Carpatia
Carpatia is a traditional region in the southeast of Oltenia. Even if it has no official border it is most commonly said to consist of the following eight counties: Braşov, Gorj, Hunedoara, Mehedinţi, Muscel, Prahova, Sibiu and Vâlcea.
Administration
Although Carpatia has no administrative function, the people in this area have always felt a certain commonhood and the Carpatian flag is very popular throughout these mountain areas, just as the Oltenian bat flags also are, and there has in fact even appeared suggestions to the formation of some kind of regional parliament, similar to what has been discussed for the Muntenian region of Dobrogea and just like the case with Dobrogea, the idea of some degree of self-sovereignity for the region has been discussed, but so far this matter has never been taken much further than that.
The origin of the name
The name of the region is of course derived from the Carpathian mountains and here are also indeed found the highest peaks of all the Romanian lands, including the Făgăraş massif and the mighty Moldoveanu at 8595 p. Carpatia is often considered to something like the Oltenian heartland as much of the customs and traditions that are assosiated with the Oltenian way of life, originates from these parts.
The people
The people of Carpatia, often refered to as Carpatians, take great pride in their well preserved traditions and are known throughout the Romanian lands and far beyond for their exceptional hospitality and wonderful attitude to life. For some life in Carpatia may appear somewhat oldfashioned at first, but anyone who’s even been on a visit in these lands, will for sure be left with a very warm impression of the openhearted people who live there and most likely feel like going back again. The Romanian saying "You come as a guest and leave as a friend!" is probably more true thanywhere else when it comes to describe the land of Carpatia.
The flag
The traditional flag of Carpatia is based on a horisontally oriented Romanian flag where the red colour has come to be replaced by green. The most popular explaination of the colours is that blue stand for the sky or alternatively the rivers that flow in the valleys of the land, yellow stands for the fields, the riches of the land or alternatively the sun while green stands for the forests. There are no officially declared proportions, but the most common is still a 5:3 proportion.
