The generosity of our friends from Voineasa continued in Bucharest. We came to the city fully expecting to look after ourselves, but they insisted that we spend a couple of nights in their apartment. Ali wasn’t here, but we met up with Andrei and he made us feel very much at home in their lovely place. Campsites around Bucharest are non-existent so for the rest of the time we rented some cheap accommodation via Air BnB in the Tuneretului area of the city, which was very close to a metro station, perfect for visiting and going to the dentist!.
Normally, a couple of nights would have been enough for a visit here, but way before we left the UK, last year in fact, I had already decided that I needed to see a dental expert here. It’s a very long and boring story, but suffice to say, I needed to sort out my front teeth as I’ve been having issues with my crowns for quite a while and the price for private treatment in the UK is astronomic in comparison to countries such as Romania, Poland, Hungary etc..
No more NHS for me after this.
Anyway, much to our delight, we enjoyed Bucharest. Our pre-conceptions of a soviet-style concrete jungle were real in places but not throughout, there are some really interesting buildings to see and we really enjoyed the street art and found some cool bars to hang out in.
We moved to the coast next, after three months on the road, it was time to hit the beach, on the Black Sea.
We stopped for the night at the small Corbu beach—the most easterly point we will reach on this journey (most probably—which is popular as a day beach but there wasn’t really much to do here or any facilities at all, so we moved on the next day and headed south towards the border.
On the way we stopped at Mamaia, THE resort place in Romania for beach holidays. It’s a long strip, actually an isthmus, full to the brim with hotels, and the long sandy beach is completely filled with sun loungers. It was chock-a-block. We stopped for a little while just to have a look and walked to the end of the pontoon. It was a good decision. Unexpectedly, we saw some Dolphins just the other side of the harbour, probably the closest encounter we have ever had.
Just a few kilometres south is the city of Constanţa, we stopped here for an hour or so to look at the old town. Not too much to report really, It was pleasant enough but nothing special, although the run-down casino is a pretty cool building and we even had english-style 99 ice-creams, from an ice-cream van, although it wasn’t a flake but some dodgy choc biscuit inserted.
We continued on south for nearly an hour and arrived at the last village/town before the border with Bulgaria, Vama Veche.
This place, back in communist days, was a haven for free-thinkers, hippies and the like, which for some reason was tolerated by Ceauşescu’s regime.
After the 1989 revolution, it became increasingly popular with bohemian types until inevitably, hotels started to be built and more and more people have started to come. We’ve spoken to a few people that say that, “10 years ago it was great but now it’s lost it’s soul”, and I’m sure that someone would tells us that 20 years ago it was better still… Well, that maybe, but we liked it here, it really reminded us of Asia. It was a mish-mash of places we went. Modernity met with more basic wooden buildings.
Anyway, it’s a real party place and there are many bars that play banging music till the sun comes up, needless to say, this is not the place to come if you like your sleep.
Camping is free, so quite a few set up camp for the long term including many campervans and caravans up on the cliff, like we were (a great place to watch the bee-eaters flying around us) just far enough away from the banging music. There are lots of tents scattered around including many on the beach, which seems to be popular with the nudists. There’s a real mix of people here.
We liked it enough to get stuck here for a few days. The Black Sea is warm and not that saline, so no desperate need of a shower for a bit!
That will be that for Romania, for now.
We love it here and we’ve met some wonderful people and really enjoyed the beauty of the place.
Bucharest
Corbu Beach
Mamaia
Constanţa
Vama Veche
Normally, a couple of nights would have been enough for a visit here, but way before we left the UK, last year in fact, I had already decided that I needed to see a dental expert here. It’s a very long and boring story, but suffice to say, I needed to sort out my front teeth as I’ve been having issues with my crowns for quite a while and the price for private treatment in the UK is astronomic in comparison to countries such as Romania, Poland, Hungary etc..
No more NHS for me after this.
Anyway, much to our delight, we enjoyed Bucharest. Our pre-conceptions of a soviet-style concrete jungle were real in places but not throughout, there are some really interesting buildings to see and we really enjoyed the street art and found some cool bars to hang out in.
We moved to the coast next, after three months on the road, it was time to hit the beach, on the Black Sea.
We stopped for the night at the small Corbu beach—the most easterly point we will reach on this journey (most probably—which is popular as a day beach but there wasn’t really much to do here or any facilities at all, so we moved on the next day and headed south towards the border.
On the way we stopped at Mamaia, THE resort place in Romania for beach holidays. It’s a long strip, actually an isthmus, full to the brim with hotels, and the long sandy beach is completely filled with sun loungers. It was chock-a-block. We stopped for a little while just to have a look and walked to the end of the pontoon. It was a good decision. Unexpectedly, we saw some Dolphins just the other side of the harbour, probably the closest encounter we have ever had.
Just a few kilometres south is the city of Constanţa, we stopped here for an hour or so to look at the old town. Not too much to report really, It was pleasant enough but nothing special, although the run-down casino is a pretty cool building and we even had english-style 99 ice-creams, from an ice-cream van, although it wasn’t a flake but some dodgy choc biscuit inserted.
We continued on south for nearly an hour and arrived at the last village/town before the border with Bulgaria, Vama Veche.
This place, back in communist days, was a haven for free-thinkers, hippies and the like, which for some reason was tolerated by Ceauşescu’s regime.
After the 1989 revolution, it became increasingly popular with bohemian types until inevitably, hotels started to be built and more and more people have started to come. We’ve spoken to a few people that say that, “10 years ago it was great but now it’s lost it’s soul”, and I’m sure that someone would tells us that 20 years ago it was better still… Well, that maybe, but we liked it here, it really reminded us of Asia. It was a mish-mash of places we went. Modernity met with more basic wooden buildings.
Anyway, it’s a real party place and there are many bars that play banging music till the sun comes up, needless to say, this is not the place to come if you like your sleep.
Camping is free, so quite a few set up camp for the long term including many campervans and caravans up on the cliff, like we were (a great place to watch the bee-eaters flying around us) just far enough away from the banging music. There are lots of tents scattered around including many on the beach, which seems to be popular with the nudists. There’s a real mix of people here.
We liked it enough to get stuck here for a few days. The Black Sea is warm and not that saline, so no desperate need of a shower for a bit!
That will be that for Romania, for now.
We love it here and we’ve met some wonderful people and really enjoyed the beauty of the place.
Bucharest
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| Many old buildings need a bit of love to bring them back to their best |
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| Many, Many bars in the old town |
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| If anything epitomises Ceaușescu's crazy dreams... |
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| ...this could be it. |
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| Some French guys doing the Mongol Rally |
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| Really enjoyed the street art in Bucharest but it wasn't that easy to find |
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| Old & New |
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| Ceaușescu's office is in the building behind, this is where he fled from by helicopter, only to be caught and killed a week later on Christmas Day 1989. |
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| Memorial of Rebirth, dedicated to the people that lost their lives in the 1989 revolution. Bit of a marmite one this, people hate it or love it. |
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| We came back to this one a few days later, we liked the music. |
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| The Carol Park Mausoleum, known in communist times as, The Monument of the Heroes for the Freedom of the People... ...and of the Motherland, for Socialism. Rolls of the tongue doesn't it... |
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| We stumbled across this fun bar, Fabrica. |
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| The longest hopscotch game ever. |
Corbu Beach
Mamaia
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| We saw Dolphins here, just the other side of those rocks. |
Constanţa
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| The casino, closed since 1990! |
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| Yep, come all the way to Romania to have a 99!! |
Vama Veche
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| Uninvited dinner guests |
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| Waiting for the lunar eclipse |
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| Amazing how red it was, even with our crappy cameras, you can see near totality. The smaller red dot is Mars. |
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| Bit busier than Corbu, but knowhere near as busy as Mamaia |
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| Even the lifeguards are feeling the love. |
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| Errr... yeah that's always the place to come if you want to buy army gear, a hippie beach... |
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| This place really reminded us of Asia. |
