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Germany Romania-Moldova Trip 2024

Layover in Freising

I was flying back to Vancouver from Bucharest and I had a five-hour five-minute layover in Munich. Whenever possible I like to go into the cities where I have the layovers, and if I had five hours in Frankfurt, I would have gone into the city, but Munich is a different story. Munich is a little too far from the airport for that length of a layover. I waited for a moment and thought I could go in have a coffee and immediately come back, but that seemed a bit stupid, so I looked at other options and I found one 15-minutes away: Freising, Germany.

Freising is a small medieval city, founded in 739AD, apparently the oldest in Bavaria, and it’s very near to Munich airport.

I landed at about 7:15 in the morning and immediately made my way to a bus stop just outside the airport. There is a train that goes from the airport to Freising, but on this particular day or this particular time the train wasn’t a convenient option. The bus was super convenient and quick. It was just before 8:00 when I arrived in the city. It was cold and it was misty and pretty much everything was closed. I saw only one or two other people out on the streets. It felt kind of magical. The city apparently has a population of close to 50,000 but arriving in the historic centre that seems hard to believe. The centre is very medieval and picturesque.

I did a little research later and found out that over the years Freising has been at the centre of all sorts of misfortune, from being sacked during the Thirty Years’ War, to being bombed during the Second World War, to inadvertently harbouring a key member of al-Qaida. Of course, my favourite historical tidbit was that it was a site of witch hunts, during which time they executed several witches. Between 1590 And 1722, at least 47 people were executed for witchcraft in the town of Freising, most by either burning or beheading. The batch of witch trials in the 1700s were primarily against beggar children who were accused of witchcraft, several of whom were ultimately beheaded. Children. Did you know that German has a word specifically for witch trials against children? It does and it is Kinderhexenprozesse. Excellent.

Of course, I didn’t know any of this when I was in Freising that day because I picked the town and went there spontaneously. All I knew is that it was a charming little town shrouded in mist. I had a very pleasant walk around and eventually a café opened up, and I had coffee before heading back to the airport by the bus.

I would be happy to have another layover in Munich just long enough for me to visit Freising, but hopefully a little later in the day so I could see what the town is like when things are actually open, and people are about. Plus, I believe there is a museum there that focuses on the witch trials, and I would like to visit that. It was a delightful end to a wonderful trip to Romania and Moldova, and which allowed me to be able to say that I have now visited every country in Europe.

Back at the airport in Munich, they had a proper Christmas market outside, which was delightful.

It was late November, but my travels for 2024 weren’t over. As I had a Christmas trip to Cyprus coming up next.

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Back in Bucharest

I flew from Chișinău, Moldova back to Bucharest, Romania early in the morning. I had already spent a day or so in Bucharest and I thought it was fine if not great, but I felt particularly optimistic as a flew in on this day because the weather had changed. I’d like to think that I can judge a city properly whatever the weather, but the truth is it does affect our perceptions. When I had been in Bucharest a few days earlier it had been windy and rainy and cold. On this day it was still cold, but it was sunny and blue skied, and my mood was elevated. Possibly also as a result of the great time that I had had in Moldova and Transnistria.

Since it was the last night of my trip, I decided that instead of staying at the hostel I had stayed at previously I would stay in a proper hotel. I stated at a Moxy Marriott. I know, I know, it’s a big, corporate chain hotel, but there wasn’t really anything else in the centre that was in my budget and looked appealing. I just wanted a little bit of comfort. And when I checked into my room there was a complimentary fruit platter and a dozen pink balloons. I know it was just corporate manipulation of me, but it was wacky and I liked it.

My objectives for this day in Bucharest were to visit an art museum or two and check out some other neighbourhoods.

I started by walking over to the National Museum of Art, which was a good proper National Museum in a gleaming white building and filled with art of various periods. It was very enjoyable.

I walked over to the Cărturești Verona, which is the sister bookstore store to the stunning Cărturești Carousel. This one is also worth a visit if you’re in the neighbourhood. It’s also charming but not grand. I saw at least a dozen things that I wanted to buy, but my backpack and budget wouldn’t allow it so I just browsed.

In my meanderings, I came across a charming little café called Mingle, which I can’t recommend highly enough. It’s a tiny little spot in a little neighbourhood with not many seats and a kind of vintage-y décor. I had a coffee and a cinnamon bun. To make it even better, across the street is lovely mural of the back of a woman’s plaited hair.

I decided to walk over to the National Museum of Contemporary Art, which was a bit of a hike, but took me past the Romanian Parliament Buildings (“the Palace of the Parliament”). I couldn’t get very close to the buildings because of the vast lawns and walls around them, but I got a good look as I walked by. The buildings are massive. It is said that they are the third largest administrative buildings in the world, which, honestly, is only marginally impressive. I mean to be the largest in the world is something, to be third largest is barely noteworthy. What is noteworthy is that this is allegedly the heaviest building in the world. Now there is a superlative worth bragging about; but I couldn’t help but think how do you know how heavy a building is? You can’t weigh the building. Are people weighing the building materials? Is this just some rough calculation after the fact? Just a bizarre bit of trivia.

The National Museum of Contemporary Art was…okay. If I had known ahead of time what it contained I probably would have skipped it because it was so out of the way. It’s not that what it had was bad, it just was surprisingly small and there wasn’t much in it that I found very interesting. The best part was on the top floor where they had all the artworks that they didn’t have on display. These artworks were in wire cages, but you could walk around and get glimpses of them. I like that part the best. As well, there was a rooftop bar which had excellent views of the city, and I happened to be there right at sunset which was nice.

I walked back to the city in the dark. Everything felt a little more romantic. I stopped in at the Pasajul Macca-Vilacrosse; a 19th century intersection of covered arcade streets lined with shops and (mostly) restaurants. Given how difficult it was to find a place to smoke cigars indoors in Bucharest, this was a perfect place. Smoking was allowed and maybe even encouraged, given the number of hookah lounges that lined the covered streets. I settled in at a table and had a hookah and a cocktail. It was a perfect place for people watching and with heaters nearby was surprisingly cozy, given that it was technically outdoors.

There was one cocktail place called The Vault which is inside a former bank vault that I really wanted to check out but I was so tired and didn’t think that I had the constitution for another cocktail, so I skipped it and went back to my hotel room. I had a good sleep but woke up at about 2:00 in the morning so that I could get to the airport for my flight back home. But first, I would have a short layover in Munich with a bit of time to explore a new city to me: Freising, Germany.

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More Moldova

I was back from Transnistria and on my second day exploring Chișinău. I think the capital city of Chișinău could reasonably be explored in one day, but I was happy to have two. I was able to move in a bit of a leisurely pace and go on long walks. And that’s really what I did on the second day.

*a large Gulliver’s Travels-inspired mural*

I walked over to the Ciuflea Monastery, which had three buildings, each of them beautiful, I had seen them from the bus when I went into the city, and they were noticeable because they were blue, topped with gold domes. Stunning.

On the way I enjoyed walking through the city, I always say that walking is the best way to see a city and that was certainly true for Chișinău.

I saw the big Soviet-era apartment blocks and oddly placed Soviet style artwork. On the street, sturdy women bundled up in winter coats sold bunches of flowers which were readily purchased by women passing by.

On my way back from the monastery I went to a big market: the Chișinău Central Market. It was great. Exactly what I expected and wanted. Partly indoors and partly outdoors people were selling all sorts of fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, and household items. It was a pleasure to walk around and, most importantly, I found people selling piroshkis. They are such a basic thing, but I don’t find them very often outside of places like Russia and Ukraine. My grandmother used to make potato ones and that’s always what I’m keeping an eye out for. So I got a couple from a woman selling them from a little kiosk and I was in heaven.

I went to the National Art Museum of Moldova, which was surprisingly good. The building dated from the 1930s and had a sizeable, but not overwhelming, number of artworks, paintings and sculptures, to visit. I particularly liked some of the busts and the whimsical paintings of men and women with cabbages for heads. The thing that I found incredibly awkward about visiting the art gallery was that I was the only person there when I visited and, in every room, there was an attendant observing. This made me incredibly uncomfortable. I felt like I had to linger over each work of art lest I offend them if I walked past something. And I felt like I had to nod and smile at everyone. It was a bit of an odd experience, but I enjoyed the art.

I stopped and had coffee at a few stylish cafés and continued to wander around taking pictures of the odd bit of street art or other notable sites. As much as I hate the “I heart anything” signs, but I felt like I had to take one in front of the Chișinău one.

Finally, I had heard that there was one more Lenin statue that I hadn’t seen, and it was quite a long walk through Valea Morilor Park, along a lake before following a dead-end road. It was a long and pleasant walk in the cool air. I eventually found the monument, but it wasn’t just Lenin, it was Lenin and Karl Marx and Georgi Dimitrov (the leader of the Bulgarian Communist party). What a find! It was worth the walk.

Even better, it was right outside the fenced off grounds of what appeared to be a small amusement park for children. It was closed, but some of the animatronics were still running. Is there anything creepier than a slightly disused amusement park? Maybe not. It was daytime so this wasn’t too bad, but it definitely had horror movie vibes.

*these eyes were opening and closing and moving side to side*

I rounded out the evening with dinner and a cigar on a chilly patio and a bit of work before going to bed. I had a great time in Chișinău (and in Transnistria). I don’t know that I’d make a point of revisiting the city, but I wouldn’t rule out revisiting Moldova.

Early the next morning I would fly back to Bucharest for one more day in the night before heading home.

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Transporting to Transnistria

On my second day in Moldova I left Chișinău and took a tour to Transnistria.

The Unrecognized Country

One of the coolest things about visiting Moldova is that it gives you the opportunity to visit the territory most commonly known as Transnistria. When the Soviet Union broke up in 1990 and Moldova became its own country, Transnistria declared itself an independent state and it has remained that way, although it is technically part of Moldova it is not recognized as a sovereign country. So for those of us that are counting UN countries, we can’t include it in our country count, but it’s certainly a place worth visiting and is a bit of a political and geographic curiosity.

Throughout this post I’m going to refer to it as ‘Transnistria’ although its full name is the Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic or PMR. About two months before I visited it became illegal to refer to it as Transnistria and the requirement is to refer to it by its full name or as Pridnestrovie, but It is still commonly known as Transnistria so that’s the name I’m going to use. (Although I do really enjoy pronouncing Pridnestrovie with a Russian-sounding accent.)

Getting There

You can absolutely visit on your own from Chișinău driving or on a bus, but I had only one day and I wanted to learn about the region, so I hired a guide for the day. I booked for a company called PMR Tours, and I would highly recommend them. They have a vast array of tours of Transnistria ranging from half a day to multiple days and the tours can focus on micro topics like mosaics or beer or Jewish history. I picked two half day tours and combined them. I did a general history tour and a Soviet tour.

I was picked up at my hostel by a driver, Zhenya, big and stern-looking (but nice) who spoke no English, and we drove across the border into Transnistria. You need to bring your passport with you to cross into Transnistria and they will stamp a piece of paper and put it in your passport. It feels a little bit intimidating crossing the border, as there are armed Russian soldiers and proper checkpoints, but I get the feeling that it’s just for show more than anything. The drive took about an hour and a half, maybe a little less.

Bender

We drove to a city called Bender, where I was joined by my English-speaking guide Valiery. Bender is an old town dating back to at least the beginning of the 15th century and was a great place to start our tour as it is a place of a lot of historical significance. It is home to the medieval fort called Tighina Fortress, which we toured, and I learned a lot of history about the region.

Also enjoyable was that the fort had a small museum of instruments of torture. While I will seldom pay anymore to go into a torture museum, I’m always happy when I get to look at the instruments of torture. I just can’t get over how cruel we are and the lengths to which we spent time and energy coming up with new and innovative ways to be cruel. It’s so awful that I can only find it amusing. There was one other fellow who was there as a tourist, and we were both in the torture museum at the same time. We hadn’t spoken to each other, so finally I just blurted out to him, “So, what’s your favorite form of medieval torture” And it turned out to be a great conversation starter. Since then, I have used it at two separate business networking events to start conversations with strangers when I was bored. Give it a try. People will think that you are a weirdo, but it really does get the conversation going.

*instruments of torture – and conversation starters*

From the fort we drove a little more into the city and made stops to visit tanks and monuments and memorials to battles, fallen soldiers, and Holocaust victims.

sights of Bender

Outside the Cities

The owner of PMR Tours (I think), Andrey, joined us and we drove through Bender to visit some churches outside of the city. On the way we passed and stopped at some excellent Soviet era monuments and a couple of mosaics. I love that in the Soviet times they would do these elaborate mosaics not just for government buildings or art galleries, but to commemorate industry. That was the case on this company that made electrical cables, and still does.

We visited a massive monument to the two World Wars, which also gave a wonderful view of the countryside, misty and green.

We stopped to visit another building, and I can’t recall what the significance of the building was historically, but it had an enormous Lenin head out front, and as some well-preserved Soviet paintings inside.

During the drive and all the stops, I got to ask lots of questions about Transnistria today. Transnistria in most ways does function like a sovereign territory. It has its own border controls and currency. It has its own police and soldiers and ambulances and government. It’s just that it’s under the umbrella of Moldova.

Tiraspol

We got to a river, with a car ferry. It was a very simple operation. We drove onto the ferry which crossed the river using some sort of chain under the surface. A man, with a cigarette dangling from his mouth used a large lever and winch to pull us across the river. He had a friendly dog as his companion.

A short drive later and we were into Tiraspol, the capital of Transnistria. The history continued, but much of the visit to Tiraspol was focused on taking me to Soviet era buildings and statues of Lenin. I thought Minsk had the most statues of Lenin, but Transnistria is a contender for the most Lenins I’ve seen in one country.

Tiraspol is a nice city. It had a beautiful park, lots of public statues, and the sort of broad streets and big buildings that you would expect from the Soviet Union. The public statues were particularly impressive, not only of Lenin, but of people who fought in the wars, of the celebrated cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin who died at 34 in a MIG crash, and of…Harry Potter. Yes, there is a statue of Harry Potter just outside of the local university. The reason for it, allegedly, is that Harry Potter stood up against the prevailing forces and was brave and fought for justice and freedom. I suppose this resonates with the people of Transnistria as they have been oppressed and fought for independence from the Soviet Union and from Moldova and that fight carries on. In 2024 this seems a little bizarre, but I can imagine that 50 or 100 years from now Harry Potter will just be a historical literary figure, and it will be less bizarre that he is depicted in marble.

A lot of accounts of Transnistria describe it as quirky or bizarre, and I think the Harry Potter statue is one example that could warrant that description, but I didn’t find Transnistria to be weird. It is just a small territory striving for independence with a strong connection to its history. There is a lot of pride there and I think it’s a bit demeaning to write it off as just a quirky roadside attraction.

*a monuments to students and faculty who fought in WWII*

We wrapped up the tour with lunch at a local restaurant, and I chatted with my two guides. This was one of my favorite things about the trip because unexpectedly, the conversation took a turn from the history and contemporary politics of Transnistria into semi-professional arm wrestling.

One of my guides is incredibly passionate about arm wrestling. I think it came up because I told him that I was from Canada and there was some arm wrestler from Canada, but I can’t quite recall the origins. But once he started telling me that he was involved in arm wrestling I could not stop asking questions. At first I thought it was just a group of guys that got together to arm wrestle in someone’s garage once a week, but he explained that it’s much more organized than that and that they have arm wrestling equipment and specific exercises, and they have matches, and it’s a whole community of people that are passionate about this activity. I’m not a documentary filmmaker, but I would like someone out there who is to make a documentary about the men of Transnistria and their experiences around semi-professional arm wrestling, because it sounds like a fascinating tale of masculinity, competition, and personal identity in state struggling for recognition. Seriously, somebody please make this movie.

I rejoined with my original driver and was taken back to Chișinău, Moldova. It was such a wonderful day. I really wish that I had spent or could have spent more time there, and I would absolutely consider going back to spend a few days in one of the villages of the countryside.

That evening, I went out for dinner at a surprisingly good Italian restaurant (Little Napoli) for pizza and a glass of local wine and then back to my new favourite Moldovan cocktail lounge, Marlene, and had another cigar and cocktail, shivering in the night air. It had been a great day.

I still had one more day in Moldova before I would return home. On to the next day…

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Chișinău, Moldova

After my initial two and a half days in Bucharest, Romania, I took a short flight to Chișinău, Moldova. If I had had more time I would have preferred to have taken the train, but the flight was quick and convenient. I was excited to visit Moldova for a couple of reasons. Reason one was that it was my final country in Europe and there was something satisfying about getting to colour in all the countries on my map of that continent. Reason two is that I had heard that Moldova, perhaps along with Belarus, was one of the more Soviet-feeling countries that were formerly in the Soviet Union. Immediately upon landing I realized that I was going to like it.

I took a bus into the city centre which was cheap and convenient. On the way in we passed by huge Soviet or post-Soviet apartment blocks and signs and churches off which made it very clear that this was a country with its with its 20th century roots in the Soviet Union. I was delighted.

I was staying at the Hostel Amazing Ionika Center City, a cozy little hostel downtown. I booked a private room. The hostel had a lot of men from Ukraine living there, presumably having left because of the war, who went off to work each day, but there were also other travelers.

I don’t think that I had even given Moldova any thought until I was in Uzbekistan in 2011 staying at a hostel where no one spoke English but the proprietor insisted that he share some of his cognac with me and he told me with great pride as he held up the glass of burgundy liquid, “Moldova,” he said nodding his head like ‘this is some good stuff.’ Moldova has Been making wine for over 7000 years. It’s not that famous outside of its region but I think it’s actually pretty good, from the little I have tried.

For many years after Uzbekistan, I had been reading about Moldova, but it seemed off limits. For a long time, it was considered to be the most difficult country to visit in Europe because it had prohibitive and seldom-issued tourist visas, but things had changed. I no longer needed a visa to enter the country, and Moldova was on the track to enter the EU. Even more modern accounts of people visiting Moldova described it as poor and unfriendly and uninteresting. I can’t debate the poor element, but I found it quite to my liking. There is something about many of the Eastern European countries where I understand that the people are described as unfriendly. This is not my experience. I find that the people are a bit stern, and they lack in unnecessary or unwarranted smiles and polite chitchat, but all of this suits my temperament perfectly, as I am also chronically immune to superfluous smiling and I have been accused of being unfriendly myself. Maybe it’s the Eastern European ancestry on my mother’s side. Anyway, I felt quite at home in Chișinău.

Also, the weather was perfect. It was cold, single digits for the most part, but it was sunny, and I had a winter coat, and I just thought it was delightful weather for walking around. Plus, in a city like this I kind of want to visit when it’s cold. It seems like a slightly poor former Soviet city should be cold. Always. Just to give you a little feeling of the hardship that was so pervasive in its history.

On that first day after arriving early in the morning, that’s what I did, I walked around, I got the lay of the land, and visited a few churches and cafés. The city feels poor – it’s not grand or impressive like a Kyiv or a Minsk – but it has a nice feeling, with leafy squares and beautiful Orthodox churches. There are a couple of museums that I would visit in the coming days.

I had missed breakfast but I went for a lunch at a quirky and cozy little restaurant called Eli Pili and had pierogies and borscht.

Later in the day, I wanted to go smoke a cigar. Unfortunately, Moldova has some pretty strict anti-smoking laws. No smoking inside and most of the places didn’t seem to allow smoking on their patios, but even so, most of the patios were closed because of the cold weather. There is a cigar lounge there called Churchill’s, and I went to it but there was an incredibly high cover fee to go inside and you had to buy one of their cigars, but their selection was dismal and pricey. I would have been happy paying the cover if I could have smoked one of my own cigars, or I would have been happy not paying a cover and buying one of their crappy cigars, but I wasn’t going to spend money on both.

I did a little bit of detective work, and I found a restaurant called Mojo. This restaurant has a no-smoking section and a smoking section, however, in the smoking section they will only let you smoke cigarettes and shisha. They wouldn’t let me smoke a cigar. No problem, so I had a light dinner and some shisha. It was a really lovely restaurant; not cheap, but cheaper than it should be for how fancy it felt. I asked the waiter how it was that they got away with smoking inside when it was banned. He said, “It is better that you do not ask.” Fair enough.

I walked back in the direction of my hostel. Chișinău felt perfectly safe to me at night. I notice that along one street was a stretch of kiosks selling fresh flowers that were open very late. Even past 10:00pm. The next day I asked about it and apparently the flower shops stay open late so that men who stay out too late drinking can buy flowers to bring them home to their wives.

And later in the evening I went to an excellent cocktail bar called Marlene. No smoking was allowed inside which is a shame because the inside basically felt like someone’s house and it was very cozy although quite crowded. I chose to sit outside on the back patio. It was freezing cold, but they provided blankets and given that almost everyone smoked there were other people out there. I had two excellent cocktails and two cigars, which was a wonderful way to end and my first day in this new country.

The next day I had a guided tour planned to visit the semi-autonomous region that is officially no longer called Transnistria. This obviously merits its own post, so read on here. I would return to Moldova for a full day and two nights after that trip, so my Chișinău experiences would continue.

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On the Dracula Trail in Romania

There was no question that I was going to do a day trip to visit Bran Castle (popularly known as ‘Dracula’s Castle”) from Bucharest. The question was how best to get there.

Setting Out

It is possible to get there by public transportation, but it seemed like a bit of a tight journey to do in a day. It would have involved taking a train and then a bus or taxi and it would have been a little bit too much to do in one day. So, I found a small tour where they take you to the castle for the day and back again; however, the night before I received an email from the small tour company saying they didn’t have enough people to run the tour, so they had moved me onto one of those big bus tours. I was disappointed. I didn’t want to be in one of those big buses, led around by a person with an umbrella, but at this late hour, I didn’t have a choice. So the next morning I got up early, grabbed a coffee, and went to the bus stop.

It was one of those big buses crammed full of people. I wanted to feel like I was too cool for that sort of tourist transportation, and maybe I am, but it actually turned out to be okay. This tour was little more than transportation. They shuttled us from stop to stop and as we approached they told us a few things about the place we were visiting and then they set us free to wander on our own. So it was fine.

*a couple of pictures i took from the bus window*

Magical Peleș Castle

The first stop was at Peleș Castle, just outside of Sinaia. The castle is closed Mondays and Tuesdays, so we would just be making a stop outside to wander around the grounds. The castle was built in the late 1800s by the then King of Romania, Carol I, in a neo Renaissance Gothic-Revival style. It is beautiful. It has the look of a castle that you might draw when you were a little kid, with tall, pointed turrets in a relatively small footprint but rising high in the mountains. It is surrounded by forests just outside of the town. What made the stop at the castle my favourite thing that I did in Romania though, was that it was snowing. This was in November, so it was chilly, but everywhere else on my trip the temperature stayed above zero and usually closer to 10°. But as we were a little higher in the mountains, the temperature dropped, and the snow began to fall. Even as we reached the town and castle, the trees were dusted with snow and flakes were falling. I was giddy. I love snow. As we walked around the castle, the snow was falling heavily and everything looked magical. I can’t imagine a prettier setting.

Bran Castle

From there we drove to Bran Castle. Dracula’s castle. Bran Castle is about 25 kilometres outside of Brașov, in the town of Bran. This castle was built from the late 1300s by the Saxons, so it has a more medieval kind of look to it. It is dramatic. it’s situated on top of a rocky hill looming over the town. It is famous for its association with Dracula and Vlad the Impaler, although the basis for these connections is tenuous at best. Bram Stoker never visited this castle and there’s nothing to suggest that he even based the castle in Dracula on Bran Castle. Vlad the Impaler is believed to have stayed there occasionally or at least once, but it was never his residence. The whole Dracula thing is largely just myth and marketing – but that doesn’t mean it isn’t cool.

Bran Castle is imposing and impressive, and Vlad the Impaler was a bloody and malicious ruler so, Dracula or not, it’s still a great place to visit. There are lots of Dracula representations around the castle, from the souvenirs sold in the town to the depictions of Dracula and Romanian spooky folklore figures like werewolves and ghosts in the castle. It’s a little bit cheesy, but I loved it I love anything monster and horror related so this was right up my alley. Plus, Vlad the Impaler? What a monster. What a badass. Impaling your enemies on stakes and a warning to others. That’s an impressive level of cruelty and drama.

I walked through the castle and then took a couple of moody selfies wearing my most goth sunglasses next to a gravestone at the bottom of the castle. Maybe I listened to a little Bauhaus on my headphones. I had a goth moment and high school me was proud. Who am I kidding? 48-year-old me was delighted.

Dale Raven North, elder Goth

I had a coffee and a pastry and we were back on the bus headed to Brașov.

Brașov

Brașov is a historical city with its own dark history. The pretty town square was once used to burn witches. Really.

We had an hour or two in Brașov. It was getting dark, and it was cold as a little snowy. I visited the Black Church (paid entrance; it was only ok), enjoyed a coffee at a cute café, wandered around. My favorite things (apart from the witch history) were the narrow alley way that was covered in graffiti and the town’s emblem, which was a crown with the roots of an oak tree.

Back on the bus, we headed back to Bucharest. I had a small cigar and headed back to my hostel for the night. I had an early flight to a new destination: Moldova.

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Bucharest Beginnings

For my November trip of 2024, I had planned to go somewhere a little more exotic than Romania, but after my excellent but slightly stressful trip to Eritrea and Djibouti, I felt that I needed something a little more basic. There were two countries left in Europe that I hadn’t visited: Romania and Moldova, and this seemed like the perfect time to go. And that’s how I found myself arriving at the airport in Bucharest on 11 November 2024.

I’ll say right now: this will not be my only trip to Romania. I think that Romania has so much to offer in terms of small towns and beautiful countryside, that I am definitely coming back. But on this trip, I would primarily be seeing Bucharest and a couple of nearby sites.

The First Night

I took a taxi to my hostel. I was a little underwhelmed by the hostel offerings in Bucharest, so I booked a hostel in the Old Town called the Antique Hostel. I booked a little late, and the room that was available was this massive room on the top floor with a small balcony overlooking the river. It’s not as nice as it sounds. The location was excellent, in that it was walking distance to the metro and to basically everything in the city, but it was fairly shabby and although my room was gigantic, it was mostly just empty space. No mirrors, no hooks, no hangers, no chairs. It was basically a bed and a sofa in a massive room of what at one time was probably a fancy apartment. The staff there were very friendly, and it had a grungy-looking but serviceable kitchen in the basement. I shared a bathroom on the floor with the other occupants. At all times of the day and night, there seemed to be men hanging around in the stairwell smoking cigarettes. And each night, someone tried the door to my room multiple times. So would I recommend it? No, but I would stay there again.

I arrived in Bucharest in the mid-afternoon, and it wasn’t too long before sunset by the time I got to my hostel. It was November, after all, and the days were short. It was also cloudy, cold, and pouring rain. Not ideal. I went for a walk around the Old Town. It has some charm for sure, but it is also very touristy and a little bit seedy. I think it would have made a better first impression if it hadn’t been such miserable weather. I wandered around a little and took in some of the churches and old buildings before settling at a Middle Eastern restaurant on their patio for a bite to eat, a drink, and a cigar.

The rain was coming down, and it was cold, but they turned on the outside heaters for me, and I sat under an awning and enjoyed some hummus and a cigar. Multiple local cats came and joined me on the warm benches and out of the rain.

On my way back to my hostel for bed, I stopped in at the bookstore. Bucharest has one of these bookstores that you’ll regularly see in lists of the world’s great bookstores: the Cărturești Carusel Bookstore. It was built in 1903 by a family of bankers. It was used for a time and then confiscated by the communists and used for a store and various other things before it was left abandoned. After many years of legal battles to regain the title to the building, the original family took ownership again and renovated it and turned it into this fabulous bookstore. It’s bright white and elegant; every view is exquisite. And of course, it has a little coffee shop upstairs. I went in for a browse and a cup of tea. I wanted to buy something, but honestly, I didn’t want more to carry around. It’s certainly one of the loveliest sites in the old centre of Bucharest.

The Next Day

The next morning, I got up early and went for a walk. It was still grey and raining. I strolled around the streets, which were mostly quiet. I noticed in the morning light how many lovely little churches there were. I popped into a few of them. The best was this one: when I went inside, it was lit only by candles, and there were four nuns gathered around a floor-standing candelabra singing the most beautiful hymns. I felt like I wasn’t supposed to be there, and I certainly felt like I shouldn’t be taking any photos, so I didn’t, but it was a special moment.

I went for breakfast at the Van Gogh Café. The Van Gogh Café is super touristy, and I would have skipped it except that it was raining, so sitting outside wasn’t an option, and the cafe just looked so nice and appealing. You can make reservations, and if you don’t, you’ll probably end up standing in a queue forever, but one of the nice things about being a solo traveler is that usually there’s a place in a restaurant or cafe for one person. They found a table for me upstairs, and I had some yogurt and fruit and coffee. It is a very nice cafe; I couldn’t resist taking a few pictures.

I continued my wander, seeking out some street art murals, which led me through some derelict neighbourhoods of the city. Bucharest is a city of contrasts. There are beautiful and well-maintained buildings and then areas of just boarded-up old buildings covered with graffiti and junk. It is, of course, a city that’s been through a lot.

I visited the Davidoff store and bought a few cigars. Great prices. I also took the subway to a different area of the city to visit a cigar lounge: the El Unico Deluxe Cigar Lounge on Boulevard Primaverii, a short walk from the Aviatorilor subway station. (There are other locations as well.)

Bucharest, surprisingly, is not great for smoking. Smoking indoors is completely banned, including cigar lounges, and if any of the patios have walls on them, such as plastic sheeting to protect from the cold and rain, then smoking is not allowed there either. I did, however, find a cigar lounge to visit. They had an excellent humidor with great prices and a beautiful interior with leather chairs and ashtrays, but sadly, smoking was not allowed inside there either. The owner ushered me outside onto the well-heated patio, which did have a cover and plastic sheeting to protect from the cold. I asked how they were allowed to smoke there, and he explained that he wasn’t. He said smoking was banned everywhere but that many politicians enjoy visiting his store, and so he’s allowed to remain open unofficially. I sat there cozily and had a couple of cigars. Delightful. A few men in dark suits came in and had cigars and espressos, and I couldn’t help but wonder if they were amongst the corrupt politicians.

I found a vegetarian restaurant for dinner, which was good.

I enjoyed this day and a half exploring Bucharest, but at this point, I was feeling a little underwhelmed. It wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t great. I’m pleased to report, though, that my final verdict on Bucharest is positive. The next day I would go on a day trip out of the city, and then after that, I would have another day and a night in Bucharest, and overall I think it’s a good place and worth visiting; it probably needs at least two and maybe three days to explore properly. It’s not the most beautiful of cities nor is it the most exciting, but it does have a certain charm that is best revealed through deeper exploration than I was able to do on that first day.

But my next day would be my favourite of my short trip to Romania. Into the countryside … read on here.