Probably one of the most common slang words used in Romania today, smecherie (shmeck-air-ee-eh) is simply put, the art of being a smecher (shmeck-air). Yet if you plug the word into a dictionary, what you get is “sly boots” or a “cunning person”. Close but not exactly right. The noun smecherie comes from the German word “Schmecker”, which just means someone who is employed as … Continue reading Slang Word of the Day: Smecherie
Over the years, I’ve been surprised at both the dangers that visitors falsely believe are all around them as well as the ones they completely ignore, therefore I thought it was about time to set the record straight, so to speak. Therefore let me say this before anything else: Romania is an incredibly safe place. Really and truly. Outside of the Peace Museum in Sweden, … Continue reading Dangers in Romania
Below are the top 10 searches that have brought people to this blog. All of the following are linked to the corresponding article(s), where appropriate: Rank Search Term 1 hopa slang 2 Adrian Minune 3 slang hopa 4 romanian slang 5 I’m more Romanian than you 6 Romania 7 TAROM 8 Romanian grammar 9 drum bun 10 Andreea Petria . Clearly number five is the … Continue reading Top Ten Searches That Bring People Here
I’m something of a connoisseur of other people’s blog posts about Romania as well as something of a raconteur when talking face to face with tourists over the years. Since I honestly (sometimes) feel like I’ve been here forever, hearing the stories of other people helps give me a Buddhist-like “beginner’s mind” perspective on things. One of the advantages in writing about Romanian culture is … Continue reading Touching, Kissing and Other Physical Contact in Romania
It’s time to talk about ciorba de burta (chore-buh day boor-tah)) which is a mainstay of Romanian cuisine. Literally it is tripe soup, which the name alone scares off a lot of people. Since tripe is something of a mystery meat to a lot of people, let’s get into what it is (esp in Romania). Every cow has four stomachs or to be more precise, … Continue reading Ciorba de Burta
