The Beyond Journal

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. […]

One may legitimately wonder why does Prince Charles come so often to Romania, why did he buy and restore houses in Transylvania, and why does he repeatedly speak so highly of Romania and its people. Tour in Transylvania On my November trip around Transylvania, I stopped in two special locations: Miclosoara and Valea Zalanului. Just […]

A travel fair is quite an event; the World Travel Market (WTM) in London is THE fair. For people passionate about travel and for those generally curious about the world and all its beautiful corners, a travel show is like having your favorite sweet in a warm café on a cold and windy day: delightful! […]

Down under, in the Turda Salt Mine The Turda Salt Mine is one of the coolest places you’ll ever see, hands down. Iceland in the summer, the Giant’s Causeway or, to bring it closer to home, Salar de Uyuni kind of cool. When in Transylvania, make sure you include the newly pimped Turda Salt Mine […]

My wife and I were married in Arad, Romania and while making wedding preparations I was struck by a Romanian tradition. Invitations for Romanian weddings are handed out person to person and family to family. This tradition is meant to demonstrate respect for the relationship by giving each guest special attention and time to consider […]

Driving to the Danube River We left Timisoara on a chilly Friday morning. The weekend was reserved for photo shooting in nature. In mid October fall is at its best so capturing on camera the kaleidoscope of colors on hills’ slides and mountains couldn’t have been a better topic for our outing. After a pleasant […]