Bucharest, Romania
Friday, June 1, 2012
Today was our first actual out-of-airport Europe test, and it was quite the learning experience! After finally getting to our hotel in Otopeni (just outside Bucharest, thanks to my in-laws for our first night's accomodation) at 12:30am, we had been up for 32 hours with only a few naps on our way. We loaded up on the continental breakfast the next morning and were off to figure out Bucharest's bus system to the city core. Our first job was to find the hostel in Bucharest where we were spending the next night. Using Google, Jess had found the location on her iPod where we needed to go. However, this hostel had moved and Google showed us its old location on the map. So with a little trouble (still figuring out the bus system), we finally got to the location on the map and found no hostel. The postive note was that we met some very nice poeple in our efforts who spoke a little English and did their best to help us. At that point we had no wi-fi and borrowing a phone to call the place didn't work because no one was picking up.We didn't know what to do and we were wondering if this hostel even existed, so we sent up a little prayer for help
. Then we saw a taxi and decided to ask him if he knew the address and if he could show us on a map. He did, and so we decided to break our rule of no taxi's and just get him to drive us there. Surprising enough, his rate was about the same as taking the bus from that particular area, and when we asked taxi's later from that same area, he was less than half the price of every other taxi. We made it to our hostel and had the rest of the afternoon to get train tickets for tomorrow, walk the amazing historical part of Burcharest's city centre, see the second largest building in the world (in surface area, the Palace of Parliament) and eat some of the most amazing pizza ever! Now, as we are just getting a little more comfortable with Bucharest's transit system, we will be off tomorrow to see some castles!
Ryan
I hate Google Maps. Boycott! Boycott! That is all. Haha, sorry guys that I haven't written a major entry yet. Ry has just been doing such a wonderful job that I didn't think I needed to add anything extra! So instead of words, here are some of my photos of Bucharest!
Jess
Comments
off to a most-likely-typical-travel-the-world start! beautiful pics...enjoying the updates from both of you, love
WOW!!!
Love getting your updates and pictures. Thinking and praying for you daily.
This blog site is great! The river may have been stinky but it shows beautifully in this photo.
looks like your having a blast! Melissa and I will be keeping you in our prayers. Let me know when you go to Prague. It is so cool there.