“I expected the worst but I found a wonderful country”, says Irish mayor who visited Romania

Andrew McGuiness, previous mayor of Irish city Kilkenny has visited Romania and was pleasantly surprised.

McGuiness was invited as a musician at the Celtic Festival in Beclean town that took place last year in June. As he was a guest, he did not stay in a hotel but he was invited to stay at a Romanian family. The man said he felt “like an idiot” because he expected the worst when he arrived.

The mayor gave an interview to the local Kilkenny newspaper about his trip to Romania. He said “I accepted to travel to Romania and take part, as a musician to the Celtic Festival in Beclean, in the north east of Transylvania.I have never been to Romania until then and I did not know anything about the area or about the festival and I did not know what to expect, but I took advantage of this opportunity. When I told people that I want to go to Romania for a few days, they were surprised and some were shocked. Why would you go there, they asked, like it was about a war area”.

According to Adevarul, he said that Irish people believe Romania’s streets are field with beggars, there are communist blocks of flats everywhere, poverty and depravity. However, when he went to Romania he saw the reality and that this view is really not fair for Romanians that live in Ireland.

He indeed saw communist blocks of flats, but they were surrounded with beautiful buildings with romantic and neoclassic architecture. The city also was surrounded by mountains and green areas.

The mayor enjoyed his visit, he tasted Romanian wine and palinca and ate traditional food. He admired the fact that people produce everything they need in their houses, their gardens are filled with fruits and vegetables and they conserve their food for the winter.

McGuiness admitted he expected the worse but found a wonderful country filled with history, culture, delicious food and the most friendly people he ever met.