nPostednon December 1, 2013
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nPeoplenin Romania are celebrating the unification of Romanian provincesninto one nation today. n
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nTransylvanianand two smaller regions joined together with Moldova and Wallachianon this date in 1918 to make “Greater Romania”—which is why thisnholiday is sometimes called “Great Union Day.”
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Wait!nTransylvania?
Wait!nTransylvania?n
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nYes,nthat Transylvania. The one we associate with vampires, thanksnto Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. (Of course such vampires and Dracula are fictional.)
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Therenis a gorgeous castle in Transylvania that is named Bran Castle but that is oftenncalled Dracula’s Castle. For no good reason, apparently; Draculanauthor Stoker was inspired by a prince named Vlad thenImpaler as he wrote his fictional tale, but Vlad had no realnconnection with Bran Castle, and Stoker himself had a locale in the Transylvanian Alps in mind for his fictional castlenfor his fictional character! Still, I can understand how tempting itnis to lure tourists with the familiar name… Speaking of tourists, the tourists who visit Bran Castle can admirenthe art and furniture collected by Queen Marie and can then go to thenopen air museum outside the castle, where a traditional Romaniannpeasant cottage, a barn, and other structures are on exhibit.
Therenis a gorgeous castle in Transylvania that is named Bran Castle but that is oftenncalled Dracula’s Castle. For no good reason, apparently; Draculanauthor Stoker was inspired by a prince named Vlad thenImpaler as he wrote his fictional tale, but Vlad had no realnconnection with Bran Castle, and Stoker himself had a locale in the Transylvanian Alps in mind for his fictional castlenfor his fictional character! Still, I can understand how tempting itnis to lure tourists with the familiar name… Speaking of tourists, the tourists who visit Bran Castle can admirenthe art and furniture collected by Queen Marie and can then go to thenopen air museum outside the castle, where a traditional Romaniannpeasant cottage, a barn, and other structures are on exhibit.n
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| Transylvania is known for its beautiful scenery. |
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nTherenis a lot more to Romania than just Dracula and Transylvania, ofncourse! There is the world-famous Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci, and of course many other great Romaniangymnasts, including rhythmic gymnasts, over the years. The scientist who discoveredninsulin, Nicolae Paulescu, was Romanian, and many other discoveries in science and innovations in technology have been made in Romania. It is said to be among the nations with the highestnnumber of computer programmers in the world—even though the countrynis smaller than the U.S. state of Michigan.
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nOnenthing that is unusual about Romania is that in 2005 its currencynradically changed. Four zeroes were dropped from the monetary unit,nwhich is called a leu. What would’ve cost 10,000 leu with the old money now costnjust one leu with the new, reduced-zero money. That must’ve taken some getting used to!
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n(Ofncourse, that didn’t mean that everyone was suddenly rich! If a workernwas earning 300,000 old leu an hour, he started earning 30 new leu annhour (which would be close to ten U.S. dollars an hour). n
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nBynthe way, it seems that Romania is taking steps to convert to theneuro. That would be another enormous shift in money matters withinnjust a decade!
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nAlsonon this date:
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Skywarn Recognition Day n
Skywarn Recognition Day n
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nRosanParks Day
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nPortugal’s Restorationnof Independence Day
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nPlannahead:
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nChecknout my Pinterest pages on:
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nDecembern holidays
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nDecembern birthdays
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- Historicaln anniversaries in December
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nAndnhere are my Pinterest boards for:
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nJanuary holidays
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nJanuary birthdays
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nHistorical anniversaries in January
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