On Monday, Romanian, Slovakian, Czech and Lithuanian students met at the school in Bals. Students were introduced to the headmaster and then they could see the whole school area. We met pupils of all ages in the Romanian school - from tiny first graders in braces to graduates. After the school tour, we presented the family customs and traditions in each country and found that we have a lot common traditions. After lunch we went back to school to watch and then learn traditional Romanian dances.
On Tuesday, we went for the longest trip of the week, to the town of Bran, where Dracula's castle is located. After the initial monotonous journey, the Romanian nature has shown us its full beauty, including the snow-topped mountains. Dracula's castle did not look so scary, even Dracula did not reside in it. The most haunted part of the castle was the torture chamber, where the authors of torture instruments did not suffer from a lack of imagination. Dracula's Castle was followed by a trip to Peles Castle, which was not full of secrets, but was very nicely furnished and well-preserved.
On Wednesday we went to the nearby town of Craiova. After a short tour of the city and visit of the Orthodox church, we viewed the art gallery and moved to the regional museum. Here we have become familiar with regional traditions, the traditional work of farmers and craftsmen. A glass painting workshop followed.
On Thursday morning we moved to Sibiu with a very nice historical center. We continued from the city to the ASTRA National Museum Complex. During lunch at a traditional local restaurant, it was raining heavily, but it seemed like the ghost of a magic wand stopped raining when we had to visit the museum. The weather allowed us to become familiar with the traditional architecture and work in the Romanian countryside. Then we (again before the rain) hid in the main building of the museum, where we took part in workshops focused on weaving.
The week went very fast and on Friday morning we went back to school for a mobility assessment and certification. In the afternoon we moved to a nearby ranch where we tried horseback riding, painting Easter eggs and preparing traditional Romanian sarmale food. Then there was dancing and mutual learning of the country's traditional dances.