In a (probably vain) attempt to revive this forum a little bit, here’s my old-style datasheet for the Romanian city of Iași (2024).
I spent about 5 months in Iași thanks to the infamous Erasmus Programme for university students. I saw a thread about Erasmus a while ago and as far as I can remember it was pretty on point.
Intro
Anyway, the city itself is the 2nd largest in Romania, it is pretty much isolated logistically from the rest of the country though. After traveling around Romania I think it’s accurate to describe Iași as the epitome of a Romanian city. Iași has everything: boring landscapes, harsh winters, ubiquitous corruption, decent food, gypsy pickpockets, godawful traffic (don’t come here by car, for the love of God), depressing Ceaușescu-era concrete monsters (comparable to Soviet khruschyovkas) and, last but not least, loads of sweet college girls.
I don’t know where you’re reading this post from, but there’s a high chance the landscape in your town is more interesting than anywhere in Iași. It’s mostly treeless hills that get drenched in mud during the winter and scorching hot in the summer. A week-end trip to the Carpathian mountains is highly advisable anytime. Winters can be pleasant (I was there during the winter myself) when you get some sunshine but also pretty brutal. By that I mean -15 C during the day or even less, with heavy snowfalls and blocked traffic. This happens because the urbanistic planning is the worst I’ve seen in Europe. It’s a fairly dense city (400k inhabitants including the metro area), but built as if it were a small provincial town. Public transportation leaves a lot to be desired as well. Anyway, let’s cut the depressing stuff.
The city itself feels modern, there’s quite a few malls with pretty much anything you would need, Western brands are largely available, you can also find upper-scale restaurants or fancier places in town. Since Iași was repeatedly destroyed in the past, it was forced to keep up with times passing by & modernize itself while buildling everything back.
Housing
There are several areas of Iași that are quite pleasant. The best one is arguably Copou: 2 major universities (read: dormitories with college girls) are located there, many cafés for coffee dates or remote working, nightlife is alright, and there are parks that offer some shelter from the ubiquitous stench of diesel. Also there’s a good calisthenics park just next to the stadium if you’re into that.
Just like every single European city with a university (Iași has 5...), the real estate market is fucked up and needlessly expensive. So finding an apartment to rent can be a hard task, especially since there are shitloads of “real estate agencies” whose objective is purely to rip you off with overpriced apartments and hidden fees. The apartments are actually legit, but mostly overpriced. I’d highly recommend you to stay as close as possible to either Copou, Palas Mall or the center (it’s called Centru on Google Maps, though this word is a misnomer since there’s no actual “city center”). The city has been bombed/set on fire/pillaged 17 times by different peoples throughout history, this explains why it has no real old town. Anyway, here you’ll find both modern buildings and old Ceaușescu-era buildings. I would suggest you to stick to modern apartment blocks. Expect to pay about €500 per month for a decent apartment with some space to move around, because the old blocks will make anyone feel claustrophobic. The further you are from the designated area, the worse your logistics. Locals mostly rely on Facebook groups or olx.ro to look for fairly priced apartments, it can be a little tough to navigate if you don’t speak Romanian though.
People
Now, Romanian mentality is hard to write up in just one sentence. Romanians are generally helpful and friendly when you approach them on the streets, making day game a definite plus. Everyone in Romania knows perfectly that the country is run by embezzlers and it cannot compare to the West. Despite this, you rarely hear about young people who just give up on living because they have got no chances of getting a good job. By that I mean that most Romanians I’ve met are really hard-working and stolid, despite earning a pittance for European standards. Average salary is €1k/month, assuming a 40h workweek. Many students go to Germany/Netherlands/Italy for a summer job which is technically slave labor in those countries, work their ass off in factories or agriculture and come back to Romania. I remember one girl once showed me her contract in Germany, and her salary there was well below the minimum wage. In general, Romanian workers are all over Europe. Italy has more than 1 million Romanian citizens, just to quote you some figures. Not that all Romanians would like to emigrate, quite the opposite. Many people (including young students) told me it's their homeland and they would never leave it. The main factor that ties Romanian people to their land and between each other is the Orthodox Church. There’s an easily recognizable pattern among Orthodox Christian countries: chaos, corruption, alcohol, gigachads, large families. People tend to be generally religious and family-centered, making LTR/wife hunting viable. Iași is also a pilgrimage site for a relic located in the main cathedral, iirc on Oct. 15th there’s a holiday taking place where thousands of people flock to see the relic to receive its blessing. There’s even videos on Youtube of people queueing up for 10 hours or something. It seems like there is more free speech in Romania than elsewhere in Europe, I remember once talking to local guys at a pub and still being able to say that homosexuality is an illness. I challenge you to say that anywhere in the West. Anyway, this does not mean everyone is conservative. In fact, the religiousness of the people is in the process of changing, especially in the cities, where women tend to be more career-oriented. I always got on well with Romanians, both inside and outside of Romania. Working out & fitness is very widespread in Romania, there are so many gyms in Iași that I lost count. Despite this, I can’t remember seeing that many jacked guys around. If you get invited to someone’s home, you’re almost certain to receive a little gift (sometimes a bag full of food/moonshine/bunch of other stuff) as a thank-you for your visit, especially if you met through church. One of the girls I met would always give me loads of stuff from her village, it was really nice. Romanians are generally pretty shy and rarely approach anyone on the streets or just chat random people up, use this to your advantage. Even if you struck out while trying to get your future big tiddy goth gf’s number, you left her a great impression of yourself. This can be a good transition into the next section.
Girls
You should be able to find pretty much anything you’re looking for in Iași in terms of girls. From bdsm hoes to Christian tradwives, I’ve heard it all. It’s a modern city in a rather conservative country, that’s why you get a mix of everything. You just have to search in the right place and you shouldn’t be disappointed. In terms of looks it’s a melting pot as well, especially since students from all over Romania move there. In the south people look rather Balcanic, whereas if you go to places close to the Ukrainian border (either side of the Carpathian mountains) you’ll see many blondes, with some occasional redheads. Plus, the border to the Rep. of Moldova is less than 20km away: this means there’s loads of Moldovan girls in Iași. According to my experience, pretty much any Moldovan girl was automatically hotter and more outgoing, simply more fun to hang out with than her Romanian counterpart. This might have to do with Slavic or straightforward Russian genes, but this is just my humble guess. Loads of Moldovan people claim Ukrainian and Russian ancestry. Quality (both appearance and values) is higher than in the West. Feminism is not a big thing, at least not yet.
There’s also loads of foreign exchange students in Iași, mostly French and Spanish. Therefore, being a foreigner is nothing special, at least not anymore. BUT, if you’re a Romanian speaker like me, you’ll attract some interest if you have a foreign accent, since most foreigners there don’t even bother to learn the basics. A Romanian-speaking foreigner is perceived as somewhat exotic, so this definitely increases your chances and widens the range of girls you can game. You are fine without Romanian as well, some of my non-Romanian-speaking mates were doing very well. However, the most attractive girls I met told me they struggle with English or just straightforward don’t like speaking English. But don’t mind me, I just need to feed my ego a little since I’ve learnt Romanian.
As I mentioned before, you can find such a wide span of different attitudes that it’s nearly impossible to formulate a rule of thumb with girls in Iași, but I’ll do my best:
You’re looking for SNL/quantity over quality? Hit the clubs, dress smart (not necessarily over the top) and you will outdress most of your competition. Foreign students are, notoriously, by far the most DTF. Sometimes it’s almost like shooting a penalty without a goalkeeper if you can play your cards right. They usually party at Underground Club, which plays the usual crappy pop music every night.
You’re looking for LTR? Run day game or, if you’re a Christian, join a church and befriend the priest. Priests are usually super friendly people who have loads of time to talk about life and whatnot. Good day game spots include: all the places close to the universities, Iulius Mall, Palas Mall. This city is quite good for day game, since the average age seems quite low & people go out more frequently than in Western Europe.
Since I’m a LTR/wife hunting type of person, I’m not big on nightlife and I did not hit the clubs that often, in fact I’ve been just a bunch of times. So can’t help you a lot with that, especially since I don’t really have a gold standard to compare the quality with. But if there’s one thing I know, is that music was pretty repetitive in all the clubs I’ve been to and ratios were usually bad. Sausage fests galore. If someone’s interested in specific clubs, tell me in the reply and I’ll try to elaborate as much as I can.
Also, black or asian people should have no major problems. I've seen people from either race doing fairly well, so you can definitely find your niche.
I don’t really know how to finish off this thread, I guess I’ll update it if something relevant comes to my mind. Wish everyone happy adventurizing.
