Living in Romania

"Expect bureaucracy at every turn! Romanians love to make themselves feel important by holding their ink stamps and having you come back for something 5 times, mostly because they're just too lazy to get off their rears and do their jobs. It's never their fault, it's yours and you're disturbing them that you should even expect them to do something faster than 3 months time. Be prepared to have your patience pressed to its limits, and then some," wrote one member in Iasi.

"My advice would mostly depend upon the person's situation. Most single men I know love Bucharest. Most families with small children like Bucharest because of the affordability of domestic help. Nursery schools are plentiful and inexpensive. But the life in Bucharest can wear on you. I know many people who have spent their life living overseas and are frustrated by this city. The traffic and the blatant disregard of the rules of the road are frustrating. While the traffic here is no worse than any major city (and certainly not worse than WDC or New York City), the drivers seem to care only about where they need to go and what they need to do to get there. Lane patterns, the color of stop lights, pedestrians in the road, tram tracks all mean nothing to most Romanian drivers. Service in restaurants is unbelievably slow. At some point you get used to being ignored. Trying to find someone to help you in a store with a question you have is impossible. The general attitude of seeming to not care is frustrating. Yet Romanians are genuinely nice people, which seems to contradict all of what I have just said. They have big hearts if you have a relationship with them," remarked one expat who made the move to Bucharest.

"Think very carefully about the move. Ask your company to provide details of their ex-pat support program before you move. Come on a familiarisation visit before you come. Constanta is a lot better developed that I imagined but there is limited ex-pat activity. I spent 3 months before I came here trying to get detailed information on the town and not a lot of information is available," explained one expat living in Constanta, Romania.