Romania, working force is cheap and qualified, living is cheap and thus salaries can be smaller. But how cheap is living when you can find a nice flat to rent in Paris for 500 EUR/month and you can barely do it in Bucharest. And by Paris I mean somewhere around, where there is infrastructure, roads, and you have the ability to reach your work in under 45 min. But around Bucharest there is no infrastructure, no roads, sewerage, gas or internet and if you plan to live outside the city don’t expect train or metro but expect more than 1h lost in traffic, in your car, each day. So here you arrive with the paradox that for 400 EUR/month you can expect only to find a flat, yellow and pink painted, and with linoleum and marbled grit stone all over.

How can you explain to your civilised colleague that here the real estate agencies are working only for themselfs, never loose the time to check a flat before showing it to you, push the prices, gain a percent both from the buyer and the seller and expect from you to decide on the spot. So then you are left with an unending ordeal to search and call and always be disappointed. 2-3 months later your colleague asks you if you moved in a new place and you cannot explain that in the mean time the prices have gone up with 10%, that you lowered you expectations with 50% and that anyhow you’ll never find something you could directly move in as the term: immediately available or freshly repaired have a totally different significations.

And when he’ll take time to relax you’ll be taking time to paint and clean your 8′th floor linoleum flat and then you could only respond: “Comment c’etait les vacances? tres bien, et toi?”

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