Bucharest
What is Bucharest, well to borrow a few words from my wife; Bucharest is a fascinating city where you can read its history in the clash of architecture, the graffiti on the walls and the faces of the people.
We arrived after a very long transit from Hong Kong via Vienna, which is a much longer flight then I would have guessed before booking it. By the time we reached our AirBnB we had been travelling for near 22 hours and our host was super accommodating. Both Amélie and Juliette were total zombies and falling apart, but they kept it together just long enough to get to bed, real troopers.
Fighting some crazy jet lag we geared up and spent our first day touring the old town. An interesting area. not unlike most old towns, but here in Bucharest it doesn't really come alive until dinner time. I found there was a shortage of unique and eclectic shops to cater to those wondering around in the afternoon. I also found for a a travelling family that there were far too many clubs, pubs and stripclubs inviting an element we sometimes try to shield our children from.
While exploring the narrow winding streets of old town we came across the Stavropoleos Monastery Church, a beautiful 16th century Eastern Orthodox Monastery Church originally built to house nuns.
The next day was devoted to the National Village Museum Of Romania, a fantastic "living history" museum in Herastau Parc. Here they have assembled homes from the last two hundred years from around Romania. You can walk the grounds and experience the homes which are open, have a look around and learn about how day-to-day life was conducted in Romania over the last two centuries. They also have an indoor museum which showcases smaller items, such as clothing and kitchenware and the like, but we spent all our time outside running from homestead to homestead. This was the girls first official field trip of their world schooling experience.
Lunch was delicious but more interestingly the restaurant that is run from on the museum grounds is in fact a 100 year old crossroads inn and is one of the many edifices on display at the National Village.
The following day was to be an easy goes kind of day. We bought tickets for the hop on hop off bus and we hoped on and hopped off a few times. First we hopped off near Parcul Herastrau (Herastrau Parc) where we had lunch at a large beer hall. We then took the girls to an island in Lake Herastrau, Insula Copiilor, meant to be an amusement park for children, it was a little lack lustre and lacking. They were entertained for about 32 minutes and 23 seconds then were looking to leave. After hopping on and off again we were in search of the best éclairs in Romania, where we encountered Carol I, Romania's first king.
Some say that the éclairs at French Revolution in Bucharest rival the best that France has to offer. Now I haven't tried every single éclair in Europe or Romania for that matter but I can attest to their extreme deliciousness. A nice stroll home ended the day and we would find ourselves en route to Brasov the next morning.
I very much enjoyed Bucharest, though I can't claim that its a favourite place I've visited, nor am I yearning to go back. Most people were congenial enough and pleasant, but they lacked an appreciation for tourism that other places have and that makes them the places you would like to return to.
visited June 2018
