Essential Romanian phrases

Good day — the default polite greeting. 'Salut' is casual, 'Bună' works with almost anyone under forty. Romanian here is the same language as in Romania; the accent and a handful of everyday words differ.

Numărul de identificare de stat al persoanei fizice — your state personal identification number. Foreigners get one with the residence permit and nothing works without it: no bank account, no family doctor, no phone contract, no online public service.

Residence permit, issued by the General Inspectorate for Migration. 'Ședere provizorie' is the provisional (temporary) one; 'ședere permanentă' comes after three years.

The counter window at a public office. 'La ce ghișeu?' — which counter? — is the question that saves an hour at IGM or the Public Services Agency.

The privately run minibus that fills the gaps in the trolleybus network. Locals also say 'maxi-taxi'. You pay the driver, often on the way out, and it is a separate fare from the municipal 7-lei ticket.

The Central Market — the produce, cheese, honey and pickles hall behind the bus station, and the price benchmark everyone in the city quotes against the supermarkets.

The national pastry: a flat, pan-fried or baked pie filled with brânză (salty cheese), cabbage, potato, pumpkin or sour cherry. Sold everywhere, eaten at any hour, and the cheapest good lunch in the country.

Sour chicken noodle soup, soured with borș made from wheat bran. Moldova's household soup and the standard cure for the morning after a cumătrie.

The christening feast at which godparents are formally taken on — a vast, multi-hour institution with hundreds of guests and its own etiquette. An invitation is a serious compliment and declining needs a real reason.

House wine, made at home. Around three quarters of Moldova's villages still press their own, and being offered a plastic bottle of someone's father's wine is a normal end to a normal conversation.

'Yes, of course' and 'no problem' — the two phrases that carry most Chișinău service interactions, in the same tone whether or not it is actually going to happen.

The single emergency number for police, ambulance and fire, free from any phone and answered around the clock. Moldova consolidated onto 112 in 2018, and the service's own guidance is that intervention is requested through 112 and through nothing else.