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Need help with Bucharest, Romania

Need help with Bucharest, Romania

Old Oct 9, 2006, 6:31 pm
  #16  
 
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Originally Posted by WillTravel
I read somewhere that many Romanians speak French, and you might do better with French than English. Is that true? In Bucharest, how likely is it that train staff, waiters, etc. will speak sufficient English to manage transactions in English?
My wife is from Bucharest...think she spells it bucaresti.

The language spoken besides the native tongue generally depends on how old the person is:
  • over 60: Russian and French
  • btwn 30 and 60: French, with English and German way behind
  • under 30: English

7 days is waaaay to much time for this town, I agree with other folks to head north to Predeal/Brasov and even Poiana Brasov. I was in Brasov last year and was amazed to see how much improved the square around the Black Church is. You can easily take a day trip to Castle Bran if you are interested in seeing "Dracula's" Castle.

Other than that, I like seeing soccer (football) matches...but stay away from any derby matches between Steaua, Rapid, and Dinamo...crowd is nasty-bad.

On the other end of the cultural spectrum, my family loves to go to the Opera, which is at the Revolution Square if I remember correctly.
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Old Oct 10, 2006, 4:16 am
  #17  
 
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Are there likely to be any negative side-effects to speaking in Russian? It sounds like there is unlikely to be a need to do so, and any effort along this line will require shaking off major mental cobwebs, but I do have 10 months to prepare. (I will focus on French more, of course.)
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Old Oct 10, 2006, 5:27 pm
  #18  
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Thanks for the help so far guys! It's been helpful, especially for someone who has noo knowledge whatsoever about Bucharest or Romania.

I do need a favor. I was going to change the dates around but was told no by the NW CSR. I am not one to argue so I just took that for an answer. Now I'm seriously thinking of taking one of the LCC's to a nearby city. I was thinking either Athens, Greece; Istanbul, Turkey or Budapest, Hungary. (any particular city out of the three you would recommend more than the others?)

I am aware of Seat61 and skyscanner.net. However, can someone list all the possible search engines for flights out of Bucharest? I found a fare on skyscanner for about $50 bucks to I think Budapest. However it seems that everything else was 100euros or higher

Also, is there a luggage storage area located inside the airport?

As for the public transportation, does it runs pretty frequent? Like the trains and buses .. do they run once every 30/60 mts or more often that that? And do they run 24 hours or only up to a certain time?

Again, thanks for the help. I really appreciated it! ^
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Old Oct 11, 2006, 2:23 am
  #19  
 
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Have you taken a look at http://www.whichbudget.com ?

There are cheap flights particularly on SkyEurope and Wizzair.
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Old Oct 11, 2006, 9:09 am
  #20  
 
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There is also BlueAir (http://www.blueair-web.com), a Romanian company. They operate out of Bucharest's other airport, Baneasa, which is a fair bit closer to the city than OTP
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Old Oct 11, 2006, 9:10 am
  #21  
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Check the travel section of www.nytimes.com this week for info on both cities.

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Old Oct 11, 2006, 10:03 am
  #22  
 
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For some reason, Blue Air is quite expensive by budget airline standards, which is not to say it isn't good value.

Does anyone have a favorite Romania guidebook? I just took a look at our local library's offerings - they have Romania guidebooks published anywhere from 1933 - 1998. I'm thinking something more current would be good!
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Old Oct 16, 2006, 2:07 pm
  #23  
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Originally Posted by WillTravel
Does anyone have a favorite Romania guidebook? I just took a look at our local library's offerings - they have Romania guidebooks published anywhere from 1933 - 1998. I'm thinking something more current would be good!
If you are not going until then, the Lonely Planet new edition of Eastern Europe comes out in Feb 2007
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Old Oct 16, 2006, 3:58 pm
  #24  
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The October issue of Business Traveller magazine (I always find copies in the DL crown room clubs) has a very good article on visiting Bucharest. One caution- beware of stray dogs; there are between 75k and 200k of them roaming the city, a legacy of Ceausescu's forced resettlement of people into high rise apartments. There are 75 cases of dog bites a day. The editor of the Bucharest in Your Pocket guidebook, who lives in the city, is quoted as saying that so he always carries a device called a Dazzler II (which he bought online)- it is a pocket sized thingy which emits a high pitched sound and keeps the strays at bay. The article also states that the city is quite safe for a city of 2 million people- lots of petty crime (pickpockets, etc.) but zero violent crime. The article reports that it is a good walking city (as long as you carry the Dazzer )with some of the character and shabbiness of Prague 10 years ago. There isn't a lot of tourism, but still demand exceeds supply for hotel rooms (so plan ahead).

(note: as of this posting their website still has the Sept. issue info, so I guess they might post this article in the next couple of weeks)

Last edited by Gargoyle; Oct 16, 2006 at 9:32 pm Reason: misspelled dazzer dog repeller
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Old Oct 21, 2006, 2:39 am
  #25  
 
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Thanks for the dog info. Some sources said it was nothing to worry about, which doesn't sound quite true. Is it allowable and humane (to people) to walk around with the Dazzer on?
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Old Oct 23, 2006, 10:28 pm
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I lived in Bucuresti for about six months (not in a nice part of the city either), and while I heard the stories about the dogs, they were never a problem. You do see them running around from time to time, but I never saw or heard of anyone being attacked by them. The largest bunch of them that I can remember hung out near the metro station close to Carrefour and I would pass them with my groceries and they still didn't come after me.
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Old Oct 26, 2006, 7:04 pm
  #27  
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Somewhere there was a link to the Romanian tourism board so I submitted my request for the usual maps, etc. and received it in short order. A good map of the country plus a brief overview travel planner that'll help somewhat. I would encourage everyone going and staying some time in Romania to request the info, though can't locate the link at the moment.
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Old Oct 27, 2006, 1:00 am
  #28  
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Originally Posted by tcook052
Somewhere there was a link to the Romanian tourism board so I submitted my request for the usual maps, etc. and received it in short order. A good map of the country plus a brief overview travel planner that'll help somewhat. I would encourage everyone going and staying some time in Romania to request the info, though can't locate the link at the moment.
http://www.romaniatourism.com/brochures.html ^
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Old Oct 27, 2006, 11:31 pm
  #29  
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Originally Posted by aSiAnRiCk
Thanks, Rick. ^
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Old Oct 27, 2006, 11:51 pm
  #30  
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Originally Posted by tcook052
Thanks, Rick. ^
You're welcome!

I know some of us, including me, thought about flying out to nearby eastern European countries for a few days. Therefore, if anyone is inquiring to whether there's a luggage locker in the airport, the answer is no

I still haven't figured out where I want to go as a side trip. Now my choices are narrowed down to either Bratislava, Slovenia or Budapest, Hungary. Fares on the LCC's are cheapest to these two countries from BUH
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