Romania in the Press

There is another Transylvania.
Back and back I have returned to it, as though ineluctably, and lucky in every case.

As I learned during my recent visit, there's also plenty of beauty to take in while traveling around this country.

Just North of Bucharest, I left this century behind, and an hour later, the last one fell by the wayside, too.

Cheese and tree bark don't seem like a natural fit. But this specialty of southeast Transylvania, may go as far back as the 14th century.

Architectural historians have described the monastery churches, some shaped like gnomes in slouch hats, as Byzantine churches built with Gothic hands.

SIBIU has for centuries been a centre of culture, faith and scholarship, and it was in the forefront of the Romanian revolution of the late 1980s...

JIDVEI - Établi dans la commune de Jidvei depuis 1949, le domaine est le plus important producteur de vin blanc du pays.

This is the area where most travelers gravitate to if they've got some time, which they rightfully should.

GURA HUMORULUI, Romania - One of those blessed realms where sacred and secular monuments have enriched the enchanting natural landscape.

BUCHAREST, Romania - The largely bucolic region is full of picturesque hamlets that remained intact through the country's Communist era.

Whichever road we choose from here will take us on a journey not only across Romania's capital but also through a cross section of the city's history.

At Moldovita, sightseers taking tours led by some of the resident nuns mingle with worshippers lighting votive candles or offering prayers before icons.

It has soaring whitewashed towers and a picturesque courtyard, while the rooms are connected by winding staircases (and secret passages)...

Is easy to start believing when you drive into the Carpathian Mountains and wind your way through the old forests and into the desolate mountain passes.

Who says that death can't have its lighter side? Even if you can't read Romanian, the simple paintings on the cross tell unmistakable tales of their own.

BUCHAREST, Romania - Far cheaper than Prague or Budapest, Bucharest offers much of the culture of the neighboring capitals without the crowds.

TRANSYLVANIA, Romania - While Bran Castle, the towering fortress most closely associated with Vlad the Impaler, is 41 miles away...

BUCHAREST, Romania - Less difficult to imagine was Bucharest's earlier history, when the city was known as the Paris of the East.

SAPANTA, Romania - Death, when it visits this isolated town in a forgotten corner of Europe, comes laughing - in the guise, almost, of a comic book.

TRANSYLVANIA, Romania - ...There are real-life counts, castles and crags, towers, turrets, bears and bats, not to mention mist-wreathed valleys and more folk legends than you can shake a stick at.

SAPANTA, Romania - Death, when it visits this isolated town in a forgotten corner of Europe, comes laughing - in the guise, almost, of a comic book.

TRANSYLVANIA, Romania - ...There are real-life counts, castles and crags, towers, turrets, bears and bats, not to mention mist-wreathed valleys and more folk legends than you can shake a stick at.

TRANSYLVANIA, Romania - Hay. Beautiful.
Farmers in Transylvania have created a landscape of flower-filled hay meadows. Can they endure?

As you step through the castle doors, you're instantly swept away to another time, transfixed with visions of grandeur, ornate banquet halls, and red velvet robes.

BUCHAREST, Romania - The State Jewish Theater is one of the few vestiges of what was once a large Jewish community in Romania, and one of the few professional Yiddish-language theaters left in Europe.

It's called tuica, a clear and gut-warming potent spirit distilled from plums, one of the country's most bountiful crops.