Bucharest - Day 117

The city map I got at the tourist information center included several 3 hour walking tours of the city, so as a result, I have been doing my fair share of walking. Can't say Bucharest is my favorite capital city, but it does have wide boulevards, beautiful architecture, and a lot of green space, which makes walking for hours in 88 degree heat more bearable.

I mentioned before that Bucharest is the "Paris of Eastern Europe" and today I walked by its version of the Arch of Triumph. Looks exactly the same to me, except for the Romanian flag. I also walked by the Palace of Parliament - a MASSIVE piece of architecture. It is the largest administrative building in Europe and claims to be the the world's second largest building in surface area after the Pentagon.

Of course I need fuel for all that walking and discovered that Romania has arguably the best pretzels I've tasted. They're thinner than US ones, but soft and chewy and oh so delicious when they're fresh out of the oven. And at 1 Leu (30 cents), a really affordable on-the-run snack. However, I have been on a carb overload recently in the Balkans with all the borek/byurek/spanakopita, other cheesy and sweet pastries, sesame rings, etc... and I'm pretty sure I've gained weight at this point. So I decided to go on a "strict diet" and had a cucumber and yogurt for dinner, but now 2 hours later I'm starving.

Bucharest - Days 114-116

As planned, I made the 20 hour journey to Bucharest - painless enough and uneventful. I have to admit that my favorite form of travel is by train and it saddens me a little that people are opting for faster or cheaper alternatives; myself included sometimes. The bus from Istanbul to Bucharest would have taken 12 hours versus the 20 (actually 21) by train, but there's something about the rhythmical clanking of the rail carts and the gentle swaying. The bus from Istanbul to the border was only about a third full and I ended up being the only person in a 6 person compartment when we switched to the train. 

Bucharest is a cool city, at least based on what I've seen so far. There's usually something about a place that surprises me. For Istanbul, it was how the city was so hilly and steep. For Bucharest, it's the sheer number of stray dogs roaming the streets. Bucharest has the highest number of stray dogs in Eastern Europe apparently and they are not all nice...apparently an average of 75 people are bitten everyday! My goal for the next couple of days is to avoid contributing to the statistic.

Bucharest is called the "Paris of the Eastern Europe"and it's apparent in parts of the city. It's an architecturally eclectic city. Many of the "beautiful" buildings were constructed between the two world wars and those are juxtaposed by the massive megalomaniac buildings constructed during Ceausescu's reign. Unfortunately, he destroyed much of the historic city center, and earthquakes took care of another large chunk. Today, the Old Town has shrunk to just a few blocks and up until just a few years ago, it was considered a bad neighborhood. But the city started investing money and renovating the center, and not surprisingly, it is full of bars and restaurants and is the choice hangout place for the young people of Bucharest. That's where my host and I, along with some other friends, went last night to "watch" the Europa Final in Bucharest between Madrid and Bilbao. 

Walking back to the metro station last night, some random guy pretended to be a wild dog and "bit" me on the back of the leg with his hand. Freaked me out but turned out to be quite a funny guy. The girls I was with concluded he wasn't Romanian because he was too friendly, but now I know that pretending to a stray dog is a popular Romanian past time for drunk guys. Yet another thing to avoid.