Dracula's Guide to Romania

I will look over the video and tell you how real it is. First thing to mention, his experiences focuses on Bucharest which does not entirely represent Romania. 15% of the population of Romania lives in Bucharest and each part of the country has it’s own personality.

Let the video begin:

The guy ordered in Romanian so definitely he should get brownie points.

He was looking at a lady selling stuff and saying it is locally sourced, most fruits and vegetables in Bucharest at least are intermediated by someone so you will not know if it’s locally sourced. Getting locally sourced products either requires good social skills to ask the right question or you find it outside of the city. And when he said “no chemicals” it really annoyed me as he doesn’t really know that for sure, there was a recent scandal in one of the local markets that herbs had too many pesticides, this statement really got under my skin, as he most likely didn’t test those products and a seller in Bucharest is not going to be honest with you…

Regarding homelessness, the area of the town he is walking is good, but we do have a homelessness issue especially closer to the Old Town touristy area, this problem is present in Bucharest as most of the other parts of the country have managed to reduce this issues considerably. Can’t compare to the US as I didn’t live in a big US city.

He talks about how you can get by with just English, this applies to Bucharest and big cities, moving to the countryside would be very difficult without learning some Romanian.

Towards the end he mentions how the west is devolving and the east is getting better. My guess is that he makes a decent amount of money and lives close to the financial district. If you move to the poorer areas like Ferentari and Rahova it is not going to look as nice. If you make a decent amount in Bucharest, more than 2000 euros, you can afford to stay in the nicer areas of town. Also there is a reason why so many Romanians move to other countries like Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK… better income and better life prospects. One of the highest emigration rates in the EU is in Romania.

I appreciate how this video made a good review of Bucharest, but just know this topic is a bit more nuanced and it’s not as amazing as portrayed. Please come and visit and see that Bucharest has amazing things to offer and other less amazing things.

Thank you for promoting Romania Bo Refec!