Romania has the majestic castles, medieval towns, great hiking and wildlife, and cheap skiing of much of the 'undiscovered' former Eastern Bloc. You'll be floored at how different it is, but you'll almost certainly see signs that it's chasing the dreams of the rest of the West.

Romania's capital lies on the Wallachian plains, between the Carpathian foothills and the DanubeRiver. In the 1930s it was known as 'the Paris of the East'. Since then, earthquakes, WWII bombing and Ceausescu have combined to destroy much of its prewar beauty.

The focal point of what locals dubbed 'Ceausima' is the enormous 12-storey Palace of Parliament, intended to be the largest building in the world (it comes second to the Pentagon). Central Bucharest has some classic beauty, a 16th-century Old Court Church that contains stunning preserved frescoes.

Horse-drawn carts jostle for space against fast cars whose drivers are talking money on mobile phones; farm workers watch Baywatch on satellite in their medieval farmhouses. Romania is clawing itself forward, slowly and surely sloughing off the remnants of the Ceausescu era. Content by Lonely Planet Publications

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