By For my most recent adventure (a Uniworld river cruise through Eastern Europe), we spent two days in Bucharest Romania, staying at the Hotel Marmorosch before bussing over to the port and officially starting the cruise. I have never been to Romania and had no idea what to expect.
I was of course exhausted. I landed in Amsterdam at 5:30 in the morning and had a 3 hour layover. Nothing was open and there was nothing to do but stew. KLM changed the gate at least three times. Interestingly, Schiphol is a silent airport, meaning no PA announcements, so it was just by me looking at the flight screens that I discovered the gate changes. My flight to Bucharest was delayed by a half hour, which gave me extra time to second guess the trip. There really wasn’t much I could do at that point…but I did for a few moments irrationally consider getting back on a plane to return to the US.
But you know that didn’t happen based solely on the title of this post! And, like so many things in life, it is always a good thing to get outside your comfort zone.
I landed in the Bucharest airport and finally had to go through passport control. Of course it was just like the grocery store – whatever line I got in suddenly stopped moving forward. Some poor kid from Paraguay had flown from Spain to Bucharest (yes I overheard all of this) and was getting the 3rd degree. Luckily I made it through (after standing in 3 other lines that stagnated). The airport is gloriously small compared to Atlanta. I grabbed my bag and was whisked away to the Hotel with 2 other couples…who had much worse travel journeys in comparison to me (one couple was from Alaska, the other from California). I never thought I would say that I was grateful for the ATL airport, but I am. You can get to SO many destinations non-stop on Delta. With Delta changing their skymile rules I guess I’ll have to start shopping other airlines. I’m personally partial to Lufthansa since they were my client…but I have heard amazing things about Air Emirates. So many airlines, so little time…
Years ago someone told me the secret to getting over jet lag was to take a one hour nap as soon as you get to your destination and then stay up as late as you can. I dutifully took my nap and then went exploring in the city. Bucharest has a great ‘old town’ area that is very walkable. Before you ask, let me tell you that I did ask the Uniworld rep if it was safe to walk around as a woman alone. He assured me it was and I did feel safe.
I can totally recommend the hotel as it is a lovely Marriott. They have a bar in a former bank vault which was pretty cool. Breakfast was the usual buffet with some interesting Romanian pastries thrown in. The only tragedy was on the first day when only one coffee machine was working. You would have thought people were going to mutiny. Caffeine addiction is real.
The first night I ate dinner at La Crimi si Sfinti with some Australians I me. We all ordered the same thing – a traditional Romanian dish called Sarmale, which are these delectable cabbage rolls (I know – who puts delectable and cabbage in the same universe). This meal was a great start to this European adventure. Exhaustion kicked in, so we all wandered through the town and back to the hotel.
The next day was a nifty tour to Snagov palace and to a monastery that was home to Vlad the impaler’s tomb (Dracula). The tour guide was exceptional. I loved learning about the history of Romania, from back in Vlad’s day to the horrible reign of Ceausescu to present day. The stories of Vlad were appropriately gory…life was decidedly harder back then.
We had lunch and dinner on our own, so I hit the two big tourist food destinations, Cara cu Bere for lunch and Hanu lui Manuc for dinner. At the former I had some really good pumpkin soup. I felt quite continental drinking my rose wine and eating my soup al fresco. The real treat is the inside of the restaurant which is just gorgeous (and they have a quartet that plays regularly). Hanu is a lovely beer garden. I had mici there. It was good, just not my favorite meal. Plus it was spoiled by cigarette smokers everywhere (I gather the Romanians haven’t received the message that smoking is bad for you). Every one spoke English and the service was impeccable at each restaurant. In between meals I had a nice tour of the National Museum of Romanian History.
Our final day before hitting the boat was a tour of the Parliament building, which was fascinating and sad at the same time. This place is MASSIVE. The structure is so heavy that it sinks a little bit each year. Sadly this was a “parting gift” from their dictator and likely its excess is what triggered the Romanians to revolt.
Overall I give Bucharest two thumbs up. Two to three days is probably enough time to hit the highlights. I didn’t find anything souvenir worthy.
One last lunch in Bucharest (a basic caesar salad at the former stock exchange) and then we were off to the boat. Due to the Danube being a little low, we had to skip our first port and press on to Bulgaria. La revedere, Romania!
(I have a TON more pictures, so let me know and I can share my album with you).
