Day 1: Whirlwind Tour of Bucharest
Today was a whirlwind tour of Bucharest. We tried to see the remains of a sorcerer, turned Catholic saint, turned actually not a Catholic saint, but being Sunday, there was Mass and we didn't go. We ended making it to the National History Museum, however, as well as Carol Park and saw the outside of the Parliamentary building. We had lunch nowhere special, then tried to visit both the technological museum and the contemporary art museum, but both were closed. We went back to the hotel in shame for a brief nap, before going on what would have been an excellent date night. (Make sure you read to the end to see all the details!)
Step one of our day was to try and stop at a place where the remains of a "sorcerer" turned Saint, turned maybe not a Saint a few years ago, remained. But, those remains were in a Church, and it's Sunday morning, sooooo. (Actually, I'm kinda bummed I didn't go to church. I'd like to, so I can see a mass in the eastern tradition. I didn't think of that until it was too late. I'm still very jet lagged, and forget it was even Sunday!)
The history museum right next to the church, and it was kinda of bummer, but still pretty good. It only cost 10 Lei (like $2.50) to get in, and starts with a Roman exhibit.
That was pretty interesting! But I don't remember a ton from that section. The most interesting section was on WWI. Romania sided with France/Great Britiain/Russia in World War I, but was pretty much cutoff from all of those countries, and got fully occupied. It sounds like a pretty sad day in their history. They were not treated well by the German/Austro-Hungarian invaders. However, their queen at the time, Queen Marie, seems pretty amazing. She would go to the front lines to encourage troops, and would visit hospitals to see the wounded. It sounds like this was fairly routine for her to do, which is quite incredible.
Second, we went to go visit "Carol Park." On our way, we walked in front of the Parliament Building in Bucharest. The building is huge, the second largest office building in the world (after the pentagon)! That's the cover photo of this entry. We'll likely try to get a tour of it later. In the park there's a tomb of the unknown soldier equivalent.
It was very beautiful, and guarded at all times by Romanian soldiers that were standing perfectly still (with what was probably their commanding officer coming to check on them from time to time, it looks exhausting). The park was really nice, and it was nice to see so many people out an about. There were families walking through the park, kids playing soccer, other kids using the hills in the park as bike jumps, and some very wise in age folks just sitting on park benches. There was also a lake with row boats in it, which looked very romantic. But I think it was closed for the season.
After Carol Park we got lunch at a restaurant. It was nothing too special. I ordered what I thought was a stew, but instead it was a meat + grilled veggies plate. It was alright, but not great.
After lunch (it was now around 4), we tried going to the technological museum, but that was closed. On the way we saw this beautiful old building. We weren't sure what it was, but it may be an old powerplant.
Discouraged, and tired, we went back to the hotel and decided to nap for 2 hours before going to dinner. (This jet lag is hitting me hard, I was super tired all day). Sam ended up sleeping for 2.5 hours, before I called him to wake him up. I found a few places that looked good for dinner, so we went to go try them. Thus began our "date night."
On our way to dinner, we noticed lots of police activity, people carrying Romanian flags, and some chanting. We'd find out later that there was a large protest about de-criminalizing corruption in Romania. Had we known, we'd of liked to go take a look. However, back to dinner.
The first place, "The Artist", was trying to be "hip and cool". They asked if we had reservations, we said no, and then they just "couldn't seat us". There was no wait time given, but there were definitely tables available.... We're going try going back again later, but now are not going to try and make a reservation. Instead, we went to "Upstairs Rooftop." (We've seen quite a few restaurants around here have English names. Maybe we're just going to very touristy areas, but it didn't seem like it.). The "Upstairs Rooftop" was very good, and the waiter helped me pronounce what I was ordering, which was nice. I ended up getting a salmon dish (I'm already pretty sick of meat + potatoes), and Sam got a chicken dish. The food was very good, the drinks we ordered not so much.
After a nice dinner, we walked back to the hotel. On the way back, I spotted a guy walking into some building that looked like an exhibit with a beer in hand. So, of course, we went to go check it out. It was a bit weird, we entered the building, and there was no one there, just a staircase up and some postcards. We walked up the stairs, and saw a table. A nice man working the table (probably a student) spoke excellent english and explained it was an exhibition of the history of discotech in Romania.
The exhibit was pretty neat. It had some artifacts from the "era" (actually just a few years ago). There was a video explaining the history of discotech, and to top it off, there was a live DJ playing music, and a dance floor with people dancing. It looked like a lot of fun! I'm not quite sure what this sign says, but the girls in front of us took a picture if it, so it must be something cool. :)
We exited the exhibition, and tried once again to go back to the hotel, but Sam noticed a craft brewery that we were walking by. Having a bit more time before we really needed to go to bed, we went into the brewery. Probably the best beer I've had so far this trip. And it's about three minutes from the hotel.
All in all, an excellent day! We've been loving Bucharest so far!