Columnist Eleonore af Schaumburg-Lippe writes in her weekly column about life as an expat in Romania. This week she looks at the differences between daily life in Bucharest (in picture, below) and Copenhagen (in picture, above).

When I arrived in Bucharest, one of the first questions my Romanian friends always asked me was about the biggest difference between Denmark and Romania. There is not a single answer to that question, and even if there are differences, they are not as big as people might expect. So hereby I will tell a little about the day to day differences in Bucharest compared to Copenhagen.

Cars

First of all there are many  more cars in Bucharest compared to Copenhagen, and they are parked everywhere. What amazed me in the beginning was when I saw how  my friends managed to park a car, or to maneuver the car around in a crowed area, for example in front of a club in Bucharest. Sometimes I would close my eyes to avoid seeing the cars around damaged, but I have seen some very talented drivers here, and most of them really know how to drive a car, even when they have to drive backwards.

Crossing the streets

In Denmark, when crossing the street - mostly two- car lanes, my highest concern is not to be hit by a bike, since there are a lot more bikers in Copenhagen than in Bucharest. In general you don’t cross the street unless the light is green, and this happens even in the countryside in Denmark, where all you see is fields.  There, I would still wait for the green light. In Bucharest many people cross the street on the red light, and they often smile at me while I am waiting for the green light, in a way indicating that I  was not Romanian.

The streets of Bucharest

There is a thing with the streets and pavements in Bucharest.  Conquering the streets here has been a bigger battle than expected, since in Denmark the streets are very good, and if there is a hole in the street it would be marked so it is impossible not to see it, and it anyway happens very rarely to find a hole. Here in Bucharest you have to watch your step not to fall down in a hole, but at the same time you have to look up, to avoid not walking into one of these often seen wires hanging down. I always wonder if they are connected to electricity...

How to open a door?

Another difference, which often confused me is that most doors in Bucharest - like for example when you enter a shop, restaurant etc. open outward- meaning you have to pull it towards yourself to enter. It is not such a big difference, but  in Denmark , the door goes the other way. This meant I often tried to open doors here by pushing them in, and as the door did not open, I thought the shop was closed and walked away.

Restaurants - Where is the sauce?

In Denmark, if you order food at a restaurant- say fish or meat with vegetables on the side, you get some sauce on the plate on in a sauce can. A good Danish housewife will know how to make the perfect sauce, and the test is to dip a boiled potato in the sauce, and if the sauce sticks like glue to the potato it is a good one. So I often asked in the beginning where is the sauce, but in Romania they don’t use sauce. Plus, the meat or fish is considered one order, and then you have to side order the vegetables.

Cinema

When watching a movie at the cinema, some Romanians take their phone calls, and even have a whole conversation during the movie. Switching off their phones or ignoring phone calls doesn't seem to be something Romanians think about. This would never happen in a Danish cinema. Moreover, if people begin to just talk, the other will for sure ask them to whisper or stop talking. The other possibility is to throw popcorn at them to make them stop. On the plus side, movies in cinemas are in both countries shown in the original language and subtitled, which is great.

Sweets and Cakes

In Denmark people eat more sweets, like licorice and jellies, and some families even have 'sweets'  Saturday evenings, when they watch a movie at home and then eat a lot of sweets and chips. Romanians eat more cakes and  dinners usually end with a cake. Maybe it's just me, but the cakes here in Romania are a bit too sweet and do not have enough chocolate. Well, in the end it was good for me to come to Romania, as here they don't have the 24 hour open shop on most street corners where you can always buy cakes and sweets. One bad habit down for me.

Tall buildings

The buildings are taller in Bucharest than in Copenhagen. In the Danish capital, the apartment blocks are typically not taller than six floors, but in Bucharest they can be way taller - nine, ten floors. This was something different for me, and resulted in a neck pain from always looking up at these tall buildings during ordinary walks in Bucharest. Counting the number of floors is still a habit I have here in Bucharest.

Kissing on the cheeks

Finally what I see as the biggest difference in daily life is that Romanians kiss on every cheek when they greet each other, which was something totally new for me. In Denmark we shake hands and when we become friends we give each other a hug. For me, this kissing on the cheeks was very strange, and in the beginning, I did not know how to handle it.  It seemed very personal and I felt like people where stepping over my boundaries when it happened. It was also hard for me to kiss other people on the cheeks, I found it really strange, and my main concern was what side to go with the head. Another major fear was ending to kiss people by going with the head to the wrong side. But today I almost find it strange if people don’t do it, and I even started to greet people not by kissing them on the cheeks, but by moving my head to the left and right when they say hello.

By Eleonore af Schaumburg-Lippe, columnist

Eleonore is Danish, she holds a BA in Organization and Management and specializes in Corporate Communication & Strategic Development. She is also a Market Economist and a Multimedia Designer. She is currently working in Bucharest as the Executive Director of UAPR the Romanian Advertising Association. As a Danish Viking in Romania, with a great passion for ’covrigi’, she has a burning desire to find out how Romanian women can balance on really high stilettos on the bumpy streets of Bucharest. Her weekly columns will give you insights into an expats life in Bucharest written with humor and a big Danish smile.