Romanian Tourist Information Terminal - Probably everything you need to know about Romania.

As most of the world doesn't know much about Romania, I thought I'd make a small but detailed guide should anyone want to read it. I think that eventually I will expand this part of the site add more info, some pictures, and make it a website in its own right. Why? Because I find it slightly fustrating that almost everyone I met in England knows next to nothing about Romania, but knows lots about Italy, France, or Spain or the USA, etc. It is understandable, as people in the world, especially Western Europe were just as isolated form Eastern Europe as people in Eastern Europe was from the rest of the world. I guess this is my effort to create a small step to try and bridge the gap. =-)

I've included information of all the importnant aspects of Romania, and to be honest you will pobably find some things more intresting than others, so the best thing to do is to scroll down to the subheading that you are intrested in, and voila: Info!

Have fun!

"…why should you go to Romania? The straight answer is because it is one of the most beautiful countries of Southeast Europe." (The Blue Guide)

"Considered by many the most beautiful country in Eastern-Europe, Romania still claims regions that seem bastions of a medieval past long since lost elsewhere." (Fodor's Eastern and Central Europe)

Romania offers a rich tapestry of vacation experiences and tourist attractions and vacation experiences unique in Central-Eastern Europe: medieval towns in Transylvania, the world-famous Painted Monasteries in Bucovina, traditional villages in Maramures, the magnificent architecture of Bucharest, the romantic Danube Delta, fairy-tale castles, the Black Sea resorts, the majestic Carpathian Mountains, spas and much more.

Bucharest – known for its wide, tree lined boulevards, glorious Belle Époque buildings and reputation for the high life – Romania's capital was once known as "Little Paris". In the late 19th century Bucharest was remodeled by French and French-trained architects. There is even a Triumphal Arch on the elegant Soseaua Kiseleff, a boulevard longer than Paris' famed Champs-Elysees. Today Bucharest is experiencing renewed vigor. The city's architecture remains one of its main attractions. Highlights include the National Museum of Art, housed in the former Royal Palace, the National History Museum, featuring the Treasury's splendid gold collection and Herastrau Park's open-air Village Museum, a stunning collection of village architecture and crafts from throughout Romania. Bran Castle – a Gothic fairy-tale structure also known as Dracula's Castle, and Peles Castle – one of Europe's most exquisite, built in 1883 for King Carol I, are within one and a half hours drive from Bucharest. Bucharest is about 700 years old, not to be confused with the capitol of Hungary, Budapest. I was born in Bucharest. It's a large city, about 400 sq.km, with a population of around 2,200,000. The greater Bucharest area, including Bucharest has a population of about 3,500,000. Only one of the following photos is taken by me. The rest I've downloaded. Just to make sure that nobody is confused, all the other photos on this website apart from these, are taken by me. Well, the ones with me in them were probably taken by Luke or someone else. :-þ

The heart and soul of Romania are its remnants of medieval life and its peasant culture. Transylvania is perhaps Romania's best known province, immortalized in legend, literature and film as the homeland of Dracula. There are countless reasons to visit Transilvania including its dramatic landscape of rugged mountains, dense forests, dark caves and lowland valleys. The province is filled with medieval cities like Brasov, featuring old Saxon architecture and citadel ruins; Sibiu, with its cobblestone streets and pastel-colored houses, and Sighisoara – one of the best preserved medieval towns in Europe, adorned with a hilltop citadel, secret passageways and 14th century clock tower.

Maramures, an ancient province northwest of Transilvania, provides a look at another side of Romania. This is a land where rural farmers invite travelers into their homes to share a sip of "tuica" (a potent plum liquor) and a bit of homemade bread and cheese. Here the inhabitants have preserved to an amazing extent the rural culture and crafts of their Dacian ancestors. Elaborate wooden churches with tall spires and shingled roofs distinguish Maramures villages. Woodcarvings decorate the eaves, doorways and windows of houses. The famous Merry Cemetery of Sapinta is found here. People still attach benches and boxes to their gates, to hold bread and water for passing strangers.

East of Maramures, Bucovina is renowned for its painted monasteries, acclaimed as masterpieces of art and architecture. Their exteriors are covered with Byzantine-influenced frescoes of biblical scenes. Among the most notable are Voronet – built in 1448 and known as the Sistine Chapel of the East, Sucevita, Humor and Moldovita.

Spring, summer and fall abound with events and festivals. In early May Bucharest is the host of a one-week carnival. In late July Sighisoara's streets are the stage for the annual Medieval Arts Festival. The Halloween is celebrated as nowhere else in the world, with special tours retracing the route of Dracula novel. Music lovers will especially appreciate the George Enescu Classical Music Festival as well as numerous folk-music and dance festivals that take place, all year round, all over the country.

So, where is Romania? It is found in South-Eastern Europe, bordering Republic of Moldavia on the North-East, Ukraine on the North, Hungary on the North-West, Serbia and Montenegro on the South-West, Bulgraia on the South and the Black Sea on the East. Its surface area is: Total: 237,500 sq km Of which is land: 230,340 sq km And of which is Water: 7,160 sq km. It is roughly the same size as the United Kingdom, or the state of Oregon in the USA, and ranks 87th on surface area out of 267 countries counted by CIA. The population is: 22,355,551 people, and ranks 50th in the world, out of 238 countries counted by CIA. Romania is suffering form the same population loss as Western Europe: People aren't having as many children as they used to. This is partially due to lack of money, or that people are thinking about their careers and education and get married at an older age. The average child born per 1000 people is very low (10.69), critically, lower than the number of people dying per 1000 people (11.69, normal for a Western Europen country, low for an Eastern European country). The average child born per woman is only 1.35, so most families ony have one child. I am an only child myself. That and emigration means that Romania's population droped to it current level from about 23,500,000 in 1989. The population density in Romania is 97 people per Sq. Km. For example, in England, there are 377 people per Sq. Km. which is almost quadruple! There's loads of space. Probably the main reason why the fauna (animal and plant life) in Romania has thrived where as in most European countries it is on the brink of extintion, if not extinct.

Romania has flat plains, mountains (the Carpathians and Transylvanian Alps), and hills and plateaus in equal measure, around 30% of each. The average annual temperature is 52º F (11º C) in the south and 45º F (7º C) in the north, although, as noted, there is much variation according to altitude and related factors. Extreme temperatures range from 111º F (44º C) in the Baragan region to -36º F (-38º C) in the Brasov Depression. Average annual rainfall amounts to 26 inches (660 millimetres), but in the Carpathians it reaches about 55 inches (1,396 mm), and in the Dobrudja it is only about 16 inches (406 mm).

Some of the largest and oldest uninterrupted broad leafed forests in Europe are found here, and some of the largest soft wood forests west of Russia also. Romania has a large fauna, probably the largest excluding Russia. The Romanian Carpathians are home to the largest predator populations in Europe west of Russia. Although the area represents less than 2% of the European surface, brown bears (largest in Europe) number approximately 5,500 (that is about 50% of the total European population!!), wolves 2,500 (about 30%) and Lynx 1,500 (about 30%). Even though more than two thirds of the Romanian Carpathians are unspoiled forests, this mountain range is still inhabited by millions of people and used for livestock production, forestry, hunting, mushroom and berry picking. It is the only place in Europe where large carnivores live in fairly high densities and still are in close vicinity to humans. The rich and varied animal life in Romania also includes some rare species, notably the chamois, which is found on the Alpine heights of the Carpathians, and the Mountain Cock. Forest animals include the brown bear, red deer, wolf, fox, boar, lynx, marten and various songbirds.

The Carpatian Mountains and the Transylvanian Alps form an 'S' shape (or arch), cutting Romania roughly in half. The mountains are partially fold mountains, formed at the same time as the Alps, as the African plate is slowly pushing North against the Eurasian plate (where Europe and Asia are).

The highest peak on the mountains is the Moldoveanu peak found in the Fagaras Range, in the Transylvanian Alps, at an elevation of 2545 meters (8350 feet). The Fagaras range is part of a East-West ridge over a hundred kilometers long, where the average height of the mountains exeeds 2000 meters (6000 feet). They are composed mainly of hard crystalline and volcanic rocks, which give the region the massive aspect that differentiates it from the other divisions of the Carpathians. Together with the Bucegi, Parâng, and Retezat-Godeanu massifs, forms the major subdivision of the region. The last named contains Romania's only long-established national park, which, covering more than 140,000 acres (56,000 hectares), offers spectacular mountain scenery and provides an important refuge for the chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra) and other animals. Ancient erosion platforms, another distinguishing feature of the area, have been utilized as pastures since the dawn of European history. As you go West, the Transylvanian Alps turn into the Western Carpathians.

The Western Carpathians, which curve Southward into Serbia, but diving the two countries is a fault hundreds of meters deep. This fault was formed sometime in the distant past when a cataclysmic earthquake caused the fault, and the Romanian side of the mountains to drop by 300 meters! This and gave the Danube an easy, deep crossing path accross the mountains (a straight), which to this day it still takes. There, at the Iron Gates (Portile de Fier) on the Danube, a joint Romanian-Yugoslav navigation and power project has harnessed the fast-flowing waters of the gorge; its power station has a capacity exceeding two million kilowatts, and navigation facilities have been greatly improved. They extend for about 220 miles between the Danube and Somes rivers. Unlike the other divisions of the Carpathians, these do not form a continuous range but rather a cluster of massifs around a north-south axis. The massifs are separated by several deeply penetrating structural depressions. Historically, these depressions functioned as easily defendable "gates," as shown by their names: the Iron Gate of Transylvania (at Bistra); the Eastern Gate, or Poarta Orientala (at Timis-Cerna); and, the most famous one - the Iron Gate on the Danube. Among the massifs themselves, the Banat and Poiana Ruscai mountains contain a rich variety of mineral resources and are the site of two of the country's three largest metallurgical complexes, at Resita and Hunedoara. The marble of Ruschita is well known. To the north lie the Apuseni Mountains.

The Apuseni Mountains, centred on the Bihor Massif, from which fingerlike protrusions of lower relief emerge spectacularly. To the east the Bihor Mountains merge into the limestone tableland of Cetatile Ponorului, where the erosive action of water along joints in the rocks has created a fine example of the rugged karst type of scenery. To the west lie the parallel mountain ranges of Zarand, Codru-Moma, and Padurea Craiului; on the south, along the Mures River, the Metaliferi and Trascau mountains contain a great variety of metallic and other ores, with traces of ancient Roman mines still visible. The Apuseni Mountains, are very rich in natural resources and contains Europe's largest Gold deposit. In general, the Western Carpathians are less forested than other parts of the range, and human settlements can be found at high altitudes. The population maintains many traditional features in architecture, costumes, and social mores, and the old market centres, or nedei, are still important. Mining, livestock raising, and agriculture are the main economic activities, the latter being characterized by terrace cultivation on mountain slopes, which dates back to Roman times.

The Eastern Carpathians contain the longest chain inactive volcanoes in Europe. There are no active lava volcanoes in Romania, but there are a number of active mud volcanoes. They extend from the Ukrainian frontier to the Prahova River valley and reach their maximum height in the Rodna Mountains, with Pietrosu rising to 7,556 feet (2,303 metres). They are made up of a series of parallel crests that are more or less oriented into a north-south direction. Within these mountains there is a central core that is made up of hard, crystalline rocks and has a bold and rugged relief. Rivers have cut narrow gorges here (known locally as "chei")--in, for example, Cheile Bistritei and Bicazului--and these offer some magnificent scenery. This portion of the Carpathians is bounded on the eastern side by a zone of softer flysch. For some 250 miles on the western fringe, the volcanic ranges Oas and Harghita, with thei concentration of volcanic necks and cones, some with still preserved craters, lend character to the landscape. Sfânta Ana (St. Ana) Lake--the only crater lake in Romania-is also found here. The volcanic crescent provides rich mineral resources (notably copper, lead, and zinc) as well as the mineral-water springs near which several health resorts were founded. To a large extent, the Carpathian range proper is made up of easily weathered limestones and conglomerates, which provide some striking sceneries.

There are numerous caves in the karst deposits throughout Romania, some kilometers long. The most famous one by far, has to be the Movile cave. When Earth's climate changed 5.5 million years ago, the area went from being tropical to temperate. The only animals that survived were those living in warm caves underground. The Movile Cave is one of Earth's most unusual ecosystems, populated with invertebrates that have adapted -- through a process called troglomorphy -- to their underground prison where they are trapped for millions of years. They have done this by losing pigmentation, learning to navigate blind, surviving on bacteria and fungi that derive energy from the sulfide hot springs beneath the cave. The predatory leeches, rare water scorpions, and other inhabitants of Movile Cave are similar to species found in deep sea vent communities. They depend on chemoautotrophic organisms (users of chemical energy) instead of the more usual photoautotrophic organisms (users of photosynthetic energy). Forty-six species of terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates have thus far been identified to inhabit this ecosystem, of which 31 are of a previously unknown kind. The vast majority are anthropods belonging to the classes of Arachnida, Crustacea, Myriapoda, and Insecta. Eighteen aquatic species in the cave belong to the phyla Plathelminthes (flatworms), Nematoda (round worms), Rotifera (microscopic animals related to round worms), Annelida (segmented worms), etc. A blind leech, a snail, and a blind water-scorpion have also been identified. The discoveries include grazers such as four species of isopods, or pillbugs, six springtails, a millipede, and a bristletail. Among the new species of carnivores are two pseudoscorpions, a 2-inch-long centipede, a worm-sucking leech, four spiders, and a water scorpion. The cave is sealed and only scientists under strict conditions are allowed to enter. Another, but not quite as famous cave is the Bear Cave. This cave was found by accident, opened by quarry works in 1983. When scientists first explored this massive cave they found the bones of about 150 bears. It is throught that the cave's entrance caved in sometime in the past, trapping all the bears inside. They got hungry and ate eachother and eventually all died. It opened to the public in 1986.

The Black Sea is situated just North of the Mediterranean Sea. It isn't landlocked, nor a lake as many people think. It is connected to the Mediterranean Sea by the straigh of Bosphorus, a natural channel about 1 km wide which means that there is access to the ocean by ship. It's actually 2,244 meters deep (over 6,700 ft) and occupies 424,000 sq.km. By comparrison, the deepest point in the great lakes is Lake Superior with a depth of 444 meters (1,332 ft) and the total area occupied by all the great lakes put together is 244,000 sq.km. If you have a map of Europe, or the world, it's the relatively small sea just North of the Mediterranean Sea.

Everyone has heard of Noah's Flood, and proof has been found that a catastrophic flood of the Black Sea, around 6000 years ago, is linked with the Biblical story. Ancient stone tablets have been found in Armenia and Turkey that were referring to the Great Flood and the Black Sea. Back then the Black Sea was a landlocked lake. As the ice age was finishing, and the ice melted, the sea levels rose, but since the Black Sea was isolated, its levels didn't. Eventually, the Mediterranean Sea, which was about 130 meters higher (400 feet) spread and flooded the Black Sea. The Black Sea flooded and doubled its size all in about 2 days killing many people. In Romania and Bulgaria ancient underwater villages have been found that are quite deep and testimony to this. I bet you didn't know that!

I've swam in the Med, and in the Atlantic Ocean, and I prefer the Black Sea. Why? Because it's so much smaller thans the other seas, in the Summer months the water temperature can reach 23ºC! That's about as warm as a swimming pool. The Med by contrast is about 17ºC, and the Atlantic is about 14ºC! I swam in the Atlantic in Portugal and it was so cold that I never got used to the water and had to get out after about 15 minutes. This was in early September when it was 40ºC outside. I also like the Black Sea because the salinity level is very low, which means that it's not very salty, so your eyes wont sting like in the Med or the ocean. There is no tide either, so the beaches are really nice, and there's no danger.

The Danube Delta is a triangle of about 90 km a side, totalling 5,640 sq km. (2,200 sq miles). Every year, the alluviam brought in by the Danube increases the width of the Delta with around 40 meters, making it extremely dynamic, and making Romania bigger! It's the place where the great river Danube's 2,860 km ( 1788 miles) journey ends and it pours into the Black Sea. It is the second largest and best preserved delta in Europe with the largest reed beds in the world, floating islands. It hosts over 1,200 varieties of plants, 300 species of birds including some large predatory birds, as well as 45 freshwater fish species (including the caviar carying Sturgeon) in its numerous lakes and marshes making a unique place in Europe. The Danube Delta has been entered onto the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites and a reservation of the biosphere. Around 2,733 km² of it are strictly protected areas. This is the place where millions of birds from different places of Earth (European, Asian, African, Mediteraneean) come to lay their eggs. A great number of birds, including pelicans, swans, wild geese, ibis, and flamingos, are protected by law, as are boar and lynx. Indeed, the whole of the Delta has been turned into a biosphere reserve. Around 2,500 years ago, as Herodotus says that the Danube was divided in seven branches, it's now divided into 3 main ones. Inhabitants include around 15,000 people, most of them are living off fishing with their traditional wooden kayaks. It includes a community of Lippovans which are descendants of the Old Rite Followers who left Russia in 1772 to avoid religious persecutions.

The Delta isn't all in Romanian territory, around 90% of it is in Romania. The other 10% is in the Ukraine. In 2004, Ukraine inaugurated work on the Bastroe Channel that will provide a navigable link from the Black Sea to the Ukrainian section of the Danube Delta. The European Union urged Ukraine to shut it down, because it will damage the wetlands of the Delta. The Romanian side, committed to protecting the delta, said they will sue Ukraine at the International Court of Justice.

I'll start at the...start. The Carpathian-Danube region in which the Romanian ethnic community evolved was settled about 2000 BC by migratory Indo-Europeans who intermingled with native Neolithic peoples to form the Thracians. When Ionians and Dorians settled on the western shore of the Black Sea in the 7th century BC, the Thracians' descendants came into contact with the Greek world. The Greeks founded the cities of Histria, Tomis and Calatis around 650 BC, south of the Delta. They founded more, but these are among the earliest, and are found on the Romanian coast. Histria was destroyed by the Romans sometime later, but the other two survived and became the cities of Constanta (Tomis) and Mangalia (Calatis) which are still thriving today. Constanta is the second largest city in Romania and the third largest port in Europe. Anyway, the Greek historian Herodotus, writing in the 5th century BC, called these people Getae (Getians). Together with kindred tribes, known later to the Romans as Dacians, who lived in the mountains north of the Danubian Plain and in the Transylvanian Basin, the Getae developed a distinct society and culture by the second half of the 4th century BC.

The Dacians were a honorable and religious people, who litteraly believed that they were invincible in battle and could not be killed. They grew in power and reached their peak around 60 BC when Dacia, as a kingdom occupied roughly twice the size of Romania (about the size of France), from the Black Sea on the East, to where Budapest is today, and from the Balkans in the South, to North of Transcarpathia, in the North, with the capiol city Sarmisegetuza, in modern day Transylvania. As the Roman empire grew, it got closer to Dacia, and tensions grew as one of the Dacian kings formed an alliance between Dacia and Pompeii (rival of Rome). Some time later the Romans tried to conquer Dacia with their typical large armies, but failed to do so on two separate occasions. The Dacians were a clear foot taller than the Romans, and wielded giant 5 foot swords with a curved tip. This used to punch through the Roman armour and make quick work of it. Traian (Trajan), Emperor of Rome managed to conquer the southern part of Dacia, including its capitol, in 101 AD on the third attempt after modifying the armour of the entire army. In honour to his achievement, the Roman Senate built him a column called the Tajan's Column, found in Tajan's Forum in Rome, which depicts the battles against the Dacians on it. The column is 30 meters high (90 feet) and still stands to this day. Rome developed the region considerably, building roads, bridges, and a great wall that stretched from what is today the Black Sea port of Constanta across the region of Dobruja to the Danube River.

The Northen Dacia was still free but it's political structure crumbled over time. The Southern part of Dacia was made part of the Roman empire, used as a source for agriculture and slaves. Some of the Dacians joined the Roman Army as auxiliarys. The Dacian people were forced to speak Latin, and eventually forgot the Dacian Language. The Dacians eventually rebelled and kicked them out for good. As time went on, the Romanised Dacians, with their new language, a mix of Latin and a little Dacian, found a self identity as Romanians.

As the centuries passed, the Romanians grew stronger and a lot of the former Dacian territories were now divided up into many small Romanian states. Several main regions were created: Wallachia in the South, Transylvania in the center, Moldavia and Bessarabia in the East, Banat in the South-West, Crisana in the West, Maramures in the North-West and Dobruja in the South-East. Because they were divided, they were prone to invasion. The Huns came from the East in a great invasion force, some of which settling in what is now known as the Geat Plain of Hungary, and after a few hundred years the king of the Huns, king Stephen, united them, formed the Kingdom of Hungary in 1001. As the Hungarians expanded they slowly overtook the Western Romanian states, evnetually pushing all the way into Transylvania. The Bulgars (a Turkic tribe) came from the Caspian region in the East, and settled in what is now Bulgaria, taking the southern states. The Slavs came from the North-East and settled in what is now Ukraine, and in Serbia. This time period was known as the Great Migrations. As the different peoples gethered a foothold in Europe, they expanded, overlapping on the Romanians. During the 13th and 14th centuries, Walachia was involved in frequent struggles against Hungary. In the 15th century the rulers of the Ottoman Empire began to extend their conquests northward. Walachia was forced to capitulate to the Ottomans, although its leadership, territory, and religion were not changed. Direct Ottoman rule was not felt in Walachia until after the Ottomans defeated the Hungarians at the Battle of Mohács in 1526. At the end of the 16th century, a Walachian voivode, Michael the Brave, led a revolt against the Ottomans and succeeded in bringing Walachia, Moldavia, and Transylvania under his rule for a very brief period. Michael is the national hero of Romania for his part in this uprising and for being the first to combine the three territories that were to form Romania. After Michael’s defeat and death in 1601, the Hungarians ruled over Transylvania and the Ottomans regained control of Moldavia and Walachia. To this day there are minorities of Romanians in the north and east, and ancient Romanians (Aromanians in the south of the Danube). In Transylvania, Banat and Maramures, the Romanians were under the Austro-Hungarian rule but they always had majority, an ethnic majority if you like, right up until 1920. When the first world war concluded, the Allies helf a refferendum in these regions, and were given to Romania after the majority of the votes were for joining Romania as opposed to staying part of Hungary.

Things have changed since then too. In the second world war, the King of Romania, King Carol related to Queen Elisabeth II's Royal Family and to the German Royal Family had established totalitarian control of Romania and decided to join the war as part of the Axis and an allied satelite state of Germany. As the Russians won the battle of Stalingrad, destroying the 6th German army and two Romanian armies, they pushed West, attacking Romania and anexing the eastern half of Moldavia and the northen half of Bucovina. The Bulgarians seized the opportunity and anexed the southern part of Dobruja. The Romanian people revolted and overthrew the King. His son, Michael was put in place, but by then it was too late. Romania did join the war again, this time on the Allies side, but those regions were never returned to Romania. Part of the anexed Moldavia gained indipendance in 1991, but the strong Russian influence there prevented it from rejoining Romania. Romanian is the official language there, but it is still ruled by Communists, and is very poor, but perhaps one day they will rejoin with their bretheren. As for the other parts, Romanians are a minority there nowadays and the chance of them joining Romania in a referrendum is very slim. This is mainly because the majority of Romanians in those areas were either displaced or forced to migrate.

Romanian culture is largely derived from the Roman, with strains of Slavic, Magyar (Hungarian), Greek, and Turkish influence. Poems, folktales, and folk music have always held a central place in Romanian culture. Romanian literature, art, and music attained maturity in the 19th century. Although Romania has been influenced by divergent Western trends, it also has a rich native culture. Romanian art, like Romanian literature, reached its peak during the 19th century. Among the leading painters were Theodor Aman, a portraitist, and landscape painter Nicolae Grigorescu. Between 1945 and 1989 Romanian art was dominated by socialist realism, a school of art that was officially sponsored by the Communist government, and through which socialist ideals were promoted and advanced. A notable contribution to modern concepts of 20th-century art was the work of Romanian-born French sculptor Constantin Brancusi.

The Romanian language, although developing over the centuries in difficult historical conditions, is as Latin as any other Romance language and, like the culture as a whole, continues to exhibit a remarkable vitality. This fact is perhaps paralleled by some of the Modernist tendencies in the Romanian fine arts: the sculptor Constantin Brancusi, a promoter of absolute Modernism coupled with a firm sense of classical Mediterranean values, had great international influence early in the 20th century. Romanian poets and writers, too, have operated in a cultural tradition somewhat different from that in neighbouring countries; in architecture, the Bucharest television centre is but one example of another Modernist trend.

The political and economic changes that have taken place in Romania since the 1980s have made daily life difficult for many ordinary citizens. Food prices are high relative to the country’s low minimum wage, making it difficult to afford luxuries. One-family houses are common in Romania’s villages, while most city dwellers live in one-family apartments. Most apartment buildings were built during the Communist period and are cramped with minimal facilities. In Romania there are 133 passenger cars and 167 telephones for every 1,000 inhabitants.

Romania began the transition from Communism in 1989 with a largely obsolete industrial base and a pattern of output unsuited to the country's needs. The country emerged in 2000 from a punishing three-year recession thanks to strong demand in EU export markets. Despite the global slowdown in 2001-02, strong domestic activity in construction, agriculture, and consumption have kept growth above 4%. An IMF Standby Agreement, signed in 2001, has been accompanied by slow but palpable gains in privatization, deficit reduction, and the curbing of inflation. The IMF Board approved Romania's completion of the standby agreement in October 2003, the first time Romania has successfully concluded an IMF agreement since the 1989 revolution. Nonetheless, recent macroeconomic gains have done little to address Romania's poverty, while corruption and red tape hinder foreign investment.

Romania was the first country of Central and Eastern Europe to have official relations with the European Community. In 1974, an agreement included Romania in the Community's Generalised System of Preferences and an Agreement on Industrial Products was signed in 1980. Romania's diplomatic relations with the European Union date from 1990, and a Trade and Co-operation Agreement was signed in 1991. The Europe Agreement entered into force in February 1995. Trade provisions had entered into force in 1993 through an "Interim Agreement". Romania submitted its application for EU membership on June 22, 1995. In July 1997, the Commission published an "Opinion on Romania's Application for Membership of the European Union". In the following year, a Regular Report on Romania's Progress Towards Accession" was produced. In its second "Regular Report" on Romania published in October 1999, the Commission recommended starting accession negotiations with Romania (conditional on the improvement of the situation of children in institutional care and the drafting of a medium-term economic strategy). Following the Helsinki European Council's decision in December 1999, accession negotiations started with Romania on February 15, 2000. Romania's objective is EU membership in 2007. The Thessaloniki Summit Conclusions in 2003 stated that the EU supports this objective. Romania’s aim is to gain EU membership in 2007, and although there have been some problems, most of these have been overcome and hopefully it will join alongside Bulgaria.

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