Iasi, Romania
In April 2008 I was sent to Iasi, Romania for one week, in order to work more closely together with our colleagues at that site. There is also offices of Continental there, although it is very much a developing location and as such the scale is completely different to what we had in Germany. 
As you can see, the office block is basically a 3 storey portable. Most of the workers are recent graduates out of the univerity in Iasi. Actually, I believe that is one of the attractions of setting up an office in Iasi - a company like Continental would attract a lot of interest from the uni graduates there, as it would be one of the few options to stay at home and have a technical engineering career.
Iasi is actually quite a small city, but it appears much smaller if you only consider the airport. It is an international airport because it has ONE daily flight back to Vienna.
Work aside, we had a little time on some of the weeknights to look around the city and experience a bit of Romanian culture. The food there caters for a different palate than that of Germans (or Chinese for that matter). There is a strong emphasis on meat and carbohydrates (flour, polenta, etc.). Breakfast at the hotel looks quite similar to the picture of our dinner as well. While the food is tasty, it is also quite heavy and it can be hard work to get through a whole meal.
2008 was the 600th anniversary of the founding of the city of Iasi. As a result, there were a lot of flags flying around raising the awareness. We were fortunate enough to have a colleague taking us around the city on one of the nights (thanks Adrian!), which saved us having to read any guidebooks. This citytour was a welcome variation on the western European theme. The churches and places of worship have different styles, some being very ornate but unfortunately in a rather run-down condition. A lot of them have painted walls in the interior, and one originally had the external walls covered in gold, only to have it stolen when the city was invaded. As they are renovating these churches, the worshipers continue to gather in these buildings.
You can find more photos from the trip under:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lokmanho/sets/72157605254100041/
As you can see, the office block is basically a 3 storey portable. Most of the workers are recent graduates out of the univerity in Iasi. Actually, I believe that is one of the attractions of setting up an office in Iasi - a company like Continental would attract a lot of interest from the uni graduates there, as it would be one of the few options to stay at home and have a technical engineering career.Iasi is actually quite a small city, but it appears much smaller if you only consider the airport. It is an international airport because it has ONE daily flight back to Vienna.
Work aside, we had a little time on some of the weeknights to look around the city and experience a bit of Romanian culture. The food there caters for a different palate than that of Germans (or Chinese for that matter). There is a strong emphasis on meat and carbohydrates (flour, polenta, etc.). Breakfast at the hotel looks quite similar to the picture of our dinner as well. While the food is tasty, it is also quite heavy and it can be hard work to get through a whole meal.2008 was the 600th anniversary of the founding of the city of Iasi. As a result, there were a lot of flags flying around raising the awareness. We were fortunate enough to have a colleague taking us around the city on one of the nights (thanks Adrian!), which saved us having to read any guidebooks. This citytour was a welcome variation on the western European theme. The churches and places of worship have different styles, some being very ornate but unfortunately in a rather run-down condition. A lot of them have painted walls in the interior, and one originally had the external walls covered in gold, only to have it stolen when the city was invaded. As they are renovating these churches, the worshipers continue to gather in these buildings.
You can find more photos from the trip under:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lokmanho/sets/72157605254100041/
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