As hosts

Romanians are the perfect hosts. We've met in other countries a certain reticence of locals to invite you in their home and feed you but not the case in Romania. As long as they are in their own homes Romanians can be fabulous hosts and they will feed you more food than you can take, but don't worry, it is not impolite to say "please, no more!". The Romanian host in most cases will be very open to you and speak in a surprisingly direct manner. Most probably it is safe for you to be open too as Romanians will be quite supportive ...

As drivers

This is a debated topic between foreigners who live in Romania as well as between Romanians themselves. If in cities such as Targu Mures (centre of Transylvania) you can expect a car to let you pass safely the road (and sometimes even a smile from the driver), in the capital of Romania most of the drivers are crazy idiots and the traffic is chaos. Our only advice is to be careful in traffic and try not to spend too much time in it (as if you could!). Violent crime rate is extremely low in Romania but traffic ...

As foreign language speakers

They're handling foreign languages with an extremely positive attitude which makes them probably the best foreign language speakers in Europe. Don't expect miracles from official institutions employees who got there based on anything else but their skills, however you don't need to worry about personnel from hotels, restaurants, taxi drivers and even people passing on the street who will usually gladly answer to your questions in a fairly good english (french, german, italian, spanish or hungarian if you are in Transylvania). You have better chances with young...