Confort Hotel Bucharest

... br>(on the Travel&Living Channel, Anthony Bourdain) made a mess in all
the viewers' heads.

Long story short: this is where the civilized West meets with the adaptive South East.

Yes, we do tolerate and house the gypsies (rroms) within our boarders!

NO, they are not Romanians!



Yes, we do have an amazing country (I can honestly say that, because I
believe that based on experiences ...

... of living. My driver was running out of time as he had to go to the airport to pick up a fare so he found me a guide at the Village Museum for all of 20 minutes. This guide talked at the speed of light practically and I caught about every 3rd word. But we managed to see 3 houses in the museum in that time, or rather 2 houses and one church.

Back to the hotel and the driver was now so pressed for time that he ...

... spit out large denomination notes that no one will take? Inevitably you need small notes right away to catch a bus or a tram or whatever. So I go to catch the express bus into town and they can't change the bill. It's not even close. That means I gotta go get change and I miss the bus. After standing around for a half an hour I'm on the next bus. About three stops from where I must get off, an American couple gets on, followed by an inspector. He ...

Our visit to Bucharest, the Paris of the East, would allow us to re-establish ourselves as tourists once again. There are so many sites to see, museums to visits, so much beautiful architecture to canvass as well as the city's recent, crazy history relating to their now dead dictator/leader Nicolae Ceaucescu. However, the prohibitive temperature range of -18 to a high of -3 degrees ( !!! ) over the period of our stay made this a little difficult. I have ...

... place to spend an evening out. Then at the end of it all, Giacomo insisted on paying! More than I really counted on or needed, but I suppose it was a welcome gesture after all the money I was shelling out at the hotel. In fact though, I don't have to shell out from here out. The two of them invited me to stay at their place from today, so that should help significantly in getting me back on financial track. Romania is really surprising me with how expensive everything's ...

Made a quick dash to the café across the road this morning for breaky. Cappuccinos and a cheese pastry and we were good to go. Walked down to the train station and caught the train to Bucharest. Along the way, I saw my very first (and 2nd, 3rd, 4th...) sunflower field(s)! Once in Bucharest, we left our (awesome!) hotel by the train station and walked down to the Palace of Parliament. HUGE building! It is the second largest administrative building (next to the Pentagon ...

... an encore. Anyways, he finished that, and this time the applause stopped before he was behind the curtain. As soon as he got beyond the curtain, he came back out. Anyways, people started standing to leave, and they clapped at the same time. So somehow this guy had fandangled himself into a standing ovation. He should write a book. Such a great day though. I am off to Brasov tomorrow, which is dubbed, "The New Prague" by Lonely Planet, so here goes!

... another kilometer or two, reaching the grand fountain at Piata Unirii, I saw another metro station (named "Piata Unirii" naturally). I knew I had to get on the metro and went to catch my train to Bulgaria. Bucharest's surviving historic quarter lies just north of Piata Unirii, but I did not have time to see it. Indeed, two hours' stopover was not really enough. I went back to the Gara de Nord, picked up my backpack, bought some nice pastry from Fioretti ...

... less than magical first impression but was probably much more realistic. Bucharest if nothing else is extremely dirty and the weather really isn't cold enough to keep snow as snow which means that every time it snows the ground is white for a very short time before an impressive brown sludge emerges that gets all over your clothes and in your shoes-bascially its inescapable!! Anyway, to the much more positive first impression of Bucharest we were meant at the airport by our host ...

Another chapter is closing and a new one is beginning. I have just passed my Romanian Language proficiency exam and am at a level that I'm satisfied with...which just happens to be higher than where I finished in Russian.(!) Friday is our swear-in ceremony and I have so many emotions and thoughts that run thru my mind from such a similar time in Uzbekistan. I remember the feeling of patriotism I felt that day...proud to be representing America and how I felt such a sense of accomplishment ...