40 hours in Bucharest – Romania
A mini weekend, flew Friday night arrived at 3am Saturday morning. Woke up at 9am for breakfast, at 10 I was out. Tired but excited as the sun decided to shine that day. I went to the National village museum, which is situated in the nearby park (from the hotel: Crowne Plaza Bucharest). The park is great, it has got boats and pedalos, interesting paths and plants.
The museum was interesting (Tickets: 10 LEI = €2 /£1.8), it had traditional houses, churches, barns, mills things that makes up a village from everywhere in Romania. (Indonesian reference: a bit like TMII). The weird thing is that they have several similarity to some Indonesian houses, with straw roof, mud floor & modest content. When I whip out my camera to take pictures of these houses, I realised that I forgot to put the SD card back in it.D’oh! #epicfail
A day without camera, seems weird, still really enjoyed it. After spending an hour in the museum I walked to the edge of the park to take the hop-on-hop-of bus. Whilst waiting I had ice cream in the small park cafe.
Bucharest was known as little Paris with its very own L’Arc de Triomphe. I was hoping by being on a double decker bus I can see the monument better, no such luck, Hmmmpfh, it was under renovation and covered by scaffoldings. Och well. The road to town was really lush green, with houses and trees on either side,I suppose it is more a boulevard than a street really. The houses are cool, they are a combination of art nouveau and medieval ecclesiastica (aka those houses you can imagine vampires living in it).
As we head towards old town we encounter a protest on the road that creates a massive traffic jam. After spending 2 hours on the bus I decided to walk back to the front of the National Museum of art. Where there is a collection of marquees which seems to be selling food. The food was nice and really cheap, I ate and drink till I am full for €2, with the local, their chips/french fries were good.
Then I had to go to the National Art Museum which was just in front. The building is amazing inside, entry was 15lei=€3 combined with the Gallery of European Art. As I say it is worth it just to see the inside of the building, but otherwise the collection is pretty dull.
Day two, got my sd card in the camera. I hopped on the bus with the 24 hrs ticket, and went to Old town Bucharest. There are some pretty building here, but most parts of the town is full of touristy restaurants and on that hot day it really stinks. Eurgh. I skipped that part and whizz around to see the pretty buildings. Here are some pictures.
It was 4pm when I realised the time and I still had time to waste, I went to the only museum open the. natural history museum. It was a good and modern museum despite the fact that it is full of taxidermy. The interpretation was all in 2 languages Romanian and English. Would highly recommend if you are travelling with children.
For the 40 hours I was there I conclude that Bucharest is my favourite capital city in the Eastern European region so far, it is pretty, the food is good and cheap, and the people are nicer. (A lady helped me on the bus towards the airport to validate my tickets)
The national Village Museum is really beautiful. Next time you visit Romania, visit Transylvania and the Village Museum from Sibiu. That one is even more impressive! Also, Cluj-Napoca and its surroundings are amazing! (check my last article and I hope it will convince you to pay Romania another visit)
Very good pictures! Bucharest is a new city for me, yet to be discovered! Romania is definitely in my travel list.
Thank you very much..:) I think the rest of the country would be pretty too.
I was never too fascinated with Bucharest (I am not a city-traveler). Your pictures are great, though. It city must have changed a lot ever since I visited in 2012!
I love both cities and rural areas, I always challenge myself to go to parts that the local would go or the less tourist trodden. I Find by living in London there are places that you always stumble upon that most tourist miss, so I apply that rule anywhere I go, There must still be place I miss. Thank you for your compliment of my pictures.
That building in the first photo, that alone is enough reason for me to visit Bucharest one day. The Romanian parliament building is said to be the heaviest building on the planet, and judging from the photos of it from other blogs I can say that it’s nothing short of spectacular!
Really? I did not know that. When I saw it I thought it is the kind of building that I would imagine to see in a film of about the cold war. It is really big and overwhelming, with tall concrete gates around it. My photo made it look tiny, 🙂
Hei that third picture from top, I can imagine our very own kota tua can look just like that.
Hahaha you are right it does look a bit like our kota tua
Udah lama gak main kemari !! gw browsing around dulu ah…. 🙂
mari main.. kemana aja? udah lama gak update juga yah?
Iyahh baru selesai Silk Route ke beberapa negara nih bo. eh kamu ga main Instagram?
Seru silk road! Cuman ada twitter, tapi sepertinya wajib punya instagram yah?
seru sih bo, apalagi kl jarang nge blog, at least bisa update dari IG 🙂
Ooh gitu yah, good tip.