Romania & Moldova Books

Romania - Culture Smart!: a quick guide to customs and etiquette

Debbie Stowe

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Culture Smart! provides essential information on attitudes, beliefs and behavior in different countries, ensuring that you arrive at your destination aware of basic manners, common courtesies, and sensitive issues. These concise guides tell you what to expect, how to behave, and how to establish a rapport with your hosts. This inside knowledge will enable you to steer clear of embarrassing gaffes and mistakes, feel confident in unfamiliar situations, and develop trust, friendships, and successful business relationships.

Culture Smart! offers illuminating insights into the culture and society of a particular country. It will help you to turn your visit-whether on business or for pleasure-into a memorable and enriching experience. Contents include:

* customs, values, and traditions
* historical, religious, and political background
* life at home
* leisure, social, and cultural life
* eating and drinking
* do's, don'ts, and taboos
* business practices
* communication, spoken and unspoken

"Culture Smart has come to the rescue of hapless travellers." Sunday Times Travel

"... the perfect introduction to the weird, wonderful and downright odd quirks and customs of various countries." Global Travel

"...full of fascinating-as well as common-sense-tips to help you avoid embarrassing faux pas." Observer

"...as useful as they are entertaining." Easyjet Magazine

"...offer glimpses into the psyche of a faraway world." New York Times

The Rough Guide to Romania 5 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

Tim Burford, Norm Longley

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Excellent Guide to Fascinating Romania 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Finally a brand spanking new update to this excellent guide. The last edition was October 2004.

I have been to Romania 10 times and I still am discovering new places in this fascinating country.

Highly recommended !!!

Editorial Review:

Make the most of your time with The Rough Guide to Romania, the ultimate guide

to one of the most beautiful countries in Southeast Europe. The full-colour section introduces the country’s highlights, from the monumental Palace of Parliament in Bucharest to the majestic Bicaz gorges. Using informed accounts, clue-up on all the top sights from the marvellous wooden churches of Maramureş to the romantic Danube Delta and the best beaches of the black sea coast. The guide takes a detailed look at Romanian history, literature, politics and cultural life with expert background on everything from the painted Monasteries of Bucovina to hiking in the Carpathians. There are plenty of practical tips on bird-watching, information on all the best accommodation, transportation and restaurants and lively reviews of hundreds of shops, bars and clubs. Discover every corner of Romania with the clearest maps of any guide.

Romania & Moldova (Lonely Planet Travel Guides)

Robert Reid

Amazon Price: $16.49 List Price: $24.99 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Lonely Planet Amazon Marketplace: 48 new & used starting at $8.94

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 8 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Does not live up to the LP name! It's decent, but disappointing. 3 out of 5 stars.
9 of 23 people found this review helpful.

I have exchanged emails with Leif, the book's co-author. While this book is generally useful and the authors have done a decent job, my email exchange with Leif only reinforced my impression that the authors were a little sloppy (and perhaps rushed?) when writing this book.

I have some issues with this book, but to keep this review short, I will highlight my major complaint dealing with cultural relevance. This is a very important topic for any travel guide. Slobozia is a town where a Romanian billionaire built a lifesize replica of the 'Dallas' set, as well as some other crazy stuff like a junior Eiffel Tower. Slobozia was completely overlooked by LP. We only found out the day we left Romania, and were thus disappointed at not being able to visit. When I asked Leif about the oversight, he first stated it wasn't within his region to explore. This is wrong, because Slobozia is in Wallachia (which he was responsible for reviewing) and showed ignorance of the region on his part. He also said it probably wasn't included because it wasn't culturally relevant. This raises an important question: How do the authors decide if something is culturally relevant? The book spends several paragraphs on Borat, Madonna, South Park, and Michael Jackson. Are these more culturally relevant than a junior Eiffel Tower? This question has far-reaching consequences, including food, arts, history, language, and politics. Why does Leif omit Dallas but include Borat?

We expect a travel guide to be sensitive to cultural relevance, not to selectively (and apparently randomly) omit certain cultural elements (no matter how tacky, in the case of Slobozia). My exchange with Leif raised important questions about cultural relevance, and reinforced my already mediocre opinion of this book. As a result, next time I will carefully research travel books rather than merely rely on the LP brand name.

Editorial Review:

Ponder whether Bucharest is the 'Paris of the East' at its own Triumphal Arch, p.76.

Roam deserted stretches of sand where the Danube meets the Black Sea, p.308.

Find out why the keys to 'Dracula's castle' are held by a New York architect, p.139.

Enjoy a tipple at the winery where Russia's President Putin celebrated his 50th birthday, p.329.

Two authors; 16 months in-country research; three car accidents; eight road trips slowed by jaywalking goats
Fully updated information on Moldovan wineries and Transylvanian castles
The only guidebook to cover Moldova and its autonomous regions of Transdniestr and Gagauzia
Content updated daily: visit lonelyplanet.com for up-to-the minute reviews, updates and traveller suggestions

Playing the Moldovans at Tennis

Tony Hawks

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

It doesn't take much - "£100 is usually sufficient" - to persuade Tony Hawks to take off on notoriously bizarre and hilarious adventures in response to a bet. And so it is, a pointless argument with a friend concludes in a bet - that Tony can't beat all eleven members of the Moldovan soccer team at tennis. And with the loser of the bet agreeing to strip naked on Balham High Road and sing the Moldovan national anthem, this one was just too good to resist.

The ensuing unpredictable and often hilarious adventure sees him being taken in by Moldovan gypsies and narrowly avoid kidnap in Transnistria. It sees him smuggle his way on to the Moldovan National Team coach in Coleraine and witness (almost) divine intervention in the Holy Land.

In this inspiring and exceptionally funny book, Tony Hawks has done it again, proving against all odds that there is no reason in the world why you can't do something a bit stupid and prove all of your doubters wrong. Or at least that was the idea....

Romania Insight Guide (Insight Guides)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Excellent in-depth full-color country guide! 5 out of 5 stars.
18 of 20 people found this review helpful.

This is an excellent country guide that gives you such a wide range of truly in-depth information on the country's culture, arts, folk heritage, history, language, way of life - not just the usual tourist attractions, as most other guides do. This is what actually sets it apart from your "conventional" travel guide. It is a delight to read - I started leafing through it casually when I received it and ended up not being able to put it down for the next few hours, I found it so captivating. And the photographs are just beautiful. Speaking of which: this guide, compared to most other guides I know, is simply teeming with great quality color photos! Here I must congratulate Kathy Kavalec, a keen photographer I know personally, on her exquisitely artistic "Sighisoara passageway." Strongly recommended if you are not simply after a conventional travel guide but rather after a more comprehensive, lavishly illustrated presentation of the country's rich cultural and geographic diversity. Worth every penny.

Editorial Review:

With everything from Bucharest's increasingly sophisticated nightlife to some of Europe's most spectacular wildernesses, Romania lacks neither attractions nor diversity. This new 384-page title has detailed coverage of Europe's new tourism frontier. Romania, which recently became a member of the EU and is now linked to London by low-cost airlines, is one of the continent's most fascinating destinations. This guide incorporates hundreds of spectacular colour photographs, detailed maps and full details and assessments of hundreds of hotels and restaurants right across the country. It is an inspiring background read, serving as an invaluable, on-the-spot companion but can also be kept as a superb, visual souvenir of a visit. Expert local writers bring Romania's history, culture, arts and people to life and it includes all the travel details and contact numbers visitors will need.

The Romanian: Story of an Obsession

Bruce Benderson

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Winner of the 2004 Prix de Flore-one of France's most distinguished literary prizes-a wildly romantic, true-life love story

History follows a trail of sputtering desire, often calling upon the delusions of lovers to generate the sparks. If it weren't for us, the world would suffer from a dismal lack of stories," writes Bruce Benderson in this brutally candid memoir.

"What astonishes and intrigues is Benderson's way of recounting, in the sweetest possible voice, things that are considered shocking," wrote Le Monde. What's so shocking? It's not just Benderson's job translating Céline Dion's saccharine autobiography, which he admits is driving him mad; but his unrequited love for an impoverished Romanian in "cheap club-kid platforms with dollar signs in his squinting eyes," whom he meets while on a journalism assignment in Eastern Europe.

Rather than retreat, Benderson absorbs everything he can about Romanian culture and discovers an uncanny similarity between his own obsession for the Romanian (named Romulus) and the disastrous love affair of King Carol II, the last king of Romania (1893-1953). Throughout, Benderson-"absolutely free of bitterness, nastiness, or any desire to protect himself," wrote Le Monde-is sustained by little white codeine pills, a poetic self-awareness, a sense of humor, and an unwavering belief in the perfect romance, even as wild dogs chase him down Romanian streets.

The Hooligan's Return: A Memoir

Norman Manea

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The long-awaited memoir by one of Romania’s greatest living authors

The Hooligan’s Return is a haunting memoir, vividly re-creating Norman Manea’s harrowing childhood in Fascist Romania while providing indelible portraits of Ceausescu’s dictatorship and the pre- and post-Communist eras.

Manea’s observations about his visit in 1997 are intertwined with his reflections on his return to Romania after four years in Transnistria, in the camps to which large numbers of Romanian Jews were transported in 1941. As the narrative utilizes one journey to illuminate the other, Manea’s friends and family tell their own stories, and the topic of departure and return proves to be an obsessive constant.

As the story of a writer who is anything but militant, a literary man more interested in moral and aesthetic questions than in politics, this compelling and beautifully executed memoir explores questions of identity, exile, and the conflict between life and literature, dream and reality, past and present.

National Geographic Traveler: Romania

Caroline Juler

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Great Book despite shortcomings 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

It's great to see a book on Romania published by the prestigious National Geographic. There are many attractive pictures, maps and travel ideas and it is overall a great resource for someone who is introduced to this East European country. However, as an amateur photographer and someone who lived and traveled through Romania for many years, I have to point out 2 cons. First, the book is very much oriented towards the old and traditionalism, and you will have a hard time finding any buildings built after WW2, yet alone after the fall of communism (1989). I love the old yet it would have been nice to see at least a few pages dedicated to the more modern facade of Romania. To some degree, it feels like a National Geographic Magazine from the 60s. Second, I am very surprised at some of the choices for photographs. As a prime example the village of Vinga is represented by an ordinary church when it has one of the most famous and impressive churches in Western Romania - a huge Bulgarian Cathedral. Arad, a city of close to 200,000 which used to be called "little Vienna" due to its architecture, gets one picture: a glimpse of a local market.

Editorial Review:

With its historic cities, rolling mountains, villages, and rejuvenating spas, Romania is realizing its appeal as a travel destination. National Geographic's all-new Traveler guide explores every region of this intriguing country, from Bucharest to Oltenia and its painted monasteries to the Apuseni Mountains, celebrated for their limestone formations and underground rivers, to Transylvania's medieval towns.

Each guidebook in this series details how to get around and what not to miss... the most gracious hotels and recommended restaurants... the best spots for festivals, wildlife watching, water sports, and more—all presented with the reliable reporting and magnificent photos and maps that are the hallmarks of National Geographic.

Bucharest Map (City Map)

Cartographia

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Editorial Review:

Folded street and travel map in color. Scale 1:20,000. Legend includes public buildings, parks, railways, Underground lines, tramways, bus terminals, museums, churches, monuments, hotels, open-air baths, gas stations. Index of streets, sights, museums, churches and hotels listed on back of map.

Romania Map

Cartographia

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

This is a great map! 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is a clear, comprehensive map. It's written in Romanian. The horseshoe area of mountain ranges is very clearly marked. It's hanging in our kitchen, so my four children can learn all about Romania before we travel there.

Editorial Review:

Folded road and travel map in color. Scale 1:800,000. Distinguishes roads ranging from motorways to secondairy roads. Legend shows railways, funiculars, car ferries, international airports, airfields, air sport centers, ports, frontier crossing points, frontier crossing points passable on special conditions, natural parks/game preserves, passes, natural sights, tourist's sights, World Heritage sites, caves, castles, ruins of castle, monasteries, churches, mosques, antique ruins, spas, beaches, camping sites. Legend in 5 languages, including English. Index on back of map.