Romania sure has changed

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I was making some comments on grocery delivery in Romania in this thread, and Chefguy remembered how bad Romania was in 1990:

Well, I agree. One should remember that Romania was a communist state until 1989 and the regime was one of the most draconian in the communist bloc.

This is funny. We should not forget that Eugene Ionesco, a famous writer of the Theater of the Absurd, was a Romanian author before he moved to France.

Now, I want to point out that despite the many problems Romania is going through this country is one of the place one can live in. It’s a free market. You can buy and sell things with ease. Firearms are almost nonexistent. Illegal drug consumption is low. Racism is way less virulent than in other places. The population is overwhelmingly pro-American and pro-EU. Romania is a quiet place where one can live comfortably.

Once Romania stopped being communist my brother left for the United States, where he graduated university, got a job, and married. I could join him if I wanted, but I choose to live in Europe. I’ll probably move to Italy when I retire, but I’m not sure. :slight_smile:

Now, some words about the American Embassy in Bucharest, where Chefguy said he worked in 1990. Here is the building where the embassy was located in 1990:

It is a building downtown, near the Intercontinental Hotel. The embassy moved long ago. Now it is located in the outskirts, near a wide business sector in the north of the city:

https://cmedia.romaniatv.net/image/201801/w620/ambasada_bani_09316400.jpg

It’s somewhere near here:

https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/b001207a-f78f-4e49-b581-0369171ed674/d6gfhf6-883750a6-97bd-49e9-8e78-d2f6b03f8c7a.jpg/v1/fill/w_1600,h_1044,q_75,strp/pipera_by_cipgallery_d6gfhf6-fullview.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3sicGF0aCI6IlwvZlwvYjAwMTIwN2EtZjc4Zi00ZTQ5LWI1ODEtMDM2OTE3MWVkNjc0XC9kNmdmaGY2LTg4Mzc1MGE2LTk3YmQtNDllOS04ZTc4LWQyZjZiMDNmOGM3YS5qcGciLCJoZWlnaHQiOiI8PTEwNDQiLCJ3aWR0aCI6Ijw9MTYwMCJ9XV0sImF1ZCI6WyJ1cm46c2VydmljZTppbWFnZS53YXRlcm1hcmsiXSwid21rIjp7InBhdGgiOiJcL3dtXC9iMDAxMjA3YS1mNzhmLTRlNDktYjU4MS0wMzY5MTcxZWQ2NzRcL2NpcGdhbGxlcnktNC5wbmciLCJvcGFjaXR5Ijo5NSwicHJvcG9ydGlvbnMiOjAuNDUsImdyYXZpdHkiOiJjZW50ZXIifX0.7ofPmbiUnDo9Gcpe_2vIzA8IWyYp3peJcldrwnjBWRs

The downtown, where the old American embassy was located looks something like this:

https://daytour.ro/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Centrul-Vechi-al-Capitalei-din-Bucuresti.jpg

2

The old town area looks similar to what it did back then. A couple of very bad things at that time:

Young children hung out around the hotel begging for money. They would make a whining noise and touch your arm, hoping that you would give them something just to make them stop. Most all of them worked for taxi drivers. They would take any money to them and in return be given a bag with some glue in it to huff. Very sad.

Some Romanians were so desperate at that time that they were selling their young children to foreigners, and I think the government may have been selling orphans. I remember an American couple in my hotel who had come for one. The child cried all night for his mother.

I have no memory of what the embassy looked like for some reason. I mainly remember that Bucharest was a very grey and sad place at that time. I’m happy to see that things have changed for the better.