I'm always fascinated by the Eastern Bloc countries, would love to go to Russia someday as well. Did you get to see much there in Romania?
Not much. I got a night-time tour of the city from a car, and I walked just a tiny bit in my general area. It was cold, I'm lazy and I was pretty tired when I wasn't working so I didn't go around much.
Still, I think I got a decent sense for that city. I went to the palace in the picture and toured the museum inside. It was pretty cool since it combined general museum stuff (science/music in world history) with local history and culture. I played football with the guys and went to the mall for lunch. I had traditional food a few times and chinese food and KFC other times.
Overall a good experience. Lots of little interesting differences, but not too many major differences, at least in the city I was in. But their economy is starting to grow rapidly so things were apparently much different a couple years ago and will be much different in a couple years.
oh... i fixed this one for you: