Day 11: Bucharest kinda needs to grow on you

Europe » Romania » Muntenia » Bucharest
October 4th 2017

Published: October 8th 2017

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Lylaenvoyage

Obsessed

We started our day with breakfast at what is quickly becoming our favourite spot: Paul. Very popular cafe about a block away from our hotel with magnificent pastries and gorgeous sammiches. Also, the ladies who work there are the friendliest in Bucharest! It’s nice to start your day with a smile (a rare enough commodity that we notice when we get one). Gold star, Paul. You are excellent.

My must for Bucharest was the Village Museum (an open air museum with historic homes and structures from different parts of Romania that were relocated to Bucharest and restored). To get there we took a lacklustre HOHO which took us by the Parliament (ridiculously huge) before swinging northward to take us to the museum.

The museum was Ah-Mah-Zing. We spent 4 hours there (including lunch at a cafe inside the park). There was nothing I didn’t love. Like, I loved *all* of it. It even had the unexpected bonus of animals...stray cats, a couple of roosters, a donkey and a pen full of goats! The goats were in an old husbandry building that had been moved to the museum and renovated. They were totes adorbs. One was super friendly and jumped

House in Village Museum

into the food trough for a closer look at us. He got a good head scratch for his efforts. Now I want a goat.

In the end, the HOHO wasn’t all bad as it took us around parts of the city we wouldn’t otherwise have gone. My favourite non touristy sight on the HOHO route: the Canadian Embassy! Holy crap, Canada, we need a new building. It is straight up ugly. Damn. We went by so fast I didn’t get a picture but google it and you’ll see.

Bucharest is slowly growing on me...it has its quirks and I’m sure suffers a little coming right after Budapest, which was spectacular, but it has its own thing going on. Since we are a (maybe) 10 minute walk from the Old Town, we end up there pretty much every night. Lots of restos with outdoor seating and it’s very lively - even in the middle of the week. One edge of the old town is still looking a little rough, but a large part has been well maintained and is fun to walk around. We’ll be back again after our next jaunt to the countryside to discover some more of