What do you know about Romania?

[adibandi]

I am not so sure we should be making commercials for "cheap girls" and "sex on the beach"...
For those of you that want to come here, prostitution is not legalized in Romania, so any hooker you find might have diseases easily as there's no check on them or anything. As for the other women, yes, they're nice, but if you want to come here only for that you might get surprises. Not good types of them.

As for sea, I wonder if they cleaned those seaweeds that came around every year, they stinked up the place. I haven't been to the sea for a few years.

I am not talking about prostitution. I`m just saying its easy to hang out with girls. There is nothing wrong offering a drink to a girl and then if you two like each other to have sex. Whats wrong with that ? I`m not promoting anything. I`m just saying that through all the beautiful places and ugly ones, Mamaia is something that worth the attention.

[Cybran]

I am not talking about prostitution. I`m just saying its easy to hang out with girls. There is nothing wrong offering a drink to a girl and then if you two like each other to have sex. Whats wrong with that ? I`m not promoting anything. I`m just saying that through all the beautiful places and ugly ones, Mamaia is something that worth the attention.

No. You are pimping your sisters which is disgusting.

[Brachamul]

I know you speak a latin language, contrary to popular belief and contrary to your neighbours.
I know that you're part of our EU !
I know that people sometimes hate on you because they hate on the romani.
I know that i'd like to visit one day and see what all the fuss is about.

[Deleted]

I know generally the following about Romania, btw none of this is meant as a slight to the country:
2) the Romanian government is paid by businesses that operate in Romania and then the Romanian Government pays its citizens based on the work they do
3) Romania has nationalized healthcare
4) Romanians are given a food subsidy along with their pay checks

2) What? It's called taxation, and public sector. It's the same as in any democratic european country, still don't understand what do you mean...

4) No, companies can opt to give additional food stamps as part of the sallary, used to buy only food and ammount that is not taxed. So it's like, have -10% less money but get more then 10% of it in such stamps, since the employer doesn't have to pay tax on them (it's about 100% overall taxation on an average sallary, as in the employer needs to have about 1700-1800 euros if he wants' to give the employee an 1000 euro/month sallary).

[Deleted]

All I have heard (and I dont trust this btw) is that when Romania becomes part of the EU that your citizens will be heading towards the UK by for free everything.
Like I said, I Don't trust the reports only going off what they have said in the right wing media.

We're already in the EU since 2007, the dilemma is about Schengen space.

you can find a (rather disgusting, but that's my opinion) alcohol made ouf of plants or something

You mean tuica?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C8%9Auic%C4%83

It's not so bad. I don't like alcohool that much myself, but it's really strong.

[Piggo]

I think that's where vampires come from, there and Transylvania

Transylvania is in Romania actually.

[Deleted]

Isn't the Romanian language very heavily Slavic influenced but also with a good basis on Latin?

[Deleted]

Being from Greece i feel ashamed that I know very little about our northern neighbours and not just the Romanians but all the heavy Slavic influenced countries.

I know you have some fine-ass women from watching TV but we also get a lot of your crime guys over here so it does't help with your reputation, also a lot of women that care for elderly and are often associated with taking advantage of the elderly persons state benefits etc.

I know you have some very nice sea resorts to your eastern borden with the Kaspian Sea and also are pretty cheap in comparison to how luxurious that place can be. Although it's cheap for tourists but not so much for locals. I don't think we have any disputes with Romania, we re in very good terms and people living in the north borders of Greece also cross over to Bulgaria and sometimes Romania and do business there or just buy some things that are harder/more expensive to get here.

I know you have a strong background of great athletes. Did i mention some really hot women coming for vacation to Greece? Probably...

I know you and Bulgarians don't like Albanians so much with the whole situation that was going on to the west of you with insurgents etc during the recent "war".

Romanian universities are also notorious in Greece for giving out diplomas that are largely bought without much studying. Not to say that their standard is worse of course, but many a doctor have gotten their license this way. I will also mention that the Unis don't act alone in this matter but they have almost always a Greek liaison who is letting you in on the "job" for a hefty amount of money... So it's not all you to blame!

Dracula! Seen many documentaries. Also the thing that surprises me a lot is how different your traditional settings are compared to ours. Being in the same "area" i would expect heavier influences to each other but it seems that isn't the case. I feel that we missed a lot by not being on the Renaissance/Enlightment train with us being stuck in Turkish rule for so long. You can see it plainly in our "poor-mans" architecture and the way smaller cities and villages are planned out. Your architecture has that northern air of Renaissance that I like to see.

Black Sea, not Kaspian one
Also, sorry you got some bad examples of our community there.

You're talking about Kosovo? No, Romania didn't recognize Kosovo not because they dislike Albanians, but rather because Serbia was our only neighbour that never attacked us in its entire history and with which we had a good relation even in communist times. In the northern province of Serbia also, called Vojevodina, there's a lot of romanians, so that's why this time Romania was on Serbia's side.

True about many universities.

And Greece is really nice too still. You have nice architecture even with some modern buildings. Not all, of course, but you're not lacking there

I know generally the following about Romania, btw none of this is meant as a slight to the country:
1) the Romanians i know speak at least 3 different languages
2) the Romanian government is paid by businesses that operate in Romania and then the Romanian Government pays its citizens based on the work they do
3) Romania has nationalized healthcare
4) Romanians are given a food subsidy along with their pay checks
5) The Romanians i have met are either really nice or beggers (was in Paris with some Romanians and they were explaining to me about the Romanian beggers who are in the city)
6) Romanians like a lot of US movies, was able to hold conversations with them about popular US movies
7) I will be meeting another Romanian in about an hour

The company I work for has another part of our company in Romania so we occasionally get to meet Romanians in person.

And when visiting Romania they ask questions regarding if you are married or have kids, apparently they are apprehensive of single people going over there because they think that you might ant to stay in the country. We have had this come up with several of our managers that were trying to go over for business purposes.

2. Not quite. The Romanian government takes taxes from both companies and people. From companies it takes between 20.8%-30.8% per person(so if a company pays a person a salary of 200 euros, they'd need to pay besides that around 60 more to the state as taxes). Besides that, the person who gets the salary also pays their own taxes. 16% the general tax, plus another 16.5% that is part health insurance (that doesn't cover almost anything), future pension funds etc. So from the 200 euros, the person will pay around 65 of them to the state. Which means for every person a company holds with an average salary of 200 euros, it pays around 260 euros actually, of which 125 go to the state alone... that's almost 50% if you look at that. And we only get free education till 10th grade (so not even full highschool, I'm not even talking about university), the health system still asks you to pay for most medicine and you need to pay for staying in hospital etc.
4. True for some jobs, not all. Food tickets are sometimes given to people indeed.
6. We sure do.

I am not talking about prostitution. I`m just saying its easy to hang out with girls. There is nothing wrong offering a drink to a girl and then if you two like each other to have sex. Whats wrong with that ? I`m not promoting anything. I`m just saying that through all the beautiful places and ugly ones, Mamaia is something that worth the attention.

Ok, fair enough I guess. I just don't want people to think that once they get here there's beautiful girls everywhere that just want to have sex with no strings attached, that's really not true. I also don't want strangers to come here and go hit on girls or try to touch them at random on the street thinking every woman is an easy catch, we already have plenty of those weirdos.

---------- Post added 2013-04-15 at 09:10 PM ----------

Isn't the Romanian language very heavily Slavic influenced but also with a good basis on Latin?

It is. And the third influence is dacian. The more important influence is latin though, slavic has less influence. In general, from what I heard, if you're italian you might understand some parts of our language, spanish and french people less.

[Deleted]

Isn't the Romanian language very heavily Slavic influenced but also with a good basis on Latin?

Other way arround as in more latin and less slavic. If a romanian speeks a bit louder about 2/3 of the times he get's labeled as "italian". Also we have some very good roman-latin names, I have one. It's very cool to have a first name that some ancient Rome rulers had.

[Arganaut]

Nasty gypsy travellers will invade Western Europe the moment they join EU.
Very good at pick pocketing.
HP (Hewlett Packard) has an office there.
Illeu Dumitrescu used to play for Tottenham Hotspur.
Sided with Nazi Germany in WW2.

Infracted: Please do not nation bash or stereotype

[Lothaeryn]

I know they herald Vlad the Impaler as a hero even despite every inconceivable, inhumane thing he ever did to anyone under his rule, his treatment of his prisoners would be more than just a war crime today, they would be crimes against humanity, and he would have hanged for it.

[Korrawi]

Vlad is a national hero, he accomplished what no other ruler has in Romania to date, and that is virtually 0 crime. You seem to forget he ruled in the 1400s, there were no human rights back then. I'm sure he's not the only one that tortured his enemies or killed them through gruesome deaths (impalement).

It was said, as someone pointed out a few posts back that if you forgot or lost a bag of gold, you would find it where you lost it, nobody would touch it.
As for the turks, it was a very effective intimidation tactic, leaving corpses of otoman soldiers impaled for the invading army to see had a psychological effect on the enemy morale.
If you were an honest person, you had nothing to fear. That's why he is so loved here, and greatly missed. Fear is what keeps the common criminals at bay, not human rights.
"Vlad found Wallachia in a wretched state: constant war had resulted in rampant crime, falling agricultural production, and the virtual disappearance of trade. Regarding a stable economy essential to resisting external enemies, he used severe methods to restore order and prosperity.
Vlad had three aims for Wallachia: to strengthen the country's economy, its defense, and his own political power. He took measures to help the peasants' well-being by building new villages and raising agricultural output. He understood the importance of trade for the development of Wallachia. He helped the Wallachian merchants by limiting foreign merchant trade to three market towns: Târgșor, Câmpulung and Târgoviște.
Vlad considered the boyars the chief cause of the constant strife as well as of the death of his father and brother. To secure his rule, he had many leading nobles killed and gave positions in his council, traditionally belonging to the greatest boyars, to persons of obscure origins, who would be loyal to him alone, and some to foreigners. For lower offices, Vlad preferred knights and free peasants to boyars. In his aim of fixing up Wallachia, Vlad issued new laws punishing thieves. Vlad treated the boyars with the same harshness, believing them guilty of weakening Wallachia through their personal struggles for power.
The army was also strengthened. He had a small personal guard, mostly made of mercenaries, who were rewarded with loot and promotions. He also established a militia or ‘lesser army’ made up of peasants called to fight whenever war came.
Vlad Dracula built a church at Târgșor (allegedly in the memory of his father and older brother who were killed nearby), and he contributed with money to the Snagov Monastery and to the Comana Monastery fortifications."
Now, because he hurt the Transylvanian merchants, it is believed that part of the stories about his cruelty were made up in order to discredit him in Western Europe.
"Allegedly, Vlad's reputation for cruelty was actively promoted by Matthias Corvinus, who tarnished Vlad’s reputation and credibility for a political reason: as an explanation for why he had not helped Vlad fight the Ottomans in 1462, for which purpose he had received money from most Catholic states in Europe.[citation needed] Matthias employed the charges of Southeastern Transylvania, and produced fake letters of high treason, written on 7 November 1462."
ofc, this is very hard to prove, either way.
"In December 1447, boyars in league with the Hungarian regent John Hunyadi rebelled against Vlad II Dracul (his father) and killed him in the marshes near Bălteni. Mircea(his brother), Dracul's eldest son and heir, was blinded and buried alive at Târgoviște."
I believe he did what he had to do to be able to stand against the otomans.
He also spent some time in captivity at the otoman court, as a guarantee that his father would not rebel against the turks. His brother, Radu converted to Islam and remained there, loyal to the otomans.
And, as a fun fact, there's this:
In October 2011, Prince Charles publicly claimed that he is a descendant of Vlad the Impaler. The claim accompanied his announcement of a pledge to help conserve the forested areas of Transylvania.[12] Radu Florescu documented on page 193 of his book, "Dracula: Prince of Many Faces" that the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I granted Ladislas Dracula and his brother John recognition as Dracula's direct descendants: based on their documentation, the Emperor granted them letters patent (a patent of nobility) on January 20, 1535, in which their descent is described and also specific mention is made in the patent of "the ancient insignia of Ladislas's family" as being the same as that of the Bathory family--i.e., gules (red) a sword covering three wolf teeth.
I hope this sheds some light on his remarkable rule and life .
Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vlad_the_Impaler

[Deleted]

Nasty gypsy travellers will invade Western Europe the moment they join EU.

We are already in the EU...and stop the nationality bashing also!

[Deleted]

Yes of course I meant the Black Sea... not the Kaspian, i always get the names mixed up in my head! Sorry!

[Deleted]

I seem to remember reading about Romania having faily high average internet speeds, especially when considering how poor the country is.

Beautifull castles like Bran, Peles and Hunedoara

transylvania, home of Vlad Tepes (Dracula)

Problems with Romas

Capitol, Bucharest. home to The Romanian Athenaeum

Not to good at honoring international treaties

We are already in the EU...and stop the nationality bashing also!

He does have a point. In denmark the no 1 nationality of foreign prisoners is, Romanian. Sure one should not generalize but Romanians are getting a bad reputation in western Europe because of this.

[Thedoja]

Sandra Romain - Has a great poop shoot.

[Deleted]

The only things i know about Romania is where i live we have many gypsies from Romania and i know many Hungarians who dont like Romania but i also know Romanians who are really nice so i think all in all i have a positive opinion about Romania

[imabanana]

I feel my curiosity is starting to chew on me and I'm starting to wonder what do people know about my country, Romania and I thought I'd ask you all.

So, what do you know? Tell me everything!

Went there a few times, found big cities to be terribly ugly (been mostly in Bucarest and Târgu Jiu), but very beautiful landscapes outside from it. Lots of nice people too.

[GennGreymane]

There are large groups of roma there. My family is from a roma/jewish background and they got the hell out of what is now Romania in 1900

[Deleted]

Went there a few times, found big cities to be terribly ugly (been mostly in Bucarest and Târgu Jiu), but very beautiful landscapes outside from it. Lots of nice people too.

You've been to the wrong cities.