As the end of my study years is slowly but surely approaching, I was slightly dismayed to realize that I had not yet taken advantage of the opportunities for foreign trips that the university offers. Romania was not my first choice at the time, but circumstances led to me getting on the train at 2 a.m. on 8 July 2024 and heading to Vienna Airport, full of mixed feelings.

As my SEP was in the city of IASI, which is right on the border with Moldova, the journey there was long and tiring, but all the way from my arrival in the capital Bucharest, I was accompanied by Romanian students who were extremely helpful and to whom I owe the smooth travel. As I later found out, the Romanians are all very nice and helpful. 

I lived with a Slovak student in my dorm, which was a pleasant surprise. Even though I chose to study partly to improve my English, the constant conversation in a foreign language can be very exhausting 😀. A funny situation happened to us in the dorms when we were washing clothes in the shared laundry rooms, but the washing machine got stuck and we had to explain to the man at the front desk with our hands and feet what happened as he didn't understand English 😀.

I thought for a long time about what type of internship to choose as pharmacy offers many different directions. In the end, I decided to do research at the university. The reason was my belief that a pharmacist should be an expert in all areas related to medicines. However, for myself, I felt a lack of experience in this area. At the faculty, we first started working on pharmacognosy. We were given samples from the botanical garden and asked to find out the contents. The method used was thin-layer chromatography, where standards are used for identification.

We also looked at analytical chemistry, specifically proof reactions to show how drugs react in acidic and basic environments. This reminded me of how the properties of drugs change under different conditions, which is important for understanding their effects. 

We also visited the local Petru Poni Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry where PhD students conduct their research. We were able to spend the last two days in the hospital pharmacy, where the staff was very helpful and introduced us to the pharmacy facilities, administration and we discussed the differences with the Czech system. We also discussed individual preparation of medicines.

In the afternoon they always had a program prepared for us. For example, we visited the Palace of Culture, which is one of the most famous buildings. We were lucky because there was a concert of traditional music in the gardens of the palace. Other days we visited the botanical garden, the underground bar, tasted local specialties, saw the Vincent van Gogh exhibition and much more.

The last weekend we spent in the Transylvanian city of Brasov with other students from all the cities in Romania. We experienced a lot of funny situations and got to know another part of Romania. We visited Dracula's Bran Castle and Mount Tampa. In the evening we had an international night where students from different cities brought their traditional delicacies. 

My stay in Romania exceeded my expectations and I think I enjoyed it to the max. I met a lot of great people that I will always love to come back to. I am very grateful that I was able to have this experience and I would like to thank everyone for it. 

Barbora Porubová