Home to around 2 million people, Bucharest is both the capital and largest city in former Communist nation, Romania.
I’ll admit, while I’ve had the urge to explore Eastern Europe for some time now, Bucharest as an individual location wasn’t high on my priority list.
But just a few days in this history-filled city that was once known as “Little Paris” was enough to have me recommending to everyone I spoke to that they give Bucharest a try.
From the expanse of social, political and cultural history on offer, to the friendly people, good food, abundance of beer – especially in the beautiful Old Town area (not that I could enjoy it, as I was pregnant at the time) – and ease of accessibility to get around on foot or subway, there were so many things that made Bucharest a winning travel destination to me.
One of the main attractions for visitors to Bucharest wanting to gain an insight into the history of Romania is The Village Museum. It’s an open-air ethnographic museum located in the King Michael I Park, showcasing traditional Romanian village life.
The museum contains 272 authentic peasant farms and houses from all over Romania from various points in history, all carefully maintained in their original style.
The museum also contains a load of cats which seem to call the grounds their home, whom I thoroughly enjoyed patting each time I came across one, much to Dan’s disdain (See vlog).
Another popular attraction is the Palace of Parliament, a widely controversial building built between 1984 and 1997 at a cost of €3 billion, making it the world’s most expensive administrative building.
The Palace has a height of 84 metres, a floor area of 365,000 square metres and a volume of 2,550,000 cubic metres. The Palace is also the heaviest building in the world, weighing about 4,098,500,000 kilograms.
Built under the eye of Nicolae Ceaușescu, the second and last Communist leader of Romania, the construction called for 7 square kilometres of the old city center – the Uranus-Izvor neighborhood – to be demolished, leaving 40,000 people displaced from this area. Some monasteries, as well as 37 workshops and factories were included in this demolition zone.
It is currently home to multiple museums, and hosts events for state institutions and international bodies, but about 70% of the building still remains empty almost four decades after it’s initial construction.
Now, being such a huge part of Romania’s history, and a record-breaker in many aspects, we wished to visit the Palace of Parliament whilst we were in Bucharest. However, things didn’t go quite to plan.
For one thing, we couldn’t find anywhere online to tell us where the entrance to the building was for visitors. So we decided to walk the perimeter of the site to try to gain access.
This was a bad idea. It was beautifully sunny this day, but after a while of walking in the direct sunlight with no shade (whilst I was also fighting severe nausea due to the fact that I was 9 weeks pregnant at the time), this was highly uncomfortable.
Dan was slowed down by the fact that I had to stop and lean against the Palace walls every 10 minutes or so while trying not to heave, as I didn’t relish the thought of 1. vomiting in public and 2. vomiting on the grounds of a building that cost a Communist government €3 billion to create and that they obviously took very seriously.
In the end, it took us 45 minutes to wander the entire way around the block, only to find the entrance (On the Parcul Izvor/north side of the building) and be told it had now closed to visitors for the summer, apart from large tour groups. Fantastic.
A hidden treasure of Bucharest is the Heroes Cemetery, home to some 281 white marble graves of demonstrators killed during the 1989 revolution in Bucharest. Many protesters who died were teenagers and university students.
This cemetery is a somber look at the political history of Romania, but is well worth a visit for anyone interested in political and social history.
Right behind the Heroes cemetery is the well-known Bellu Cemetery, the largest cemetery in Bucharest.
It has been in use since 1858, spans over 54 acres, and holds the graves of many famous Romanians (as well as a whole lot of history).
Something that was somewhat of a surprise to me was how much green space and parks there were in Bucharest, a city I had imagined to be full of buildings and cobblestones.
I wasn’t expecting to see such an emphasis on the cities parklands, which, from the maintenance we saw being undertaken on many of them during our visit, are obviously highly valued.
The Romanian public seem to make good use of these green spaces, using them for exercise, social spots and relaxation. For us visitors, they made for wonderful picnic spots for lunches, and for varied walking routes while exploring the city.
We also noted the extravagant playground equipment that exists in many of these parks – bigger and better than any I’ve seen elsewhere! In my mind, this is one of the perks that could make Bucharest a great travel destination for families.
Admittedly, I wasn’t sure how I’d go finding vegan food in Romania. I thought I may be living off bread and potato for my entire visit.
How wrong I was. We made some great vegan and veggie finds, thanks to the Happy Cow app!
And while yes, I did eat a lot of bread and potato, that was mainly due to my pregnancy nausea and need to eat bland foods, rather than the lack of veg options.
