Related Information to Romania

Romania

I started this topic after I saw the topic started by Matija about Slovenia.

First here is a site which will help to localize my country:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romania

If you have questions, please ask them. Also from time to time, I'll post interesting stuff about places, people or "happenings" from Romania.

Romania

Well, I am always interested in how people perceive themselves in general... are you a proud, humble or indifferent people? What are the typical social aspects of life?

Romania Reviews Consumer & Travel Family Culture

Great thread. I do not know much about Romania, all I know is from TV documentaries that for some reason portrait Romania as a very poor country who have a big amount of orphans and children living in the street, is this true? (I know how the media sometimes can portrait something is not true). I also know that Romania have many gypsies, how do Romanians feel about them? and what do they think about the "fascination" people have with Dracula?.

Romania

First I will try to answer your questions, then I'll make some comments.

Unfortunately, when they travel abroad or talk to strangers, most of the romanians are ashamed of their nationality, due to the way other (western) nations see us.

The majority of the population is struggling through life, there is a layer of middle class, not very wealthy and not too well represented and there is a third group, the "rich people". This last group is formed by persons either doing non/quasi-legal businesses or very lucky, inspired people (ex. a guy got millionaire starting a cable company from zero - literally). Romanians not really like to work (who does ?), like to party, there is a big problem related to alcoholism and smoking (amongst other health problems), but also you can find decent, hard-working, well-educated people ... like in any other country, I guess.

It's true that Romania is not a country with a good living standard, but as far as the orphans and the children living on the streets, things are overreacted. I think it all started after 1989, with a french documentary. It showed some orphan asylums. Those asylums got a lot of donations. So in order to get more help, the doctors, the authorities etc. magnified the problem ... it was a problem with the living condition of the orphans, but sadly it was overreacted and we stuck with the label of the country with orphans.

It's true there are many of them, but - I looked it up - they are under 3%. In general, the romanians are - I try to put in gently - not politically correct with them. The reason why they are so well-known is that the traveled to many other european countries, a big part of them were trouble, so we stuck with a second label - the country with many gypsies.

My opinion is we should turn things in our advantage and give those people what they want ... tourist attractions ... show them castles, maybe some thematic parks ... I don't know, we should ask a marketing expert.

Other questions?

Romania

Actually, how do Western Countries see you? Other than Dracula I really did not know anything about Romania save for a couple of your Miss World / Universe representatives (one pictured below). As for your description of the classes and the people not wanting to work that sounds just like my homeland.

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Picture below: Adina born in Arad, a city situated in the west of Romania, known for its hospitality.

Romania

Do you mean that you all don't have that in Romania? (tourist attractions, castles, etc with Dracula themes available?).

Another question: How Romanians feel about people of other races? Do they tend to discriminate them or not?.

Romania

They see us just like LDS said: poor, gypsies, vampires, orphans ...

Offtopic but, The romanian girls are really beautiful!

There are some castles where guides tell the tourists stories about Dracula, but I'm not sure if those stories are true or not. I meant that we should exploit more the myth of Dracula by advertisement and good marketing/merchandising.

In general, romanians are tolerant with other races. Of course there are extremists, but they are rare. On the other hand, you could sense a bit of discrimination towards homosexuals and gypsies.

Anything else?

Romania Culture Family Travel & Consumer Reviews

I often like to hear people's reply to this concept... do Romanians consider themselves 'White' as in skin or kin to Caucasian or are they seen as another 'color'?

I notice you mentioned in another thread that the women are beautiful also and I am wondering if that is just the typical statement made by everyone about their homeland or what makes the women there so beautiful (regular pageants, a Minister in charge of Beauty like Venezuela, etc.)?

Offtopic but, Raul, does this mean you are married to a beautiful Romanian woman?