Bucharest, Romania – 08/10

(TJ) We finally arrived in Bucharest after a train ride that seemed to last week even though it only lasted two days. The countryside looked as if little has changed in the past century, horses still pull wagons, people live in houses that look as if they might fall over at any time, shepherds in the fields, you see people walking on dirt roads carrying pitchforks that could have been a picture from 150 years ago. Of all of the countries that we have been through, Romania’s country side looks the least modern. By the time we had made it to the hostel we were exhausted and it was already pretty late. We only had time to walk around the palace of government, which was built by the communist dictator Ceausescu. The place looks like a mammoth wedding cake, it’s very impressive. Radiating out from the palace are some big soviet urban planned boulevards that had potential to be nice. Time was short we had to get on a early train the next day for Greece, it’s another city that we will have to get back to some day to fully explore.

(Michelle) The only thing we had time to do that was “local” besides seeing the massive parliament was to eat at a local restaurant. That was sort of a bust, as we ordered the local specialties, but they were out of those, so we ended up with a chicken sandwich and spaghetti.