Ultimate Balkans and Transylvania Travel Talk Tour: Bucharest, Day 1
Handy Hints:
Like most tour companies, this tour consists of several different ‘types’ of tours mashed together. When booking a tour like this, remember you may be joining a tour already in progress or departing an existing tour early.
Bucharest, Day One
Day 1: Saturday 8th October
Start: Bucharest, Romania
Finish: Bucharest, Romania
Currency: Romanian Leu
Temperature: (10-24 degrees) Sunny
This morning I took the opportunity to sleep in, given I had a checkout time of 12pm. The staff at the Central Hotel were kind enough to keep my bag while I wandered around the city on foot, enjoying the Old Town because the TravelTalk hotel is quite a way out of the city.
By 2pm I’d eaten a quick hamburger in town and returned to the hotel to collect my bag. I walked 10 minutes to the nearest Metro Station and bought a ticket (as there were no pay-pass gates that I could see) and caught the train out toward the Inter Business Hotel, which was about another 10 minute walk from the 1 December 1918 station.
Upon arrival to the hotel, I had to laugh. The receptionist kindly told me that I wasn’t listed on any of the rooms and that she didn’t have my name down for the tour. In the end she gave me a room key and told me I’d be rooming with a female named ‘Hannah’ who was apparently listed as a member of the tour. After dropping my bags into the room, I caught the train back toward town and disembarked down the road from the Titan gardens, intending to take a stroll through the park. Perhaps then you can understand my confusion when the ‘entry’ to the park was occupied by an enormous shopping centre ‘Park Lake’. I spent a good 20 minutes wandering around inside in search of an exit to the gardens. In between I came across an ING ATM which I thought was fantastic as (with most banking groups) cash withdrawals from your own bank don’t usually attract a fee. Well, I can safely say, ING Australia and ING Romania don’t talk to one another because I withdrew the money and when I enthusiastically checked my account to see if ING had deducted from my ‘free withdrawals’ for the month, it clearly displayed that the transaction counted. So, a tip for anyone else thinking this is a great way to keep your ATM withdrawals down when travelling on the ING Orange card, sadly, it isn’t a solution.
When I managed to find my way out of the shopping centre, the park was absolutely beautiful. Rolling green hills and a flat lake sat beneath a blue sky with families and children playing on the grass. I walked around the lake for a while before turning to find my way back toward the station as I wanted to shower and change before the TravelTalk Group meeting.
Back in the hotel I met Hannah, a fellow Aussie and after cleaning up, we went for a cocktail at the bar next door. Then at 7pm we met the group inside the lobby of the Hotel where our guide Kaan introduced himself to us. He is our guide for Romania and Bulgaria. He is from Turkey and speaks English, Spanish and Turkish. The process with Kaan was a little different from what I’m used to. We weren’t given a paper itinerary with our schedule nor asked to sign in or register. I assume the hotel just advised him who had checked in and that was that. As we sat there, his previous tour group, some travellers from Mexico, sat across from us, waiting for their transfer to arrive. Despite the disorganisation, Kaan seemed lovely and knowledgeable about the region. At the time of writing, I have not officially ‘met’ or introduced myself to Kaan, nor has he individually met any of our group members.
About half of the group went out for dinner at Hanul Manuc restaurant in old town, where Kaan had pre-booked us a table as it normally gets very busy and we independently caught the train back. It was a great evening! They had live music and we ate steamed cabbage rolls with polenta and these most amazing Romanian doughnuts with sour cream and cherry sauce. They tasted like Christmas. If you are in the area, yes it looks commercial and touristy, but the Hanul Manuc is beautiful on the inside and from what I understand, everyone enjoyed their meals.
At the station, one of the group noticed the station had payWave which made the entire process much simpler.
As far as I can tell, the trip I am booked on is 19 days, Bucharest to Athens. There are several different trips incorporated within this:
· Ultimate Transylvania and Balkans (19 days Bucharest to Athens)
· Treasures of Transylvania (9 days Bucharest to Sofia)
· Splendid Transylvania? (16 days Bucharest to Sofia)
· Amazing Balkans and Transylvania (16 days Bucharest to Sofia)
· Balkans Discovery (10 days Sofia to Sofia)
Accommodation: Inter Business Hotel, Bucharest