After spending an amazing seven months in Asia, I headed back to Europe with my first stop being in Romania. I spent just over a week in Romania visiting Bucharest and Brasov. I enjoyed spending time in both the big city of Bucharest as well as in the small town of Brasov, as they were each very different from the other.
My flight from Sri Lanka was in the middle of the night which at the time sucked but it did mean that I was able to arrive in Bucharest, Romania at 2:00 pm. Getting through customs and then taking the train into the city was quick and easy. Once I made it to my hostel, since I hadn’t slept in a very long time and I was exhausted, I decided to have an easy, relaxed rest of the afternoon. I hung out at my hostel and met others who were staying there and then later went for dinner nearby before heading back and hanging out with others before finally going to bed. On my first full day in Bucharest I had a slow relaxed morning before Amanda, a girl in my room, and I went out to a cafe for a drink and to hang out after which we wandered around the hostel area and stopped at a secondhand clothing store and on our way back to the hostel I stopped at a supermarket for dinner supplies. Once back at the hostel we hung out with the others for the rest of the evening. It was a really fun and relaxed day. The next day I wandered around Bucharest and explored at a slow pace with no set destination in mind. It was a lot of fun casually walking around and turning down any street that looked interesting to me at the moment.
On my third day in Bucharest I took a general free walking tour around the city where I learned more about the city and saw the city’s biggest attractions. I had seen plenty of the areas the day before, but it was cool to be able to learn more about them and know what I was actually looking at. After the walking tour I found a nice park to hang out in for a while before I went to meet up for another free walking tour. On my evening walking tour I learned about communism in Bucharest and what life was like for Romanians during communist times. It was very interesting learning about not only how communism affected the citizens but also what people’s views and thoughts on communism were at the time and what their views are now. The tour didn’t go to a bunch of big picturesque locations, but rather allowed me to see less touristy areas of the city and allowed me to learn more about the culture of Romania through its history. That evening after I got back from my tour I hung out with others at my hostel. On my final day in Bucharest I wandered around some of the different parks in the city and spent time enjoying the weather, people watching, and reading. In between hanging out in parks I wandered around some of the different areas that I wanted to explore more of and I also finalized plans for my next stop. It was a pleasant and relaxed day and that evening I treated myself to a solo picnic in a park.
After spending four nice days in Bucharest, I got on a train and headed to Brasov, my next stop in Romania. Since my train didn't leave until midday I was able to have a slow morning in my hostel before heading to the train station. The train ride was nice and smooth and I had an older Romanian woman sit across from me. She didn’t speak any English but along the way she and I managed to converse a bit with the help of Google Translate and good old fashion Charades to figure out what the other was saying. It was a fun train ride with beautiful views along the way as we rode through the mountains. Once in Brasov, I made my way to my hostel and got settled there before I went out in search of dinner. On my first full day in Brasov I wandered around the town in the morning before heading back to my hostel when it started to rain. I ended up spending the rest of the afternoon at my hostel due to the rain but it was fun and relaxing listening to the rain. The next day I went on a free walking tour around the city where I was able to learn more about both the sights and the Transylvanian region which the town is in and the history of the Dracula story. After the tour I went for lunch and then casually wandered around the town some more. While there wasn’t a lot to do in Brasov, I really enjoyed being there and people watching in the main square. My last day and a half in the town were very relaxed; I kept finding new areas in the town to explore while simply enjoying the weather and sitting outside in a park or on the main square. Overall I had a great time in Brasov and enjoyed the town. Something I found interesting was that even though Brasov is much smaller than Bucharest, I was told it gets almost the same amount of tourists.
While it was a big adjustment going from traveling in Asia for so long to going back to Europe, I really enjoyed my time in Romania. I enjoyed both of the towns that I visited. While they were both different from each other, they were both really nice cities and I found the Romanian countryside to be so beautiful.
“To awaken alone in a strange town is one of the most pleasant
sensations in the world.”
- Freya Stark
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