7 – 12 June 2018
In the early Thursday morning I arrived in Bucharest, not far from the Triumphal Arch. If I wouldn’t know any better, I’d say that I had just arrived in Paris. Oh well, at least if you ignore the fact that there’s no huge roundabout surrounding this Arch and this one is slightly smaller than the one in Paris. The place where I arrived is named Piata Victoriei (Victory Square). From here is was about an hour walk to my next place to stay. My host Miriam lives with her boyfriend and their dog in one of Bucharest’s suburbs. Once I finally got there at 6 am she still hadn’t replied to my texts, so I decided to wake her up with a call (the day before she told me it was fine that I would arrive so early, and that I could come straight to her place). Eventually a very sleepy girl opened the door, showed me to my room, and went back to bed. I almost wasn’t completely sure whether she was awake or actually just sleepwalking. Anyway, pleased to meet you too!
After I put my stuff in the room, I checked to see if there are any free walking tours in the city. After I found one, I set my alarm and took a two-hour nap. After I woke up, I took a refreshing shower and I left the house completely revitalized. From my host’s place to the city center took also about an hour by foot. On my way to the Unirii Park I bought some breakfast at the supermarket. I always love to get fresh buns and pastries from the supermarket’s bakery, and they’re very cheap too. Once I arrived at the park in the center of Bucharest, I joined the walking tour. We had a nice tour guide, who was able to tell us a lot of interesting facts. During the tour I also made some new friends: Raquel from Peru, Priscilla from Canada and Nicole from Australia. After the tour we had lunch together at a nice place called Taverna Covaci. Here they serve local food and they offer a choice of several three-course menus for only 24 Lei (4 euros). I had some bean soup, Romanian sausages and pancakes for dessert. After lunch we walked around the city and visited a flea market inside a once fancy building where the paint was coming off the walls. On the ceiling there was still a partly visible painting of two ladies in dresses with an angel above them. We also took some selfies at the “I love Bucharest” sign, like proper tourists are supposed to do. Apparently a lot of people confuse Bucharest with Budapest, including some famous people like Michael Jackson, who after his concert thanked the great people of Budapest. Quite embarrassing.
We also visited a place called the National Military Circle. This historical and architectural monument was built in the French Neoclassical style, like many other buildings in the center. The building is the headquarters of the National Military Circle, which is the most important cultural institution of the Romanian army. We sat down at the terrace outside, where we had some papanasi, this is a local delicacy made of balls of fried dough with sour cream and a sweet sauce. The English vocabulary of our waiter was limited to only two short sentences: “yes please”, which he said after each of us had ordered something. And “no problem”, which he said after Raquel told him that she didn’t like the food that much (as a joke). I’m not sure how that’ll work out if someone actually would complain about their food; “Waiter my food is spoiled”, after which the waiter will happily reply “no problem!” But I guess that situation never really happened, since the food was delicious. After we had raised our sugar level we went to a nice bar, but this time not to drink. Instead, we came for the view. The bar is located on the top floor of a building in the center, and it offers a great view of the sunset over the city. After we enjoyed the view of the setting sun, it was time for me to walk back home. Once I arrived at my place – it had already gotten dark – I was happy to see that my host had finally woken up! She invited me to join her on the lounge outside and have a beer. Later her boyfriend and another friend joined us. They taught me some Romanian words, including some I’d better not write down.
On my second day in Bucharest I met again with Priscilla and Raquel. The previous day we had decided to go to the parliament building today. The Hungarian parliament building is the second largest building in the world, after the Pentagon in the USA. The building beats many world records, including the one of longest carpet in the world and tallest curtains in the world. Many Romanian people resent the building, since it was made by the Hungarians under very bad conditions and with their tax money. While the Hungarians had to stand in a long line for just a flask of milk, the president wanted to build the most expensive building at that time. The building is mostly built from materials that come from Hungary itself. It has an enormous amount of marble and the gigantic wooden doors are made from solid oakwood. The windows inside these wooden doors are made of crystal, instead of glass. There’s a huge chandelier inside the theatre, that’s also made of crystal. The irony of it all: the president never got to live there, and right now about 70% of the building is actually empty. Some parts of the building are being rented, so if you’re looking for a fancy place for your family gathering, this might be the place.
The day before we had decided that we would go for lunch at the military restaurant, since the place looks amazing on the inside. The large hall is richly decorated with golden motifs and there’s a stage for a live band or orchestra. There are even balconies with tables looking out over the room. The place looked very fancy, but we were even more amazed by the price of their lunch menu; only 19 Lei! So we really wanted to eat there. After our tasty lunch we went for a walk around the nearby park. Later in the afternoon we had some ice cream at Emilia Cremeria. Their hazelnut ice cream was without a doubt the best ice cream I’ve ever had! At the end of the afternoon I decided to walk back home again. My phone tracks the amount of steps I take, and the last day I was well over 30.000 steps, which is triple the recommended minimum of 10.000 steps a day. This is why I don’t need to go to the gym while traveling (not that I actually visit the gym when I’m not traveling). That night there was no-one at home, and I got some extra sleep.
Every day one person of our little group drops out. On Saturday I was alone with Raquel and we had a busy schedule. Today we would first go to a town called Sinaia. This is about 1.5 hour by train from Bucharest. The town is known for its monastery and the beautiful castle atop the hill. In fact, the building is actually a palace rather than a castle. We had to race through the town, since we only had an hour to get back on the train to Brasov. Once we got in Brasov, we didn’t have time for sightseeing, since we needed to catch the bus to the famous Bran Castle. This castle is known as Dracula’s castle, even though the actual person (Vlad the Impaler) never lived there. Still, the castle attracts thousands of tourists. When we saw the entrance fee to the castle we thought it would be too expensive to go inside (especially since the whole day was already quite expensive). As we walked away I saw a used ticket laying on the ground. I noticed that the people at the ticket checkpoint barely even looked at the ticket, so we could take our chances and try to walk past them. But as we walked to the checkpoint there wasn’t anyone standing there at that moment, so we were able to walk straight towards the castle. Once we got there we saw that the real ticket control was actually at the castle itself and thus we wouldn’t be able to get in. But at least we got to see the castle from up close. I wanted to go to the restroom, so I followed the sign that pointed to the restrooms. But this route actually turned out to be a back door into the castle. So in the end we got to see most of the famous Bran Castle. Especially the inner courtyard is very beautiful.
When I came back to Bucharest, I noticed that there was quite a lot of police around the station. As I walked to my host’s place, it became clear why the extra security was there. I saw hundreds of people all dressed in white who had just been to a protest. The area was littered with trash and signs used for the protest. Later I learned from my hosts that this protest was actually staged by the government. It was a pro-government demonstration and thousands of people came from all over the country. The government provided them with free rides to the capital in luxury coaches and gave them some food. If you promise anyone a free ride to the capital, some food and sometimes some money, surely people will come (if only to have a nice day trip). All they have to do in exchange is show their support for the government.
The next day I took the train to Constanța, from where I continued by bus to Eforie Nord. This town is located in a nice coastal area, with an abundance of beaches. This is why Eforie Nord has lots of resorts, hotels and guest houses. During summer a lot of people visit this place, usually families with kids. Since it is such a touristy place, the prices are a bit higher as well. My host was Christina, a 39-year old woman who lives with her mother. Christina spends a lot of her time traveling, and she’s been to the Netherlands quite some times. Together with her mother she runs a guest house, where they accommodate visitors during high season. The first thing we did was going to the beach while the sun was still out. The water temperature was amazing; even better than back in Odessa. After some time at the beach, we had dinner and went back home.
The next day in the afternoon I joined Christina on a trip to Constanța. She had some business to do in the city and I could join her. Constanța has a lot of abandoned buildings, of which the most iconic one is the Constanța Cazino next to the sea. What is interesting, is that Christina still remembers the casino as a fancy place where she and her class once used to have their graduation party. Now the building is just an empty shell of its former self; the white painting on the walls is gone and the windows are broken. Now pigeons and other animals have made it their home. We also climbed the tower of the Karl Cami King’s Mosque, from where you have a great view over the old town of Constanța and the port. After a walk through the old town we had an amazing dinner at a Greek restaurant.
The following day I took the bus to Varna, a seaside city located in Bulgaria. From there my trip through Bulgaria would start.
Dawn Under 