Dumitrache Merişescu, an artisan from Bucharest, travelled from Bucharest to Constantinople in various guises. His memoirs narrated his experiences from day to day. The present article explores firstly this young man’s initiation into both amorous and commercial liaisons, and secondly, the manner in which he reinvents himself in the course of his journey, adopting new clothes and learning new languages. These memoirs, unpublished and hitherto unknown to historians, demonstrate how a mobile identity is fashioned across the Balkan region, uniting people of the same religion (Orthodox Christians), who find a common cultural language even if they belong to different ethnic groups.