Some General Observations About Romania

1. It is a beautiful country. I don't know exactly what I expected, but it is different than that. It is very rural and pastoral and the mountain ranges are quite spectacular. I can see why so many tourists come here now.
2. Campina, where we are staying, is a fairly large city as suburbs go and it is very common to see horses and cattle--both tended and untended--traveling on the streets. There is much poo as well.
3. It is quite common to see people traveling by horse-drawn cart once you get out of the cities. They are also in the cities, but not so often. They travel on the roads just like the cars except on the main national highways.
   
4. I saw a man who appeared to be quite poor who was sitting in his horse cart at the end of a side rode, waiting to guide his rig out into the flow of traffic, and he was gesturing wildly and talking in a very animated way on his cell phone. That made me giggle pretty hard for some reason.
5. American culture and influence are present here in a much stronger way than I could have imagined. From clothes to music to television and movies, I see the effects of our culture. I don't necessarily see that as a good thing (although sometimes it is), I just see it. For example, so many Europeans speak English as their second language that nearly all the signs in the tourist towns are in Romanian and English, or just in English. And away from the tourists areas the signs are probably still about half English. I did not expect that either.
6. There are many oil wells, at least in this part or Romania, and they leave the derricks in place and just build the pumps underneath them. So there are the big grasshopper-looking pumps pumping away with the entire structure of the derrick, now abandoned in place, looming above.
7. Every house--and I mean every one of them--has a fence; and the gate is always closed and it is impolite to pass through it until the owner knows you are there and invites you in.
8. I don't think I've seen a house yet that didn't have at least one dog. And most of them--at least the larger ones--are named Rocky.
9. Many dogs roam the streets and sleep wherever they want--and that includes the street. One particularly suicidal dog plopped down for a nap in a lane of traffic on a railroad crossing. They are unaffected by traffic or horns.
10. My beautiful wife would not be able to ride in a car in Romania--at least not with her eyes open.
11. A blinker in Romania is not a courtesy or a request, but a warning--ready or not, here we come.
12. On 2 lane roads the slower cars will get as far to the right as they can so that the faster ones can pass them in the middle--while oncoming traffic does the same thing. Exhilarating, to say the least.
13. I would enjoy driving in Romania.
14. A lot of people here ride bikes, scooters and motor driven bikes; in the road.
15. In the countryside, the men urinate beside the road as the need arises with no regard for being observed by approaching traffic.
16. Romanians love football, but not the American kind.
17. The poorest homes nearly all have a TV satellite dish. The government apartments are covered with them on the outer walls.
18. 98% of Romanians profess to be Christian; 87% of those identify with the Greek Orthodox church.