Bourdain Vs. Romania

I was doing my daily Bourdain googling, and I found an interview he did with the Chicago Tribune. It is an absolutely excellent interview, as you would expect from Bourdain, but once again he took a shot at Romania. In response the question of "has anyone refused to serve you?" Bourdain replied "Romania, just by virtue of being Americans. You walk in the door, and they say go away, no seats."

Now it's no secret that Bourdain did not love Romania. In fact, he has claimed it was basically his least favorite country that he has ever visited. The episode featuring Romania was commissioned by the Romanian tourist board and immediately became controversial in both the United States and Romania, obviously, because he absolutely ripped the country apart.

So is he right? is Romania, or Eastern Europe, for that matter unpleasant?

hmmm, I'm not gonna lie, the service is absolute shit and there were too many times that waiters completely and totally ignored our existence or gave us dirty looks. The same attitude was also found in Prague where employees in the service industry weren't exactly keen on helping you.

It was so bad in fact, that I found everyone in Paris to be super helpful, super kind, super polite, and pro-American in comparison.

So is it worth visiting? Absolutely, but you have to have a thick skin, people won't like you and many will be actually mean and rude to you. You have to remember that in American culture we are programmed to be friendly, to the point of being fake. This isn't programmed into every culture and you have to expect it. If eastern europeans don't genuinely like you, they sure as shit aren't going to pretend.

This of course completely excludes the everyday people that you meet who, when they invite you in, are among the kindest, most generous people on the planet.

So long story short- Bourdain was right, because he almost always is, service in Eastern Europe is shit, but the people are actually really cool when they clock out of work.

Oh one more Bourdain-ism that I will reread a thousand more times today:

"I respond to blunt objects more than a subtle wine. Rough neighborhood wines in Italy or Sardinia or Cotes du Rhone make me happier. Cruder, messier things where I don't need to engage my brain, I could pretty much submissively lose myself in the moment"