Living and working in Bucharest since 1996
Romanians would ask me 'What do you think of our country?'
I found 38
Westerners making a life there
and asked them
to tell me how they found
Romania and its people
.
This oral history,
first published in 2014, comes from interviews with Western writers, social workers, travel guides, entrepreneurs, restaurateurs and NGO chartiy workers; some of them were married to Romanians. Their
experience of life in Romania, in and beyond Bucharest,
provides a
wealth of stories, observations and perspectives
that show commonalities like
the beauty of Transylvania
, the generous hospitality and humour of the people, the vivacity of Romanians and the challenges they face. Whilst Romania joined the European Union in 2006 it is
an East European country whose post-communist legacy persists;
there's endemic
corruption
, Byzantine bureaucracy, fear of the Securtitate, a politicised administration and a problem with trust outside their strong families and networks. There's a
mix of Latin and Slav
and minorities who struggle,
Hungarians and Roma
being the largest. There's superstition and spirituality, a generation gap and strong differences between urban and rural Romanians. There's fatalism and a paradox in a lack of national pride together with
nationalist feelings
Romania engenders strong feelings
about the country and despite the ups and downs these foreigners are still there which speaks for the attraction of the country. Find out
how things work
or don't and ideas as to
where to go
and what to look for.