The Romanian language has a curious tendency to adopt English compound nouns, then rip them apart and use only a part of them to refer to the whole. A “living” means living room, a “parking” is a countable parking slot, and “fresh” is Romanian for a freshly pressed juice. This can get mildly confusing when the words are re-introduced into English (which happens).

If an elderly person in Romania goes out of their way to help you with something, there's a traditional way of showing your appreciation: gift them half a kilo of coffee. Sometimes, such a “baksheesh” is even given before any help is offered. Why coffee? It used to be a luxury … and due to gentrification and sky-rocketing costs of living, it might be one again, soon.

The 800,000 Romanian citizens in Germany have adapted very well to their new home to the point where they are virtually invisible. Thus, they lack the political lobby and cultural impact other immigrant groups have. A culinary example: The Italians brought pizza, the Greeks gyros, and Turks in Berlin invented the döner kebab … but where are the sarmale bistros?

Romania is the country with the most religious population (Special Eurobarometer 341) and the largest diaspora relative to size (Eurostat) in the European Union. Also, Romania has the best broadband internet connection speed (Speedtest.net). And Romania is the largest exporter of pufuleti (to some 20 countries) … but to be fair: it's also the only one.

Taxi drivers in Romania rarely wear seatbelts which is completely legal. There's an urban legend that the lawmakers considered it unfair to force a part of the workforce to wear seatbelts in their ‘office'. The real reason is that seatbelts would make the drivers vulnerable to attacks – which also means they can only go seatbelt-free if they have a passenger.

1970s Romania criminalized social parasitism, targeting ‘insolent youths'. However, a much larger group of parasites came from North America: Oak and sycamore (pictured) lace bugs arrived in Europe a decade earlier. Now their population explodes due to excessive planting of host trees. A typical invasive alien species (not the atypical extra-terrestrial kind).

In Romania, inviting an electrician, a plumber, or any other specialist to your house always results in the same ritual upon arrival: With an offended, disbelieving look, they'll stare at the item to be repaired and exclaim “Cine v-a lucrat aici?!” (“Who worked here before?!”). To them, all skilled craftspeople from Romania (besides themselves) now live and work abroad.

People from Romania have their own take on death – from refreshingly light-hearted (like on the Happy Cemetery in Sapânta) to morbidly practical: Some family graves also display the year of birth and the first two digits of the (expected) year of death of living members. It must have felt strangely pressuring in the late 1990s if your tombstone read “+19__”.

Some people from Romania invest their entire life savings in building elaborate, oversized mansions in their home villages. Usually, much of the inside is left empty and the houses are rarely used for living. Probably the first to do so was dictator Nicola Ceausescu who built Casa Poporului – the world's second largest administrative building, only ⅓ of which is used.

In a country where political scandals are plentiful, political leaders are replaced often, and allegiances are quite fluid, what the voters really want is something very mundane. President Klaus lohannis' winning slogan for the 2017 elections was the very understated “Pentru o Românie normalà” (“For a normal Romania”). The abbreviation was funny.

In Transylvania, young men splash women and girls with lots of (presumably cold) spring water on Easter Monday. This ritual is meant to “make the girls grow”. Nowadays, the water shower is often exchanged for sprays of perfume, resulting in a chaotic mix of different smells. Worse: those boys who cannot afford an exquisite perfume often opt for a cheap deodorant instead.

The “impossible is not an option” work ethic is not very common in Romania – instead, people accept that some things just can't be done. This is epitomized in the expression “S-a rezolvat. Nu se poate.” (“It's settled [resolved]. It's not possible.”), which you might hear after discussing a difficult task. Typically accompanied by a shrug and expected to be as valid a result as any other.

Due to mysterious disappearances, Cluj's Hoia forest is known as the “Bermuda Triangle of Transylvania”. It features twisted trees and “the Clearing”, a supposed interdimensional portal where a UFO was photographed in 1968. Many refer to Hoia as the world's most haunted forest … and the real question is: How exactly do you determine that it's the most haunted?

The Transylvanian Saxons always had a clear policy about divorce: Avoid at all costs. In the village of Biertan, they invented the “marital prison”. Couples considering a divorce would be locked away for up to six weeks in a room in the fortified church (a World Heritage Site, pictured). In 300 years, there was only one divorce; the number of homicides is unknown.

While Romania still faces huge issues in some aspects of female emancipation, its job market compares quite favorably to other EU countries: The percentage of women in senior executive roles is currently the highest and the gender pay gap is the second lowest in the EU. However, cynics are quick to add that if the pay is bad for everybody, there can't be much of a gap.

Representing a high context culture, Romanian does not focus on precision. Some examples: “Ce faci?” means both “How are you?” and “What are you doing?” and you say “mami” to your mother as well as your child. Also, famous sculptor Constantin Brâncusi's “Endless Column' isn't endless but 29.3m (to be fair, though: the “Neverending Story” isn't never-ending, either).

Romania is home to the largest population of bears in Europe after Russia. There's much controversy on how many bears actually live in the country and how to best deal with them attacks on humans do happen. A good rule for visitors: You don't have to be able to outrun a bear (you won't anyway) – as long as you can outrun at least one fellow tourist.

Bands of outlaws roamed Southeastern Europe between the 17th and 19th centuries: the haiduci. Similar to Robin Hood and his Merry Men, their lives as highwaymen and freedom fighters were later romanticized. In reality, many haiduci focused more on the first part of the whole “steal from the rich, give to the poor” routine … but that's merely a detail.

Romanian weddings function as a community- based loan system where the newlyweds get huge cash presents – usually to buy a house – in exchange for similar presents at the weddings of their 300+ guests. The appropriate amount depends on one's salary, the region, the day of the week, and more. Popular website catdau.ro (“How much to give”) helps with the calculation.

There are no vampires in Transylvania but you can lose your blood further East: In the Danube Delta – a vast, beautiful expanse of canals, lakes, and wetlands (and a World Heritage Site). You can find wild horses, protected fish and rare bird species here … and mosquitoes. Lots and lots of them. And if you're visiting during the wrong season, they'll eat you alive.

Food is very important in Romanian culture which explains why it's also the source of many expressions in the Romanian language. To “take someone out of their melons” (“1l scoti din pepeni”) means to drive that person nuts. If you're lying to someone, you're “selling donuts” (“vinde gogosi”). And if you're exhausted, you are “cabbage” (“varzä”). And so on …

Europe's largest rock relief is a 55x25m head of the Dacian king Decebalus on the Danube near the city of Orsova. It's not as ancient as one would expect – it was finished in 2004. The monument was commissioned by businessman (and “dacomaniac”) losif Drägan – who made sure to let everybody know by writing in huge letters “Drägan made this” under the relief.

Sarmale – cabbage rolls stuffed with a mix of rice and minced meat (variations exist) – are a staple of Romanian cuisine and ever-present at festivities. Most families have two sizes of them: small ones to impress important guests and bigger (and easier to make) ones for family and less important guests. No matter the size, it is notoriously difficult to refuse sarmale.

Irishman Bram Stoker intended to set his 1897 novel “Dracula” in the most remote, wild, and ominous part of Europe he could think of Inner Austria (Styria to be precise). Only when his acquiantance Ármin Vámbéry, a Hungarian orientalist, diplomat, and (alleged) secret agent, told Stoker about Transylvania and Vlad Ill. Dräculea, did he find his final setting and title.