24th January: Romania

Romania's national day is today, so here are 10 things you didn't know about Romania.

1. The name Romania derives from the Latin romanus, meaning "citizen of Rome".
2. Its currency is the leu, which means "Lion", which is divided into 100 bani, which is also the Romanian word for money. The smallest banknotes ever printed were Romanian - 10 bani notes issued in 1917 which measured 1.08 x 1.49 in. The leu's days are numbered, however, as it's anticipated Romania will adopt the euro around 2020.
3. Famous Romanians include: Nicolae Paulescu, who discovered insulin; Eugen Pavel, inventor of Hyper CD-ROM; Petrache Poenaru, inventor of the fountain pen; Nadia Comăneci, who at 14 was the first gymnast to score a perfect ten in an Olympic event; Soprano Alma Gluck, the first lyrical artist to sell a million records; Francesco Illy, the founder of Illycaffè and inventor of the automatic steam espresso Coffee machine; and Johnny Weissmuller, the actor who first played Tarzan.
4. Arguably the most famous Romanian of them all doesn't actually exist. Transylvania, where Count Dracula comes from, is part of Romania. Dracula's Castle is there. The actual castle is Bran Castle, and while there is no evidence that Vlad the Impaler (the Romanian prince Dracula was based on) ever lived there, the castle has become a tourist attraction. Transylvania itself has become associated with mystery, the supernatural and horror. The Munsters and Rocky Horror Picture Show's Dr. Frank N. Furter also hail from Transylvania.
5. Another castle in Romania, Peles Castle, is known for being the first castle in Europe to be lit by Electricity. The first city in mainland Europe to have electric streetlamps is also in Romania - Timisoara, which installed them in 1884.
6. The Romanian language is more closely related to French, Italian and Spanish than it is to the Slavic languages of Eastern Europe. It is the only Romance language from the region.
7. Romania is home to the second largest building in the world (Palace of the Parliament in the capital, Bucharest, built by former Romanian dictator – Nicolae Ceausescu. The only building in the world which is bigger is the Pentagon); the largest rock sculpture in Europe (a 55m high depiction of Decebalus, the last king of Dacia, on the Danube river near Orsova which is only reachable by boat); the tallest wooden church in the world (in Sapanta Peri, it has a 23 foot tall cross weighing 1,000 lbs, on top of the 257 foot tall church); the largest organ in Europe (in the Black Church in Brosov, it has 4,000 pipes); and a waterfall, Bigar Cascade Falls in Caras-Severin, which has been voted the most beautiful in the world.
8. The highest mountain is Moldoveanu Peak (2,544 m or 8,346 ft).
9. Not counting Russia, 50% of Europe's brown Bears and 20% of its Wolves live in Romania.
10. The country is also home to the world's most cheerful cemetery. The Merry Cemetery (Cimitirul Vesel) is in Maramures county, near the Ukrainian border. The crosses are carved from Oak and painted in bright colours depicting scenes from the person's life and witty poems about their life and/or the way they died.