One of my mates from uni is Romanian and has taught me a lot about the country, including its communist history and its Latin roots. Therefore, in September 2018, another friend and I decided to visit her in Romania's capital, Bucharest, for a few days. There are many stereotypes about Romanians in the UK and although many school friends had been to Romania to volunteer at an orphanage in Year 12, I didn't know anyone who'd visited for tourism, so was excited to explore the country for myself.
As we met my friend's parents, I noticed that the greeting included both a kiss on the cheek (albeit in the opposite direction compared with Western Europe) and a handshake. They were extremely hospitable throughout our stay and taught us a lot about Romanian culture. One tale I found interesting was that the parents had applied for a tourist visa to Canada and been rejected, despite having stable jobs and investments in Romania, whereas my family had gotten our Canadian visas very easily as UK residents. Throughout the trip, my friend's mum made us an abundance of incredible dishes, all of which were delicious and very much appreciated (I tried everything and the only thing that I didn't love was the chicken kidneys but I gave them a go regardless). It was here that I first tried dolmades (stuffed grape leaves) and polenta, which were delicious. From that point onwards, I understood why my friend missed her mum's cooking so much whilst in Bristol.
We stayed in Bucharest, which had lots to offer and meant we were never bored throughout our stay. We walked about the city a lot, as well as getting a hop-on-hop-off bus to the further landmarks, such as the Arcul de Triumf (Bucharest's Arc de Triomphe - which shows Romanian as an often-forgotten member of the Latin languages).
We also visited many cultural sites, including Catedrala Patriarhala (a cathedral), the Palace of Parliament and the Romanian Athenaeum (a beautiful opera house). We visited both the National Village Museum, an outdoor museum featuring various buildings and artefacts from a typical Romanian village, and the Museum of the Romanian Peasant, which were very insightful. When we needed to chill, we visited Promenada Mall Terrace, a shopping centre featuring a rooftop terrace, or relaxed at Shift, an outdoor area with food and drink stalls.
Although Bucharest was enjoyable, the highlight of the trip had to be our day trip to Peleș Castle a mere train ride away. This castle is located in the mountains, where we were informed that many city-dwellers have cabins in which they spend the holidays. We had a tour of the castle, which was the summer retreat of Romania's first royal family, and the complex was truly stunning. We also tried a typical Romanian treat of papanași (cheese doughnuts with cream and jam, which were delicious). The scenery was completely different to the Bucharest's and it was lovely to have a short reprieve in the gorgeous countryside. I'd also love to visit Transylvania, which is associated with Stoker's Dracula.
There were two downsides to my time in Romania: the first was the weather as despite visiting in September it was still around 40°C which made it uncomfortable to walk around for several hours at a time; the second was the fact that there was an abnormal influx of mosquitos that year and I had several mosquito bites, which I then had an allergic reaction to (not fun). That said, it was a great experience and I learnt a lot about the country and culture.
Comments