Bucharest: Take 2

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After our first visit only involving the McDonalds of Gara de Nord before heading to Chisinau, we hoped to make more of this visit... which began... in McDonalds. Although in fairness this was to have a coffee after a long night train. The coffee was also much needed due to the fact we were using public transport to get to the hostel, always confusing when you have absolutely no idea how. In fact, it took us an hour to find the correct bus stop and buy a ticket and even then we got off at the wrong stop, although this was only one further down the line. Anyway, we found the hostel, have a twin private room and all is well.

As usual, a nap followed the night train. Once human again, we ventured out to lunch along a nearby main street - ordering the meat stuffed vine leaves (traditional dish) was very much approved of by the waiters. Next up was Bucharest's old town, which, unfortunately, is being dug up. So, as beautiful as the buildings may be - there's a distinct lack of pavement and an abundance of dust and noise. The day consisted of general wondering whereupon we stumbled across a covered passage - bizarrely Egyptian themed and full of (only) Shisha cafes. Happy to sit down, we chilled out with a glass of Sangria each.

Back at the hostel, we fretted about how to get to our next stop - Burgas, on the Bulgarian Black Sea coast. Now, we'd heard that Romanians and Bulgarians aren't the best of friends but really, the lack of transport connections between the two is ridiculous. The train we originally wanted to catch was also ANNULATI (cancelled) as we were unhelpfully informed several times. After much ridiculous route planning, the guy who runs the hostel informed us of a much simpler, almost direct, bus service. The only downside of this bus is the fact that it leaves at 7am :'( . With all this mess sorted, we wandered out for dinner... only to end up at the covered passage of shisha bars again - honestly by accident. So we sat down for dinner and drank some of the most watered down wine we'd ever tasted.

The next day, we arranged to meet a friend of the LLB/Maitrise course - Laura, who is Romanian. Since we definitely know where the covered passage is, we met there and headed round the corner for lunch (mostly because we were too embarrassed to be spotted yet again by the waiters). Laura then generously guided us up the main high street to show us something outside of historical Bucharest and assisted us in using the Metro (we really aren't that good with public transport systems - in fact, we did think that a book of worldwide public transport systems must be published with idiot proof instructions). So, rather swiftly, we arrived at the Parliament building - Ceauşescu's Palace - the second biggest building in the world after the Pentagon - a cool 365 000m2. We dithered about whether to take a tour - but the fact that it is free for students very much swayed us. At this point we said goodbye to Laura and started the tour, which involved far too many stairs for our tired legs 😞 .

At the end of the day, we returned back to the hostel, picking up some delicious pizza (bargain price of course) and chilled out... ready for the eaaaaaaaarly start. Eek.

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