Thursday, September 20, 2019: Bucharest - Getting There

My journey to Bucharest began two days ago, on September 18. I took a cab at 6:00am to the Lambert Airport to board an 8;45am Delta flight to Detroit. This was the only leg of my flight that had me a bit concerned in that there was only a 55 minute layover in Detroit with a plane change. There was no problem however. I got to Detroit and had plenty of time to catch the next Delta flight to EWR. Once to EWR, I had a four hour layover before the United flight to Frankfurt departed. I flew business class all the way which helped. The EWR to FRA flight was aboard a 747. Perhaps it is the first time I have been on a 747. It was comfortable enough, although I did not get much, if any, sleep.

We landed in FRA about one hour late. I had a three hour layover before my FRA to OTP flight, so there was no issue. The final leg of the journey was on a small regional plane and lasted only about two hours. I landed in OTP at 1:30pm, just as scheduled. In real time, from take off in StL to landing in OTP, the journey 22 hours in duration. However, the day was longer than that.

Upon arrival in Bucharest, I quickly collected my single piece of checked luggage and found an ATM machine. I converted about $400 into 1,500L (lei). The exchange rate is about $0.23 to 1L. Maria had arranged for someone to collect us at the airport and take us to the flat where we will be staying the three nights while in Bucharest.

Maria had flown into Bucharest from Budapest that morning, arriving about 11:00am. She decided to go ahead and take a Uber to the flat instead of waiting for 2+ hours at the airport for my flight to arrive. I met the driver at the airport and he drove me to the flat.

The flat is a vintage 1960's three bedroom apartment with 1.5 baths. No AC. It was comfortable. Upon arrival, Maria was chatting with her sister, so I shaved and showered.

Maria was hungry, so just after leaving the flat, we stopped for a hamburger at the Burger Van Bistro, just around the corner. It was OK. We also had a local beer. Neither of us could finish the meal.

We then decided to roam around a bit. The flat is located at the edge of "Old Town". We walked by an 18th century orthodox church before visiting the National Art Museum.

Views from our flat. There is a lot of construction/deconstruction going on in the city. Many vacant buildings are coming down. We had been warned that the city was drab and depressing. However, so far, we have found it teaming with life and a lot of revitalization going on.

In the evening, we walked back over to the "Old Town". We stopped at The Pub for a cocktail before finding the Caru' cu bere restaurant. Supposedly, one of the best in the city. Still stuffed from lunch, we ordered a couple of "starters", duck meat balls and the Traditional Romanian "bulz"

While roaming around, Maria got a message from her real estate agent that she had gotten an offer for her house in Houston. This put her is a great mood.

It was getting pretty cool and started drizzling so we headed back to the flat.