Romanian facts and figures

Exchange rate: one British Pound = 60,177 lei

ATM(Bancomat)
ATM machines are available at main banks and at airports and shopping centers. Do not expect to find ATMs in remote areas or villages.

Credit cards
Major credit cards including American Express, Mastercard and Visa are accepted in large hotels, car rental companies and stores in the main cities. However, credit cards are unlikely to prove useful in small towns or away from tourist areas.

Travelers' Checks
Preferably in US dollars or Euros, Travelers' Checks can be cashed in large banks, some hotels and selected exchange offices but most of them charge considerable commissions. Do not count on cashing such checks outside Bucharest and a few other major cities. For travel around the country it is a good idea to carry cash. Small stores and restaurants might accept U.S. Dollars in small denominations ($ 1, 5, 10 and 20) but the exchange rate offered will not be the best. Street handicraft vendors prefer Romanian currency.

Below are some price samples:

Note: Prices in luxury hotels and upscale restaurants in Bucharest can be as high as those in Western Europe.

Folklore and customs
The Western traveller coming from a world where urban life has for long imprinted on rural life will be amazed to find Romanian women spinning wool like they used to in the old times or. knitting linen or carpets on the old weaving mill. The peasant here still makes the sign of the cross facing the East where the light is coming from before and after dinner. He also blows three times imitating the sign of the cross before drinking water from the pitcher to send the bad spirits away.

Festivals and other festivities mark important moments all over the year. They celebrate religious fests - Easter, Christmas - and other important dates in the agricultural calendar such as Harvesting Day, the Festival of the Mutton or the Measuring of the Milk. The last one is linked to the departure of the lambs to the mountains, in the month of May. The Horezu Cockerel is one of the most important pottery fairs which is organised in May as well In June. there's the Girls' Market - a unique display of music and folklore. which takes place on the Gaina (Hen) Mountain , in the Apuseni ( Western) Mountains Moreover, the Romanian round dance Hora Prislop brings together thousands and thousands of people and folklore bands from Suceava, Bistrita and Maramures in a special display of popular outfits and dance.

Tourists are literally spellbound when witnessing old Romanian popular dances such as, the "Calusarii" or the "Hora". "Calusarii" is a ritual fertility dance for the connoisseurs while "Hora" is a round dance open to all the villagers on Sundays, when people gather to party. "Invartita", "Hategana", "Batuta" and -Banu Varacine" are further dances that, due to their dizzying rhythm and succession of steps give a sample of each region's specificity.

Traditional dance from Maramures, "Easter". The knocking of painted eggs symbolises the sacrifice of the divinity and is done according to strict rules whereby the older person always strikes first. The red colour- the traditional colour for Easter eggs - signifies the blood of Christ... Egg painting is most varied as it involves geometrical shapes or, vegetal, animal and religious drawings. The main symbols are the vertical straight line, which symbolises life, the horizontal straight-line symbolising death, the straight double line symbolising eternity the line with rectangular shapes symbolising thought and knowledge and the slightly weaving line, which symbolises purification.

Romanian popular architecture can be admired in villages. One can also discover it in the many ethnographic museums to be found throughout the country. For instance, the Peasants' Museum in Bucharest was founded in 1936 and remains one of the largest museums of its kind in the world. The Transylvanian Ethnographic Museum in Cluj, the "Astral' Museum in Sibiu and the open-air museum from Ramnicu Valcea offer further examples. Traditionally, wood is not just the preferred material for building but for decorating too. The old wooden Maramures houses, many of which still have their original, centuries old roofs, are virtually priceless museums in terms of artistic and historical value. Interior and exterior models vary far and wide from one region to the other. In Bucovina, for example, the richly decorated houses are the norm whereby in Maramures, it is the monumental, carved gates that define the place.

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