Romania Through Their Eyes 👀
University of Pittsburgh students visit Romania
A few days ago, I met with a very special group.
While at Beyond Dracula most of our travelers are couples, families or small groups, this year we had a group of students come to do a Study Abroad in Romania.
For almost a full month, the students “attended” two courses while meeting a lot of people who shape the Romanian politics, cultural and social life. The courses were focused on Eastern European politics and on the formation of the Romanian identity.
The reason that made me want to be a part of this project was the opportunity to see what the students will observe and write about during their stay. As a bonus, their professor, Horia Dijmarescu, was fantastic to work with and the students who came were involved and took the study seriously.
When we met, I was curious to know what caught their attention while traveling around Romania.
There were three topics I took note of.
Romania’s beautiful nature
Travelers always mention this, so I pushed for more details. They said they found the Carpathians beautiful and even the green areas in the major cities felt like oases of peace. They noticed multiple times how human settlements were integrated with nature smoothly and how nature is left to its own devices.
They spoke about the joy of seeing sunsets, the smooth hills and how “you just let grass grow here”.
Many mentioned the air smelled good. It might be that they came when all the flowers were in bloom, especially the linden trees. But I don’t know for sure…
Stories of local people
Meeting people from hotel staff to guides, researchers, the Royal family, church and presidential representatives, craftsmen and activists opened the door to a lot of discussions which helped them see Romania as the multifaceted and layered country that it is.
Learning about Romania’s history and the present gave them a sense for the cultural diversity, the connection between the various historical regions, the cuisine and traditions that one finds when traveling around.
I cannot wait to read their reports and see how the ton of information they accumulated will settle and what new ideas will come to life.
Safety
They all mentioned how safe they felt. Some found Romania safer than other countries they have been to, including their own, USA.
We don’t brag about this and take the safety for granted, but it does count towards how one feels walking around, including at night. There is value in feeling safe when away from home, in knowing you and your belongings are not in danger.
What took me by surprise was the desire manifested by some of them to return, possibly to even continue their studies on a topic related to Romania. One of them said he never considered living abroad, but he is now seriously considering this and he wouldn’t want to live abroad somewhere in Western Europe but rather come East, to countries like Romania and Bulgaria.
You bet I want to know more. But I have to wait for a bit while they write their reports and while our team who interviewed them produces a few materials for us all to watch.
