Sunday, September 22, 2019: Brasov

This has been a full day. Amazingly, not all of it, but much of it went according to plan.

We had hoped to get out of the flat and on the road by 7:00 am so that we could get to the King Carol's Peleș  Castle just before it opened at 9:15 am to avoid the anticipated crowds. We did pretty well, closing the door of the flat for the last time at 7:30 am. The elevator was still busted so I carried my luggage down the eight stories to the car. There were several parking spots now open on the street so I was able to advance the car to a spot closer to our apartment.

Then it was time to take Maria's two 32 kg suite cases down. I was doing pretty well, taking one flight at a time with pauses in between. About half way down, it dawned on me that the issue with the elevator was that it could not quite "reach" the top floor and therefore the door would not open at the top floor (our floor). So, I decided to "call" the elevator to the third floor where I was currently. It came, I loaded the suite cases on board and successfully traveled down to the lobby. Once out of the building, having deposited the keys in the lock box and closed the street door, I remembered that I had left my pair of prescription glasses in the flat. Oh, well, I've got a spare.

We climbed into the car and took off. Being early on a Sunday morning, there was very little traffic in downtown Bucharest. With Maria navigating, we had no problems getting out of town. For some reason, we were thinking the drive to the Peleș Castle was going to be a little over an hour. It turned out to be a two hour drive, plus we stopped at a McDonald's (yeah, they are everywhere in Romania) in Ploieşti for a cup of coffee and a breakfast sandwich. So, we arrived at the castle around 10:00 am. The crowds were already heavy.

We had to park at the bottom of the hill and walk up, about a mile. It was a beautiful walk, cool forests with a stream rushing by.

Peleș Castle

 There are actually two castles very close together. The Peleș Castle is the one that attracts most of the attention.

The "line" to enter the castle was really a mob gathering. Maria finally ascertained that we first needed to buy an entry ticket before we could stand in the line to enter. I found the ticket window and bought two tickets (I was able to buy a senior ticket at half price). Then we stood in line for the next hour waiting to get in. We took some pictures of the courtyard.

After about an hour, I figured we still had about 30 minutes yet to wait. We both had been very patient with the wait, but around that time, in chatting, we realized that we thought the other one had been very anxious to see the inside of the castle. In fact, we both would have been satisfied with just observing the exterior. Oh well, we had been waiting for an hour and had just a little for wait ahead. That's when I reached into my pocket to discover I had lost one of the entry tickets. It was the full price adult ticket that I had lost, we still had the senior ticket. We searched all my pockets to no avail. It was gone. We discussed who would use the final ticket and finally decided to just leave. So, we did not see the inside of the castle.

We walked up to the other castle, Pelișor Castle. Of course, there were no crowds up there.

Pelișor Castle

We stopped at the hotel at the base on the hill to have lunch. It was the Romanian equivalent to a Brazilian steakhouse. They brought out flights of various meats, sausage, poultry, etc. All you could eat!

We drove on into Brasov and easily found our way to our next Airbnb. The address was Strada Ioan Barac 7, Brașov, Județul Brașov, Romania. It is on the second floor (of course) and has two bedrooms and two baths. No AC, but it isn't needed. The one thing it didn't have, which I missed, was a microwave. It will be more complicated to make my popcorn now.

Our rental at the apartment complex in Brasov

The Brasov apartment complex

 Maria had booked a short three hours Brasov Beer & History Tour for this evening, starting at 6:30 pm. After letting Maria rest for a few hours, about 5:00 pm we started to get ready for the tour. There was nothing to eat in the apartment so we decided to go to where the tour was to originate, at the City Hall, and find something to nibble on until the tour began. Maria called a Uber. It took 30 minutes and $3.00 to get across the city to the City Hall. We found the Taverna Sarbului across the street from the City Hall.

We were the only customers in the place. We did not get our order place until 6:15 pm. We ordered a platter of cheese and prosciutto. That came out very quickly. It was the cheese pie that we ordered that did not permit us to leave until 6:45 pm. Maria sent a message to the tour guide telling her we were running late and asked if we could meet up with the group somewhere. She never got a response and by the time we got across the street to the City Hall, the group had departed. No problem, they apparently have this same tour every day so we booked it again from tomorrow evening and sat at the City Hall and ate one of the two cheese pies (they were huge). We saved the second one for later.

Baked Cheese Pie

After the cheese pie, we decided to wander back to the area where we found the cheese pie. This was a pedestrian only street lined with shops, restaurants and bars. Maria noticed a small "hole in the wall" joint named The Drake Pub (The Drake Pub). The theme of the pub was Chicago gangsters of the 20's. The owner later told us the name of the pub was inspired by the old Chicago Drake Hotel, famous back in the gang era. We looked it up and found the hotel is still there, now owned by Hilton. Maria and I decided we needed to visit it.

The owners were having a family party, otherwise there were no customers. We sat at the bar and one of the Owners, Adriana, came over to attend us. We arrived around 7:00 pm and did not leave until around 10:00 pm. During that time, we had, as best I can remember, a lot of fun with Adriana experimenting with drinks for us. Maria suggested to Adriana a new drink. One of Maria's "go to" drinks is the Moscow Mule, which is simply vodka, lime juice and ginger beer. Unfortunately, Romania does not seem to have experience with ginger beer. In fact, Adriana had never heard of it. Not to be deterred, Adrian improvised by liquefying a finger of fresh ginger along with vodka, fresh lime and a pinch of brown sugar. To this, she added Sprite. Maria was so impressed, she dubbed it the Romanian Mule.

Over the next couple of hours, we talked philosophy and politics with Adriana. I asked Adriana to marry me at least three times. She said "no" just as many times. Oh well! We had a very nice evening and tried a lot of new drinks. Maria was introduced to cognac, and seemed to enjoy it. She was much less impressed with Scotch. Adriana's mother made us some hors d'oeuvres, eggplant puree on toast with olives. It was delicious. I found that adding an anchovy fillet really spiced it up. Strange that no one else agreed with me!

Adriana

I liked this Scotch

The Romanian Mule taste test...a keeper!!

Adriana suggested that when we visit Bran Castle tomorrow, we should have lunch at the D.O.R. restaurant. She said they offer only "organic" meals and she especially liked their deer rib eye steak.

When it was obviously time to call it a night, we hailed another Uber which took us back to the flat ($3.5 this time),

 If we are physically capable to do so, our plan for Monday is to drive over the the Bran Castle, home of the Dracula story.

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.

Friday, September 20, 2019: Bucharest Day 1

I finally got to sleep sometime after 1:00am this morning. I slept soundly and awoke just before 8:00am. We walked over to a local coffee house and for breakfast. I had a quiche and Maria had some sort of avocado mixture on toast. It was all very good and satisfying. After breakfast, I took a walk around the area.

The exterior of our apartment building

The Trofic, where we ate breakfast

The opera house

Some drab apartment buildings

Street mural of Vlad the Impaller

New and old architecture side-by-side

Some rehabs are covered with fabric for the time being

Lots of street cafes in the Old Town

Parking is EVERYWHERE and ANYWHERE!

A new building built within an old shell

Special lanes for scooters and herds of scooters use them 

I was told by the driver yesterday that there were 3.5 million inhabitants in Bucharest who owned 3 million cars. Parking is the ultimate achievement. I read an article today written back in 2014 that said that in Bucharest, there were five vehicles for each available parking spot. Therefore, it is understandable that they park, double park and triple park everywhere, even on sidewalks and on stairways.

Maria wondered out loud why someone has not thought about putting in more parking garages? Good question! There is obviously a need. There are a couple of garages, but more could be used.

After noon, we decided to walk over the the Arc de Triumph, the WWI war memorial. It was about a two mile walk and was near the city park (Parcul Regele Mihai I or King Michael I Park). On the way, we stopped and toured the George Enescu National Museum, located in the Cantacuzino Palace, proclaimed to be one of the most beautiful buildings in Bucharest. The Palace was built in 1901/1903. The reason the building hosts the Enescu Museum is because the widow of the original builder married Enescu in 1937 and they lived on the grounds until 1946. The Palace and adjoining buildings were donated to the Museum upon the death of Enescu in 1955.

We also strolled through a small open air market selling local foods, garments and trickets. One old vendor insisted on giving Maria several Romanian postcards of old photos.

After walking by the Arc, we went into the park and had lunch by the lake at the Taverna Racilor Herastrau. I had fish and chips and Maria had a seafood paella. We shared a skewer of shrimp. For cocktails, they did not have Maria's favorite Moscow Mule, but they did have a virgin Moscow Mule. So, she ordered that along with two shots of vodka. Worked very well, I was told.

After the lunch and cocktails, the thought of walking back 2+ miles led us to hail a Uber. We relaxed for a couple of hours before heading back out to Old Town in the evening.

We ventured out again around 7:00pm, walking down through Old Town. We were still full from lunch so we were looking for a bar to relax. Maria found a recommendation for Newton Cocktail Bar (http://newtonbar.ro/) which was only 800 meters (over one-half mile) away. We found it without much difficulty. It was not a large place but, as we were to find out, it has a large party venue in the basement. They had 495 cocktails on their menu, but no Moscow Mule (Maria's drink). We were there until about 11:00pm.

During that time, we had several cocktails and witnessed a large parade of people coming in and heading down to the basement for some sort of private gathering. We were not invited. Also during this time, Maria conducted several conversations with her real estate agent. It sounds as if they are very close to finalizing the sale of her house.

We also discussed some of our upcoming trips, including the world cruise, the trans-Siberian trip and the Nile cruise. I had not previously offered Maria the opportunity to join us on the Nile cruise, but upon discussion, she seemed interested...as did her sister Yasmin. I sent Maxine an email asking her to find out if there were any open cabins on the cruise ship. There were not, but Maxine said she would stay in contact with Viking in case one becomes available.

We finally left the bar around 11:00pm and walked back to the flat. We punched the button for the elevator and nothing happened. We surmised that someone had not closed the door and the lift was stuck on another floor. I went up the stairs and found the elevator on the third floor. I climbed in, closed the door and brought it down to the lobby. Maria boarded and we punched the button to go to the sixth floor. We almost made it. The elevator stopped about six inches before reaching its sixth floor position. Unfortunately, the outer door would not open, because the box was not in its proper position. This was about 11:30pm.  We punched buttons and hammered on the door to no avail. Maria called the hostess and told her we were stuck. It took about one hour before someone (who did not speak English) to arrive and finally free us from our 3' x 5' box. It was OK, we didn't panic...too much. We decided to start a game of on-line chess.

We finally got back to the flat around 12:30am. We decided to have some popcorn and watch a You Tube video of a journalist's trip to North Korea. We did not quite get through that before we were both ready to call it a day.