Romania is a country going somewhere. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Romania has been working hard at economic reform. Standing in one of the many trendy restaurants and bars across the country made it hard for me to remember that this country has one of the lowest income levels in the EU - and they weren't just packed with tourists, but rather, Romanians. The economy is growing, and it shows. When I was there in 2008, you could barely walk down a street in some cities without seeing a mobile phone shop!
It's for sure that Romania has a scattering of ugly places, and plenty of cars that feel a couple of decades beyond their best. However, they pale into insignificance against the beauty of the rest. The countryside has a real feeling of being unspoilt, and many towns are host to some wonderful architecture. There was also plenty of great food - if you like pork, you'll do especially well. In East Europe, this is really one of the countries not to miss - I'll certainly be back for more.
Romanian is a Romance language, and perhaps the closest living language to Latin, which languages such as French, Spanish and Italian are also derived from, but have deviated further from (e.g. by dropping the case inflections). This is something of a curiosity, since this region of the world is pretty full of Slavic languages.
Younger Romanians, especially in the tourist industry, tended to speak some, and often fairly good, English. Buying tickets at the train station in English was never a problem. If you know any French, you'll likely find that helps a little too, since people who didn't speak any English seemed to know a bit of French, and announcements at stations were sometimes given in French also. Some words are also close to French (like shop, station, etc.) Learning and using even the tiniest bit of Romanian will really endear some people, though - one older lady's delighted reaction when I said something as simple as, "I understand", in Romanian, made listening to a few audio lessons before going there all the more worthwhile!
The driving here is amongst the worst I've seen anywhere. We'd only been in one taxi 30 seconds before we nearly collided with a tram! So, do beware of the roads.
