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Now that we have moved back to Finland but still remember what Romania is like it's time to make top ten lists for best and worst things in Romania.

Let's start with the good stuff:

Top 10

10. English is widely understood

Most (young) people in Romania speak more or less good English, which makes everyday life quite easy and pleasant as long as you speak English as well :).

9. Internet speed and price

300/100 Mbit/s fiber to our living room for five euros a month. I think no further arguments are needed!

8. Cultural events in Bucharest

Bucharest is a big city and there's always something happening there. Free concerts, exhibitions, parades and markets just to name a few. We visited many free events with Inna and had a lot of fun!

7. Airport with cheap flights nearby

Without traffic jams a taxi ride from our apartment to the airport took fifteen minutes and cost about five euros! Cheap flights were amazingly easy to find as well so we sure learnt ins and outs of Henri Coandă airport :).

6. Safety

Romania isn't a very rich country and not extremely popular among tourists so typical scams and pick pockets don't seem to be very common even in the bigger cities. Outside of Romania the country is very well known for its gypsies but they don't seem to cause as many problems as one might think, if you even manage to see one in the country!

5. Cheap labour

Standard of living in Romania isn't (yet) as high as in Western Europe, which makes services affordable and attractive. How does a haircut for 5 euros sound? Or a big and tasty meal for three and a half euros? In Finland I really have to think every time if I really need a service or not because of the high prices. In Romania it almost never was a problem.

4. Ease of travel to neighboring countries

Moldova, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Serbia and even Hungary are all within driving distance from Bucharest. We didn't visit all of them because there was just so much to see in Romania alone, but we did drive to Bulgaria two times and Moldova once. Hungary was on the way back anyway!

3. Friendly people

People feel very welcoming in Romania and don't seem to mind foreigners at all. A great feeling after Switzerland and Finland!

2. The abundance of things to see in Romania

There's just something for everyone in Romania. In the summer one can go to sunny beaches or escape the heat in the mountains. In the winter it's rarely very cold yet there's always snow in the mountains if one wishes to go skiing or winter mountaineering. There are amazingly beautiful medieval towns and the big metropolis that is Bucharest. There's real wilderness both in the mountains and in the low lands as well. There are hidden gems that are almost never visited by foreign tourists. No one really should be bored if he has a long weekend to spend and lives in Romania!

1. Romanian nature

I just realized that this is quite similar to number two, but the nature in Romania deserves to be mentioned two times anyway! Sea, mountains, forests, rivers, hills, meadows, caves, mud volcanoes. It's all there, and so easily accessible as well!

I feel like I adapt quite well to different environments and it's really difficult for me to come up with ten things that disturbed me when we lived in Romania, but let's try!

Bottom 10

10. Dust

For some reason a lot of dust formed in our apartment throughout the year. In Finland (and Switzerland) I might wipe the dust once in three weeks or a month but in Romania I should have done it weekly (I still didn't :).

9. Noises from the street

The level of ambient noise was the first negative thing I noticed when I moved to our apartment in Bucharest. It was mostly caused by cars and emergency vehicles but also by people and their dogs. When we came back to Finland I was surprised to notice that the computer that I bought in Romania actually made some noise!

8. Lack of warm water

Our apartment had a problem with warm water. I think our record was three days straight without any warm water. Thankfully we at least had cold water and were able to use the stove to warm it up to be able to wash ourselves but it was kind of annoying anyway. Inna was troubled by this more than I was.

7. Smells from the street

The streets in Bucharest can sometimes smell bad because of sewers but our problem was caused by the people smoking outside the gambling places (there were three of them!) downstairs. It would have been nice to ventilate the apartment every once in a while but it was pretty hard to do because of the constant cigarette smoke.

6. Heat

The summer of 2017 was brutally hot in Romania. Temperatures rose to plus forty degrees Celcius and beyond on regular basis. I was wearing only underwear while working and still was sweating constantly. We didn't even feel like going out during the hot summer days because of the temperature.

5. Tap water not drinkable

Some locals do drink the tap water in Bucharest but most sources say that it's not such a good idea. Hauling drinking water from shops was a pain in the ass sometimes but luckily not very expensive.

4. Parks ruined with concerete

There are many big parks with long and otherwise beautiful walkways in Bucharest but they are all covered in either asphalt or concrete. Both look bad and feel even worse while running. On the plus-side we saw quite a few people roller-skating in the parks.

3. People are not always punctual or trustworthy

I encountered some no-shows when I was selling stuff online and agreed on a date and time for pick up. How hard can it be to inform that you're not coming or coming late?

2. Traffic

Bucharest isn't a very friendly place towards cyclists. There are places with bicycle lanes but there are very few cyclists in the city (or even country) so car drivers usually use the bicycles lanes for parking instead. Curbs are stupidly high, sharp and slippery as well, which slows down cycling quite a bit. I already posted something about this earlier...

Cycling is still more often than not faster than driving by car because of the maddening traffic jams in Bucharest. The amount of cars in Bucharest is mind-boggling and every time I went out I couldn't help but wonder why that is. Going anywhere in the city by car is extremely slow and unpractical. As far as I remember it took us well over an hour to get out of the city when we moved out. Unfortunately the traffic jams aren't a problem only in Bucharest. The road between Bucharest and Brașov (especially the section between Bucharest and Sinaia) is stupidly congested during the weekends (avoid Friday and Sunday at all costs) and some parts of the road between Râmnicu Vâlcea and Pitești can be quite awful too.

Then there's the way Romanians drive on the high ways, especially when it's dark. First of all, unbelievably often the lights of their cars are pointing way too high, which makes both passing and trailing cars very annoying. Second of all the trailing drivers come insanely close to you and start flicking their lights when they want to pass you. Inna absolutely hated the light-flicking and even I saw red a couple of times when they did it.

1. Lack of outdoor sports possibilities in Bucharest

The parks I mentioned offer some possibilities for sports but there's absolutely no climbing in the city and cycling is very limited as well. There's one relatively big forest on the northern side of Bucharest, but it's very muddy during the rainy season and absolutely flat (during all seasons). This is the biggest plus-side of moving back to Finland :).

That's it! Let me know in the comments the things you like and perhaps don't like in Romania!

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