Archive for May, 2009

If you are looking for one of the true oasis’ in this town: This is the place to go: Green Tea House! And it is exactly that: To start with: It is a wonderfully  g r e e n  oasis.The garden is beautiful with big old trees, lush rosebushes with blossoms bigger than babies heads in wonderful colours.

Green Teahouse

Second: it is all about the  t e a  (you can also buy some there in the cutest little “store”[more of a room].)

Third: They didn’t forget about the  h o u s e: it is three storeys of beautiful little corners, niches and places. All done in a different design.

Where Serendipity (see below) tends a little more to asian style, the Green Tea House is more like the english version: White cast iron chairs and tables in the garden, lanterns, green lawn and beautiful flowers. When it comes to the house apparently they couldn’t decide so there would be one floor more asian, next more indian and last, but not least, third more grannylike/frenchish. There is a fire place, a piano and in wintertimes even a xmas tree.

Enjoy any kind of tea you can have in mind, with some wonderful cake, quiche or sandwich (I said, it is kinda english). They care for the veggie and even have tofu sandwiches. It is a cigarette-free environment but not entirely smoke-free: If you have the time, enjoy a shisha with your tea, sit back and relax and await the stars in the sky. You will feel so remote, romantic and comfortable, if you like, you can forget about Bucharest or you realize you’re right there a part of it.

It is close to Universitate, on Dr. Burghelea. Walk on Carol headed east, turn right on Sf. Stefan and cross the playground. Say hi to the securityguys at the Croatian embassy (blocked road on one side, which makes the Green Tea even more peaceful) and then just follow the street. Or look it up on a map.)) Make a reservation on weekends and order your shisha before eleven.

Nina Catherine

One of my foreign clients wanted to open a bank account for his newly set up company. I suggested the bank I am using, but he chose another one because one of his friends was working there. It is a small Romanian bank which became part of a big international financial group four years ago.

As at least in the beginning the account was to be operated from abroad, one thing my client needed was Internet/electronic banking. I was sure that the bank offers this service, however I was extremely surprised by their answer. They said “Yes, we do have e-banking, but before we give you this we have to see for a couple of months what turnovers you have. If they are big enough, our headquarters may grant you the possibility for using e-banking.”

Incredible, huh? So e-banking was a favor (even if you would anyway have to pay both for set up and maintenance), and the clients getting it could consider themselves blessed. This bank does not consider e-banking a way to offer a better service (so that the client would not waste time on the road for non-cash operations). Or a way to reduce costs (by needing less front office personnel and of course less office space).

What a difference from other banks which offer reduced commisions for the operations done through Internet! I congratuled myself again for using the services of Emporiki Bank (which is now owned by Credit Agricole) which offers me Internet banking free of charge.

Do I have to mention that my client eventually followed my advice and decided to switch the bank?

Cristian Bizau

Bucharest Angel

For the moment I am spending more time in Vienna than in Bucharest.
But each time I come back to Bucharest, there is something special to do or to discover.

Today I would like to share with you a wonderful tea place I visited on my last visit in Bucharest.

If you come from Piata Romana on Bd. Dacia you can have a nice walk if you take Str. Aurel Vlaicu to the right. You can have a wonderful green break first, taking Intrarea Ioanid which takes you to Parcul Ioanid. This beautiful park dates from the 19th centuries and is surrounded by old feudal houses. It is perfect to relax here on a warm spring afternoon and enjoy the quite and peaceful atmosphere of this neighbourhood.

If you take the opposit exit, it will take you to Piata Cantacuzino from where you should continue on Str. Dumbrava Rosie.There is a small entrance between majestic embassy buildings at house number 12. It will lead you to Serendipity tea house. They offer a large range of teas and service is really nice and friendly. In summer you can have a seat in the garden. The interior rooms have small separees, seperated by bamboo mats. The atmosphere is calm and relaxing. They have a strict non-smoking policy.

For sure, when I will be back to Bucharest I will take the chance again to enjoy a relaxed evening at Serendipity.

Christian Pauls

Bucharest Angel

One of my clients is a Romanian-born Swedish guy who is in the business of software development. We helped him set up a Romanian branch of his Swedish company. Of course, he was astonished of how long and complicated the procedure is (probably because he doesn’t know how it used to be couple of years ago ). He told me that in Sweden one can set up a company simply by filling in some forms over the Internet. He also shown me the registration certificate of his company. What struck me was that it was mentioned not only the date of incorporation, but also the hour – 21:23.

I then realised how much freedom such a system gives you. You have an entreprenorial idea – you can go for it right away, no matter if it is night or day, Monday or Saturday. You do not have to spend much energy and time (a week if you are a Romanian) or money (for a lawyer) to pass the formalities. You can concentrate on creating value through your enterprise.

The Romanian authorities announced three years ago that they will pass a law which will allow the online creation of companies. Couple of month ago they announced that one company managed to be set up via online. This should not be a surprise as the authorities currently are unable even to interconnect the databases of different ministries. This is why the same company taxes have to be declared at 4-5 state institutions.

So my guess is that it will take at least 5 years until the norm will be to use modern means to set up a company in Romania. Until then, I strongly advise you to save time, energy and money by using the knowledge of someone familiar with the system (as opposed to trying to figure out by yourself all the small but important details which can prolong the process for couple of months – no joking!).

Cristian Bizau

Bucharest Angel

I’ve heard a number of crazy stories involving the trains in Romania, but only recently after five months of train travel between Bucharest and Sibiu did I have one myself. I don’t typically meet people on the train; it is usually a pretty quiet affair with everyone minding their own business, and my last trip to Bucharest was equally uneventful, just one lady and myself in the cabin. We each read, ate our lunches at the same time (as to not annoy each other with crunching while the other read), and never spoke a word until we disembarked, even then only politely smiling and saying the customary “La Revedere”.

But the ride back was distinctly different.  To our mutual surprise, the same lady and I would be sharing a cabin again, alone, until the door slammed open and a very drunk, very disgruntled man in his fifties burst in a sidled up next to me, ignoring the three other open seats at the other end of the cabin. For the next three hours (until Brasov) we got to hear the mad yelling drunken man tell us we were communists, and that he was not a communist, and, “LOOK! Out the window! There! Do you know what that is? ROMANIA!” He then produced a small electronic stuffed dog with flashing green eyes that barked and jumped around on the floor hysterically while he gave it various commands, which the dog of course ignored and was punished for.

At some point he left with his two liter bottle of Ciuc to talk to people in the aisle outside the cabin, and the woman asked me in English where I was from. Thus began a very interesting discussion. I asked what the man was on about and she said, “He is furious…about everything. Yes, of course he is crazy, but we have to appreciate his right to say what he wants.”

While I agreed in principle, I had had enough of the shouting in my ear and stale beer belching, and was happy when he fell asleep just outside of Brasov but was wary of the next three hours to Sibiu, should he reawaken.

Luckily, our cabin caught fire as we approached Brasov. Apparently, something under the train was burning and we were advised to move to another cabin. We gathered our things and left the now passed-out social objector in the cabin alone. I felt bad about not waking him up, but to my simultaneous relief and irritation, he started shouting through the window something about how the burning train was a communist and how no one was going to make HIM move.

Fortunately, he did not join us in our new cabin. We continued our conversation. At some point a Romanian about my age interrupted asking a political question. He spoke perfect British English and took over the entire conversation from there. We all spoke about religion and politics and philosophy for the remainder of the trip. We exchanged information said goodbye, and parted company.

On the way home from the train station as I sat in the back of the cigarette-smoke-filled taxi whose driver had removed the window cranks, and was blaring Manele, I realized that this was the most normal part of my trip and started laughing. The driver looked at me over his shoulder and also started laughing saying something I didn’t catch, turned up the volume on the radio and began to sing.

Mateo Urquijo

Communications Angel

Driving: On the Easter week-end, precisely on Monday, I was driving my usual way to work ( even though I didn’t go to work).

I could not believe how empty the streets were. Especially on Tunari street, where you have those worn out tram lines next to old villas and little narrow side-streets, everything seemed so different than usual. The tram passed by every 10 minutes, there were some pedestrians from time to time- but that was it. Then I imagined how it used to be not so long ago in the old neighborhoods of Bucharest, without so many cars like nowadays. I must admit I loved the atmosphere. Now I think I should not start to bash the traffic and the behavior in Bucharest-everybody does and knows.

But what amazes me is that the Minister of Tourism announced that Bucharest could be a wellness destination, and the street holes should be used as a competitive advantage for tourists. This way tourists could take a horse sledge and experience authentically street holes. Well, at least she is optimistic and tries to see things positively…

Volker Moser

Bucharest Angel