The East meets West city: What remains constant for the expat?

When I first arrived here in August 1996, Bucharest was a far different city than it is now. It lacked many of the normal amenities that newly arriving expats now take for granted. So for those die-hards who have been here as long as I have, perhaps it bears remembering just what did NOT exist in the Bucharest of that time:

1.No shopping malls, hypermarkets or real supermarkets – rather groceries were bought from dingy, darkened shops with little if any selection
2.No modern (i.e. read
“with heat, air conditioning or comfortable seating”) movie
theatres
3.No health clubs or decent gyms
4.No Coyote Caf