The gypsy beggar kids were very aggressive in Bucharest around Gara du Nord, to the extent of touching you and putting there hands in your pocket. In Moldova, there was none of that.

Twice, when I asked for directions, people whipped out their cell phones and called somebody to ascertain the directions. I another incident, I walked into a newsstand to buy a SIM card. The owner, who spoke reasonable English, apologised profusely for not having a SIM card (The sign outside indicated they carried SIM cards). I decided to ask him a few other questions like where the Central Bus station was and if there was a Cyber Cafe nearby. He offered to walk with me, saying, he had been sitting all day a and that it would be a treat to be able to walk with a visitor to his country.

Romanians think of Moldova as small, insignifcant country that cannot offer you anything Romania does not.