Walking around Bucharest, you can feel the grit of the city, the numerous remnants of soviet and communist architecture. Unapologetic, the city has an energy ... an edge, that I kind of loved. Unfortunately, much of my time in Bucharest was spent in various Regina Maria health clinics and pharmacies due to a surprising allergic reaction. It's not the first time I've gotten sick during travels and won't be the last. If you travel enough, it's bound to happen. That said, I'll save the exciting world of international health care for a future post and will now focus on the exploration I was able to squeeze out of Bucharest.
I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with Uber, but when traveling abroad, it can be undeniably convenient. I Uber-ed around Bucharest often, and found that when driving in Romania, anything goes. In one of the cars, I went to put my seatbelt on and was looking and looking when finally the driver said, "Oh ... sorry, the seatbelts were stolen, but don't worry - I'll drive carefully." I just had to laugh - I mean seriously … is there a seatbelt black market in Bucharest?
One of Uber my drop-off points was the Palace of Parliament. Holy moly, this thing is a monstrosity. It's the largest administrative building in the world, and it's absolutely massive. I wanted to do a tour inside when I got there, but they had evacuated the building due to a potential bomb threat. Thankfully, it turned out to be a false alarm, but I didn't wait around the exterior to find out as I figured that would also be a poor time to poke around the outside of the building, so I headed over to the Old Town instead. Too bad because I think the Palace of Parliament interior has some beautiful rooms, but the exterior? Blah, not my taste at all. Two words: concrete excess.
Passing through Izvor Park from the Palace of Parliament, I made my way to the Old Town. which has a quiet cafe culture by day and, by night, feels like a giant club with rows of bars and restaurants with university buildings speckled in between. It's great for people watching and, if you have the energy, you can stay up with the 4 and 5 a.m. partiers, who then sleep until late afternoon, which is another reason why the Old Town is quieter during the day.
The other thing visitors do during the day is make the trek out to Bran, better known as "Dracula's Castle," and I was no exception. I am honestly not a Dracula fan, but I was still curious. Thanks to endless Dracula movies, one can't help but envision a creepy man in a cape with fangs next to a wooden coffin, so I wanted to see what the deal was. A drive out to the castle takes two and a half hours (with good traffic) and taking public transportation for a day trip is quite lengthy at over four hours each way. So, I decided to book a small group tour that would allow me to see not only Dracula's Castle but Pele's Castle and Brasov as well. There were only six of us, so we piled into a small minivan with two rows of those good ol' bench seats going across. During the drive, we passed by gorgeous sunflower fields - I so wished we could have pulled over to go running through them and take photographs. The sunflowers were taller than I am, and their spectacular rich, yellow petals soaked up the sun rays. I saw a station wagon pull off on the shoulder, and the driver literally climbed up on top of his roof to take pictures of the fields - damn, I wish that was me! But, couldn't keep Dracula waiting.
We arrived at Peles Castle, and our guide ushered us in ahead of the line to avoid the bigger tours. When you get inside, you are required to pull out two blue plastic booties from a giant bin of Smurf-looking footwear to throw on over your shoes. I definitely felt like something in between a Comcast worker or Crime Scene Investigator … in flip flops.
The interior of the castle was nice, not jaw-dropping but nice. The exterior is where I would have preferred to spend more time. We finished the tour and exited the back and I thought, "Well, this is attractive!" But we only had a few minutes to really enjoy the back garden before we had to get a move on for our date with Dracula.
Now I had heard that Bran can be underwhelming compared to the hype, so I wasn't sure what to expect. When we got there, I understood what everyone meant. It's not the grandest of castles, and it feels more like a tower. It's interesting to see, and there is a ton of information on the walls inside, but with the teeny, tiny, available space inside and the number of people, I just wanted out. If only my hair were longer, I could have pulled a Rapunzel move and just climbed out the window. I think Bran is something more enjoyable to do in the off season with fewer people around, or maybe on Halloween after dark - that would definitely kick up the experience!
Our last stop before heading back was Brasov. Brasov is located at the foot of some mountains that have a giant "Brasov" sign sitting at the top, seemingly taking a cue from the Hollywood sign in California, but in this instance, I found it just annoying and tacky looking. There is also a cable car that could take you to the top, where there are a restaurant and viewing platform. I thought it would have been amazing to journey to the top, but the guide said we didn't have enough time. That didn't stop my new Danish friend, though. He took off in a sprint across the square to try and accomplish it. He bought the lift tickets, but sadly, by the time a cable car came down, it was full. He had to wait for another, and then time was up, so he had to abandon the plan ... #reasontoreturn.
The drive back to Bucharest felt never-ending. The main road is only one lane each way, and there were multiple accidents going back (I hear that's par for the course due to the crazy driving), so we kept getting stuck. Finally, after a couple hours when we were free and on the highway, I think our driver must have been late for a hot date because he started flying down the road. The two guys in the backseat and I kept giving each other looks of "holy sh*#" as we passed cars left and right and then slammed on the brakes only to floor it again to pass the idiot that was too slow for our van. We were going by so fast that I barely caught a glimpse at the sunflower fields on the way back - they were instead more of a yellow streak across the road. Once we returned to Bucharest, we were all more than happy to exit the death mobile, and my new Danish friend and I proceeded to the Old Town to cap off making it back in one piece.
