Sun. June 28 *Bucurest-Romania

Just to let you know the stop in Romania was just a stop over and thank god for that as sorry to report, there was nothing in this city really. A lot of it was pretty derelict and not so nice. There was no tourist office, which should have been a give away that it wasn’t really a place people come to visit, however I was there for a day, so thought I would see what there was and share it with you. So here is the Bucurest stop over.

Day 68 Sun. June 28

I woke up on the train at about 7 am, I decided to pamper myself and do a small pedicure and then worked on my blog a bit more. We arrived in Bucurest at 10:25 well, actually 11:25 another time change an hour later now. I got off, had to get money again, it is Romanian Leu here and that is 1 euro = approx 4.21 R Leu. Then I followed the direction to the hostel, and found it no problem.

When I got there, check in was not until 3pm, so dropped my bags, checked emails quickly and then went and asked the reception some information about trains, which was really no help. So, I grabbed a city map and walked back to the train station to book my ticket to Varna, Bulgaria. There was only one available for 6:25 am, and it was only 95 leu which is 22 Euro, so good stuff and that was with a reservation. Then I had a quick bite to eat and tried to find tourist information in the station but that is how I found out there isn’t one in Bucurest. I also had to pay 1 leu to use the toilet and u get 2 small pieces of toilet paper….craziness! I left the station and started my adventures to see what this city was all about, so I decided to walk to the old town, I was told that was the area to go and see. Here are some pics of my walk along to the old town.

I don’t know what the buildings are, as like I said they weren't anything too special. One funny thing, while I walked around and searched for a souvenir shop, I stopped a few times to ask for help and as soon as you ask them if they speak English, they get all excited to say yes but when you ask them the question they don’t know…silly really. It started to rain and I was getting discouraged with not finding anything interesting, so I made my way back to the hostel to finally check in. I put my things in the room, it was a 4 bunk bed, co-ed room. The bathroom was outside in the hall and the kitchen in the basement, was ok, for just one night was fine.

I tried to find out where if any I could find a souvenir shop from the reception and he said maybe at the Arc de Triumf, I kinda giggled and asked if that was suppose to be something similar to Paris and he said yes, but much smaller. So I was intrigued to go check this out, so off I went. I decided to take the metro this time and grabbed the map for that, got on and off I went to check out the Romanian Arc de Triumf, it is spelt different so let’s see how similar or different it is from Paris.

It was pretty neat, I will give them that and it was in the middle of a large roundabout, but no souvenir shops in sight. There was some concert in Romanian going on in the park near by, but I just wandered past to get back to the metro. This is a pic of the metro car, it is just one long car, no breaks, so going around corners you see the whole things bend, wild.

I stopped at a shop and got some snacks and fruit for my brkfast in the morning and water of course and back to the hostel. I meet a couple from Japan, and a guy from India. Laid down and chilled for a bit and then logged online to book my hostel for Bulgaria, got that done, showered and off to bed, early morning tomorrow.

So there ya have it, was a rather boring and unproductive day in Bucurest, Romania.I am sure there are other great places in Romania and I actually had in my head to go see Dracula’s house but it was a 2 hr train ride each way, so I scratched the idea when I found that out. If you’re ever traveling through Eastern Europe and planning to go to Romania, skip Bucurest.

Next we get to see Varna, Bulgaria, where there is lots of sun and some beaches and it is very cheap. Good Stuff!

Until then…..see ya in Varna!