Bucharest

January 31, 2021

Bucharest, the capital of Romania. Bucharest is a tale of two halves. With a cute little old quarter, surrounded by concrete, high rise and modern living, its a city that you could be forgiven for thinking as two separate entities.

I found Bucharest frustrating. There was some sort of pubic holiday while I was visiting, meaning a lot of things were closed or on reduced hours, which is fine, yet none of the places I went to had website's with the new opening times or days, which meant two visits to places to find that they weren't even going to open while I was there. It was a shame really, because I would have liked to have done more there. I had planned to visit Constanta, spend a few days there, then head back to Bucharest. But once I got to Constanta, I realized that I had just over a week to get to Sofia for my flight home, and that I wanted to spend time in Bulgaria too. So I guess I will have to return to Bucharest at some point to finish it off (after the pandemic is over of course)

You probably all know by now, that I love a good market, flea or without flea. There's something about being able to meander through stalls, seeing what's good and what's available. It's also a good place to see other peoples stuff for sale. Now that I enjoy! I love car boots at home (thats generally what we call them here in the UK) but eastern Europe especially does amazing markets. I ended up buying a load of little trinkets, fresh fruit and some amazing baked treats too! This was at the Obor market, the largest market in Romania so the woman in the hostel told me. Its easy to get to by metro and is open til mid-afternoon weekdays.

Which also brings me to another point. Having visited many places, I've used a lot of different metro systems. But something about Bucharest's was strange. I can't put my finger on it, but it just felt odd. I'm not sure if because it felt dark and gloomy, or if it was a lack of personality from having hardly any art about. Most metro's are designed to be light and airy, with plenty of art and bold colours to distract you from the feeling of being trapped underground. But it was cheap, efficient and gets you to where you need to be. And that's the main aim of a metro system.

There's a few interesting places in Bucharest to visit. The triumphant arch is a wonder to behold, and there's the beautiful Macca-Villacross passage, with some lovely little boutiques in a very ornate half open building. Regrettably, its full of shisha bars and smokers, which does ruin the atmosphere somewhat.

Bucharest also has a botanical garden, which is basic but nice, especially if you're trying to hide from the heat. Keep and eye out for the ducks, they like to come up and check what you're doing if you're sat on a bench with a sandwich!

Oddly enough, my favourite thing in Bucharest was the national military museum. Normally, things like that don't do it for me, but this one was really interesting. Outside was loads of old military equipment, guns and vehicles, with a slightly eerie, overgrown yet interesting feeling.