Successful Fijet academy in Romania
By Sema Kutlu
World Federation of Travel Journalists and Writers (FIJET) organized the fourth edition of FIJET Academy program in Romania this year. As an organization hosted by FIJET Romania between 23-30 July, with the participants from Turkey, Croatia, Bulgaria, France and Italy, young journalists travelled about 1,000 miles through the country’s many touristic cities.
The theme of the FIJET Academy 2017, which aimed to bring together young travel journalists and writers with experienced names of the sector, exploring new tourism destinations and enhancing the intercultural interaction, designated as “Preserving the National Heritage”. The FIJET team arrived in the Romanian capital Bucharest, got together with each other, and after that they settled on the road. During the trip, FIJET Romania President Stefan Baciu, Vice President Gabriela Tigu, Secretary General Dan Anghelescu and FIJET Academy President F. Sema Kutlu accompanied the team
EUROPEAN CAPITAL OF CULTURE SIBIU
After Calimanesti, the team arrived in Sibiu, one of the most important cultural centers of Romania, which situated on both sides of the Cibin River in Transylvania. In 2007, the city selected as European Capital of Culture with Luxembourg. While Sibiu was the capital of the Transylvania
Principality and the center of the Transylvanian Saxons in the past, also it belonged to the Kingdom of Hungary until 1920, nowadays it takes place in the top 10 list of Europe’s most peaceful cities.
A CITY WHICH SMELLS HISTORY; ALBA IULIA
The team of FIJET Academy 2017 visited the city of Alba Iulia after Sibiu, which has a very important place in the national history of Romania, where the unification council was gathered on 1 December 1918, where the merger decision was taken, where the King Ferdinand and Queen Marie’s coronation ceremony was held as the Great Romanian Emperor on 15 October 1922, and much more historical features. The most important touristic points of the city are Romania’s largest citadel “Alba Iulia Citadel”, Romania’s oldest and longest church “St. Michael’s Cathedral”, “Coronation Cathedral”, where the coronation ceremony of King Ferdinand and Queen Marie was held, fascinating “Batthyaneum Library”, where the manuscript work “Codex Aureus” written by Charlemagne in gold ink between 778-820.
CEAUSESCU’S GREAT PASSION; PALACE OF THE PARLIAMENT
In 1983, Nicolae Ceausescu started the construction of the palace as part of the project to transform Bucharest, but with the collapse of the Ceausescu power in 1989 and the execution of him with his wife in front of the walls of this huge structure, Ceausescu could not enjoy the gigantic palace he built for his own passion. While some of the Romanians are proud to say that the building is the second largest administrative building in the world after the Pentagon, others say it is the symbol of destroying the old Bucharest, the palace is ugly and a loss for the city.