With heavy hearts, this morning we packed our things and spent as much time as we could in our awesome loft at Drachenhaus in fantastic Brašov before having to catch the train to our final destination in Romania, the capital city of Bucharest.  Seriously, if you’re looking for a place to travel that has natural and architectural beauty, lovely people, delicious food, good climate and VERY low cost, Brašov is the place to go.  I can’t say enough good things about it.

We headed to the train station and after dodging the gaze of some rather unsavoury looking adolescent males, we climbed aboard yet another train, pushing further east.  The train ride was mostly scenic – cut through the Carpathian Mountains with its green fields and babbling brooks.  Beethoven’s Symphony 6 – the pastoral comes to mind.  Clear of the mountains, the landscape is again flat, mostly farmer’s fields.  At 1600hrs our train pulled into Gara de Nord in Bucharest, only slightly less sketchy than the Gard du Nord in Paris.  Climbing off of the train we noticed a few regular police, some ERT looking guys as well as Gendarmerie escorting an older man and his wife off in handcuffs.  I really wish I knew what this guy did.

Anyhow, we got a taxi (apparently you’re better off using Uber in Bucharest, but we found that out later) and were dropped off at the pedestrian only old town, clacked our rolling luggage over the cobblestones and found our apartment for the next two nights, RedLotus Accommodation.  Our contact there, Andrei, was a wealth of info and led us up the 87 flights of stairs to our 2nd storey apartment, which is enormous.  We dumped our bags and headed out for some photos and dinner.

A restaurant that both Pa and I had read a lot about is a place 4 minutes from our apartment called Caru’ cu Bere – “The Beer Wagon”.  Caru’ cu Bere is an old Belle époque beer hall with wood and stained glass décor and a beer recipe dating back to 1879.

We grabbed a table outside and ordered beers from our charming waiter who advised that there was only 2 minutes left on their happy hour deal of buy one beer, get the second free, so Pa and I both ordered 2 beers.  Pa and I dined on huge, juicy t-bone steak while Ma had grilled vegetables and mashed potatoes.  Ma ended with apple strudel and Pa and I had some ice cream.

We went inside to check out the amazing interior, and ended up getting blocked in by traditional dancers.

Once we made our escape, we headed out into the cool evening and wandered the street for a few minutes before tucking in for the night.