Topped only by the Pentagon, the Palace of Parliament is the second-largest administrative building in the world. A symbol of Ceaușescu’s megalomania, the building is 240 meters (787 feet) long, 270 meters (886 feet) wide, and 86 meters (282 feet) high. Built on 12 stories, the monument has 1,100 rooms. According to Guinness World Records, it is also the heaviest building on the planet. 

The Astra Museum of Folk Civilisation is an open-air museum located next to Sibiu, displaying more than 300 traditional houses, watermills, windmills, gigantic presses for wine, fruit, and oil, stables and barns, giving visitors the feeling of wandering around a traditional village. The museum is also the second-largest outdoor museum in the world. 

The Black Church of Brașov is unparalleled in Eastern Europe, being the biggest Gothic church between Vienna and Istanbul. Partially destroyed by the fire in 1689, the church’s walls darkened and so the church got its name. Inside, you can admire a magnificent Bucholz organ and the biggest collection of oriental carpets in Europe. 

The Merry Cemetery is located in the village of Săpânța and is surely the most unique of its kind. Creation of local folk artist Stan Ioan Pătraș, the cemetery exhibits painted crosses adorned with satirical epitaphs, revealing the deceased’s message for the living world. This joyful attitude towards death comes from the Dacians, Romanian ancestors, who believed that death was only a passage to a better life. 

Crossing the south of Romania, the Danube forms a wonderful delta before flowing into the Black Sea. The Danube Delta is home to 23 natural ecosystems, and from April to September is home to more than 300 bird species that come to live on the delta’s channels and lakes. 

In a small village north of Romania, an array of old churches have been carved in wood by the people from Maramureș. In the region, there is a whole competition around the marvelous wooden churches, some of them inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list as secular expressions of the region’s architecture. In Săpânța-Peri, a 78-meter (255-feet) church raises majestically to the skies and is allegedly the tallest wooden church in Europe. 

The category ciorbă includes a wide range of soups with a characteristic sour taste. Variations include meat and vegetable soup, tripe (ciorbă de burtă) and calf foot soup, or fish soup, all of which are soured by lemon juice, sauerkraut juice (zeamă de varză), vinegar, or borș (traditionally made from bran). 

This original Turkish dish slowly became integrated into Romania's culture after the Romanian principalities became vassals of the Ottoman Empire. Sarmale are a central part of Romanian cuisine and are the national dish of Romania. It usually consists of minced pork, rice, onion, eggs, thyme, and dill rolled in a leaf, usually a cabbage leaf. 

Papanași is doughnut-shaped with the doughnut hole on top. The dough is made with a soft cheese such as urdă, substitutes include ricotta and cottage cheese. Papanași are served covered in crème fraîche or heavy cream or sour cream, and topped with sour cherries, jam or preserves.