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Published: October 24th 2007
Midland Youth Hostel may not have the cleanest rooms or the best showers but it does provide eggs for breakfast. We made a veritable feast out of scrambled eggs on toast and breads and spreads. We said goodbye to Charlie who was heading back to the states.
Today was our designated sightseeing day. We had a list of the obligatory tourist sights and set out with the aim to see as many as possible. First stop was the university square where you can supposedly see bullet holes from where ceausescu's police fired on protesters. We did only look half heartedly, but we couldn't see anything.
After being in Transylvania we both have a healthy interest in Vlad Tepes and so his palace in the historic quarter of Bucharest was our second stop. Historic quarter is just the nice way of saying crumbling and abandoned and not really that worth bothering with. The church next to the palace was quite nice to look at and we had a look inside because it is the oldest church in Bucharest. The palace was more like ruins and was under construction anyway. A guard told us we had to pay two lei each
to get in which we didn't and did not regret. The area was almost suffocating with dust in the air and it stung your eyes if you stood around too long.
Having missed the last England game I really did not want to miss this one, so we walked up past the people's palace to the most impressive Mariott hotel I have ever seen in my life. We knew there was a sports bar inside which happened to be the same chain we watched the game in Warsaw. They told us that they wouldn't show the game because Romania were playing, but told us of an Irish bar that might be showing it. We left the Mariott Hotel feeling massively under dressed and like we both desperately needed showers.
We bought some beautiful bread, cheese and tomatos, and some food for dinner that evening. Rob had decided that since we couldn't find anything beautiful in the city centre that we would have better luck with a park just outside the city. The park itself was pretty lame, but there was an impressive monument at the top end of the park. We sat and ate our lunch trying to
pretend that we weren't being stared at by a stray dog that looked ever so forlorn. After we had eaten we walked up and around the monument mainly so that Rob could get some "artistic" pictures.
On the walk back towards the centre we stumbled across a monastery complex that sat overlooking the main square. We had a Brief look around but much more enjoyable was watching the sun set in the main square.
We found the Irish Pub (that was its name) and the game was ten minutes in. I don't really need to say much about the game other than Russia managed to beat us. Wonderful. The Pub was bland but weirdly popular with the locals who crammed themselves into the upstairs part of the bar.
Back at the hostel Rach was on Msn, so we quickly set up a four way conversation with her, Jamie, Rob and myself on Skype. I finally got to see what their bedrooms/flats look like at university thanks to a guided tour by webcam. Rob found out today that both his brother and Viv have got new jobs, so belated congratulations to both of them.
We cooked our
meal which wasn't amazing but was appreciated for its simplicity. Whilst we were eating a guy from Australia joined us to watch the film Hackers 2. It wasn't fantastic so I went on my new favourite website called couchsurfers whilst Rob finished the film. We stayed up rather late chatting and putting the world to rights and planning away our futures.
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kate
non-member comment
ideal holiday spot
Bucharest does not exactly fit the bill as the ideal holiday spot. Thanks for being there so we don't have to! That's not fair of course as there will be a beautiful side....somewhere. Love mum