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Home Retirement/Living

Travel In Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Jun 02, 2011
in Retirement/Living
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A castle nestled in the hills and green foliage of Romania
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A Thousand Years Of Culture

“My friend Ivan and I were traveling in Transylvania, Romania,” writes Intrepid Correspondent Paul Terhorst, picking up where he left off yesterday.

“We met many people who spoke English, especially in restaurants and hotels.

“I’d expected more French; Romanians have always been francophiles. But, no, these days English has taken over. All those English speakers meant that Romania was an easier place to travel than other countries we visited (Bulgaria, Moldova, Ukraine) on this trip.

Sibiu Townsquare“Sibiu, Transylvania’s main tourist site, has a German mayor.

“Germans at one time dominated Sibiu, but most left after the war. These days Germans make up only 2% of Sibiu’s population. Yet the German mayor was recently re-elected by a huge majority. One possible reason: Romanian mayors tend to be corrupt. Or as Wikipedia carefully puts it: The election “outcome was possibly due to popular perception of the territorial leaders of Romanian parties as being corrupt.”

“From Sibiu we headed back to Sofia, Bulgaria. To get across the Danube, which forms the border between the two countries, we took a ferry. Someone at the ferry landing said we were forbidden to take pictures. The reason? I’d guess because the European Union is building a bridge at the crossing, now some 10 years behind schedule.

“According to reports, they’re working hard. But we crossed on a work day, at mid-morning, and saw no movement, no workers, no staged materials. Locals told us the bridge should open in late 2012, but that seems impossible to me.

“Meanwhile, the regions on both sides of the bridge continue to be some of the poorest in Europe.

“We ended our East European trip in Sofia, Bulgaria, where we’d begun it three weeks before. We’d arrived the first time during Easter week, when much of Sofia was closed. Now I was able to see the crypt below Alexander Nevski church.

Bulgarians have collected the best icons from all over Bulgaria and put them in the crypt. I saw over 200 icons, many of them eye-popping.

Alexander Nevski Crypt
Crypt in Alexander Nevski Square in Sofia, Bulgaria

“I also went to the archeological museum, which displays a gold mask. The gold mask dates to some 2,400 years ago; it was found in Bulgaria on the Black Sea coast.

Sofia Gold Mask

“But, finally, the adventure was over, and I went to the airport to fly to Paris. I’d been told about crooked cabs at Sofia airport. I had time to kill before my flight, so I went outside to take a look. Sure enough, I saw the rip-off taxis cruising the arrivals area.

“These thieving drivers behave legally. That is, they post their exorbitant fares on window stickers, in plain sight. Let the buyer beware. The cab I looked at charged US$7 a kilometer; regular cabs charge 40 cents. Result: A trip to town that should cost US$8 winds up costing nearly a hundred.

“I believe in markets, in capitalism. I distrust government. I believe government makes matters worse, not just some of the time but all of the time. Yet these rip-off taxis who operate within the rules–call them honest crooks–have become a plague. We saw them in Bucharest and other cities, too. They’re operating legally. Yet the buyer–you and I, who are supposed to be aware–are tourists. We’re often unprepared. We rarely look at the fare sticker. If we do, we’re likely to be confused.

“The result can be a hundred dollars out of pocket.

“In this case, I’d like to see the private sector make it right. Perhaps airport or taxi people could do something. But that has yet to happen.

“In the meantime, when traveling through cities in the area, figure the taxis in the most likely places will rip you off. Instead, go around to the side of the bus station, train station, airport, whatever. Look for a long line of regular cabs. Better yet, get a cab from the taxi counter within the airport. That’s what I did in Sofia.

“One final note. In three weeks traveling through Bulgaria, Romania, Moldova, and Ukraine, we rarely saw other Western tourists. I remember one Dutch tour bus, but that’s it. We never had problems finding room in trains, buses, or hotels. We had these places to ourselves, shared only with a few locals, perhaps a few Russians.

“The region offers so much that’s new and different: food, paintings, churches, medieval towns, local beer, local wine, local culture. These cultures go back a thousand years, and they’ve developed in a special way. As a friend put it, ‘You have to take your head off, then screw it back on the other way around.’

“I recommend the area highly.”

Kathleen Peddicord

Tags: 'Travel In Bulgaria''Travel In Moldova''Travel In Romania''Travel In Ukraine'Paul Terhorst
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Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.

Her newest book, "How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad," published by Penguin Random House, is the culmination of decades of personal experience living and investing around the world.

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