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I just came back from a trip to Romania and after doing my thoughts on Budapest and Gdansk I thought I would do the same here.
It was a 4 day trip. I was mainly in Bucharest, apart from a day-trip to Peles castle, Bran castle and Brasov (all in the same day).
Both Brasov and Bucharest looked good, but Bucharest was undoubtedly the most beautiful. I was in Brasov for only one hour mainly in the old town. It was cozy and had a different vibe compared to Bucharest. In Bucharest the old buildings and architecture really makes the city beautiful in spite of the worn down communist buildings. The city also was massive, with people everywhere and lots of traffic in comparison to Oslo. For a Norwegian lack of forests and nature would make it really difficult for me to live there, but I guess it is not that different from other large European metropolitan cities. Generally the city seemed well developed and the streets were mostly clean. The nightlife was impressive considering that it was alive during the weekdays. Overall it pretty much looked and felt like any other Eastern European city I have visited; Budapest, Krakow or Riga.
When it comes to the people I noticed that their attitude is similar to other eastern European places I have visited and quite foreign for a Norwegian. People feel no duty to be nice and polite to you, but at the same time the people seem more open and out-going to strangers. I also noticed that Romanians do not seem to be as thorough as Norwegians and this can be a disadvantage. Everything from how you order and get your food to tour guides seem less organized. Our guided tour to bran and peles castle as well as Brasov was poorly organized and the guide seemed to just improvise along the way.
Looks-wise Romanians definitely look more like southern Europeans like Spaniards, Greeks, Italians than eastern Europeans like Ukranians and Poles. Most have darker features and even features-wise look more southern with larger eyes and more salient noses.
Overall it was a nice trip and I noticed that Bucharest has become a much more advanced and richer city compared to what it used to be, probably like the rest of the country. Hopefully Romania will advance even further in the future.
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