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Other entries in Bucharest

Bucharest, Long Walk and the closed Palace

With the previous day being a bit busy I had some small trouble motivating myself. I didn't get leaving until mid to late afternoon and resolved to walk to the overally large pariliament palace. The walk was long and for a decent portion I didn't even know what street I was on. I was in front of the tourist entrance nearly 90 minutes later about 10 minutes after it closed for the day.  I felt a bit dumb because I really should have just got going earlier. I then walked down a broad avenue leading east from the palace that I had heard was 6 meters wider than the famous one in Paris. I would later learn that between the palace and this avenue they had to tear down 7000 older structures and displace a large percentage of the city which may explain the density of apartment blocks everywhere I visted in the city.

At some point I was hungry and in the middle of the high rent zone of the city so I ended up at a chain place that wasnt quite as cheap as it should have been. So many people were smoking inside that I resolved to eat outside in the cold. Right as I recieved my food and water a Romanian man with a nice cannon camera started talking to me. It was certainly a great way to practice my language skills. We exchanged emails and 10 minutes later he caught up to me as we both seemed to be taking photos of the same thing. He then indicated that he lost my email so I wrote it down again for him and we each took each others picture in front of an Orthodox church. Later in the evening when I tried to send him an email, his address was not valid despite being written down pretty clearly on the paper he gave me.

So it was walking and more walking. I started walking in places that looked interesting near the center of the city. Places that had lots of pedestrian traffic, past the national theatre and national library and some other charming structures. I walked past a theatre district.  All of this time I could have found a public transport solution to go back to the Butterfly Villa hostel, but instead I stuck it out and I walked. It was a great time. Later with the help of google earth I was able to determine that I had walked about 15km. At one point I turned down the wrong street and added a couple of kilometers to the distance I walked.

My German friend invited me out to a night club but I declined as I was actually a bit tired. I played a game of chess with a man who I wasn't able to learn much about. He was good enough to make me concentrate and he almost beat me. He was also something of a sex addict or fiend and quite open about it. I stayed up goofing around on the internet and watching some TV. I made some pasta with butter and realized that I hadn't even tried to prepare any food for the duration of my trip. There were cooked camp meals on my horse trek in Mongolia, but cooking was left to my guide since it was his stove. I only intervened a couple of times when I thought it was necessary to protect the sanctity of a well earned meal.

I thought that it was a good day and I do enjoy wandering around a new city.With the previous day being a bit busy I had some small trouble motivating myself. I didn't get leaving until mid to late afternoon and resolved to walk to the overally large pariliament palace. The walk was long and for a decent portion I didn't even know what street I was on. I was in front of the tourist entrance nearly 90 minutes later about 10 minutes after it closed for the day.  I felt a bit dumb because I really should have just got going earlier. I then walked down a broad avenue leading east from the palace that I had heard was 6 meters wider than the famous one in Paris. I would later learn that between the palace and this avenue they had to tear down 7000 older structures and displace a large percentage of the city which may explain the density of apartment blocks everywhere I visted in the city.

At some point I was hungry and in the middle of the high rent zone of the city so I ended up at a chain place that wasnt quite as cheap as it should have been. So many people were smoking inside that I resolved to eat outside in the cold. Right as I recieved my food and water a Romanian man with a nice cannon camera started talking to me. It was certainly a great way to practice my language skills. We exchanged emails and 10 minutes later he caught up to me as we both seemed to be taking photos of the same thing. He then indicated that he lost my email so I wrote it down again for him and we each took each others picture in front of an Orthodox church. Later in the evening when I tried to send him an email, his address was not valid despite being written down pretty clearly on the paper he gave me.

So it was walking and more walking. I started walking in places that looked interesting near the center of the city. Places that had lots of pedestrian traffic, past the national theatre and national library and some other charming structures. I walked past a theatre district.  All of this time I could have found a public transport solution to go back to the Butterfly Villa hostel, but instead I stuck it out and I walked. It was a great time. Later with the help of google earth I was able to determine that I had walked about 15km. At one point I turned down the wrong street and added a couple of kilometers to the distance I walked.

My German friend invited me out to a night club but I declined as I was actually a bit tired. I played a game of chess with a man who I wasn't able to learn much about. He was good enough to make me concentrate and he almost beat me. He was also something of a sex addict or fiend and quite open about it. I stayed up goofing around on the internet and watching some TV. I made some pasta with butter and realized that I hadn't even tried to prepare any food for the duration of my trip. There were cooked camp meals on my horse trek in Mongolia, but cooking was left to my guide since it was his stove. I only intervened a couple of times when I thought it was necessary to protect the sanctity of a well earned meal.

I thought that it was a good day and I do enjoy wandering around a new city.

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