A Weekend in Romania aka Why Didn't Anyone Warn Me

11/26/15
Day 1:

Jack and I thought we would go to Romania for Halloween this year.  Last year, we we to the castle that inspired Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and this year we planned to go to the castle that inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula.

When I went to buy the tickets, I was a day late and the prices were just much too high so I booked them for November instead.  I did a lot of research but couldn't really find much to see in areas such as Bucharest.  Mainly there were only things outdoors which didn't really wasn't conducive to the winter weather so we decided we would take Day 1 to just arrive, rent a car, and get to the hotel.

So on day 1 we flew to Bucharest!  I was so happy on the plane I felt like I was going to burst out of my skin. One of the people in front of us had an overwhelming smell of cigarette smoke though and with the air above blowing, it was a little choking. Aside from that it was uneventful and we got to our hotel just fine.  Keep in mind this was very late at night so traffic was very good and not stressful at all.  It was strange though, the entire city smelled like cigarette smoke.  The hotel, The Golden Tulip Times, as well, even though the floors were smoke free, all smelled overwhelmingly of smoke.  I normally don't have an issue with it, I actually from time to time will have a cigarette myself and a smokey room isn't normally an issue, but this was on a completely different level.  Ugh...

The Golden Tulip Times Hotel

The rooms weren't special but they were clean

11/27/15
Day 2:

On day 2 we decided to stay in Bucharest and explore the city.  It was windy and rainy but my honey and I fell in love during the rainy season and adore Washington State so we are perfectly happy with the cold and rain.  I think the fact that every single building was gray, dilapidated, smudged with smog didn't help the weather.  There were very few houses in southern Romania either.  The housing seemed to be exclusively a stairwell situation with massive buildings that were just apartments on top of apartments. There were huge areas where the buildings had been knocked down and they just left the space open with concrete and such laying there, abandoned.  There were large buildings that were no longer being used, some had been burnt out and some simply boarded up.  The beautiful fountain downtown that I had seen pictures of and had wanted to see were actually empty and the majority of the tiles were missing.  Jack kept saying that perhaps in the summer they fill them up and you can't see the missing tiles and pot holes in it.  You gotta love an optimist!

We stopped at an Irish pub, The Harp Irish Pub, on our way to Union Square and the Palace of Parliament.

Not the prettiest surroundings.  Too many Communist Era apartment buildings...

One of the parks on our way to city center...

Such a waste of what could be a beautiful building.

I just don't think I would be happy living in that apartment building...

The Harp Irish Pub

At least this was a cozy place.

This is what Union Center looks like on line...

This is what it looks like in reality.

There were massive pot holes in the empty fountain.

This was a pic of the Palace Parliament Building I found on line.  It did NOT look this nice up close.

This pretty much sums up how we felt...

It was not just the weather or the buildings.  The people were not unkind in any way, but we didn't see a single smile until the day we were leaving and while most people spoke English, it felt as if they were void of joy and didn't feel like they needed to really communicate.  The sense that we got of the country, not just of Bucharest, but the overall feel can be described of as "bleak, depressed, hopeless".

It was very difficult to find a traditional restaurant too.  We found "self-serve" or cafeteria style places that served what they claimed was traditional food but had obviously been pre-frozen food. They also had a lot of cafe's that only served pastries (again pre-frozen and thawed) and coffee or lounges that served pub food and drinks.  After a very long and unfruitful search, we went to the hotel and ate at the restaurant that was attached to it.  The Cafe Times was a good place to get a couple drinks but the food was truly terrible.

Cafe Times

How we dealt with our disappointment

For dinner, after really searching, we did find one place called La Mama's.  It had super delicious, traditional food but the place was so packed with cigarette smoke, we had a difficult time tasting it without a mouth full of smoke.  It was a success none the less.

La Mama's!

Very cozy but VERY smokey.

Surmale (cabbage rolls) served with traditional polenta.  Very tasty!

11/28/15
Day 3:

On day 3 we started our drive to Bran Castle around 9:30am.  The castle opens at 9:00am and closes at 4:00pm in the winter.  It was pretty scary driving in Bucharest during the day.  Absolutely no rules are followed and there is constant honking, people will honk at the car in front of them the very second the light turns green.  There is no consideration for pedestrians at all and personally it was the worst I have ever seen people behave while driving.

The land was much flatter than we were expecting.  Being so close to the Carpathian Mountains, we assumed the land would be more like Montana, it was more like northern Wyoming.  There was graffiti and trash on just about every surface and every ditch and/or on/under every bridge. Not to be outdone by the smokers of the city, there were refineries all over outside of Bucharest as well.  There was just no getting away from smoke...

Just flat...

What do I see on the horizon?  Oh yes, smoke...

Even the little towns outside of Bucharest were dilapidated.

Smoke stacks!

Oh lovely refineries...

At least the grass looked green...

Traffic outside of the city wasn't too bad until we got about an hour and a half north.  We got to Azuga, Romania and technically should have only been about 30 miles away from the castle but it had taken us 2 hours to go three miles and the traffic was as far as the eye could see.  Instead of being in a regular traffic jam however, the cars had chosen to form two lines and people were being very dangerous in trying to get ahead of one another.  After 2:00pm we made the decision to just turn our car around and go back to Bucharest.  There was just no way we would have gotten to the castle before they closed and it was just getting more and more dangerous staying in the traffic.

A random neat little church on the side of the road...of course it was boarded up.

Yes, my GPS actually says there is no traffic on the route...Shondra (my GPS) is a LIAR!

The Carpathian Mounta....nope, hills...

Pretty much an accurate depiction of our time in Romania...

Driving back into Bucharest

Public transportation looked dismal too...

Typical housing block in Bucharest.

By this point, we were feeling pretty depleted.  We both agreed that if it would have been an option, we would have found the next flight home and just left.  We decided to go find some food.  Success again!  We found a great little Italian place that had fresh seafood and super spicy pasta which put us in a much better mood.  After dinner, we went back to Cafe Times for a couple drinks and drank until we no longer cared about the lack of joy in the place and made our own.

11/29/15
Day 4:

Day 4 was glorious since we just ate breakfast and stayed in the room until we drove to the airport.  The highlight of the trip was getting a few nick-nacks in the airport and drinking our cares away again at the pubs at the airport.

A few days later I met up with a friend that had been to Romania the summer before and when I told her we took a trip there for Thanksgiving, her response was, "On purpose?!?"  Why-oh-why didn't anyone warn me?  I wish there would have been a blog like this to persuade me to at least go into the trip with my eyes wide open.  :)

My cutie pattootie keeps saying that he thinks summer might be prettier and perhaps people are in a better frame of mind when the sun is out.  I am not willing to test that theory.  I am grateful beyond belief that I was lucky enough to have that experience though.  It certainly puts things in perspective and it was a valuable lesson to learn.