Bucharest

Why only 2 reviews here? My friends grand grand father was coming from Bucharest and had somewhat jewish roots in his blood, he seems to be very proud of him no matter what he says or done really. So it seems to be very cool people. But I know about romanian occupation in eastern europe as well.

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Bucharest is the Paris of the East Europe. Do not miss the IOR Park. its one of the BEST Park I have seen. Ducks, Swans - Black, White, Peacocks - White and ordinary. White Peacocks are so Elegant. Something you should not MISS. Besides, the park there are numerous places to see in Bucharest like the Parliament Palace (Palatul Parlamentului) at Blvd Unirii. It is Soviet-style building which represents the peak of Ceausescu's megalomania.

I thoroughly enjoyed my Stay in Bucharest not just once  but on 2-3 occasions.

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We had an early dinner on the train before we arrived in Bucharest.

Transylvania now belongs to Hungary was declared a democratic republic in November 1918. At the beginning of WW II Hungary allied with Germany in exchange for Southern Slovakia and Northern Transylvania which were lost after they lost to Soviet armies, (1945). In 1956 a Hungarian uprising against Stalin's army but they lost to the Soviet troops. In 1990 the Communist party voluntarily allowed the establishment of a multi-party Parliamentary democracy and the Soviet army left the country. Hungary is a large state which includes Transylvania, (now in Romania), Slovakia and Croatia.

At the border we they asked to see our passports and made sure that we had a visa.

Budapest is the capital city of Romania. Today the population is over 2,200,000 people. Most of them are Hungarians. The other minorities are Gypsies, Germans, Ukrainians and Jews.

On our way to the hotel we saw horse drawn carriage trying to get through the cars.

The differences between the people are very different as you will see people using cell phones and farmers who live in their middle ages farmhouses.

We stayed at the Budapest Hotel Carlon. This at the foot of Castle Hill where the Fishermen's Bastion is and in the Buda area of the city.

Our Tour:

We took a tour and saw lot Budapest. We saw some Celtic & Roman ruins and signs of ancient Christianity.

The oldest part of Budapest is in the first district. There are a lot of buildings that were built in the 13th century. Today you still can see along the cobblestone streets the medieval homes. Many have become shops and restaurants. The Palace and the National Art Gallery are in this area.

We loved the frescoes in the Old Court Church. It was built in the 16th century and is a must see Church.

We went to the National Peasant Museum to see how the people once lived. In the shop I bought a peasant blouse for myself and t-shirts for my family with Dracula on them.

The Parliament is 12 stories high. Our guide told us that it was suppose to be the largest building, (in circumference), in the World but the Pentagon in Washington, D. C. is larger.

We asked the driver to let us off at the Mayfair shopping center and in a book store I found there was a Romanian Monopoly. The game cost 60 'lei noi' so we bought one for each of our grandsons.

We went to see the Jewish district. There are 80,000 people who live here. This is the largest Jewish population in Eastern Europe. We went to see the largest synagogue in Europe on Dohany Street, (there are 26 synagogues in Budapest). We saw the Jewish schools, two small yeshivot, (this is where men learn to become Rabbis). There was Jewish hospital, kosher restaurants, slaughtering houses, and matzo, (the flat bread used at Passover), factories. We went into the Museum and saw the Holocaust Memorial.

We walked through the area and in a store I found a few things I wanted to buy.

We had lunch at Kadar Etkezde Bistro. We had to share a table. A lady sipping soup at our table had numbers tattooed on her arm. This reminded me of what the Hungarian Jews went through during WW II. My husband had chicken soup with matzo balls. We both had boiled beef with spicy red cabbage with a varity of sauces, (horseradish, gooseberry and sour cherry), served on a small sectioned plate. We both had a raspberry cordial, (they only serve non- achololic drink). The menue is only in Hungarian so our waithress helped us with the menu. They don't take credit cards only cash.

.:Dinner and a Folklore Show:.

The Food:

The Biarritz Restaurant one block away from the Parliament building.

The Show:

Both the men and women wore a variety of different colored scarves over their head. They wore white embroidered blouses that match the color of their pleated skirts/pants. They danced to gypsy music. The dances are ones they danced about 2 centuries ago.

A Side Trip:

We took a tour to Bran where we the Black Church, (it's called this because it almost burned down) and then we went to see Dracula's Castle. I seemed strange to us that the stories of these people were made to look like comic book characters. We found that the prices of things were quite low compared to the other parts of Europe we have been too. For example a bottle of local wine cost L1.50, admission to the museums is L.60 and a bottle of beer costs the same as the admission to the museum! Baron Von Frankenstein was one of Teutonic Knights. His castle was in southern Transylvania. In 1734 Konrad became the new Baron. Shortly after that he was found dead. No one knew why. This started the Frankenstein and Dracula tales. The Castel looked like one from a fairytale. It wasn't scary at all. It had tall turrets and stone walls. Inside the walls were white. Hours of operation: Tuesday through Sunday from 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM

The Torture Museum had 4 exhibits. It wasn't worth making a stop here.

After the castle we drove to Sighisora to see the Ancient Citadel and the house where Vlad Tepes, (Dracula), was born.

In Sinhisoara we at at the Rustic Cafe. The meal was served on wooden platters. I had a glass of wine and my husband had a beer. The Hungarian wine is fine but stay away from the beer!

When we got back to the hotel we ordered a bowl of Hungarian goulash soup from Room Service.

The next day we left Budapest without seeing a bat or a vampire!

My Thoughts:

I enjoyed being in Budapest, Bran and Sinhisoara.

Thanks for reading my review.

©LL2006

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