Hey all,

Looks like I will be solo for a weekend in Bucharest in mid March. I’ll be working out there for a couple of weeks.

So any advice on what I should and shouldn’t do in the city, what’s good to go see/walk round with a camera (as opposed to which bars to loiter in). Oh and is there likely to be a channel that plays the 6 nations as it’ll be a 3 game day on the Saturday!

Cheers

Oh toby – youve come to the right place – I’ve just spent New Year there – let me have a think and I’ll jot a few things down later for you

I’ve been to quitye a few citioes in Europe and I think Bucharest has been my favorite!

Cheers yoshimi – I always assume this place is a great source of travel advice 🙂

Particularly when it comes to IT people spending weekends in hotels in foreign cities.

Do this first – lasts about 2.5hours and they run on an adhoc basis so have to contact them first – run by student types – very knowledgeable – very friendly – very interesting – highly recommended. You’ll get to see most of the main sights and it’ll give you a bit of direction for further investigation of the city. Good photo opportunities to be had!

http://guided-bucharest.com/

Some sights I enjoyed……

Revolution Square

University Square

Palace of Parliament

Stravlopolias Church

Other sights that people say you should do but I thought they were a bit mleh…..

The Village Museum

Peasant Museum

George Enescu Museum

Place to chill…(got some great photos here)

Cismigui Gardens – I loved this place; after a heavy New Years Eve I spent the next morning here along with all other walks of life – plus they had the lake frozen for ice skating

Herastrau Park – Not as nice as Cismigui and a bit out of town but it’s next to the Village Museum and the Arc de Triumph

Places to Eat…….

Amazing streak at amazingly low prices
http://www.osho-restaurant.ro/

Ok, its classed as an Irish bar but you’d never know, they only thing Irish I noticed was Guinness on tap but the food is simple but very good and cheap in a great atmosphere.
http://www.joyces.ro/

Sweet tooth? I don’t even like deserts but for light lunches, then all sorts of elaborate cakes you simply must go here plus its next to Carcu Bere (a pretty famous pub hundreds of years old with its own brewery underneath)
http://chocolat.com.ro/en/

Well I just had to mention a couiple of bars – thing with Bucharest is that there are sights to see but we quickly realised its more about finding your rhythm and enjoying the feel and atmophere of the place – it has character in spades and thats what this place is all about, immerse yourself!

Drink / Dance / Music…………You really can’t go wrong if you head to the Lipscani area (old town) – literally hundreds of bars / pubs / clubs – back to back in a pedestrian area – you’ll see lots of recommendations – I went in ‘many’ but the ones below are the places I’d advise someone not to miss………

You probably have to go here, it’s ok, but more about visiting the place with its décor rather than enjoying it
http://www.carucubere.ro/en/homepage

This place is for the extremely cool set, great DJ’s, very small bar above another bar, very very smoky, I loved it
https://www.facebook.com/PapiotaBar

I suppose what you’d call a proper music venue, lots of local bands play here, often do a few covers, great atmosphere, much fun to be had – it’s a bit away from the main area, and hard to find, down a few alleys – but worth it!
http://www.music-club.ro/

Without doubt the best bar/club in Bucharest IMO – We ended up getting friendly with a few of the staff and their friends, also spent NYE here with them – sort of grown up student place playing great indie music upstairs and funky house in the cellar – I can’t overstate just how much you need to spend a night in here!
https://www.facebook.com/#!/elephantpubandlivemusic

Nice one – my own personal guidebook – cheers 🙂

I did think about not posting this as it sounds like you are looking forward to the trip and my experience wasn’t so good so might dampen your enthusiasm. Hopefully yoshimi will post about the good stuff to balance.

It seems like somewhere with a lot of poverty and problems- go with your eyes open

I’ve been here a few times:
ball room dancing restauarant

bit touristy but interesting

Have to say though that Bucharest was one of my least favourite places to travel and I didn’t get a good impression of the place.

Last time instead of heathrow (which was fine) I flew from Luton to Bucharest’s 2nd airport on a low cost airline rather than BA because the flights were at more convenient times

the airport was not much more than a shed

there was a family having a full on argument in the middle of the arrivals hall – the chap spat in the womans (wife?, mother?) face and raised his hand and back slapped her. no one around seemed to care. dog running around barking.

people pushing in front of each other to get to passport security and just generally treating each other with minimum civility and respect

the female colleague I was travelling with was very nervous and a bit taken aback
coming back the other way, the queue at passport control to enter UK is quite an eye opener also

good to experience different places though and made me realise just how lucky most of us in UK are

I didn’t have a great experience of Bucharest either tbh. Best thing we did was get on a train to Brasov which is a lovely old town in the mountains. Took a couple of hours IIRC but it was a nice journey.

I’d agree with Mega that at first it’s a bit intimidating, lots of stray dogs (resulting from when 400000 people were cleared from their homes during the building of Parliantmemnt Palace), lots of homesless (but they dont bother you), the whole place is dilapidated, things falling down, miles upon miles of electic cable hanging from lamposts, but………it’s hard to explain, thers just an atmosphere to the place, first few hours, you are wondering if you’ll get stabbed but by the end you’ll be walking backstreets on your own late at night without worry – I think if you acrtually check the stats, it has one of the lowest crime rates of any capital city in Europe.

We normally go away with a big group at New Year ut this time it was just me and the wife and I think that makes you get to know people and make the effort.

Seriously, you’ll love it!

I’m looking forward to it in a ‘place I’ve not seen before’ kind of way. It’s not likely to be the only trip I have to make over there this year either so I might as well get used to it a bit and find bits I enjoy.

Good to have as much perspective as possible, means I’ll know what to expect.

Cheers All.