Romania is quietly doing great
The March/April 2024 issue of The American Conservative went live today, you can read the entire thing for free here (it’s my job to promote it 🙂):
When you tell Romanians you are visiting, their advice is unanimous: “Visit the rustic beauty of Transylvania, avoid the unsightly Bucharest.” Ignoring this counsel, I embarked on a month-long sojourn in Bucharest, wandering its streets in a sort of urban exploration, uncovering the unpolished truths beneath its surface. It’s a dirty, ugly city, they said. Perfect.
My arrival in Bucharest was marked by an almost ritualistic initiation: the airport cab driver ripped me off. This didn’t make me mad, instead I felt like I was finally part of the club, the screwed-by-a-cabbie-in-Eastern-Europe club. Admittedly, my own weariness and laziness made me an easy mark. I thought I was savvy, keeping an eye on the meter, but these drivers have a hidden button to jack up the meter they press when you are not looking. Lesson learned: If you must travel the roads of Bucharest—and Bucharest recently surpassed London as the EU city with the worst traffic—always take an Uber.
My Airbnb was one floor above an establishment whose nature was thinly veiled by a sign declaring, “THIS IS NOT A BROTHEL.” Walking up the stairwell, my path often crossed with young women bearing the weight of sorrow in their eyes and men with a spring in their step. The stark contrast of these encounters, a daily reminder of the moral erosion lurking in the city’s underbelly, was sad in a way that sticks to your soul.
The city is like some kind of mad experiment where communist ghosts and capitalist dreams crashed into each other and decided to coexist….
READ THE REST OF MY ARTICLE HERE:
HERE ARE THE TWEETS PROMOTING IT:
After the last 6 months backpacking around Europe (England, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Romania) I had to travel to Florida for a conference last week… So it kind of feels like my eurotrip has come to a natural conclusion.
I planned to go to Argentina next, but at the last minute I changed my mind to El Salvador. I leave in 3 days, and I’ll be there for at least 2 months.
I will write several articles about El Salvador once I get there.
I guess I need to learn Spanish.
¡Viva Bukele!
As a Romanian, 1. I appreciate the "shout out", 2. the GDP growth is still surprising to me (I normally see these sort of forecasts in emerging Asia), and 3. the migration to Romania is also increasing.
Not sure if you were aware, but basically the number of work permits issued per year (100k in 2023) has doubled since 2021 and 18x-ed since 2016. And those 100k are already deemed insufficient by the private sector. I expect this trend to continue – and hopefully these Turkish/Vietnamese/Nepalese/Indian/Sri Lankan immigrants will bring some of their cuisine, too :)
Nice. Was English commonly spoken or did you use a translator? Could be a tourist destination in ‘24.