Day 1 Touring Romania in Bucharest

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Today we began one of the big components of our trip to Eastern Europe. It is an 8-day privately guided tour of Romania.  We paid about $2600 for this tour. Today we met Vlad, our guide for the next week. It was a good beginning in Bucharest. The tour description for today is: Day 1: Bucharest Departure from your hotel or directly from the airport of Bucharest. Visit to the Parliament Building, the second largest building of the world after the Pentagon in the United States, the old town and the romanian Atheneum. Overnight in central located 4* hotel. Europa Royale

We set out walking about 9:15 am. I am slow so it took us at least 30 minutes to reach the Palace of Parliament. We paid 40 lei each for tickets to a guided tour group in English for 10 am. It lasted an hour and we covered 30 rooms and a kilometer and over 177 stairs first up, then down. It was an impressive building and everything used to build and decorate it is proudly Romanian. We did not visit the Romanian Atheneum. Vlad called a taxi and took us to visit the Village Museum. We paid 8 lei each for tickets. It is an interesting and huge park setting with representative vernacular architecture examples from around the countryside from different time periods. Most of it was old. We had a refreshment break there with a late lunch after that visit at the nearby Beraria H. It is Europe's largest beer hall opened in a former basketball gymnasium.  They had 3 fixed courses that you could chose 2 of for 24 lei per person. Our drinks cost half that much each! Of course, we had massive 2-course lunches for about $5.60 each.

The tour description linked above states what is included and what is excluded. Since photo fees at museums are excluded and entry fees are not mentioned in either category, we incorrectly it seems assumed they were included in our tour price. It remains to be seen how big an oversight on our part that will turn out to be. 

At the end of lunch, Vlad called for a ride and we toured Victoria Avenue by car to return to the hotel in Old Town. We got out and took about another hour's walk circling Old Town with Vlad pointing out highlights and points of interest. It was much more than we had discovered on our own. We went to the corner patisserie for a sour cherry croissant and an apple placinta. They were hearty and big and cost about $.80 each. They served as dinner tonight after our late and large lunch.

Tomorrow after breakfast we'll meet Vlad with his 7-passenger van outside a bit before 9 am to set off for other parts of Romania. The tour description online for day 2 is pasted below.

Day 2: Bucharest - Curtea de Arges - Sibiu We have breakfast and depart to Sibiu. On the way we visit Monastery of Curtea de Arges and continue with a visit to Cozia Monastery. We continue our tour with Sibiu, the city which was chosen as The European Capital of Culture in 2007 along with the city of Luxembourg. Visit the medieval old town and overnight in a central located 4* hotel. Continental Forum

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