Well, this is my city after all, and I often guide my foreign friends who come here, just to show them that Bucharest has a LOT to offer
First, some fast facts:
LOCATION: Eastern Europe, 300km from the Black Sea and 150 Km from the Romanian Carpathians, in the SE of Romania.
HOW TO GET THERE: by plane (at the “Otopeni International Airport”), by train (some 10h from Budapest + the time spent in customs), or by car. It is advisable to come by plane, as roads in Romania aren”t yet in a very good condition.
If you come by plane, you can take the shuttle in front of the airport (ugh! - you have to walk some 100 m to get to its station
), or a YELLOW cab (see below).
HISTORY: Made capital city of Muntenia by Vlad the Impaler (better known as Dracula
the REAL one) in the mid 1400″s, Bucharest became in the next centuries one of the biggest trade cities in this part of Europe.
Turks, Russians and Habsburgs burned the city constantly, as it was on their war routes, so almost all historical buildings are from the end of the 19th Century.
FACTS: 2.2 million inhabitants, heavily industrialized in the 1950″s, almost destroyed by Ceausescu (who destroyed 1/3 of the city and almost 1/2 of the historical center), Bucharest is a recovering city, slowly but firmly redefining its status as an European Capital.
WHERE TO STAY: Well, you have a very large choice: from 5 star hotels, like Marriot or Sofitel, to 4 star hotels (Hilton or Intercontinental - right in the middle of the downtown) and 1-2 star hotels and private pensions, it”s you who make the call, according to your budget. You”ll find the Bucharest hotels are clean, friendly, air-conditioned and
expensive! Not the 2 star ones, but the others
However, the other prices here are only a fraction of what they are in Europe, so you”ll get compensation
WHAT TO AVOID:
- Changing money at the airport or in a bank. You”ll get MUCH better fares at the Exchange houses in the downtown (there are dozens of them).
- Giving money to the children who are begging in the streets. They”ll buy drugs, or give their parents their “due”, so you”ll NOT help them at all. Give them instead something to eat, if you want to.
- Taking any cab (taxi) to round-see Bucharest. The taxi driver”ll most likely rob you. ALWAYS make sure you take a YELLOW cab, with a FUNCTIONING taxing device.
- Taking too much cash with you, or not taking cash at all. Credit cards are seldom accepted in Romania, so the best thing to do is to exchange each day a small amount of money (~50$ per day should be sufficient). The dollar improves it”s rating against the Leu (local currency) every day. Never exchange money on the street. It”s illegal.
- Taking public transportation (busses, trams). Instead, take a taxi or the subway (METRO) - it”s fast, cheap, clean and will take you everywhere you want to get.
- Be aware that gypsies are not persecuted here. Instead, if some approach you tightly, you can bet that your pockets have been emptied. NEVER protest (if you”re name isn”t Schwarzenegger), or you”ll feel what a thief”s knife is
- Don”t try to drive your car in the city”s traffic. If you”re not from Naples, NY or other driving-till-you-die city, you”ll get stuck in a mad rush of cars and claxons
WHAT TO DO:
- Travel by foot. You can visit the entire downtown in just two days, if you visit each important monument, or in just 6-8 hours if you”re just passing by.
- Take your time to stroll in its parks
Cismigiu, Herastrau, The Botanical Garden, are excellent places to spend your afternoon. Herastrau is huge, and has a large and clean lake - you can take a boat if you feel like Crocodile Dundee
- Enter Bucharest”s museums. In the National Art Museum (the former Royal Palace), you”ll see works by Rubens, Goya, Monet etc. And that at a very cheap price and with a guided tour
- Try local cuisine. Ask for “Zexe” restaurant or eat at any clean and good-looking restaurant. Take a break from KFC or McD”s and taste local specialties (like mamaliguta, tocanita, sarmale, mititei, tuica etc.)
- Repeatedly wash your hands. Romania has one of Europe”s biggest TB rates, and you”ll find useful to have wet perfumed handkerchiefs with you.
- Take a lot of pictures. Most of Bucharest buildings are being renovated, so you can see them now in their original splendor or the beginning of the 20th century.
WHAT TO VISIT:
- The former Royal Palace - national art museum;
- The Cotroceni Palace Museum (the Romanian “White House”);
- The Village Museum (in open air - the oldest in the world);
- The craziest (ugliest?) and biggest building in Europe (#2 in the world, after Pentagon) - The People”s House (Orwell should see it) - built by Ceausescu as his personal palace (the triumph of Communism
), now housing the Romanian Parliament.
Guided tours are organized inside the Palace - and inside it”s really a wonder - it has the largest chandeliers in the world, huge reception rooms and golden woven carpets the size of a baseball field, it’s placated with marble and inlaid wood, rare paintings are hanging on its walls and its exterior and interior marble gates are some 15 m in height
- The Old Court - Dracula”s real “palace” - now in ruins. You have to remind yourself that Dracula really existed, that he lived in Muntenia, not in Transylvania, that he wasn”t a vampire, but a heroic, righteous, but nonetheless very cruel warlord of the middle ages. About a “Dracula” tour, in another review.
- Bucharest old churches. They are disseminated everywhere in the center of the city, and some monasteries (i.e. Snagov) are located outside the city, near its northern belt of lakes.
- The historic center (Lipscani). Built by Romanian, Turkish, Greek and Jewish merchants and craftsmen in the 18th and 19th century, it”s being renovated by the EU, and you can see there unique jewels of architecture.
- Bucharest streets. Deviate from the large boulevards. Visit “Primaverii” and “Cotroceni” quarters. Art Deco, Cubism, Florentine, Rococo and Eclectic styles are well represented here. Stroll along the large northern boulevards and parks, and you”ll see a collection of villas and palaces rivaling the ones built in Paris at the beginning of the 20th century.
- Take a (yellow) cab and visit some of the palaces outside Bucharest (i.e. Mogosoaia Palace, or the nomenklatura villas near Snagov).
