A travel blog after a 6 night visit in early March 2025
On our first day in Bucharest we were asked to describe our first impressions of the city in just 1 word. At the time I remember trying quite unsuccessfully to think of a single word to describe such an ‘up and coming’ city. In fact ‘up and coming’ would have been my answer, but that was using 3 words not 1!
Now, as I travel back to the airport after a magnificent 6 night stay with my wife Nicky in the aptly nicknamed ‘City of Joy’ I think ‘intoxicating’ probably sums it up best.
We were lucky enough to enjoy an absolutely brilliant city break in this Eastern European capital, commonly predicted to be Europe’s richest by 2050.
But first some context.
Retirement sucks!
I’m being ironic of course. I have started to really enjoy my retirement and the opportunities it offers. This is especially evident when it comes to taking advantage of ridiculously cheap flights.
In recent months my wife and I have used Ryanair’s discounted airline tickets to travel for city breaks to Riga in Latvia (December 2024) and Bratislava in Slovakia (January 2025). So this was our 3rd visit to a so called ‘Soviet Block’ country in the last 4 months.
You can read my travel blog on Bratislava here. https://www.facebook.com/share/15pX9Zi8TK/?mibextid=wwXIfr
The flight from Leeds to Bucharest is a relatively long one at 3.5 hour flight with a 2 hour time difference.
Thankfully our courier, the oft maligned (in the UK anyway) Ryanair behaved well and deposited us on time, on both legs of our journey.
As fairly new retirees, we understand that we are very fortunate as we can now act on the spur of the moment, to travel anywhere: to the weird and wonderful, This is such a privilege and one we will never take for granted. So when return flights of £30 per person became available in early February we clicked a few important keys on our laptop and boom: we were booked! It cost us just under £100 for both our flights and a checked suitcase.
This city is well worth a visit. There’s clearly a reason why the locals call it ‘The City of Joy’.
Of course you have to be pragmatic when booking with Ryanair: you never enjoy a total win: there is always an element of ‘FLU’: Flight Time Uncertainty, and a ‘hidden cost!’
For us that hidden cost was twofold: a grisly 03.00 rise for a 06.00 flight and that additional cost of £25 each way for our 10kg checked suitcase.
It always surprises me that a 10kg case costs more to transport than a human: but since when did Mr O’Leary and his Ryanair Empire pricing policies ever make real sense?
So our flights ran to time and the thermometer in Bucharest had risen from -21 the week before our visit to + 16-18 whilst we were there. A 39 degree swing! Unbelievable!
From day 1 Bucharest failed to disappoint.
Our lodgings were situated next to the beautiful Cișmigiu-Park, a lovely, lively and extensive city park, likened by the locals to ‘a typical London park’ and situated right on our our front door step which made walking to any of Bucharest’s many attractions an absolute pleasure.
Our 06.00 flights meant that we both felt pretty jaded throughout our first day, but the early flight did present us with the added bonus of an ‘extra day’.
I remember as I reflected on our first 2 days in the city, wondering whether 6 days would give us enough time to truly scratch under the surface of what was on offer in this ‘East meets West’ capital.
Our bus fare for the 16 km journey from the airport to the city centre cost us 3 Ron each, the UK equivalent of 50 pence!
The airport shuttle bus was full of tourists, but this was to be the only time on the whole trip where we ever felt crowded, herded or slightly uncomfortable.
And 50p for a 16km bus ride in any city in 2025 is an absolute bargain.
We quickly became big fans of the ‘Lei’ or ‘Ron’: Romania’s currency.
Whilst Romania does have member status of the European Union it has yet to adopt the Euro, as it has so far ‘failed to meet all the standards required.’ Their loss is a gain for the ‘accidental tourist’ of 2025.
It seems inevitable that when the full currency membership takes place that it will almost inevitably mean a significant hike in tourism related prices across the city. That’s been our experience with other cities across the continent over the last 20 years and most especially once a country adopts the Euro as its currency. So it was a real pleasure to enjoy the current financial influence of the ‘Ron’ whilst we could.
We quickly got to like that currency. I felt an affection towards it, just like I did towards Bucharest. The mental maths of exchange is relatively easy with 6(ish) Rons equalling one Pound or one Euro. ie 1 Ron =17 pence.
We affectionately termed it the ‘Do Ron Ron’ in deference to the song title of that name by American band, The Crystals, in the early 1990’s.
Whilst Bucharest is Europe’s 8th largest capital with a population of 1.7M, it never felt crowded, dangerous, dingy or seedy! Yes we saw homeless people and a few begging on the street: but this was quite rare.
Churches (and private apartments) that were an anathema to Ceausescu’s vision for the city were mechanically jacked up by winches so that a railway could be constructed below and so allow them to be moved to new less influential areas where they were then surrounded by newly constructed large and brutalist tenements.
Admittedly for the duration of our stay, the beautiful spring sunshine was a massive boost and meant that we never experienced the bitter cold that can still dominate March in Bucharest.
A number of purchases, including coffee, bread, beer, travel and admission tickets were very reasonable and affordable by “London, Paris, New York, Munich” standards. All coming in at roughly 1/3 cheaper.
We live in seismic times for sure, but so did the Romanian people in 1989. Despite the uncertainty and stress that their ‘Day of Destiny’ presented and that our own modern day politics gives us, I for one believe that things do eventually work out well. Bucharest provides living ‘proof’ for that claim.
And so: onto Bucharest itself: our first day in the city allowed us to explore some of the Old Town. The architecture of the main bookshop we found surpassed any other book shop I have ever visited!
As to the city: “Grandiose?” or “Opulent Excess?” …. I still can’t quite decide!
On first viewing Ceausescu’s ‘People’s Parliament’ or ‘Palace of the People’ certainly evokes excess. It dominates the skyline and sits above the city as a symbol of both the good and bad in humanity.
Regular readers of my blogs will know that I love documentary style photography and when you read more of the history and context of this building it really tells a story.
I hope my photos in this blog, of both the Palace and the city itself, do it justice.
Even today, over 70% of the Parliament’s 1000 rooms and 15km of corridors stand empty.
The Parliament building took 10 years to build, 5 of those years from 1984-89 being the last years of former leader President Nicolai Ceausescu’s dictatorship.
Bizarre fact number 1: in the 1990’s the Palace hosted cult British TV show ‘Top Gear’ which filmed an episode in the underground car park.
https://www.topgear.com/videos/top-gear-tv/romanian-road-trip-part-36-series-14-episode-1
Additional bizarre fact number 2: the Parliament building was used as a venue for a Ferrari photoshoot in the early 1980’s. This photo shows them winching an angled Ferrari in sideways through a window: as you do!
The statistics around this building are amazing. Its principal architect was Anca Petrescu, a 27 year old woman, who oversaw a 3 x 8 shift pattern for over 100,000 workmen from 1984-89.
It is the world’s heaviest building, weighing over 4 million tonnes and was constructed solely from Romanian sourced marble, timber and steel. It is second in size as a government building, only to the White House in Washington USA.
The Parliament or ‘Palace of the People’ is absolutely colossal: 300 metres wide: hosting a 150 metre long straight red carpeted-corridor which is apparently an instagram hot spot.
At its heart the Palace has a 25 tonne chandelier hanging in the Senate chamber. Seeing it bought me back fond memories of cult British comedy “Only Fools and Horse’ and one episode where Del Boy and Rodney are ‘commissioned’ to safely remove a similarly ornate and unique chandelier with disastrous (and hilarious) consequences. You can watch this yourselves via the link: https://youtu.be/gnhYzfg7ug4
There were so many more interesting stories and facts about this amazing building which can be accessed from our friends at Google. Sadly, I can only relay a few in this blog.
I knew a bit about Nikolai Ceausescu. After all I was 16 when the Communist Party voted him in as president and I’ve always loved history. Yet I quickly realised I actually knew very little about him and the Romanian people’s struggle to end his brutal dictatorship. Hearing more about the man, his wife and his philosophy was interesting: this was real living history! History both from and in my life time!
Nicolai Ceausescu has form as a brutal dictator. His secret police, the infamous Securitate, incarcerated or killed thousands of his fellow Romanians.
In order to build his ‘Vanity Project’, 10,000 Romanians were forcibly and brutally moved and rehoused: they lost absolutely everything.
History usually shows that modern dictators (in almost all circumstances) face a ‘day of reckoning’ and Ceausescu and his wife Elena were to discover their’s on Christmas Day 1989 when they were executed by firing squad after a 2 hour mock show trial. Their regime had been toppled just 3 days earlier, after a bloody uprising on 21 December. Tragically 1,160 (official figures) people lost their lives.
The Ceausescu’s grim ‘denouement’ on Christmas Day 1989 was filmed and shown live on Romanian television.
Happy Christmas Nikolai and Elena!
In my own personal time line and to give that living history claim a bit of personal perspective, my wife Nicky and I got married just 2 days before their execution, on 23 December 1989! We’ve been married for just over 35 years!
Discovering more details about this Dictator got me wondering what will happen in these quite uncertain times of 2025? Will Putin go the way of Ceausescu, Hitler, Mussolini, Saddam etc who all literally ‘lived by the sword and died by the sword”/gun/noose?
What does Trump constitute in our individual lives: madman, dictator, savior or maverick problem solving statesman?
Naturally Romania’s recent past dominates the experiences of a visitor to this compact, yet airy city.
We were told that Ceausescu raised to the ground 20% of the city in order to build his massive Soviet style apartment blocks and double lane boulevards that surround the approaches to the Palace of the People’. Apparently it was after his state visit to Pyongyang and his meeting with Kim Il-Sung the first dictator of North Korea in 1971 that Ceausescu came back to Bucharest determined to model and develop the city’s architecture around that dictatorial model. After this visit he also pledged to destroy or hide as much of the city’s historic buildings as possible.
Fortunately many still exist, but it is apparent that Ceausescu’s ravages of some of the nation’s most magnificent buildings cut deep!
So many of the remaining cultural and political buildings in Bucharest are equally massive. Construction is ongoing across the city. This includes the building of a new 7000 seat Orthodox cathedral due to open in 2025 or 2027 depending on who you talk to. It is already 5 years late in opening!
The cathedral is another colossal building and sits directly next door to the People’s Palace. These 2 ‘colossi’ dominate the horizon in these parts.
As I surveyed the palatial grandeur, another thought crossed my mind: what is it with small men? (Ceausescu was tiny apparently) and BIG buildings? And I am still wondering! Is there some sort of ‘‘small man syndrome’ in the Romanian psyche? Or is it pure coincidence that 2 disproportionately huge buildings have been built next to each other?
Conversely; we found the average Romanian citizen to be quite amenable. We saw very few angry, abusive or rude citizens during our visit. One tour guide had warned us, that his countrymen “don’t smile much” and attributed this to their oppressed past history where life under the Ceausescu’s was really so miserable, day after day, after day for such a long time.
We certainly never experienced the surliness that can sometimes prevail in other eastern block countries and indeed, even in our own.
Bucharest has a number of amazing orthodox churches, centuries old, to meet the spiritual needs of a population which bucks the European trend for church attendance with 70% of Bucharest’s inhabitants still attending a place of worship in the city every week.
We were reminded that Ceausescu hated organized religion but realized that even he, at the height of his powers, could not succeed in publicly repressing the Church.
So his attempts to reduce its influence were more subtle.
To our amazement, we were told that in the mid 1980’s Ceausescu ordered that churches were literally ‘moved in situ’ on railways to other parts of the city so that Ceausescu could pursue his lust for more North Korean styled tenement blocks and sweeping boulevards!
When we heard this, we thought our free city tour guide had been drinking! But it was actually true.
So often as we explored the city we discovered a beautiful old church dwarfed and surrounded by ugly residential apartments : the ‘dwarfing’ was also a deliberate ploy by the Ceausescu’s to emotionally minimise the relevance of the church in the ‘brave new world’ that he envisaged for his new communist state.
Most European city’s offer Free City Tours, hosted by a local and knowledgeable guide. These are easily accessed via the internet. In recent years we have tended to use the ‘Guru Walk Guides’ whenever we have been in a city tour abroad. They have been exceptionally informative. Whilst they are free, it is custom to tip the guide if you have found it useful and enjoyable. Guru recommend a tip of 10 euros each tourist for a 2-3 hour tour, but this donation is entirely optional for the tourist, https://www.guruwalk.com/bucharest
We had realised in the days before our pre-visit research that the Romanian state heavily subsides its ballet and operatic performances.
On a previous city tour in Riga our free city guide (Guru again) had recommended booking tickets to the state ballet if we ever went to Budapest, Prague or Bucharest. She said it would be a much cheaper alternative to the UK. We were amazed to be able to book the best seats available costing just £36 each and which allowed us to watch ‘Romeo and Juliet’ at the sumptuous Bucharest Opera House.
My good ‘Camino friend: Steve’, who lives in London and knows these things, reckons the equivalent tickets to watch Romeo and Juliet in London would cost up to £800 each!
The authorities at the Opera House even rolled out the red carpet for us: I envisioned that it was in deference to Nicky’s 60th birthday celebrations which coincided with our visit to Bucharest.
The ballet performance was amazing.
I have ‘form’ for falling asleep at expensive cultural events. (I once fell asleep whilst watching Evita in the London West End)
I have found it hard to stay awake on occasions: especially when my own cultural interest is much faster flowing: football!
So when I say that the ballet in Bucharest was amazing, please believe me!
I’m sad to report though, that despite the brilliance of the performances, both Romeo and Juliet still died tragically.
There was so much more that we saw during our stay.
We deliberately decided to give the famous Bucharest Thermal Spa a miss. Missing out certainly didn’t spoil our holiday.
So many recent reviews had criticized the poor hygiene and crowded nature of this popular attraction.
Swimming in other people’s pee didn’t appeal! So instead we chose to explore the Armenian and Jewish quarters, grab frequent coffees, visit the Jewish Synagogue, (now a museum) or just ramble through the streets and parks of this fascinating city which truly espouses an ‘East vs West’ cocktail within its politically inspired landscape and architecture.
The English Arcade and the Umbrella Roof Arcade are well visited attractions.
Victory Square was very atmospheric. It felt strange to stand so close to the front of the balcony where Ceausescu gave his final speech before his ill fated attempt to flee Bucharest even as the flames of revolution spread across the square directly in front of him.
In the same square the iconic Victory Monument depicts the spear of democracy piercing the rotten egg that is communism The ‘seated man’ sculpture pays tribute to those who paid the ultimate price as they successfully resisted Ceausescu’s rhetoric in December 1989.
Like so many of its eastern European neighbours Bucharest’s once large and vibrant Jewish community had been slaughtered by the Nazis in WW2. Over 260,000 Romanian Jews were tragically lost. Less than 10% of that number now live in the city. The building complete with Star of David symbols is beautifully maintained inside.
We found food and drink to be good value. Just like on previous visits to Eastern Europe: including Krakow, Riga and Bratislava, we found the local cuisine a little bit ‘too heavy’ for our own palates. Dumplings, meat, gravy etc have never been our ‘go to’ but we did see plenty of locals and tourists dining out in popular Romanian themed restaurants.
On every evening, a very tasty dinner for the 2 of us typically cost around £30-35. (approximately 180 ‘Do Ron Rons)’, which would include a couple of alcoholic/non alcohol drinks each.
Beer was reasonably priced: at around 17-20 Lei (Ron’s) for a 500 ml glass.
On our penultimate day in the city we successfully chased down the one Romanian dish that my wife had truly craved throughout the trip.
Papanasi (read papanashi) are a traditional Romanian dessert made of cow’s cheese, eggs, bicarb of sofa and flour, and flavoured with lemon zest. They are similar to a fried donut in a natural yoghurt and jam sauce. These are a decent size so a ‘one between two’ share met our needs perfectly. (Cost £4-6 or 28-36 ‘DRRs’)
Whilst we stayed in Bucharest we did hear of some ‘riots’ in the centre of the old town. We saw a number of protesters draped in national colours throughout our 6 day visit.
Mercifully these protests seemed to be pretty low key but a car was overturned and it did still feature high on the BBC News website on the Sunday afternoon of our visit. Of course we all know that most cities in the world have experienced riots in recent years. So whatever happened in Bucharest during that riot, it felt quite low key in comparison to what can regularly happen in London, Paris, Madrid et al.
I’m not sure the riot police were too anxious about this protester. Her ‘lemon lips’ expression was priceless though!
Sadly our visit to Bucharest, like all great visits, had to end. Ours was over in a flash.
I guess that the term ‘City of Joy’ is enough to make Nicolei and Elena Ceausescu turn in their graves.
For us 2 Brits it seemed an appropriate claim.
After all, for the last 35 years of independence and democracy, (and the 35 years of my marriage to Nicky) since the end of the Ceausescu regime, Romanians seem to have been trying to make up for the lost time stolen from them by the Dictator and his cronies.
Cristian Pațurcă was born and died in Bucharest. He was the composer of a song called (Imnul Golanilor – The Hooligans’ Hymn) that inspired so many Romanians in their struggle against vestiges of the Communist government.
His memorial lies in the shadow of the ‘brutalist styled’ Bucharest Grand Hotel, which charges crazy prices for an overnight stay apparently.
If I live to see 85, I’ll look forward to a return to Bucharest and to checking out just how prosperous and influential this vibrant city has become. and it will be interesting to check out whether it did become ‘Europe’s most prosperous capital.’
At a time when so much misery and despair seems to hit the news channels, it’s nice to report positively on a ‘city of joy’ just a few hours down the road.
If you do go, I hope you have as wonderful an experience as we did.
Nicky and Martin Moorman flew with budget airline Ryanair, from Leeds /Bradford airport to Bucharest from 5-11 March 2025.
They stayed in a privately booked Airbnb next to Cișmigiu-Park, just 1.2km NE from the old town.
Flight costs £100
Airbnb £240
Ballet costs £36 each
‘Palace of the People’ tickets £6 each
We walked pretty much everywhere across during our 6 days in Bucharest, clocking up 43 miles in the process: a daily average of 7 miles.
Martin Moorman is a retired former Headteacher. His interests are family, country life in North Yorkshire, walking, travel, photography, cooking and sport.
Martin Moorman 