The Institute for Media and Communication Science (IFMK) maintains a lot of partnerships between the Technical University of Ilmenau and other schools all over the world. An important part in this development plays Prof. Dr. Martin Löffelholz, who established global cooperations with universities from different continents as well as the partnership with the SNSPA Bucharest. This German-Romanian cooperation generates on one hand chances for student exchanges in both directions. On the other hand also teachers use this cooperation to get in contact with other research topics developed in Europe. Apart from Prof. Löffelholz who visited the SNSPA Bucharest various times also Dr. Andreas Schwarz from Ilmenau taught at SNSPA for half an year as well as our Romanian Erasmus coordinator Dr. Elena Negrea hold a lecture in Ilmenau last semester.
Last weekend Prof. Löffelholz came back to Bucharest to take part in an international conference with the topic “Globalization and changing patterns in the public sphere” and of course to visit three very nice students from Ilmenau. We can say that these three students really enjoyed the meeting with their professor which is not only due to the fact that it was great to see a well known face again but also because we took the chance to have a nice dinner with him and some Romanian friends. The 4th episode includes a few impressions how a Romanian dinner can look like and a short interview about the cooperation between the two universities of Ilmenau and Bucharest.
On the mysterious Halloween weekend we started our second trip. This time we went to Busteni together with the ESN, the Erasmus Student Network of the University of Bucharest. On Friday afternoon 60 ERASMUS Students entered the bus in Bucharest and we went to Busteni, a small village in the mountains of Transylvania. We arrived late in the evening and after the dinner we went to bed early because the breakfast was planned from 7 until 9 o’clock.
In the morning we took the bus again and drove to Sinaia to visit the Peles Castle. After this we divided up: one group visited Busteni and the Monasteries and the other one climbed a mountain. We decided for the mountain tour and took a gondola to get up. There we were surprised by a wonderful view over the mountains, wide plains and strange stone formations. The last gondola went down 1h after our arrival so a small group decided to hike the way down. On the signs it was written 3 to 4 hours to Busteni so we really had to hurry to arrive there before the sundown. After 3 hours we really reached the destination successfully! In the evening we had a great Halloween dinner in the hotel and of course a big, spooky party!
Sunday after breakfast we left the hotel to go to Bran, better known as the Dracula Castle. After a tour through the castle we made a lunch break and went directly to the last destination of the trip, Brasov. There two girls from the ESN, which are originally from Brasov, showed us around and we saw a some really nice places in the town.
Lots of people told us that as long as the weather is good the Danube Delta is the perfect destination for a nice holiday trip. After the language course and the first weeks of university the weather was in fact really good and so we took a break from Bucharest to see some nature.
Together with some friends we took a bus from Bucharest to Tulcea, the starting point into the Delta. Buses to Tulcea are departing every day from the bus station behind the Carrefour in Grozavesti (Autogara Augustina). An exciting 5 hour bus ride over small roads took us finally to Tulcea where we stayed the first night in a budget hotel. The next day we went to the harbor to find a ship which would take us into the delta. After some discussions and modifying the plan about ten times we decided to charter a private boat instead of booking a round trip with a shipping line. At the harbor it was quite easy to find a skipper who took us with his own small boat for a day-trip. From the morning to the sunset we drove through the delta to see the wonderful nature and a diversity of birds, to discover the life of the fishermen or just lying on the deck and enjoying the sun… what you can see in the video.
In the evening we took a bus from Tulcea to Constanta, a big city located directly at the coast of the black sea. There we stayed for two days in a youth hostel and did some sightseeing in Constanta and went to the famous and touristic Mamaia beach for a short bath in the black sea (the water was quite cold;) … After four days of traveling we finally took a train back to Bucharest.
