- The students from Croatia traveled to Romania for an Erasmus+ exchange program. They spent a week attending classes and going on excursions in Romania. Some highlights included visiting Bran Castle (believed to be the inspiration for Dracula's castle), the historic city of Alba Iulia, and learning traditional Romanian crafts. The students had an unforgettable cultural experience but were sad to say goodbye to their new friends from other countries at the end of the trip.

1. Romanian diary
(12 – 19/3/2016)

2. So, our first Ersmus+ mobility has ended, our project has led us to Romania,
the ice breakers were students Ana Cerovski, Ana Knežević, Maja Ivšac, Luka
Pinturić i Mihael Pušec together with their teachers who cared for them the
whole week, Ivana Kujundžić and Dubravka Vuleša.
On Saturday, 12 October 2016, in the
afternoon we were off and on the
road, or better said trail. The situation
was promising, after almost four
months without a railway connection
between Zagreb and Budapest, three
days before the start of our journey
the train Zagreb - Budapest was back
on a trail again.

3. Our parents, the headmaster along with our teacher Tanja
Horvat walked us to the train. Our adventure was ready to start.

4.  The whole compartment was ours. The
excitement was in the air while we were merrily
gliding through Hungarian plain heading for
Budapest, teacher Ivana updated her facebook
status so that our hosts and Mr. Drakula would
know that we are coming. After six hours of
traveling, we were at Keleti train station and
feeling somewhat like traveling to Hogwarts, you
are able to see that from our photos. The train for
Romania was scheduled to leave in less than two
hours. We had time to exchange money for in
Croatia we could not find Romanian currency.
Besides, we needed some accessories for the
road and actually had time for sightseeing the
Budapest main train station during which we
accidentally entered a film set because it was the
only way to get us to the train for Romania. Well,
it was not real fun to find oneself in front of a
bunch of dead serious, armed WW2 German
soldiers, but then again it would be a great story
to tell.

5.  After the train Zagreb – Budapest, the one for Bucharest was a bit unpleasant, but
this is something that makes travelling interesting. We found our compartment and
were heading into the night, into Transylvania. In the morning, we were in Sibot
where taxi was waiting for us to drive us to Blaj where our hosts welcomed us. The
Sincel school headmistress was waiting for us in boarding house Montana Popa,
some parents had come too. We said goodbye to our teachers and went to our
hosts’ houses.
 The Romania was a different land, we knew that the moment we stepped out the
train in Sibotu. Not all roads were paved and our luggage had wheels. I think you
can see the problem!? At the same time, the people were great and everybody
tried to help us to get to the taxi that was waiting for us, in Romanian of course.

6. Monday, 14. March
 Our first day of school in Sincel was Monday, 14 March; it was also a day for
introductions, so it was important to leave as good impression as possible and to
present our school in a good way for now our teachers were not the only one who
was watching us. Everybody introduced their school and presented their students
together with their mascot.

7.  Mihael and Luka introduced our school and presented our mascot – little dragon.
Ana and Maja did a rap performance. All together, we were great and broke the ice.
Even our teachers were satisfied.
 After the lunch, we went to Alba Iulia, the capital city of the Alba region where
Sincel and Blaj are situated. We explored the landscape and with what we were
especially intrigued were utility poles with a jumble of wiring. We have not seen
that in Zagreb.

8.  From the moment we saw the town, it was obvious that the trip to Alba Iulia will be
great. We saw the walls that were enclosing the old town, roman remains and
underground hallways, numerous churches and the archaeological museum.
Unfortunately, we only visited the old town and as far as we could see from the
bus, the new part was beautiful to. Both buildings and streets seemed different
from those in Zagreb. They looked somewhat interesting. We had a guide who
talked about the past of Alba Iulia and its importance, about Habsburgs and
Ottomans, collision of people and cultures. We started to be tired because the day
was full of excitement and new encounters. In the evening, we were back to Sincel.

9. Tuesday, 15 March
 We attended classes. We attended mathematics, English and Romanian.
Afterwards we went to dance workshop where we tried to learn “brašovjanka” and
later we went to the art class. There we made some welcome spring postcards,
Romanians call them “Mărțișor” and we decorated some bowls with decoupage.
 After lunch we had a free afternoon. In the evening we went to see the traditional
show in the Sincel community hall. Through dance and song the hosts presented
themselves and welcomed us together with the mayor who wished us a pleasant
and happy stay in Sincel and Blaj.

10. Wednesday, 16 March
 We have spent the day sightseeing the area of Tarnava Mice, and getting to know
its cultural and historical sites. We visited ethnographic collection in Sincel,
churches in Balcaciu, Sanmiclausu and Jidvei, Bethlen castle and churches in Blaj.
We were all travelling in the polish bus and now we finally had a chance to get to
know better our contemporaries from other countries. They all travelled to
Romania together in a bus from Poland, so they already knew each other.
 We have spent the afternoon in families socializing because we needed to go to
bed earlier. New adventure was waiting for us tomorrow, a long trip to Brasov and
Bran Castle or better said Dracula’s castle.

11. Thursday, 17 March
 This was a day to remember. Nothing could do us wrong today, not even standing
up before 6:00 am. We were excited and full of expectations. We set off to Brasov
and Bran Castle at 7 am. We knew about the castle from stories about vampires
and from the Roman Polanski’s movie.
 We could hardly wait for the bus to arrive at the bus stop. By now we were good
with all of the students, but somehow we were best with those from Poland and
Slovakia. You can try to guess why, but like our teachers, Ivana and Dubravka, had
said, “What happens in Romania, stays in Romania”!
 After four hours of driving we found ourselves beneath Dracula’s castle, which has
some connections with Vlad III Dracula, whose biography was a muse for Irish
writer Bram Stoker and his Dracula character. The surroundings seemed a bit
spooky.

12. The taverns covered with fog, a lot of odd
looking people, and numerous stands with a
variety of scary souvenirs of which the most
numerous were fake wolf skins made in China. By
the way, we saw the same skins in Budapest. You
could also find masks for protecting people
against evil spirits, t-shirts with vampire teeth and
a sign “Smile from Transilvania” and of course
cured meat. The castle itself sits upon a steep cliff
and it can be reached by stairs in front of which is
a giant cross. At the entrance a guide was waiting
for us. His appearance fitted perfectly to the
ambient of the place we were. As teacher
Dubravka putted, he had this strange look in his
eyes. We explored the interior of the castle very
carefully, took a great many photographs and
slided down to the souvenir shop to plunder it.
While others were reading about Dracula, we
were here, in his chambers.

13.  And now we had to continue our journey to
Brasov. Before we arrived to Brasov, we
spotted an interesting thing, a giant sign with
the name of the town on the hills above it.
The town was beautiful, so not like what we
saw in Romania until today, very middle
European. It was time for lunch. We cozily set
down in a Pizza restaurant at the main town
square and had our lunch. We had some
spare time for exploring and for buying
souvenirs. On our way back to the bus, we
spent time to take photographs with friends
from Poland, Slovakia and other countries. It
seemed that it would be very hard to say
goodbye tomorrow. We came back to Sincel
late at night.

14. Friday, 18 March
 Was our last day in Romania. We have spent it socializing with other students and
doing sport. We all got up earlier to try to seize the day because we were bound to
travel back home that evening.

15.  Firstly, we visited a traditional rural estate
in Panada where a nice old woman
showed us how to spin wool and how to
weave on a loom but she also showed us
how to make dough for “pup”. Pup is a
kind of a cabbage cake. After we tried
some cake, we went to take a part in
some sporting activities. Our star Mihael
gave his first interview for Navsi school
television from Czech Republic. He did
that, of course, in Croatian and teacher
Ivana translated it into Czech.

16.  Tired from sporting activities we
could hardly wait for lunch to be
served. We had a traditional
Romanian soup that they call “ciorbă”
and in Romanian, it usually refers to
sour soups with pieces of meat. We
also had stuffed cabbage or how
Romanians call it sarmale with
traditional bread baked in a ring-
shaped form and for desert, we had a
walnut cake. Teacher Ivana, we are
sorry but the cake was delicious.
During the lunch, we had a chance to
listen to traditional Romanian music
and teacher Alina has promised that
she will bring us a CD when she
comes to Zagreb,

17.  We took a rest in the afternoon and then we went to a restaurant in Blaj and had a
farewell dinner. The dinner was tasty, but we did not care much about eating.
Mostly we talked while taking some final photographs and forging a new
rendezvous. The headmistress and teacher Dubravka delivered a farewell speech at
the end and we took a group Photograph. Czechs, Slovaks and Poles went into the
bus, they waved us and off they were. We almost cried and then went to our hosts’
houses to pack our things. We were departing later that evening.

18.  At about 10:00 pm we arrived at the boarding house where our teachers and the
headmistress were waiting for us. We had one final photo session with our hosts,
goodbye greetings with the headmistress and a promise to meet us again in
Zagreb. Taxi arrived at 22:30 and drived us to Vintu de Jos. The train was late for
half an hour so we had some fun waiting for it in that late hour of night while
talking about things that happened that week. Completely tired we boarded the
train, but instead of falling asleep, we started laughing and could not stop all until
Hungarian border.

19. Saturday, 19. March
 We arrived in sunny Budapest on Saturday morning. We left our luggage in the
station lockers and went to find food and to explore the City. The train for Zagreb
was living in the afternoon.

20.  The teachers took us to a famous shopping street Vaci where we had pizza, called
our parents and bought some more souvenirs. We walked a city and slowly headed
back to Keleti train station.
 We were at the end of our journey on a train from Budapest to Zagreb. We
watched our photos remembering the days we spent in Romania. At the train
station there they were, the same bunch of people that came to say goodbye, had
come to welcome us back. We were still full of impressions and could not stop
joking and laughing.

21. It was a remarkable, one and only experience, so
thanks to all who made it possible.
 Written by: Ana, Ana, Maja, Luka,
Mihael
 Corrections and editing: Ivana
Kujundžić, prof.
 Translated by: Dubravka Vuleša, prof.