poisson

I recently returned from an extended trip in Europe and wanted to share my experience with folks here. The places I went to are kind of off the beaten path for most travelers.

I started in Bucharest, took a 14hr train to Chisinau, then took a marshrutka to Tiraspol, then finally another marshrutka to Odessa. Here is my experience:

Bucharest: I arrived at OTP around 1:30AM and I have to say, this is one of the sketchiest airports I've ever been to. Most airports of this size are dead at 1:30AM, but this one had a main waiting area that was filled with scammer taxi drivers, people offering you rides, people trying to sell you random things, and just random people loitering.

I had heard things about taxis in Bucharest ripping off non-locals, so I opted for an Uber. The driver arrived within a few minutes and met me in the parking lot in front of the terminal (apparently they aren't allowed to come to the pick up area). The driver took a very long route which cost me almost double the estimated fare. Fortunately, I was able to submit a claim to Uber and they refunded the money back to me. So far, not a very good first impression of Bucharest.

Now onto the city itself... Overall the city is not very pretty, but I'm interested in Soviet and communist architecture, so it was intriguing to me. It seemed like there was graffiti on every street and in the Old Town area, many storefronts were vacant or abandoned. It would probably scare many travelers, but to me, this gave it some character.

The metro system is very clean and modern, although the system isn't as dense as in other European capitals. Since my hostel was near the center of town, I was able to walk most places.

What to see:

The Parliament building is the second largest administrative building in the world, after the Pentagon. It was closed for tours on the day I was there, but I heard the inside was interesting.



The old town had some good restaurants (I got a 3 course meal with wine for around $20), bakeries, and shops and was quaint feeling.





Communist style housing is still all over the city. Some buildings are in rough shape.



A nice mix of classical/romantic architecture and grunge



The village museum is fantastic. They moved homes and buildings from villages in rural Romania to a big park. I spent several hours here looking at the different homes.





The food was excellent. The highlight was the best kebab I've ever had.



I had two full days in Bucharest and felt that it was enough time to see the highlights and get a good feel for the city. I definitely want to return to Romania in the future so I can visit the Transylvania area.