Facts about Romania - can you think of any more?

Here are some curious facts about Romania. These are hard won facts and not commonly known outside the country - but Romanians seem to believe them - so what more can I ask for?

Amazing fact 1: There is no word in Romanian describing something in a positive way, which begin with the letter L. I wanted to make list of nice words starting with each letter of the alphabet to describe my class - no Romanian has yet found a nice, positive word starting with the letter L.

Amazing Facts about Romania 2: Roma in Romania can never win. You seem them in the street - poor and begging and everyone tightens their coats, holds tight on their handbags and keep their wallets out of sight. You then see some really fancy houses with turrets and obviously some new doors, doing well - with nice Mercedes an BMWs parked outside. You comment you like the color or design of the house and are told it is all from stolen gods. This is absurd but no one ever is any gladder to see a rich Roma than a poor one.

Amazing Facts about Romania 3: Planting out your Christmas tree in the garden will kill you. The Romanian peasants have this crazy belief that planting a conifer on your land will produce a death in the family within 12 months. This is actually quite sensible, as most Romanian families are full of old and frail people - so the chances one of them will pop their clogs in the following year is quite high. And of course it will then all be linked back to my derision of this tradition, and so I will have blood on my hands - best to keep the tree plastic and save a lot of problems down the line.

Amazing Facts about Romania 4: Sweating makes you ill. I am unfortunately one of life's sweaters - a gene passed on from my father. Romanians above a certain class never sweat and will inform you that if you remain wet - then you will get chest problems. Alas they also tell me to wrap up warm on each day I go walking so I come home drenched and in an urgent need to change.

Amazing fact number 5: Romanians alone know how to conduct medical research. Anything which goes against their traditions can be put down as a multinational undercover plot to wipe out huge chunks of the population - vaccines - despite having clearly saved thousands of children - are a perfect example of this.

Amazing Facts about Romania 6: Romanians don't like black cats crossing their path. Sadly the British think that a black cat crossing your path is good luck. Se we often sit in the car together. Both of us mentally or often verbally encouraging or scaring it away.

Amazing fact number 7: Romanian cars have no need for brakes. If you travel down the motorway - Romanians trust entirely in their car's headlights to blind and dazzle each other. Likewise no-one - especially babies -should use car seats or seat belts as in the event of frequent crashes, a seat belt hinders your ability to be thrown through a window at great force and so avoiding danger - unless you happen to stop flying and hit a hard surface.

Amazing Facts about Romania 8: Opening two windows simultaneously or even worse - hanging your elbow out of a moving car's window will give you bone problems as you arm is cooler on one side than the other. I you have 2 windows open - you are sure to suffer from ear problems - mainly from the terrified screams of the Romanians to close the windows at which point only you in the car will suffer from intense feeling of heat exhaustion. Even outside - placing a baby in the wind without a hat on is certain to cause permanent injury.

Amazing fact number 9: - Romanians have a fear of getting ill from sitting on a toilet seat. Science has shown - if used properly, a toilet seat is not a dangerous place - indeed fewer bacteria live on it than anywhere else in the house. However, you can be sure that as soon as you have left your friend's house, out comes the blue medical alcohol and everything is wiped down - the logic being if you had a nasty disease down there you probably would not want to talk about it. What do they do in pubic toilets? They either hover over it - or get up on the rim - shoes and all and squat and do their business. A local church has had to put up a sign requesting people to sit on the seat, as they were obviously tired of cleaning muddy footprints from the rim.

Amazing Facts about Romania 10: The most corrupt place you can go to in Romania is the Romanian Orthodox Church. They have ripped me off so many times, I don't bother to keep track. If you live in the countryside - one priest will be stretched between two or three churches. Come into any major city and you can find three priests in one church. If you have a wedding, baptism or funeral - all three will expect to take the service and be paid for it. All three will demand you provide them with a brand new soap and towel set to wash their hands with - think how many sets of soap and towels they must get in a year as they keep them! When you have a baptism - you also need to provide the church with 1 liter of olive oil.

When I was organizing a friends wedding - I was told the hire of the church was 20 pounds - so my wife made sure I had the money ready in my suit to pay at the end of the service - The priest realizes I am foreign and so demands 100 pounds - 20 pounds for the service and 80 pounds church donation. In the end, we needed a wedding whip around - so we could pay the bill.

When it comes to baptisms - things get more annoying - the same couple as before now has a beautiful child and we have the honor of being Godparents. The church refused to let me touch or carry the baby in the church, as I was Catholic rather than Orthodox - likewise refused to add my name to the baptism certificate - but had no problem asking me to pay r it all.

The final annoyances I have with this church is if you make a confession - you must pay the priest to forgive you. If you have a sick friend - and you would like the priest to pray for you every day for a month - they actually in some churches have a printed list - so you know how much to pay for divine intervention. Like any good business model - the longer you want - the cheaper it is per prayer.

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