Romania, from what I've heard, is quite a strange place. It's Balkan, but its language is Latinate. It's a stone's throw from Serbia, but takes a Stone Age to get there, because of all the visa restrictions and therefore shortage of transport. And its money is made of plastic.


You can see right through it.

I was giving Anna a hard time for studying in a country which has such weird money, but the joke was on me. Less than an hour after taking this picture, as I was stuffing my hand into my pocket to pay for beer at a Belgrade corner store, the 200 dinar note got stuck on my camera case and ripped right in two.

"Man, if this was Romania..." I thought, as I frantically searched for more money, not knowing if I would now have enough. (Luckily, I did ... just barely).