Saturday, September 21, 2019: Bucharest Day 2

We slept in a bit this morning. I got up a little before 8:00am and prepared for the day. Maria got up around 9:30 am. We took off to try a new breakfast place around 10:30 am. It was the Boutique du Pain (https://boutiquedupain.ro/ro). I had a Benedict and Maria had a breakfast wrap. Both were excellent.

During breakfast, we decided to change our plans slightly with respect to our departure from Bucharest tomorrow. The original plan was to leave the flat Sunday morning and take a cab up to the airport and checkout a rental car. From there, we would head north. Maria wanted to try to visit the castle on the way to Brasov, which opens at 9:30 am. To get there in good time, we decided to pick the car up today and, if necessary, park it in a parking garage so that we can leave early. I modified my reservation to pick the car up at 3:00 pm this afternoon.

While Maria was having her second latte, I walked back over to the flat to retrieve my passport and International Driving Permit, both of which will be needed to check out the car this afternoon. With the elevator out of commission, I had to walk up the eight stories to our flat.

Once I got back to the restaurant, we decided to walk back up to the park where we were yesterday and visit the National Village Museum before we headed to the airport. We arrived at the park about 2:00 pm and sat down for a cocktail at a pub across the street.

We entered the Village just before 3:00 pm and took a quick look around. It is a large place and it would take a whole day to cover it all. These are actual buildings that have been moved to this open air museum. Some of these structures were built in the 1600's and represent a collection of Romanian architecture through history.

A Jewish house

Maria called a Uber just after 3:00 pm and they picked us up in about 10 minutes. We got to the airport about 30 minutes later and we had our car and heading back toward town before 4:00 pm. We decided to check, just in case, to see if we might be fortunate enough to find a curb side parking spot near our flat. We thought the odds were extremely low. WE FOUND ONE!! It was actually on the street of our flat. There wasn't much room, but I got it parallel parked. So, we saved probably $100 in overnight parking costs...assuming the car is still there and undamaged in the morning.

Before walking back up the eight stories to our flat, we decided to have an early supper. When we finally got back to our building, the elevator apparently had been fixed. Considering the ordeal from last night, Maria was not willing to risk it, so we walked up the eight stories.