Hi there, people from all around this special planet of ours.

My name is Toma and I was born and raised in Romania, by my beautiful, smart and open minded romanian parents, who taught me that borders don’t exist and all the people should and can get along for the greater good.

I live in Bucharest for six years now, a city that I grew fond of day by day. A capital city full of contrasts, from yellow sunrises, smell of warm bagles at every metro station, women with beautiful smiles, hundreds of cultural events and concerts each month, parks full of children riding bicycles along their parents and pets, to dreamy sunsets and a nightlife that you’ll love to be a part of so much that you’ll become younger day by day.

A couple of years ago I started a project with one of my best friends, Alex Filip, who is a romanian travel blogger and one of the most enthusiast and well trained professionals I got the chance to know and work with. Our motivation came from the lack of positive voice Romania has everywhere, not only abroad. We wanted to show everyone the true perspective of this unique country, so we created Eventur, an agency designed to improve how the world sees us as a nation and to give hope back to its inhabitants.

Step by step, the project gathered more romanians armed with voices in need of shouting, even if it was by writing, photography, filming or just one-on-one talks about how things are going around here. We wanted to use the internet, of course, the only media channel that can travel anywhere with just one click of a button. Blogs, social networks, hashtags, the full plate, all filled with good things that are happening here.

Three years later, our passion is still here and our efforts grow stronger.

Our next step is an event we called Enjoy Bucharest. It is designed to show romanians and foreigners alike a new (or forgotten) perspective over our capital city, adding together the small description I gave you above (and many more). Just spare a couple of minutes of your time and browse #EnjoyBucharest hashtag. You’ll see for yourself.

I’m writing this article because I just read what Earl Baron (american blogger, speaker @ our digital travel conference linked with #EnjoyBucharest) has been through, trying to receive a romanian visa. The full story is here, on his blog.

Earl, I want to apologize on the behalf of my entire young generation who is trying. We really are. We’re trying to change things aroung here, Earl, we promise. One way or another (Skype), you’ll get the chance to do what we talked about months ago, when you offered your help and accepted to speak in front of a crowd of 300 romanian trained tourism specialists.

Please understand that our parents’ generation is different. They grew up in a communist regime and when they finally succeded in breaking the wall (some of them dying in the process), the new goverment only wanted to get really rich really fast and forgot about progress.

Things are coming around, me and Alex are not the only ones doing what they should have done years ago. You should see what we see when we go out on events or meetings or conferences or anywhere, even when we browse on a romanian majority Facebook timeline. Everyone is trying their best to end all the negative vibes.

Give us time, credit, and don’t give up exploring Eastern Europe.

We are coming.

Toma,
A common romanian.

http://instagram.com/p/zPMe0qlZAk