Don't let the previous posts fool you. Romania still isn't always a tourist's paradise. An explanation...
1. Last night I tried to buy new turf shoes since I left mine in Spain and was planning to play soccer this week. I went to a sporting goods store and four different shops in a major mall (Adidas, Nike, Puma, Lotto) and no one carries shoes smaller than size 40! I'm a 37 or 38. Mission One of yesterday, failed. Fear not, I will prevail, even if it means importing my shoes from Spain!
2. Mission Two of yesterday was to check out Lipscani Street, which Lonely Planet claims is THE happening street for cafes, bars, etc. So I thought I'd walk down it on the way to the mall and find a cool place for a coffee or a beer after my shopping expedition. Instead all I found were bridal shops and empty, crumbling storefronts. Confusing. And kind of depressing! Particularly when it started to rain. Hard.
Anyway, today a coworker explained that the cafes and bars aren't actually ON Lipscani Street, but on the streets around it. A fine detail Lonely Planet fails to mention. So tonight after work maybe I'll try again.
3. Mission Three was to find a particular movie theater not too far from my house (and, incidentally, very near Lipscani) which plays old films from all over the world, including the US. When I checked the schedule last week, they were playing really cool stuff, like Chinatown and some old westerns I haven't seen. Good news is that I found it (FINALLY! Mission accomplished!). Bad news... they are currently playing mostly non-American old films. Normally this would be cool because, well, I like foreign films. But the problem is that they have Romanian subtitles, and my Romanian just isn't that good yet, so I need to stick with the American, British, Spanish, or even French movies for the time being. And this week's schedule didn't have many. Oh well, maybe next week. At least I know where the theater is now.
So yes, Romania is full of beautiful and unexpected sights and surprises. There are plenty of cool things to do and see. But there are still drawbacks... I miss my big American sporting goods stores! Maybe I should open the Bucharest branch of Paragon Sports...
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3 comments:
Noelle,
I like your spirit and I truly enjoy your take on Romania. I am a little bit positively surprised by your enthusiasm, especially since I am a Romanian and I know that the urban areas are not always the most coherent ones. I will watch your blog to see how your internship in Bucharest will end and what will you feel by that time.
Really cool that you do your MBA at IESE. Do you plan to focus on marketing, brand strategy?
While it can certainly be difficult to find your way around a new town - particularly when you don't speak the language - I'm trying to take it all in stride. I know there will be good days and not-so-good days, but that's true no matter where you go, so I can't blame Romania for a crappy day! :)
To answer your question, I'm focusing on finance because I think I'd make a great investment banker. Just kidding - my main interest is entrepreneurship, but so far I've taken a liking to marketing, strategy, and brand management. I'm pursuing further coursework in all of these subjects this fall, so we'll see if I'm still interested in a few months!
Thanks for reading.
Logistics, you forgot to mention logistics! In reality Noelle's future is in supply chain management (in the movie industry of course). By the way thanks to this blog for increasing considerably my blog statistics ;)
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