Well its that time of year and our family travel season is well and truly in gear.
So, as the festive season approaches we like to fly back to a European capital city and visit one of the Christmas markets. This year we decided to maintain our theme of visiting a destination for the first time and chose the wonderful Romanian city of Bucharest. I am led to believe I that in Romanian the word Bucharest literally translates to "City of Joy", so what a perfect place to visit at this time of year.
By now anyone who has become a regular reader of my Blogs will know that Mrs. C plans these expeditions with what can only be described as military precision; for which of course I am extremely grateful as it is a complete juxtaposition from my daily routine, allows me to concentrate on recording memories with my trusty Fuji and also allows me to focus on other crucial elements of the trip such as what wine goes with what local delicacy etc!
Now as we advance in years (of course according to Mrs. C she was a child bride and is much younger than me….thought I better get that in early on), one of our many objectives is to try and stay and feel young and to do that, we must remain as flexible as possible. Of course, Mrs. C likes to put this in to practice metaphorically, whereas I am quite happy to take a more palpable approach….but thats for another blog!
So you can imagine that on the morning of our flight, when we received a call from our besties Seth and Luvbug, stating that they have had to cancel their family trip to Singapore and could they join us, we readily agreed as accompanied by their boys, Raif and Atticus, we could think of no better way to spend a long weekend in Europe.......other than of course being joined by own children Chipmunk and Anna as well. That would have made everything complete and perfect.
Now it is fair to say that Mrs. C and I like to travel light, with hand luggage only, and for this particular visit I had decided to go covert and take my trusty X100F, which had not seen a lot of love recently. Also I packed a few clothes as well….got my priorities in order then!
Now whenever we arrive somewhere new, first order of the day is to have a friendly chap waiting for us with a gleaming Black Mercedes. Sure enough our friendly driver, lets call him Ivan for the sake of legalities, had been dispatched by our Hotel and within minutes we were being whisked away.
Actually whisked is rather an understatement. As our driver was turning back to talk to us, whilst I might add he was doing whilst at the same time driving forward at a considerable rate of knots, he gave us a toothy grin and said not too worry as there were no speed cameras in Bucharest and that you would not get locked up us long as you did not drive more than 50 kmh over the limit. Given that we were already above 60 kmh, you start to get the feeling of how this journey was progressing. Does the word "Clench" start with a K or a C ?
Having seeing my pained expression (actually this was the point when we narrowly ran a red light) and in an attempt to reassure us, he then told us that even if he did get caught he knew most of the local constabulary so with a little "attitude adjustment" he would be fine and we would be sure to have a wonderful stay. So that was all good then!
I neglected to say that we arrived in Bucharest at around 10.30 p.m. so by the time we reached the hotel it was just before midnight. As we were ensconced a very comfortable room on the 11th Floor of the Intercon Bucharest, which I have to say was a great hotel and very centrally situated, I walked out on to the balcony and grabbed my first image of the trip.
Now the Intercom has one of the best Executive lounges we have stayed in and from the 22nd Floor provides a wonderful vista of this great city.
As always we were up bright and early, cup of tea in bed at 6.30 a.m. courtesy of "She who must be obeyed" followed by family breakfast in the lounge at 8.30 a.m. Ably assisted by Seth and the boys we kept up the family tradition of having at least one portion of pork product a day whenever travelling. Indeed the Intercon's cooked breakfast was a real treat and not to be missed.
Although the Intercon Bucharest may not be an architectural masterpiece, the rooms are great and above all the staff we encountered were a wonderful bunch and the service really was first class.
Now with only a couple of days in Bucharest and much to do, we set off with our usual route-march; Mrs. C leading and acting as chief tour-guide whilst providing very helpful "guidelines" as to what images I should and shouldn't capture. As regular readers will now know, I am absolutely king of my particular castle but, for the sake of good humor and in the spirit of good health, mostly mine I might add, I regularly acquiesce.
I have to say, whilst not as grand as Budapest you can clearly see that Bucharest has a long history and is full of grand buildings, wonderful architecture and many beautiful churches, all of which made it a photo-rich environment for me.
Of course along the way I was helped by my able-bodied assistants, “The Cheeky Chappies” - Don't you just love them!
By late morning we had a thirst on and we managed to locate a very charming bohemian cafe, the Artichoke Social House, that made the most delicious hot chocolate.
I was in my happy place and as the delicious hot chocolate warmed my extremities the old creative juices began to flow and I did something I don't normally do and grabbed a discrete image of a couple who seemed very much wrapped up with each other. What was their story?
What is he thinking? ‘She loves me or loves me not?”. Well, we will never know as we had to press-on around the old town and its grand soviet era buildings.
En-route we found a really grungy location with a bit of graffiti and so managed to stage a bit of a photo-shoot with Model Seth which I entitled “Graffiti Shoot”.
Unfortunately due to the near sub-zero temperatures we had to skip the swim-suit section of the shoot. Luvbug was rather surprised as allegedly Model Seth is normally more than happy to get his kit off at short notice.... but thats for another blog after the watershed!
Our lunch destination was the Caru' Cu Bere Restaurant (literally translated means the beer wagon) so you can guess we weren't going there for a coffee.
Clearly it is on the tourist trail and we did well to get there early as it was soon full and you knew it was going well when you hear that healthy buzz of laughter and animated conversation. Definitely a touch of old-school Bucharest.
After a very large Chicken Schnitzel and local hand-cut fries, washed down with a couple of glasses of the local grog, I was once again back in my happy place.
It was a bit dark inside and I didn't have my speed-light with me but I hopefully have been able to capture some of the atmosphere of a bygone era.
Actually I found taking images quite a challenge as the light was very flat. However, the architecture and buildings were very much to my taste and hopefully I managed to capture a feeling for the "Old town".
Now one destination that you have to visit is the Cãrturesti Carusel, located in Strada Lipscani. This place has everything. It is quite magical inside and combines a bookstore, gift shop, art gallery, photo-destination and has a wonderful cafe on the top floor. Literally there was something for everyone.
On the way back to the hotel we decided to take a quick look at the Metro and I grabbed a moody images but in this instance and with two tired young boys in tow, we preferred to stay above ground. The Metro would be for another visit.
That evening we thought we we head for the Christmas market as the kids were looking forward to seeing the Christmas lights.
After a 20 minute hike back through the old town we eventually found the Christmas market.
It was actually located slap-bang in front of the Parliament building. However, it was absolutely throbbing with people, there was a rock concert keeping people entertained, the temperature had dropped and it started to rain. So we decided to try again the next monrning and what a wonderful morning we had.
It really is better visited in the day-time, lots of stalls with lovely things to buy, mulled wine to sample (and we did!) and even an ice rink. The kids loved it and so did the big kids.
I am also keen to sample some of the local delicacies and so I followed my nose and headed-off towards the protein sector!
It all looked very promising until:
I started to regonise what they were cooking.
I wished I hadn't recognized what they were cooking.
If I wanted some (and I didn't) it was served very neatly in the cooked intestine of some un-fortunate animal.
Fortunately Seth saved the day and found us some of their lovely hot chimney cake. It is warm with a crisp outside coated with sugar and a delicious soft inside. Perfect with a coffee and where better place to enjoy a warm drink on a cold December morning than a touch of culture at the bohemian Van Gough Cafe:
No they are not real but very good copies….
A young man who clearly enjoyed his hot chocolate!
So how can I summarize our first trip to Bucharest:
What a great place and can't wait to return as there is still lots to do.
It is a very inexpensive place and great value for money.
The people are super friendly and we received a warm welcome wherever we went.
Above all its about sharing experiences and memories with the people you love. It was so much fun having our besties with us, even though everyone we met thought they were our children and that their children were our grand-children! I can honestly say that we would be delighted if they were, although Mrs. C was still telling everyone that she was a child bride!
All in all the trip was a great success and we really managed to pack-in a great deal across a weekend although for some, it was all just a little too much!
As we move ever closer to Christmas and 2019 draws to a close may I take an opportunity to wish one and all seasons greetings and lets us hope that 2020 brings us peace, health and happiness.
With warmest regard
Steve.