Sometimes described as the Wild West of Eastern Europe, or the only Latin country in a sea of Slavic countries, today we visit Romania. I don’t know very much about Romania, however, everything I do know about Romania is very interesting. Well, interesting to me at least.

Everything is fascinating, whether it’s the mountainous, castle filled region of Transylvania, or simply palincă, a lethal moonshine that gave me a horrendous hangover after my office Christmas party a few years ago.

I’m also particularly transfixed by Romania’s Communist past. Outside of the Soviet Union and in the barbarous hands of Nicolae Ceaușescu Romania arguably had a harder time than any other country in Eastern Europe.

By the 1980s, Ceaușescu had all but bankrupted Romania. The situation was so bad that coffee wasn’t even available. Instead, people were encouraged to drink nechezol, a substance made from a tiny amount of coffee, barley, oats, chickpeas and chestnuts. Not the ideal way to get your caffeine fix. Nechezol literally translates to “neigh”, because it was only fit for consumption by horses.

While regular Romanian’s were drinking nechezol and largely going about their daily lives on horse and carriages, Ceaușescu was spending vast sums of money on vanity infrastructure projects. The most notable of these are Ceaușescu's folly, otherwise known as the Transfăgărășean highway and the gargantuan Palace of the Parliament. 

The Palace of the Parliament is the world’s heaviest building and is still not completed despite construction starting in 1984. When construction started, residents living on the site were giving less than a day’s notice to vacate their homes before they were razed. 40,000 people were displaced from their homes to make way for this monstrosity. 

I’ll leave you with a few, slightly more positive facts about Romania. For example, Romania has an underground glacier. I had no idea such things existed, it has seven wonders, and finally, Romania is home of Dacia, the tiny, underdog car maker which has had a phenomenal rise in the past 15 years.

Romania, you’ve made it near the top of my list of places I’d love to visit!