>Ive lived in Bucharest for 25 years till I moved here but I traveled to the western part the country where people enjoyed watching yugoslavian tv:) I think you are familiar with Timisoara/Temeszvar, Arad and probably Lugoj and Jimbolia(border city).

We actually spent two weeks at Mamaia in 1968 - I was 13 then. Passed through Bucureşti then, visited Constanţa, Cluj, slept in Braşov... but yes, most often we were only driving to Timişoara and sometimes Arad.

> People made good money from buying goods from Yugo and HUN and selling in RO. During the Yugo embargo, there was a lot of gas/oil smuggling happening there:)

Once I get to have grandchildren, I can bore them into sleeping with all the smuggling stories... we did a lot of trade there until about 1980. Then I got a job and it wasn't practical anymore to just get in the car and do a round between noon and midnight.

During the gas smuggling years, I was in Hungary, and you could see ads in their newspapers "Mercedes 220, 150, 1988, 200.000.-". The 150 stood for the size of the tank, in liters. The sanctions made many people rich on both sides of the border... at the expense of those deeper inland.

>Different culture there,you can see the western influence.

With the significant Hungarian, German and Serbian minorities... plus the borders being open now, and the TV broadcasting easily crossing the borders, I'm not surprised.

>And I am a big fan of Crvena Zvezda:)

:)

p.s. did I get all the ţ and ş in the right places?