A few quick impressions of Romania after three days here:
The people are very polite but very direct. Florin is unafraid to talk to anyone about anything and ask questions for anything.
There is zero efficiency in any commercial transaction. Ten minutes to order a simple dessert in a cafeteria with five extra workers standing around doing nothing. Other stores are the same way.
Pink toilet paper; bathrooms that have separate facilities for the sexes but common wash areas.
The language sounds very much like Italian to my ear, only not as pretty. Not very pretty at all really.
Most of the people look very Italian, only with slightly darker complexions. Many have jet black hair.
The people are either very attractive or very not, not too many in between. A good number of the women are rail thin but very shapely at the same time. A good number of the men are swarthy but some are very mousy.
In Bucharest and Brasov, the two cities we've stayed in, the women were very natural with little hair color or makeup. But, in the little villages and town we've driven through, some of the women are very made up with ghastly reddish hair dyes and too much make-up, trying to play "big city," I suppose.
Lots of stray dogs in the streets, though apparently many have been "removed" in the last few years. Not too many street children visible, though that is a big problem here. We did see one girl at the train station who was obviously homeless sniffing glue from a bag.
Once out of the cities, a lot of horse carts. Not something we see everyday at home!
Beautiful countryside. Our drive between Bucharest and Brasov looked a lot like the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Most of the roads here are terrible. Just another reason most people take the train.
Very orderly, if dilapidated, villages and towns.
More to come...
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