Day 5 - Tuesday, August 26 - Istanbul to Bucharest

 A fairly early morning as we had to have luggage outside our room at 6am and depart for the airport at 6:30.

It was about a 45 drive to the airport, then quite a long time to check in.

The flight to Bucharest is only 55 minutes. We are not sure why, but we were in first class. Another couple who traveled from the US in business class were in business class on this flight and the rest were in coach. We were served a hot meal with roasted chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, salad, a roll and dessert - a bit much for a short morning flight.

We took off along the coast of the Black Sea. When we were back over land it was largely agricultural. It looked very dry except for very green patches that were irrigated.

After going through customs it was another hour bus ride to the Bucharest Marriott. There is a long tree-lined avenue into the city surrounded by parks and beautiful mansions - it would be interesting to know their history.

After getting organized, we went for a walk to the old town, past the Romanian Parliament. This is the second largest building in the world after the Pentagon. It was built by the dictator Ceaușescu who was in power from 1965 to 1989. People worked 24x7 to complete it and it used 1/3 of the national budget. This is surrounded by more government buildings.

We visited several Romanian Orthodox churches which are elaborately decorated with gold and many icons of the saints and other religious figures. A number of women were practicing their faith by kissing the images on the icons.

Along the way we stopped at a cafe for drinks and a meal. After 45 minutes the waiter apologized  that the computer lost our order after he entered it. After confirming we still wanted food, our seared tuna salad and burrata arrived.

One thing that is surprising here is how observed pedestrian crosswalks are. As soon as anyone steps off the curb, all traffic screeches to a halt until everyone has passed. In Istanbul, there are marked crosswalks but you take your life in your hands trying to cross - nobody stops unless they think they might kill you.

The "old town" is supposed to be a "much see" place but we couldn't find much useful information about it except that it has many cafe's, restaurants and shops. We stopped to have Aperol Spritz at a cafe before getting a taxi back to the hotel. 

The taxi driver was excited to know we were from the US. Why? He also informed us about the parliament building being the 2nd largest in the world.

Just taking it easy this evening.

Tomorrow we have a tour of a rural village and the city of Bucharest before heading to the ship.

In old town Bucharest

Seared tuna salad and burata

Parliament Building

Romanian Orthodox church


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