May 5, 2017 – May 7, 2017

I’ll have to admit, this was probably the trip that I was least excited for ahead of time since I tend to enjoy Western European cities over Eastern European cities. Although there wasn’t much to do there besides eat meat and party, I did end up having a good time.

The city is full of amazing architecture and numerous churches. The biggest building is the Palace of the Parliament which was supposed to take 2 years to construct, but construction began in 1984 the building has not yet been finished. The massive building is only 30% utilized mainly for government purposes and private weddings. Many homes and churches were destroyed to build this structure and the city center not too far from it. Needless to say, the locals do not seem to be too happy with the construction of this building. This was all I learned on the walking tour that we did in Bucharest because we only stayed on for two stops as there was not much to see in the city and the tour guide was weird.

This was the first trip in a while that we have opted to stay at a big name hotel, specifically the JW Marriott. Since everything is inexpensive in Bucharest we were able to stay at this remarkable 5 star hotel on the cheap. Because there was not a ton to see in the city, we ended up taking advantage of the casino, pool, gym, and happy hour at the hotel. It even had a Louis Vuitton and Rolex store on the bottom floor which unfortunately we did not take advantage of.

Apparently the main attraction in Bucharest is the nightlife scene. In fact, the number two thing to do on trips adviser is something called Bucharest Party ON. We decided to take it easy on Friday night after a great Romanian dinner at Hanul lui Manuc (go here if you really like meat!) and sample the local drink – palinca, which I would kind of describe as flavored moonshine. We also went to one club in the old city and then hit up the hotel casino (where I walked away 100 Lei up! Which unfortunately is only about $20). 

On Saturday, we decided to do it big and got cabs to the — club a little outside of the city where a bad ass DJ was playing. Even though we couldn’t get a table since we were too late, we ended up with a killer spot at the bar and camped out for a few hours. At some point we decided to head to the old city which was still raging when we got there at 3:30am. After trying a few of the bars, Tyler and I decided what we really wanted was food and had some late night doner kabob and falafel instead and headed to the hotel. I must say, it has been a really long time since I’ve gotten in bed at 5am. You win Bucharest.

The plane ride home was pretty uneventful 🙂