Romania Roots Trip

OferL · Sep 20, 2017

At the beginning of Sep. we went on a trip to Bucharest.
We being my parents, my wife and I. My father was born there and his family came to Israel when he was 6. He speaks the language and he wanted me to see where we came from.

Bucharest is not a pretty European capitol. I've been to Prague lately and it is much nicer. The view from our hotel room:

The streets are covered in graffiti and not the nice kind. The buildings are mostly from the communist era. So they're big blocks of concrete without distinction. If you see smoothing nice it's most likely a bank...
Some of the nicer views:

OferL · Sep 20, 2017

Food

The "Old City" or as my father said "old neighborhood" is full of restaurants and shops. Mostly the tourist attraction kind:

Some have dancing and folklore shows:

Some food was good:

Not very good ribs...

We also went to some restaurants outside the old city through TripAdvisor recommendations which were very good.

The food markets are huge and hold a lot of good looking meat, vegetables and other stuff.

Titch · Sep 20, 2017

Interesting post mate.
Lots of cabbage and potato i see

OferL · Sep 20, 2017

Things to do

Cultural life in Bucharest is a bit dull. Some classical art museums. No modern art that I found. Some shows etc. Night life consists of casinos, bars and restaurants. Most of the people seem content in going to shopping malls. Shopping and food prices are low as in most Eastern Europe.

We had two nice visits to historical buildings. One was the parliament palace. Built but never used. A huge building said to be second only to the Pentagon.

The second was the Ceausescu family residence. A sharp contrast to modest communist living... with an indoor swimming pool and cinema:

As for my roots, my father showed us the place where their house was, my grandfather's store and where they used to have their Shabat walks. The store and the house are gone now. He told us some stories about the family and himself I've never heard before.
But the synagogue where my grandparents were married still stands. It serves the small Bucharest community and is maintained by very devoted people.

OferL · Sep 20, 2017

Titch said:
Interesting post mate.
Lots of cabbage and potato i see

:grin:
I didn't catch the whole place in the picture. It's a huge hangar. Much more than cabbage & potatoes....

OferL · Sep 20, 2017

Brasov day trip

We rented a guide to drive us to Sinaia, Brasov an Poiana.
All three are major tourist towns and are based mostly on ski resorts.
These are very nice places to tour and stay. If you're into ski I was told Romania has some 25000 km of lanes.

Sinaia castle

Brasov from the cable car and sinagouge

The hunters restaurant in Poiana

Thanks for reading.
Next stop Glasgow Scotland!

BillN · Sep 20, 2017

Wow, amazing trip thank you for sharing.

Gore · Sep 20, 2017

Wow, that is absolutely amazing! I love the pictures and tidbits of stories. I've had only one encounter with Romania that was quite a bit different from yours. Back in 1993 I ended up hitchhiking from the Turkish border very nearly to Poland. I managed to get a ride on the Bulgarian border from a group of Czechs transporting textiles on a bus. It was the "drinking bus." The cost was three bottles of wine. It was completely crazy at that time, with lines to cross the borders that would stretch well over a mile -- we bribed our way to the front with bottles of whisky, but we'd still wait 8 hours or so, just for the "paperwork" -- those days are gone, luckily. Of course, I missed the sites, except what I saw from the bus window, and we were all drunk all the time. There are many visions I still have in my head of windy, cobblestone highways(!) with oxcarts, ancient churches, and I remember passing through Bucharest about 5:00am and the streets were filled with people, shockingly. Like you said, it is not a beautiful city, but there are some sites. A couple times I've planned to go to some of the tourist places you've shown, but never made it. It is great to see these pictures of them, so they remain very real in my mind. Thanks! I love especially the restaurant photos.

OferL · Sep 21, 2017

Gore said:
Wow, that is absolutely amazing! I love the pictures and tidbits of stories. I've had only one encounter with Romania that was quite a bit different from yours. Back in 1993 I ended up hitchhiking from the Turkish border very nearly to Poland. I managed to get a ride on the Bulgarian border from a group of Czechs transporting textiles on a bus. It was the "drinking bus." The cost was three bottles of wine. It was completely crazy at that time, with lines to cross the borders that would stretch well over a mile -- we bribed our way to the front with bottles of whisky, but we'd still wait 8 hours or so, just for the "paperwork" -- those days are gone, luckily. Of course, I missed the sites, except what I saw from the bus window, and we were all drunk all the time. There are many visions I still have in my head of windy, cobblestone highways(!) with oxcarts, ancient churches, and I remember passing through Bucharest about 5:00am and the streets were filled with people, shockingly. Like you said, it is not a beautiful city, but there are some sites. A couple times I've planned to go to some of the tourist places you've shown, but never made it. It is great to see these pictures of them, so they remain very real in my mind. Thanks! I love especially the restaurant photos.

Wow that's some adventure!
I'm glad you liked my pics.

cowgirl · Sep 21, 2017

Wow, great pic, Ofer! Looks like a wonderful trip. Thank you for sharing!

OferL · Sep 22, 2017

cowgirl said:
Wow, great pic, Ofer! Looks like a wonderful trip. Thank you for sharing!

I'm glad you liked it.

Mempilon · Oct 3, 2017

I'd been wanting to go to Romania and I hope I could do so in the near future. I will visit famous places and restaurants especially.

Romania Roots Trip

OferL

is Blowin Smoke!

OferL

is Blowin Smoke!

Titch

somebody shut me the fark up.

OferL

is Blowin Smoke!

OferL

is Blowin Smoke!

OferL

is Blowin Smoke!

BillN

somebody shut me the fark up.

Gore

Phizzy

OferL

is Blowin Smoke!

cowgirl

somebody shut me the fark up.

OferL

is Blowin Smoke!

Mempilon

Found some matches.

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