BUCHAREST

After an incredible train ride that dipped into Serbia, we arrived to Bucharest with literally $0. Luckily, once we hopped off the train we met up with my mom. Kids, never forget the safety and security that your parents provide. After we were with my mom, we were able to breathe a sigh of relief.

After our first night with my mom, we went out for our first meal in Bucharest. We found a cute little pub right across from our hotel, and wow! It was delicious. Romania is incredibly cheap, but the food is out of this world. For the rest of the trip we ate like kings and spent a quarter of what we would have in the States.

After our first amazing meal, we wandered the streets of Bucharest for a while. Bucharest is nicknamed “Little Paris of the East” and it really lives up to its title! The buildings are beautiful and there are museums and art galleries on every corner. We explored the streets and some of the shops and churches before going to dinner. Once again, we were shocked at the quality of the food and the price! The Transylvanian goulash, cabbage rolls, and gelato were amazing, just to name a few dishes.

The next day, my mom and I ventured out on our own while Marcus stayed back at the hotel by himself and wrote some music for his band’s upcoming EP (shameless plug for Marcus’ band First and Forever). We visited the National Village Museum, a charming park with houses, churches, barns, windmills, and more from Romanian villages across the country. It was stunning! Situated on the Danube Delta, the park does a fantastic job of showcasing what it would be like to live in one of these villages. Some of the highlights pictured are a charming windmill, a very old ferris wheel, houses that have squinty eyes, a well with a witch hat, a black cat that crossed our path, and what looks like a fairy toadstool.

After the village, we explored the park a little bit more. We saw the skyline of the city, some beautiful fall colors, and walked under a wysteria bridge all before heading back to meet up with Marcus’ mom and sister!

Once the five of us were altogether, we headed back to the same restaurant as the night before, it was so delicious we all wanted to have some! We then got some delicious pastries for dessert – like I said Bucharest is definitely a “Little Paris”!

The next day was Halloween! We set off through the park to see the big sights of the city together. Bucharest has incredible parks, and the fall scenery was stunning. Dark trees with red leaves and a grey sky makes for incredible views. Marcus played in the leaves, soaking up all the fun that Fall has to offer, we got some hot cocoa, tried to take an album cover photo, and headed off to the People’s Palace. We saw the palace from quite a ways away, but ended up walking around the entire block trying to find the entrance. Whoops! Then once we were ready to tour the palace we discovered we needed passports to get in, which we had left back at the hotel. Whoops!

Next we headed to the Stavropoleos Monastery, a stunning Eastern Orthodox church and monastery. The style of the buildings was so unique, so naturally we took a million pictures. The actual chapel is the size of a small room, but the monastery has a beautiful square. The contrast of the dark foliage and the eastern style buildings was captivating.

We moved on to our final destination of Bucharest – the biggest and most impressive bookstore I have ever seen. In fact, the whole world fit inside! We spent quite a while perusing the store, which had books in all sorts of languages along with records, candles, and games. Finally, we finished off the day with yet another amazing and affordable meal! I had a nutella dumpling for dessert, and honestly it was among the most incredible things I’ve ever tasted.

Bucharest was a memorable city, with fantastic sights and tastes. But we were very excited to get to our final destination in Romania: Bran, home to Dracula’s Castle!!