The Beyond Journal

The Maramures Village Museum wasn’t on my list … In fact I might have skipped it –  I’m not really fond of museums. But I got the recommendation from an old local man.  I loved it! I think you might too.  If you’re lucky like me, the sun will shine. And you’ll have a perfect […]

Since honesty is always the best policy, I must start with a confession: I have not visited Romania yet. I flew over it a couple of times, but it was cloudy, so it’s safe to say I have never touched or even spotted Romanian soil. Not for much longer, though! This summer, I am finally […]

The thinning snow cover on the surrounding hills melts away as the dawn’s first rays seem to kiss it away. The only sound you hear is the gentle murmur of ice water running down your lodging’s roof. Your gaze meanders between the green hills. It’s time to go. As you leave the family-run hotel, you […]

With the second most important tourism event just behind us, I was pondering on what makes us travel. I often ask myself this question because for me traveling is vital so I wonder if we all have the “bug” or just some. My theory is that we all love to travel; some might not travel […]

Romania has had beautiful sunny days for Christmas with temperatures that often we have for Easter. Except for a few parts of the country (especially the mountains), we did not have snow this year. One of these lucky locations to get white in time for Santa’s arrival is Viscri. As a dear friend told me […]

The short answer to the question above is: nothing. Except for sharing a few letters and for being both related to Romania, Raluca and Dracula have nothing in common. The idea for this article came from some (not a few!) incidents in which people not familiar with the name “Raluca”, would call me RaCULA instead. […]