Quote:
Originally Posted by SkyCougar 
Very cool. Did you both find the locals friendly in Bucharest? Just curious.
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The locals are friendly, but there were two things that I thought were of note.
First, they think Americans have fat pockets and there are many people that beg for money.
The other ones that don't beg for money will generally overcharge you for food and services. Often we'd receive our dining bill and find a variety of 'extra charges' for meals that we didn't order. Plus, what would normally be a couple of LEI (their national currency) would usually be an astronomical amount of LEI and then it'd exchange for a slightly inflated price in USD.
Like you'd never see a breakfast for 60 LEI in Romania, but it's about $25 USD which is quasi-acceptable in the United States at a large chain hotel. But honestly, it should have been about 10 to 15 LEI.
It's still got a communist mentality to a certain extent and the whole capitalism thing with the expectations of 'wealthy tourists' are concepts they quite haven't figured out yet -- IE 5 euro for a
pitcher of wine in Paris doesn't neccessarily mean that we'd pay the equivalent of 15 euro for a
glass of bad Romanian wine.
I think once they get their crap together, it might be a more interesting visit, but if you travel there, be very careful when money starts changing hands.