Back to Bucharest One More Time

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Today was our last intraEurope flight. We flew from Chisinau back to Bucharest on a Tarom 50-passenger prop plane again. This time rather than risk sitting by the propellers again, we kept the auto-assigned seats of 12 C & D. That was a mistake too because it was a smaller row at the back of the plane. Today I got the big guy whose seat leaned into my lap. Again it was rough on ascent and descent. Again they served small ham & cheese sandwiches and Milka cookies with soft drinks, water or coffee. Since it is only a 1 hour flight leaving at 2:20 pm today we thought they would serve lunch but they did. It was a full flight. It was fine, on time and our luggage arrived with us so no complaints. We thought we were ready for the taxi today since we'd learned last time. We went to the same North taxi kiosk to order a car and waited in the same place. Within in minutes our assigned car number arrived. This guy though, asked for the kiosk-issued slip, checked it then wadded it up and threw it on the ground. He didn't run the meter and asked for $20 when Clay tried to pay him in Lei. He was insistent that was what he wanted though it was too much. Clay just gave it to him and considered it another overly generous tip.

We were happy to return to the Europa Royale again. This time we got a different room, 307. It is around the corner from 309 which was one below our first room of 409. It is smaller and faces the traffic street not the pedestrian street entrance. It has a nice shower like City Park Hotel had though so it has that advantage. Oddly, unlike 309 and 409 which had a big empty corner with a floor lamp begging for a chair, 307 has 2 chairs and a table squeezed into a space before the window where nothing should go!

I wanted to return to Caru' cu bere Restaurant for dinner tonight. We were so focused on Clay's crispy pork knuckle last time that we didn't even read the rest of the menu. We got online and decided what we wanted and walked over without a reservation. We knew that was risky but I don't think we appreciated just how busy they'd be. We got there before 6 pm and asked to sit inside. They told us they'd seat us but only for 2 hours. That should be plenty of time! We'd forgotten how slow service was here. We were still out in plenty of time. We shared a main dish that we'd had several other places and a side dish of beans. We had room for dessert after seeing lots of papanasi being served. Big groups were somehow getting single cakes delivered per person. We ordered one and specified a single portion and still got 2 cakes. We managed!

Since we missed the dancing singing fountains show the first weekend we were here, we wanted to go tonight. The view from our 3rd floor room was not as complete as our 4th floor had been so we decided we'd walk over to Unirii Square. Unfortunately, we couldn't get a definitive answer on when the show started. Clay was sure it was 9 pm. I'd read earlier and you should arrive early. It started as we walked across the park about 8 pm. There were thousands of people there. Our guide last week told us it was the biggest show of this kind, dwarfing Bellagio. He was right. We couldn't see the whole thing! We left after a few songs so he could check the view from the room again. Third floor is too low, the trees obstruct too much and you see less than from the park. It was pretty special. We're sorry we missed it the first weekend.

We have a noon transfer scheduled to join AmaCerto in Georghiu tomorrow. The end really is in sight. We looked briefly at the paperwork today and saw that Monday we'd signed up for a full-day tour of Bucharest. After watching huge groups come & go at the restaurant tonight, I told Clay I thought I'd take a ship day instead. He thought about it and agreed if AMA's tour goes to Parliament and the Village Museum, he wasn't going either. We'll see. We know we signed up for it because everything else offered that day was strenuous. I think we'll be experiencing the boat that day.

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