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Week in the life: Romania!
So, went to Romania and Germany the last couple of weeks and well, here are the photos of the trip.
We were there for a relatively short amount of time...got to Romania on a Thursday and left on a Tuesday while visiting two cities and trying to adjust to whole 9 hour time difference. Anyway...lots of food (only gained like 2 lbs! Kind of amazing considering I ate everything in sight ), some partying, some spending time with family and pretty tiring in the end. Germany (the second part of the trip) was a lot more relaxing...that'll be a separate thread though. Taking off from Phoenix about 7:00am. http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/101.jpg Had a 4 hour layover in D.C. and found this little gem at the airport...Potbelly's! Why don't we have these in AZ? Shit was delicious! http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/102.jpg Waiting around at the airport, found an available wall outlet and parked myself. Traveled in sweat pants like a lazy American. :D http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/103.jpg Got lucky and ended up in an Economy Plus seat for the flight from D.C. to Frankfurt...that extra 5" of legroom was awesome on a 7.5 hour flight. http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/104.jpg I always look forward to airplane food for some reason...I get all excited to see what they're going to surprise us with. :D http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/105.jpg Love flying over clouds...I still find flying/airplanes as one of the most amazing things ever. How the fuck does this thing that weighs over 100 tons stay in the air and take so much abuse?! (I know how, just saying.) http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/106.jpg Coming in over Frankfurt. http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/107.jpg Got into Frankfurt airport and was greeted with a couple gifts, very nice of them. :) http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/108.jpg Had a 3 hour layover here so had to get some food going, German style. http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/109.jpg Couple hours later, made it to Romania and baggage claim was a damn mess. Everything made it ok though. http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/110.jpg Pulling up to the hotel, Marriott Grand Hotel Bucharest...shit is pimp! http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/111.jpg http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/112.jpg http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/113.jpg After settling in a bit, we went out to get some food. It was cold, but not too bad and foggy...felt "wintery". http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/114.jpg Good traditional Romanian cuisine restaurant in the heart of the "Old Center"...restaurant was the home of some rich dude back in the day, built 1883. http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/115.jpg What shall we get... http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/116.jpg Wife got the beans and smoked pork in a bread bowl... http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/117.jpg I went with the smoked pork shoulder with polenta and a baked sauerkraut sort of dish. http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/118.jpg And a little desert (demo tray obviously). http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/119.jpg Afterwards, hit up the streets around the Old Center looking for a pub...took this photo which I'm very proud of. :d http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/120.jpg Ended up at Bordello's...where apparently sometimes love is worth paying for. :crazy: http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/121.jpg http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/122.jpg My buddy and I got a beer, my wife got a hot wine with apples and cinnamon. My buddy's girlfriend doesn't drink, but smoked like a fucking chimney. http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/123.jpg Next day driving around Bucharest. They've started to rehab a lot of the Communist area apartment blocs...they look as decent as you could hope for I guess. http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/124.jpg Some random pictures around Bucharest... http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/125.jpg http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/127.jpg http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/128.jpg http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/101.jpg Traffic? No problem! Just climb up on the light rail tracks and follow the train around! :crazy: http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/126.jpg They do a decent job of decorating the city up at night, festive! http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/129.jpg http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/130.jpg More "artistic" shots. ;) http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/131.jpg http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/132.jpg Later on that night, hit up Club Bamboo around 12:00am...got there a little early as most everyone showed up around 1:00am. http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/133.jpg My buddy's girlfriend and my wife... http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/135.jpg My buddy and his girlfriend. http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/134.jpg Next morning, worke up around 11am (after coming back to the hotel around 5am) to a rainy day and had to pack up and head over to the next city. http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/136.jpg A few random shots heading out of the city... http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/137.jpg http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/139.jpg How do you get TWO christmas trees home? Like this! BTW, why are Christsmas trees so scrawny and pathetic looking in Europe? http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/138.jpg They really need to bury their damn electric wires... http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/140.jpg http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/141.jpg Unrehabbed Commie blocs... http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/142.jpg Finally out of Bucharest and heading to Ramnicu Valcea where my grandparents and buddy live...about a 2 hour drive over a mountain and through some fog and smoke. http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/143.jpg Me, my grandpa and their dog. http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/144.jpg Dog like to chill like this a lot of the time... http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/154.jpg Traditional Romanian breakfast...you've got bread, eggplant spread, bell pepper spread, ham, feta cheese, olives and pork skin (pork skin is only eaten around Christmas, you'll see why soon...) http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/145.jpg And here is why...people slaughter pigs for Christmas. My buddy doing his thing...his girlfriend's mother is in awe of him. :crazy: They have gotten more humane about it and it's now law that you have to shoot the pig vs slashing his throat like back in the day. http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/147.jpg http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/148.jpg Tasty huh? http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/149.jpg Mmm pork skin...I'm pretty sure you had to have grown up with it to like it. :laugh1: http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/150.jpg Later on that day, went to a local pizza place...the place was like walking into an ash tray, fuck I'm glad more civilized countries don't allow smoking inside anymore, shit was horrible. My wife and my buddy's girlfriend playing some iPad backgammon. Backgammon is pretty big over there. http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/151.jpg Next day...hit up a "cofeterie"...basically a pastry shop...why don't we have these in the US (or at least here on the west coast?) http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/152.jpg I was the only one that got something. :( http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/153.jpg Next day rolled around...time to leave...had a bomb ass pretzel, stopped by an outlet mall on the way into Bucharest toward the airport and snapped a couple more pictures around the city. Next stop...Germany! http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/155.jpg http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/156.jpg http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/157.jpg http://nitnelav.com/Romania2011/158.jpg |
very nice! bucaresti is a place i have always wanted to visit. the former paris of the east, or so they called it. there was a bbc report a while back about how much of the old architecture is/was being threatened with demolition. and, yes, potbelly's! one of my favorite things about living in dc! i am from la (here now), and miss them all the time!
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Cool to see Romania on here. I visited Bucharest and Transylvania this summer. Beautiful cities and countryside. Funny you mention the restaurants smelling like ashtrays... they like their cigs over there. Thanks for posting these.
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Very nice thread!
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Looks like it was an amazing trip!
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Very cool, thanks for posting :tup:
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Cool stuff! I always like to hear from non-Romanians who visit and get their impression of the place. Anything that stood out both good and bad?
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hmmm... good and bad? Overall I really enjoyed the country, I'd like to go back and spend some time in the North. Transylvania was great, the highlight was seeing brown bears in the forest. I found a German guide in Brasov that runs day trips to old hunting hides that are now set up for bear watching. I really like some of the old monasteries too. The mixture of medieval towns and soviet era ruins was really intriguing. The people were all very friendly and nice too.
As for that bad, I didn't care too much for Bucharest. I found some areas nice but it looked like a lot was ruined when the much of the old town was razed. What's left of the old town felt a little Disney land-ish. Each bar/restaurant felt the same probably all controlled by the mafia. Still, I found the ex-soviet-gypsy-mafia-eastern euro culture in Bucharest completely unique. I had a great time in the city so I wouldn't really say my experience was bad. I guess the worst thing was some of the techno-pop I heard on the radio... that stuff was bad.:) I'll be making one or two photo threads covering my trip, probably not any time soon though. I still need to edit the shots and put them online. Keep an eye out. |
I've only been to Bucharest once, a long time ago. Weirdest thing, I met some guys on the train on the way into town who were at the university there. They offered to let me stay at their dorm. I got a great tour... but I'd never seen a dorm with three guys and one big bed. Weird.
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Awesome.
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