A lot of people have an image of Romania that is a bit negative and a little old school. Romania has come a long way in history and Bucharest is an amazing city to visit in the country!

First, let me start off with the fact that my journey from Bulgaria to here involved a two hour bus ride and then a 10 hour overnight train ride. Border patrol woke us about around 1:30am and we were back on our way around 3:00am. It was not a pleasant experience. Luckily I was in a sleeper car and converted this lovely little bench into a bed. 

Back to Bucharest. I went on another walking tour to see the sites of the city. The Palace of the Parliament can be compared to the size of the Pentagon which is a crazy thing to think about! The architecture takes on may different forms since the country went through quite a few different periods of ruling. You can see some of the differences below.

Part of Romania’s rich history is the connection to vampires and all that goes with it. Most of this is in Transylvania but Bucharest has a statue of Vlad the Impaler. The name for Count Dracula was inspired by Vlad himself. Vlad’s nickname came from the fact that he enjoyed killing people by impaling them through a particular way that allowed the stake to slowly slide up through the body and out the shoulder without puncturing the heart. This process could take up to 48 hours.

Enough of the dark times and onto my favorite part of new countries; money! The Romanian Leu is very colorful and also feels like plastic. It is similar to the money of Australia, New Zealand and Canada.