CRAIOVA

LOCATION

Craiova is the 5th largest Romanian city, after Bucharest, Constanta, Iasi and Timisoara, the capital of the county of Dolj, situated near the East bank of the river Jiu in central Oltenia. It is a long time political center, and is located at approximately equal distances from the Southern Carpathians (north) and the Danube (south).

HISTORY

Craiova, which occupied the site of the Dacian and Roman city Pelendava, was formerly the capital of Oltenia. Its ancient bans, the highest ranking boyars of the Wallachian state, initially those of the Craioveşti family. The bans had the right of minting coins stamped with their own effigies - the origin of the Romanian word ban as used for coins. Because of that Craiova is also known today as “Cetatea Banilor” which in a free translation means “The fortress of the money”.


TRANSPORT

The public transportation in Craiova consists of 3 trolley tram lines and 17 bus lines. It is operated by the Regia Autonomă de Transport Craiova (RAT Craiova), a corporation ran by City Hall. A ticket for one travel is around 0.5€.
Craiova is also a major railway center and is connected to all other major Romanian cities, as well as local destinations, through the national Căile Ferate Române network. Check the national railway timetable for an appropriate connection.
The town taxicabs are very cheap. For an usual travel you don't pay more than 2€ (around 0.3€/km).
The city is served by the Craiova Airport.

Bucharest in short

BUCHAREST

LOCATION
Bucharest is the capital city and industrial and commercial centre of Romania. It is located in the southeast of the country and lies on the banks of the Dâmboviţa River.

CLIMATE
Bucharest has a continental climate, characterised by hot dry summers and cold winters. Due to its position on the Romanian Plain, the city's winters could get windy, even though some of the winds are mitigated due to urbanisation. Winter temperatures are often below 0 °C (32 °F), even though they rarely drop below −10 °C (14 °F). In summer, the average temperature is approximately 23 °C (73 °F) (the average for July and August), despite the fact that temperatures sometimes reach 35 °C (95 °F) to 40 °C (104 °F) in mid-summer in the city centre. Although average precipitation and humidity during summer is low, there are infrequent yet heavy and often violent storms. During spring and autumn, temperatures vary between 18 °C (64 °F) to 22 °C (72 °F), and precipitation during this time tends to be higher than in summer, with more frequent yet milder periods of rain.

DEMOGRAPHICS
The city's population, according to the 2002 census, is 1,926,334 inhabitants,[12] or 8.9% of the total population of Romania. Additionally, there are about 50,000 people who commute to the city every day, mainly from the surrounding Ilfov county.
Approximately 97% of the population of Bucharest are ethnic Romanians, with the second largest ethnic group being the Roma, which make up 1.4% of the population. Other significant ethnic groups are Hungarians (0.3%), Jews (0.1%), Turks (0,1%) and Germans (0,1%). Some other inhabitants of Bucharest are of Greek, Armenian, Lipovan and Italian descent. The Greeks and the Armenians used to play significant roles in the life of the city at the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century.
In terms of religion, 96.1% of the population are Romanian Orthodox, 1.2% are Roman Catholic, 0.5% are Muslim and 0.4% are Eastern Rite-Catholic. Despite this, only 24% of the population, of any religion, attend a place of worship once a week or more.