Table of Contents
Romania
Arriving in Bucharest, Romania for a short 3 day stay before heading onwards to visit the ancestral home of Dracula – and spend one month driving around the countryside.
Well I used to work with a lovely lady who grew up near the Black Forest in Romania and she told me stories of how they lived in this medieval village, and there was no electricity (this is now a good 40 years ago by the way!), and they would make chocolate to entertain themselves after dinner!
She described the beauty, warmth and hospitality of the Romanian people and for years I’ve been wanting to visit.
What should we expect in Romania? Well I had no idea, but in the taxi from the airport I realised Bucharest is a very developed and modern city with wonderfully grand old buildings, cobbled streets and very cool wine bars!
Romani or gypsies are not from Romania. This is a common misconception and I thought I’d address it here.
The Romani are spread throughout Europe and also America, according to wikipedia they have more genetic ties to India than any other country. (Romani shares a basic lexicon with Hindi and Punjabi.) see wikipedia if you don’t believe me!
Bucharest
Bucharest itself is gorgeous. Crumbling old edifices, grand arches, and drunken UK men on bucks weekends (embarrassing).
There are some fantastic outdoor bars, lots of beer drinking and great big city streets for wandering. It feels like a modern outdoor city with everything you could want, and a youthful culture.
Things to Do
or Palace of Parliment
We toured the People’s Palace, one of the must see things in Bucharest. The building is huge, built by ex-President Nicolai Ceceascu who also bankrupted the entire country in the process. Considering Romania is one of the poorest countries in Europe that’s saying a lot. The Palace has marble, crystal, and gold. They bulldozed and relocated entire blocks of citizens and old buildings to make Ceceascu’s vision come true. He wanted the avenue leading up to the Palace to be larger and wider than the Champs Elysées.
It now also houses the secret service and other government departments, no one actually lives here now.
Its disturbing and saddening to see such gaudy grandeur. Apparently it was so large they tried to put maps in the tiles of the floor. Check out the tile below and see if you can figure out the map!
Oh and if that wasn’t enough, it costs 3million euros to run the electricity each year! Unbelievable. Built in just 6 years with 500 architects!
The tour was really great – you have to book in advance and sign a whole heap of forms with your passport before being allowed access.
The Museums of Art Collections
A wonderful small museum where old families ‘donated’ their art collections. Some were taken from them and others had no where else to put it, but it is beautiful and not to be missed. You can see El Greco, Rodin, Monet among other masterpieces along with some Romanian artists.
Kretzulescu Church – stopped off at this very interesting church, with unusual architecture.
Its near the Piata Revolutiei, both on the same street Calea Victoriei on a great street to stroll down and check out all the buildings!
Beautiful buildings to see, and then we had a drink and dinner at Lacrimi si Sfinti. Great food! homemade sausages, mash potato with paprika, and amazing papanash.
The next day we headed out on the trail of Dracula! Starting out at his childhood home of Curtea de Arges (Court upon Arges river) ancestral seat of Wallachia.
Stay tuned!
Romanian Food & Drink
Bucharest is a very modern city and you can get everything from Sushi, to French fine dining and traditional Romanian food. The bars are so incredibly cool, and also mostly outdoors, there is a great vibe and culture where you feel right at home!
Traditional food is similar to Hungarian style, stew, cabbages and heavy dishes all designed to taste amazing and put on those calories!
Great coffee and modern coffee shops. Here are a few places we suggest you try!
COFFEE
Cascara Coffee Roastery – I give it Jade’s coffee seal of approval.
FOOD
Cara Cu Bere – 150 year old resturant that literally translates to Taste with Beer. We had lunch here, it is a wonderful pub style restaurant with traditional Romanian food such as sarmale – cabbages stuff with meat, pork neck and peas, and my favourite deep fried papa nosh -Romanian donuts.
Lacrimi si Sfinti – Great food! homemade sausages, mash potato with paprika, and amazing papanash. A bit nicer than pub food. Definite recommend
BARS
La Biblioteca Herastrau – Great wine bar with a good list of lovely Romanian wines. Has delicious looking pizzas, was very full!
Gradina Monteoru – we were invited to this cool outdoor bar to celebrate our Airbnb hosts’ birthday. Perfect for summer it feels like a ramshackle festival bar set up under vines with wrought iron seats and shady trees.
Also the exchange rate of the Lei is great compared to Aussie & GBP
