Bucharest again

Today was a relaxing day. I woke up late. I had already seen most of the sights in Bucharest, However today I planned to visit the Village museum. It is an outdoor museum which has old houses from Transylvania and other parts of the country displayed in a very realistic setting. I took a lot of pictures but unfortunately none of them turned out that great. I went to a park and saw an EU flag hoisted.. and realised that today is the first day that Romania is officially part of the EU. There are big celebrations planned for this event on the 31st, in combination to the New Year´s eve party. Yesterday, I bought my train ticket to go to Istanbul. I am leaving tomorrow, December 31st. I guess I will be having my celebration somewhere in Bulgaria with Champagne.. after all they join the EU as well today.

This evening, Adrian and Anand return to Bucharest. Jeff and I met them after dinner and went to an Egyptian Cafe. Adrian´s friends joined us there as well. Adrian chose that place as it is one of the few places in Bucharest that serves the Nargileh, and all three of us (Adrian, Anand and I) enjoy that. After the cafe, we went to a club aptly called Downtown. Adrian said that I have to experience Romanian nightlife. It was a lot of fun. We had a blast. In the photo above are Alina, Adrian, Anand, Me and Jeff.

Sinaia, Romania

So I heard that if I really wish to experience Romania, I ought to travel away from Bucharest, to the mountains. They have some beautiful mountain resorts and gorgeous countrysides. I really would like to go to Brasov, however I have too much luggage to be hauling around, so I need to keep my travels to a minimum. - Hey! Before you roll your eyes and think "Women!", let me tell you that it is not easy to pack 8 months (including three seasons) of clothes in one suitcase!

I read about Sinaia in the `Rough Guide` book for Romania and it sounded like a nice place. It is 1.5hrs away from Bucharest by train, an easy day trip. It was cold, and I saw my first snow of the season in Sinaia. It is a beautiful town, albiet a bit touristy. Still, I enjoyed seeing the 17th century Sinaia Monastary and the Peles Castle which was the summer residence of King Carol I, the first king of Romania. We were told that this was the first castle in Europe to have both electricity and central heating. Interesting!

Peles Castle

Outside the old chapel in the Monastary grounds

There were ski lifts one could take from there to the mountains. I had planned to take a hiking trail to some caves, but when I got there I learned that all trails are closed during the winter. That was a little disappointing. So instead, I had a late lunch at an Italian restaurant, later walked around the city, and then spent some time at a pub till it was time to take the train back.

More Bucharest - Day 3

Went to Gara de Nord again this morning. Tried to find bus companies that offered trips to Istanbul. I visited 2 bus companies and they both had buses leaving on the 29th and then on the 3rd for Istanbul. The cost was 125 Leis. The schedule was not good as I wanted to leave Bucharest either on the 30th or the 31st, So Jeff and I decided to go by train. We bought our tickets for the 31st for Istanbul.

Then we searched for a restaurant called Don Taco, a Romanian Mexican restaurant which we read about in one of the city guides. I loved the food there. I had a tortilla soup which was the best soup I have eaten. Yummy! From the restaurant, we went to the House of Parliament. On the way we stopped at a park which had an ice skating rink. It looked like fun, but it was too cold for me to want to try it. The house of Parliament in Bucharest is supposedly the second largest administrative complex after the Pentagon. Unfortunately when we got there we learnt that it was closed until January 3rd. So we did not get to visit it. We walked again and reached the city center. Found a very neat coffee shop which overlooked the bustling street. Enjoyed a cup of coffee and relaxed a bit.

Bucharest

There is a Metro very close to the apartment. We took the Metro today to go to Gara de Nord, which is the main train station. We wished to find out information; schedule and cost for trains from Bucharest to Istanbul. It was Jeff’s first time on a Metro. I am sure it must have been an interesting experience for him. Had coffee and Rolitas Vegetal (similar to a veggie patty) at a café at the station (CoffeeRight). Also found out that trains run everyday from Bucharest to Istanbul. It leaves Bucharest at 1:35pm and arrives in Istanbul at 8:30am. The cost approx. 150 Lei’s for a 6-person sleeper car. We are not sure if we should take the bus or the train. Need to find out information about buses still. Also we have not yet planned a departure date from Bucharest. We do have a flight confirmed on Germanwings from Istanbul to Stuttgart for January the 5th, and I really would like to spend atleast 4 days in Istanbul so it seems like either the 30th or the 31st of December should be the best time to leave for Istanbul.

We walked over to the historic quarter of the city. We walked into a bookstore..(we saw many bookstores and found out that almost all of them only sell books in Romanian). One bookstore had a book on underground restaurants in Bucharest and it mentioned one called Hanul Manuc which looked really quaint and interesting. I wanted to go there after seeing the pictures but had no idea where it was. We were talking about this restaurant and walked into a lane, and were very surprised to find the hotel and restaurant right in front of us. We had our lunch at the restaurant. The ambience was just as nice as it looked in the book. The food was all right. It turned out to be a lot more expensive than what we anticipated. The menu had a set of prices and we but our bill was for twice the amount. We did not try to ask the waiter for clarification as they did not speak English and we dint want to bother with it.

After Lunch, we walked to the City center and spent time at a park, visited the theater, the Athenaeum. Got home by 6pm and called it a day. We did try fast food restaurant called Emmi’s across the street from the apartment. Tried a falafel which was quite interesting.. it had fries along with ketchup and mayonnaise along with the regular stuff. Actually it tasted quite good. Went to bed early.

Bucharest, Romania

After 13 hours of traveling, I have now made it to Bucharest. I am very excited to be here, since this would be my first visit to an eastern European country. My classmate, a fellow German tracker, Jeff Dawson, will be traveling with me for the next ten days till we get to Germany to begin school for language training. He arrived in Bucharest two hours after I did. We met at the airport and then took a taxi to the apartment that we had reserved. The apartment was a stroke of good fortune. Adrian Rusu (another classmate) is from Romania and is in Romania at present. His friend Andrea is renting her 2 room apartment to Jeff and me for €40 per night.

Andrea met us outside the apartment to let us in. She is awesome. Jeff and I of course had lots of questions about what to do while in Bucharest, how to travel around, how to get to Istanbul etc etc… Thanks to her patience and advice we had a good start to our trip. She offered us her cell phone to use while we stayed in Bucharest, so she could communicate with us and make sure we are all right and for us to contact her and Adrian. She had some other friends join us (Adrian, another one.. not Rusu.. and Alina). Since my friend Adrian Rusu is currently not in Bucharest, she became our host, and an excellent one at that. We later went to the mall to get a SIM card for the phone as well as some food. Tried my first Romanian food. It was Polenta with cream and cheese. Was good.

With Andrea and Adrian at dinner

Charleston WV USA

I don’t know how I did it. I din’t think I was ever getting out of Columbia. There was so much to pack and put away and loose ends to take care of. I finally made it to Charleston by 9:30 pm last night. Spent a few hours with Falguni and her family, had a really awesome dinner. Went to Lina’s house later. She has just recently moved and I wanted to see her new house as well. It was absolutely beautiful. I could see Lina and Penu really excited about their new apartment. I enjoyed chatting with them. Too bad I did not have more time, as one hour was way too short. I hope they are able to travel this summer to Bulgaria. I would love to visit their country while they are there. I have heard so much about Bulgaria from Lina and Penu. Today, I have just taken things easy. Everything is packed and finally in place, and I am heading out to the airport soon.

Columbia SC USA

I am in a frantic scramble to get packed up. In my over enthusiasm to travel, I have booked my trips so close together that I barely have time between them to recuperate. I arrived Columbia from St Martin at midnight on the 22nd and spent all day unpacking, doing laundry, packing my suitcases for my BIG Europe adventure of 8 months and emptying out all personal belongings from my apartment so that I can rent it out while I will be away. I am leaving tomorrow to Bucharest, Romania and my flight leaves from Charleston WV. So in a few hours, I will be on my way to Charleston – a 5 ½ hour roadtrip. It will be nice to spend Christmas eve tonight with my friends Falguni and Ashish as well as Lina (whose Birthday it is tonight)!

St Martin / St Maarten

Hurrah!!!! It is vacation time. I just took my last final on Friday, December 15th and now to de-stress and rejuvenate I am in the friendly isle of St Maarten. All I have done since I have been here is go to the beaches.. (Mullet bay, Cupecoy beach in the Dutch side and Plum Beach on the French side) and eat some good food (Pineapple Pete’s, Taboula’s Mango, St Germaine’s were some of my favorite restaurants). The penthouse suite at the Towers at Mullet Bay is awesome as well. We have fantastic views of Simpson Bay and Mullet beach.

No Internet connection and no cell phone signal here makes me feel disconnected with the rest of the world, but then I guess that is what R&R should really be about right? Ahhh… this is life!