Romania, the BEST Country in the World

All right, I know by now 99% of you, except for Ana, Gabi, Florin, and Luiza who are actually from Romania and will agree with the statement unconditionally, would have thrown the Cosmo Connections to the floor, jumped up, and cried out loud, “No way!”

Of course. But now that I have got your attention, let me tell you why everything was so lovely and interesting to me, when I visited the country last December.

Everybody I met in Romania was extremely nice.

The first person I met in Romania was Gabi’s father, who drove all the way to pick me up at Bucharest airport from Ploieşti on Christmas Day. He claimed he hadn’t spoken English after high school. Believe me, his English was fluent.

As we arrived in Gabi’s parents’ apartment, Gabi’s mother ran down the stairs to greet me, with the English word that she is best at: “Come! Come!” Before I was able to wrap my head around the excitement of staying with an actual Romanian family, I was already presented a private room, a towel to wash my face, and a table full of traditional Romanian Christmas dishes and wines.

A couple of days later, I was at a party hanging out with Luiza and her friends in Bucharest. Most of her friends are either journalists or in the IT industry, so we easily got along really well. The funny thing is: they love to mix Romanian with English words, even though only Luiza was able to pull off an all-English conversation. So a normal conversation I overhead would go like this:

Former Cosmo resident Luiza (2nd from the left) and her friends in a bar in Bucharest

“Blah blah blah blah blah (in Romanian), which is funny!”

What? What is so funny?

“Yada yada yada (in Romanian).” “I know!”

What? What did you just find out?

Which is funny.

I found Romania close to China in many ways; that is to say, it is close to my heart in many ways.

For example, I fell instantly in love with the car that Gabi’s father was driving. It was a red, 1987 Dacia 1310, a Romanian made, Soviet-looking sedan. It looks exactly like the kind of car that I wanted, back in the days when I dreamed of becoming a taxi driver, before I went to elementary school.

Unlike most Americans, most Romanians such as Gabi’s parents live in those multi-level apartment buildings. That is exactly the environment in which I grew up. In Gabi’s parents’ home, they use the same type of china dishware and towels we have in China.

Apartment building along Independent Blvd in Ploieşti

Street sign in downtown Ploieşti

Another example is this giant, somewhat impractical, marble architecture called “The House of the People” in Bucharest, built by Nicolae Ceauşescu. It is said to be the second largest building in the world, just smaller than the Pentagon. It is said to be inspired by a design in North Korea. I remember telling every Romanian I was able to communicate the idea to in English: We have the same House of the People in Beijing…

And just like in China, nowadays there are English and French channels on the Romanian television, including BBC and CNN–of course, Romania is part of the European Union now!

They say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. This rule apparently also applies in Romania.

Vin fiert is similar to the German’s gluvine; it is made of red wine and spices, brought to a boil. The Romanians drink a lot of it during winter, especially around Christmas. There was nothing better than a glass of warm vin fiert on the top of a snow-covered mountain, after three hours of hiking from the base with ice axes and crampons.

And Gabi and I did it twice, once in Sinaia, and once in Predeal.

Kuros kalacs stand on the street

Mămăligă is one of the main traditional dishes in Romania. It is basically cornmeal mush. You can find it in Gabi’s mother’s kitchen, or in an upscale restaurant. I came to love it when I combined it with mici, a kind of grilled minced-meat roll, which is also a traditional Romanian dish. According to Ana and Gabi, they have never seen a Romanian eating like this.

Last but not least, my favorite Romanian street food–kuros kalacs! It comes from the Hungarian region of Romania. It's a long piece of dough wound around a wooden barrel where it cooks over charcoal and you get to choose your topping. I had been wanting to try it with coconut but Gabi and Ana always got just sugar, sigh…