby and cricket as national games. A class dimension to sport persists. Because of the expense involved, hunting, rowing and horseracing have remained primarily upper-class pastimes. Golf is still to some extent financially segregated between exclusive private clubs and municipal facilities. Football remains essentially lower class, but with a growing middle-class following.

Sport remains one of the areas in which members of ethnic minorities have demonstrated their ability in a white dominated society, particularly in athletics, cricket and soccer. The black footballer, Paul Ince, has captained the English football team and the black sprinter, Lindford Christie, was the captain of the British men’s Olympic team in both 1992 and1996.

Arts

The British find discussion of their national artistic and intellectual life faintly embarrassing. As the great British art historian, Nikolaus Pevsner, himself a refugee immigrant, remarked over 30 years ago, ‘None of the other nations of Europe has so abject an inferiority complex about its own aesthetic capabilities as England.’

Nowadays, Britain has much to be proud of, though its artistic achievements are frequently better appreciated, and known, abroad than home.

As in fashion, the British seem to enjoy breaking the rules of the current modernist style, and this perhaps is what gives British art such originality. As one critic wrote recently, ‘British artists, who are currently enjoying the highest international standing, have been singularly unaffected by the much vaunted internationalism of the Modern Movement. English art is perhaps beginning to escape from insularity and provincialism though a rediscovery of its Englishness.’

Theater is a powerful instrument in education as well as art and culture. Another significant feature of British theater is a result of the intensive preparation and speed with which productions are staged and their short performance lifespan. Their intensity and freshness is not allowed to grow stale. Another important point, however, is the youthfulness of many of the best productions. Length of experience in Britain is not allowed to stand in the way of talent, and as a result, young people, some recently from drama school, perform many leading roles.

Since the 1960s Britain has achieved a special position in music. Britain remains at the forefront of pop music. At the start of the 1990’s, British pop music seemed to be rediscovering the spirit of the 1960’s. The new music marks a departure from the unrelaxed mood of the 1980’s, and is a declaration of freedom..

By Claudia Miclaus