Blogs from Bucharest, Muntenia, Romania, Europe - page 8

Sorry to barge in after what has been quite a longish period of no entries with one that is going to make many eyebrows frown and will undoubtedly reignite some old and heated debates, previously posted and discussed on my page. For the past 2 weeks I've been, once again, through an emotional roller coaster that has not finished yet. For the past 2 weeks I've seen a dozen doctors and although I was hospitalised in A&E FUNDENI nobody bothered to have a look at me until I, the patient, bothered to push around some money. I was admitted on Friday the 19th November , 4pm. After some preliminary investigations I was taken upstairs to the Cardiology ward where I was given a bed to sleep in and LEFT there. For 5 hours. NOBODY came to ... read more

Day 2- Bucharest, Romania Another beautiful day. We have been fortunate with the weather. Let’s hope it stays that way. As you could see by our itinerary, we are seeing many of the Soviet Bloc or as they say here, Eastern Bloc countries on this vacation. We will not visit Russia but we will see the Soviet influence all around. We started today with a tour of Bucharest, capital of Romania with a population of 2.5 million. The ride yesterday from the airport came through many industrial areas and soviet-style housing and gave me a negative first impression. Today was much different. Yes, we saw many shocking housing units but we also got to see some of the post-communist development. But the most impressive sight of all was an incredible building that was undertaken by the ... read more

We travelled from Dubrovnik by bus and taxi to Belgrade where we spent three days exploring both the old and new towns and visiting Tito's grave. We could feel Tito still rolling over following the break up of Yugoslavia. We celebrated our wedding anniversary aboard the overnight train to Bucherest. However the romantic images of the Orient Express were erased by the graffiti on the original? railway car, the lack of air conditioning and dining facilities (or even so much as a cold drink), and the barely adequate toilet. Bucharest has turned out to be a pleasant surprise as it is much cleaner and nicer than the travel guides would have you believe. A trip to Romania would not be complete without a trip to Transylvania to visit the castle of Vlad the Impaler (named because ... read more

Welcome to Bucharest famous for its dark past and bleak present: brutalist architecture, glue sniffing junkies, 200,000 stray dogs and pick pockets everywhere. The main tourist attraction is the train to Istanbul/Budapest. It made sense to stop here for a night. I was not expecting much. The city’s not without its problems but the reality is nowhere near as bad as preconceptions. Although the point about the dogs is unfortunately true I really didn’t encounter any problems (which is impressive because I literally cannot walk down the street without being mugged). I had one full day to explore which is about enough. This is my first time in Eastern Europe so although the communist grey monstrosities everywhere may be aesthetically horrendous it’s interesting to see them. Following an earthquake in the 1970s and a visit to ... read more

The last days were a wind-down, a return to Bucuresti in anticipation of my flight back home. I can't say I'm really homesick, but I have nothing to occupy myself here. I quickly dropped my stuff off at the Funky Chicken and went off to amuse myself. I made some calls and Vali, who is a fellow Yahoo Grouper, answered and he proposed a trip to Restaurantul La Cocosatu for their famous mici. I must admit, I'm becoming accustomed to them, though I still prefer sarmale and I missed calling another friend and I guess she'll be crazy mad at me. I didn't get much sleep and woke early to meet a crazy online friend of mine. The next day I went to an International Festival in C Park. I was quite let down at the ... read more