Bucharest Local Custom Tips by Romanian_Bat Top 5 Page for this destination

Habits and customs

1. Men generally shake hands, while women kiss or hug each other to greet. However it is still familiar in certain situations for men also to hug each other and this is not regarded as a sexual offence.
2. When you want to give someone flowers, bear in mind that one flower is generally only given to the person you love, and then bigger odd numbers are welcome as a gift to anyone. Even numbers of flowers are only given to the dead. Therefore beware!
3. When visiting churches, it is familiar for people to wear either long dresses or long trousers; shorts are traditionally not acceptable; in a church usually women are kindly asked to cover their hair with a headkerchief.
4. When invited for a meal and you refuse because you do not eat pork, for instance, it is OK. But when invited for a drink or meal and you simply refuse, it can be taken as mistrust or as the lack of pleasure you would have to accept the offer.
5. Romanians pay little attention to time. Do not get angry if your friend / partner / acquaintance is 10 minutes late, he/she will blame the tram, the weather, the neighbour or whatever and you will lose 10 more minutes talking in vain...
6. When you are in Rome, act like Romans. So do not expect Bucharesters to do things as you like, rather try to understand why they are late, why they drive so madly and so on. After all, Bucharest is their home and it has not been built to please tourists. To the good and to the bad of it.