Romania - Eastern Europe - page 475

student population and modern aspira-
tions; explore the cafes around the lively
town square, and visit the church lording
over it.
The trip into Maramure @ will take you
back a hundred years or so. Arrange to stay
with a local family for 1 or 2 nights to ex-
perience village life; with advance planning,
DiscoveRomania (p. 488) will organize a
driver to pick you up at the train station
(or the airport) and can ensure that you
have a guide throughout your stay in
this, Romania's most bucolic region.
Explore the gorgeous wooden churches
scattered throughout the region, then visit
the Merry Cemetery at S â pân $ a and the
anti-Communist museum in nearby Sighet.
Days 8 & 9 Moldavia's painted
monasteries
From Maramure @ , arrange to be driven all
the way to Suceava in the neighboring

province of Moldavia, beyond the north-
ern edge of the Carpathian Mountains.
Spend the night at one of the recom-
mended hotels in Guru Humorului. The
following day, you can take your time
exploring the best of the painted monas-
teries of southern Bucovina—Voronet,
Moldovi $ a, Suceavi $ a, and Humor.
Days 0 & @ Danube Delta
End your Romanian tour by getting back
to nature. The Danube Delta is now
home to the smartest resort in the whole
country: organize well in advance for staff
at the Delta Nature Resort to arrange a
road transfer from Suceava. Two nights in
the Delta will charge your batteries and
prepare you for the trip back to Bucharest
and then home.

ROMANIA TODAY
Existing impressions of Romania are usually a hangover from Ceau @ escu's iron-fisted
stranglehold, with strong memories of starving orphans, destruction of cultural mon-
uments, and industrial plants spilling toxic waste. Indeed, Communism did a great
deal to break the spirit of this nation. But the Romanian people broke the back of the
regime in a small but bloody revolution that, back in 1989, was only the start of a long
road to recovery.
Chat with the locals, and you'll hear much about a country beleaguered by corrup-
tion (a 2006 World Bank report stated that 50% of businesses are troubled by the level
of graft) and a general lack of confidence in political leaders, underscored by schizo-
phrenic election results. And while minister-level officials play dirty-tactic politics,
people on the ground continue to experience widespread economic impoverishment,
particularly in rural areas—about one-third of the workforce continues to earn a liv-
ing through agriculture. Romania is seen as a source of cheap labor, and a number of
foreign companies have set up shop here mainly to take advantage of these low-wage
expectations. Many young people with skills and education, as well as those disheart-
ened by limited work prospects at home, cross the border for better wages and oppor-
tunities; with E.U. accession, the drain of human resources is likely to be substantial,
at least for a time. Equally, locals complain, it is impossible to “get things done” in
Romania, as a stultifying bureaucracy strangles entrepreneurial efforts.
In some ways, these ongoing problems are a residue of Communism, where the
regime primarily served those who were connected to the seat of power, and a central-
ized public sector tended to curb anything resembling entrepreneurship. There was no
such thing as foreign tourism, and therefore a general absence of service-industry cul-
ture. Jobs were there to be filled, not necessarily performed with any aplomb (if,