Oddities of Romania

Now that our time in Romania has come to an end, we wanted to share a few more insights and observations.  Here are some strange and unusual facts about this fascinating land:

Although Romania is second to the last in GDP of all the European Union countries, Romania has more millionaires than any other EU country!  (Unfortunately, corruption is a huge problem.)

80% of Romanians smoke.  Plus the rare “No Smoking” signs were totally ignored. (No wonder we couldn’t escape the fumes!) 

Even the toilet paper went radioactive!

Bucharest was once known as the “Paris of the East.”  It has an arch that was modelled after the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, and a straight broad high-fashion avenue similar to the Champs Elysees.

Most of the newer Romanian houses are painted in such bright colors that they look radioactive!  One of our guides told us that during communism, all the buildings were painted grey since that was the only paint color made.  And all clothing was drab too, greys or black, since that was the only material for sale.  So nowadays, people are painting their houses in the brightest colors they can find, announcing a new (and hopefully) bright future. 

Even the paper products are bright colors: hot pink toilet paper, orange napkins, and green paper towels!

Here are just a few of our favorite “radioactive” houses: