Until recently, I was under the impression Romanian countryside must be among the best in the world, in terms of scenery, produce, and even quality of living (when compared to life in large cities – less stressful, closer to nature, so on).

That was until I got to travel for four days across South – Eastern Poland. I guess the Western influence on Poland and maybe the three extra years in the EU, compared to Romania, must have played an important role.

And I am not talking only about nature here – though it is important to see how one country understands to preserve it, and build smart on it, and how the other continues to trash it. I am mainly referring to how people choose to take care of their own lots.

We've traveled several hundreds of kilometers by car through rural Poland, and I haven't seen, not even in one place, any piece of land that lacked proper care. Every bit of land was farmed, or used somehow- even if to create a nice grove. Even in groves, you could see trees are groomed, grass is cut, the land is clean, and the occasional small river is clean.

By contrast, I have seen in so many places across Romania large pieces of land with nothing on them than weeds. I guess it must have something to do with the agricultural policies too, but I am certain it is also related to a state of mind: in Romania, too many people await for the state to give them money to plow their fields, and yield some crops for their families. It might also be connected to the ever – aging population who lives in the Romanian countryside, with so few young people choosing to start farms. But I have seen this trend of more and more Romanian youth choosing the countryside life, so I can only hope rural Romania will one day look like rural Poland.

Are Polish people more hard – working than Romanians? Do they like cleanness and order more than Romanian do? I wouldn't know the actual answer to these, I would probably have to live in Poland for a while to know it, but my on site perception was that they are. In every single countryside yard that I have seen in SE Poland, the grass was freshly mowed, the flower gardens were neat – yet not lacking a certain wild feel to them. I have seen numerous people mowing the lawn at 6 in the morning, and taking care of the vegetables garden.

I have also traveled extensively across Romania, where I have seen so many yards in need of a major do-over, so many land plots which became ad-hoc landfills, with lots of imaginable and unimaginable waste laying around. In many cases these were land plots suitable for agriculture. As you might be wondering: I haven't seen any trash spoiling nature in Poland.

Some might say excessive organization takes away from the natural beauty, and that Romania still has its raw nature, but I beg to differ. Poland has somehow managed to keep its natural beauties without going too much on the wild side. There is a balance between unspoiled nature and things taken care of. I would like to see that one day in Romania. Should I move to Poland until then? Or should I travel more through rural Romania?

Corina Chirileasa, corina@romania-insider.com

Below are some images from the Eastern Poland region. Photo copyrights: Corina Chirileasa for Romania-Insider.com