Romania surprises with its Romance language roots. The central-eastern European country is surrounded by Slavic languages in Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine and Moldova, plus Hungary’s Uralic language. Romanians trace descent from the ancient Romans, and their language is most similar to Italian.

The scenic Carpathian Mountains curve through this country the size of Oregon. Part of that curve is also known as the Transylvanian Alps. Here Saxon Germans and Hungarians have influenced the area since medieval times. A major visitor draw is Bran, purported castle of Dracula.

Built by Saxons 1377-1388, Bran Castle is a national monument and landmark in Transylvania. However, Vlad Țepeș aka Vlad Dracula aka Vlad the Impaler never visited or occupied Bran Castle during his life (1431-1476). Author Bram Stoker, who wrote the fictional novel about the vampire Count Dracula, simply borrowed Dracula’s name and a description of Bran Castle (never having visited it) to write his horror story.

As our tour guide said: “visitors come to Transylvania wanting Dracula, so Bran Castle gives them Dracula.” Some castle rooms feature past Dracula movie clips and hokey vampire displays. Most of the interior castle exhibits are devoted to Queen Marie of Romania, who acquired the castle in 1920 and restored it as her favorite residence.

I visited Romania this fall on a Road Scholar tour that started in Romania’s capital, Bucharest. My group traveled north to Braslov and then Bucovina’s famous painted monasteries before ending in Cluj-Napoca, center of the Transylvania region.

Prominent in Bucharest is Revolution Square. Here the Romanian Revolution of 1989 culminated to oust cruel dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu and end of 42 years of Communist rule. Nearby is the massive Palace of the Parliament, built by Ceaușescu to be his luxurious seat of government and secure residence – while the Romanian people suffered severe economic hardship.

This is second largest building in the world after the Pentagon. It has 1,100 rooms and 30 lavish halls, plus a 600-seat theatre. It is also the world’s heaviest building, sinking slightly each year from its sheer weight. Today this ornate palace houses the two chambers of Romania’s Parliament, and the halls are available to rent for occasions; much of the building is not used.

Then we visited quite another opulent building – Peleș Castle near Sinaia in the Carpathian Mountains. This neo-Renaissance palace was built 1873-1883 for King Carol I of Romania. Sometimes called the “most beautiful castle in Europe,” Peleș was the summer residence of the royal family until Communists forced the abdication of King Michael I in 1947.

Peleș Castle boasts Murano crystal chandeliers, German stained-glass windows and Cordoba leather-covered walls. It has 160 rooms total; the main rooms are each decorated in a different theme as with the Music Room (India), Turkish Salon and Great Salon (Italy). The castle also showcases King Carol I’s weaponry collection. More than 400 European and Oriental pieces dating from the 15th to the 19th centuries are on display, including the armor for a knight and horse that together weigh 265 pounds.

Continuing north, we drove through the dramatic Bicaz Gorge. The Carpathian Mountains provide habitat for the largest European populations of brown bears, wolves, chamois and lynxes, plus reintroduced European bison. In the Bucovina area, our cell phones suddenly blared a bear sighting alert!

Next we visited three of the famous painted monasteries in Bucovina, a part of Romania’s Moldova region.

These Romanian Orthodox monasteries are extraordinary for their colorful exterior frescoes depicting dramatic religious scenes. Interior frescoes also feature imaginative scenes from Jesus’ life, saints and prophets, angels and demons, heaven and hell. Built in the 15th and 16th centuries, the monasteries preserve masterpieces of Byzantine art as UNESCO World heritage sites.

The Voronet Monastery (1488) is the best known, often called “the Sistine Chapel of the East.” Its Last Judgment is an amazing fresco with a distinctive blue background; the color is known as “Voronet Blue” worldwide. Voronet is now occupied and operated by nuns rather than monks.

Then we visited the Moldovita and Sucevita monasteries, very similar in architecture and frescos yet equally amazing. The highlight of Moldovita (1537) is a large fresco of the Siege of Constantinople. Sucevita (1581) was the last of the 22 painted churches originally built in Bucovina. It has the largest frescoes of all the monasteries, including a vivid depiction of the Ladder to Paradise: angels raise up the righteous, sinners fall through the rungs and devils herd them into hell.

Cluj-Napoca is the hub of the Transylvania region, Romania’s second largest city and a big university town with 80,000-100,000 students. From there we did an excursion to the 394-foot-deep Turda Salt Mine. Turda is actually several mining shafts, all dug by hand, dating from 1690 to 1932 when production ceased. Turda has since served as a bomb shelter, cheese warehouse, health sanitarium and now tourist attraction with a subterranean amusement park.

We descended deep shafts in glass elevators to marvel at an underground world of salt that continues to coat everything. The 1740 Joseph Mine has a powerful echo chamber effect that’s fun to try out. The 1854 Ruldolf Mine now hosts a mini-amusement park with a Ferris wheel, mini-golf, bowling, billiards and ping pong. The oldest 1690 Terezia Mine is the most spectacular; an underground lake surrounds a salt island at its bottom. Here you can have a coffee at the café or rent a boat to row past stunning salt patterns and formations 367 feet below the earth’s surface.

Like its southern neighbor Bulgaria, Romania was part of the Communist Eastern Block after World War II but never officially part of the USSR. Romania became a democracy in 1990, joined NATO in 2002 and the European Union in 2007. Last March, it became one of the newest members of Europe’s Schengen Area, which allows travel between member countries without border controls.

— By Julie Gangler

Julie Gangler visited Romania on the Road Scholar tour, Treasures of Romania. She is a freelance writer who has worked as a media relations consultant for the Snohomish County Tourism Bureau. She began her career as a staff writer at Sunset Magazine and later was the Alaska/Northwest correspondent for Travel Agent Magazine.