My “Midnight Summer Dream”….

Part 3

(if you want to read part 1, please press here

For part 2, please press here )

2003: The best is yet to come…

After communism, Romania lived a turbulent period. An era full of major problems, personal tragedies that everyone wants to forget about. At that first period, six in ten foreigners who entered in the country were not serious… It was normal, when people were hearing stories about an unstable country, the ones who were destroyed at their own place were the first to undertake the risk and move to Romania, they had nothing to lose. They were hoping to discover an "Eldorado", to take advantage of the "unclear" situation, so as to earn easy money… Not all the people were bad, but plenty of them. This is why Romanians created a bad impression for several categories of foreigners, an impression which doesn't change anymore.

I was ready to finish my university, being in the country already for some years. I noticed that the % of serious companies and people entering in the market started increasing, with an interesting speed. More people around, more money spent, many more new investments… The news about the potential entry in European Union had opened the doors to the ones who wanted to take advantage of the opportunities. This capital injection was exactly what the country needed at that time. In the same time, the income entering in the country coming from the Romanian emigrants abroad was also increased, amounting to some billions of euro already.

Romania had already started accelerating, so as my life… I had more money comparing to the time I arrived… I had my own investments, a good monthly income, I was ready to replace my car with a better one… 2003 was the year that I started searching for ways to improve my life style… better restaurants, better services… even better clubs… but I was really disappointed. Very few options, most of them very expensive. The service was not what we call "polite". Each time I was in Greece, I could choose between 100 places so as to eat good, to dance etc. In Romania I had a very limited range of choices in everything, being upset with people who didn't care for their clients.

That was the time that we found out the first major success stories too, mainly split in three categories: One category was the rare breed of people who were treating their clients with respect and this made them successful, even if their prices could be expensive (respect to clients was never obvious…). Another category was the one including the companies or people who had any kind of monopoly, so they became rich quite fast. Last but not least, there was the category of the "smecheri". I knew some of them myself too. They were proud to announce to their friends or even the media that they tricked someone (preferably foreigner) and they made money, or that they used their connections and legalized illegal actions. That time there were still plenty of people making fun of them. But not for long…

Many newcomers, first success stories, problems about "how to live better"… Romania was changing… slowly. My properties had already doubled their price. I was happy, as I was feeling "potentially wealthy". I didn't want to sell though, I was collecting money so as to buy more. The Real Estate prices were rising too, reaching new records after such a long period of time. Many people became "rich" by selling properties (which they just inherited). Many others started checking this market too, searching for opportunities. "Unexploited" areas very close to Bucharest were discovered by investors. Pipera tripled its prices in few months! This led to the appearance of the first owners who were changing their price every month, setting up an auction, together with some (hungry for easy money) Real Estate agents.

Money started being spread in more pockets, you could notice more people smiling, hear about higher salaries given, more jobs created… more people coming to Bucharest from smaller cities. The same trend started being visible in Cluj, Timisoara, Brasov, Iasi, Constanta and other big Romanian cities… The "grumpy" years seemed to be in part of our past, the atmosphere was positive… more and more people gained more self confidence. Ofcourse many were still feeling bad, but things were better. I was feeling that "The best is yet to come" (like my favorite Frank Sinatra was singing) and I was not the only one with this kind of feelings…