The other side of the Romanian postcard

Living in Romania for me is a great pleasure. An almost daily challenge. I work very hard, harder than I had to in the UK to maintain my standard of living, but nonetheless I much prefer my life now.

When I read comments from people who write off a whole people with a single statement, I just think that traveling has done very little for them, which tells me that they would probably live an even more sheltered  adventureless life back home in their own country.  If you stay with expats, sure, you will see nothing but high prices in tourist locations & substandard public services & learn nothing about the people. Instead, choosing to bitch about this & that. I have moved enough times with my job, sometimes to idyllic locations to know that, if you don't invest in your friendships & relationships locally, you will die a lonely person. You have to have dinner parties, join social clubs, get involved in some charity work, unless you get married, settle  & your family becomes your safety new. Only & I stress only through this method with you a/ become partially integrated & b/ find people like yourself.

But sitting in a Lipscani or the Intercontinental bar for your 3 years complaining about this or that is not only unfair, but pretty pointless use of time. Better to go live in Mansfield or Huddersfield or Reading, for what you gain.

In 7 years I have given one bribe, which saved me 3 penalty points. The other 10 times I was stopped, I just got a bollocking, which is what I like about this country. Soft hand approach, not a police state. I also have given one bribe on the Czech/Slovak border for forgetting to by a motorway toll but I don't write those people off.

So my 2 sides? Side one, hard but enjoyable work, a bit of a slog to make a success (unless you come here with a job & package, then its much more straight forward as you just concentrate on your skills & not on the whole business of bureaucracy). On the other side, I feel young, live young (10-15 years or so younger than I did in the UK), have plenty of intelligent, well mannered cultured friends around me. I love the countryside & I love the buzz of the cities at night, which for me no UK city can compare to, not even London, when you consider the personal safety aspect, eg, you can stay out until 5am in Soho but with that comes with a chance of encountering drunken aggression. Anyone that tells you otherwise doesn't get out much. i speak from experience. 

I understand it is somewhat different making friends & integrating in the capital, but I am fortunate enough to live in the jewel of Romania, Brasov with business trips to Bucharest, rather than living in the capital. 

But overall, both sides of my postcard have sunny pictures on them.