EuroTrip 2019 Part Seven: Welcome To Bucharest! 🇷🇴
As I said goodnight to Matûś and Kristína just after 11 P.M., we figured out that we would go to the bus station for 6:45 A.M. tomorrow. As I laid on my bed, my mind couldn’t settle down and at one point I just sat on the floor, staring at the wall. A few tears started to fall down my cheek, but I wasn’t particular sad.
When meeting people for the first time after knowing them for so long online, its a bonding experience meeting in real life. It’s that next step from being “online friends” to “real life fiends”. Going to cafes or sitting at home just talking, getting to know the true person in person is something magical, something special. Meeting new friends along the journey is beautiful too, along with experiencing new events makes you wish it will never end. It’s always tough to say “see you later”, and I’ve said this to every person I’ve met on my travels.
“Goodbye sounds like it’s the ending, but see you later promises I’ll be back”.
For each person I’ve met I’ve said that after spending time with each other, once we go back to reality it’s a challenge. You are living on this high of being with this new person and spending days with them, and all of a sudden they are not there. To get through this, it’s best to prepare for this lull and to find something to look forward to each day.
Writing this at 1:30 A.M. means that I won’t get too much sleep tonight, but this is part of traveling. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows, there will be emotional times when going to the next stop. But the key part of this is “to the next stop”, there will be someone just as excited to meet up. It’s a quick turnaround from “see you later” to “nice to meet you”, but it’s the ups and downs of traveling.
To everyone who I’ve met over the past few days, it’s been an honour, and I can’t wait for the next adventure we have together.
Kristina and I left this morning at 6:20 A.M., and after a brisk speed walk to the bus stop, we were on the way. I got to the bus early and after giving each other a hug, it was time to head to Vienna.
Getting to the airport at 7:30 A.M., I had plenty of time to kill since my flight to Bucharest wasn’t until 10:10 A.M.. After getting a croissant from a bakery in the airport, I sat at the gate and waited. It was weird because normally you would go through security first then go to your gate, but in Vienna it was opposite.
We landed at 12:50 P.M., a few minutes late but by the time we got off the plane it was closer to 1:10 P.M. It was a bit wet outside, so I was glad to be going straight to a bus.
I had to wait for the 780 bus that would take me right to the train station, but it was almost 2 P.M. before it even arrived. I was meeting up with my friend Denisa who would be my tour guide for the next few days, and her classes were finished at 2 P.M.. There were no good wifi connections so I had to text message her saying I’m just leaving now.
I made it to the north station by 2:45 P.M., and met with Denisa at 3:10 P.M.. It was so great to finally meet her, we’ve been talking a lot for a year now. We walked around for a little bit, trying to figure out where my hotel was but eventually we found it.
From there we went to one of the bigger shopping malls to get traditional Romanian food. The mall we went to was called “AFI Palace” and it was the most impressive mall I’ve seen. They had two levels but the mall was humongous, and it even had a small roller coaster and a NHL size rink inside.
We went to this grocery store which sold some traditional Romanian foods, so of course I had to try them. We got some rice which had fish and some veggies in it, “Sarmale” which was mince meat with spices in a cabbage leaf, then also tried “Mămăligă”. It is made from boiled cornmeal, which was very thick and filling, each dish was so good. To wash it down, I had some Romanian cider called “Dacíc”, which we had blackberry and strawberry.
We walked around the grocery store drinking these which was normal here, but back home you’d get kicked out immediately. After exploring inside the mall, we took our adventure outside and around Bucharest.
The main thing I wanted to see was the parliament building, which is the biggest in Europe and second in the world (pentagon in USA). It was such a beautiful building with the communist architecture to it, but all the buildings surrounded it did too.
Across the street was the “Piata Constitutiei” or constitutional square, with the Minister of Justice across the street. Seeing this amazing buildings was just eye opening, I never realized this about Romania.
We found our way to Old town, which like most Old Towns they have cobblestone roads and just foot traffic. We saw the “Palatul Cec” which is headquarters of CEC banning, National bank of Romania
and “Banca Comercială Română”. There was also the “Stavropoleos Monastery” which was a Eastern Orthodox monastery for nuns in central Bucharest.
After exploring this part of the city, we were both hungry so we went to a different grocery store the size of 3 Walmart’s and bought more traditional foods. We also bought European chocolate because why not?
We bought a thing called “Pui A La Basque”, which was chicken with different veggies in it like cabbage, tomato and onion. For dessert we bought the most famous dessert called “Savarina”, which was a small palm-sized moist cake with whipped cream and strawberry jam on top. It was sooooooo good!
I walked Denisa back to her dorm apartment just down the road, and after getting back at midnight it was time to have some downtime.
Day one in Romania, check.
P.s. 89.6% of Romanian women are super attractive, may find my future wife here.
