Taking the train to the capital of Romania
After visiting Dracula's castle and the Râșnov medieval fortress in the Day 3 of this Leaving All Behind series, I decided to take a train to Bucharest and visiting some other places nearby before heading to Bulgaria.
*Tip (1): There are several train ticket expending machines on railway stations and, some times, it will be faster and cheaper to get your ticket that way than to try to make the ticket window clerk understand you since in all the Eastern countries English is almost not spoken at all.
*Tip (2):These same ticket clerks will tell you that there's no train ticket to that destination (lying) and advice you to just get inside any carriage of the train and just pay the person in charge of checking the train tickets of the passengers on board. This way you can use it if you're in a very hurry or got some issue but don't do it as a regular procedure since inside they'll charge you 4 times the price of a ticket as if you bought it outside on a expending machine.
*Tip (3): The Romanian train carriages won't remain with doors open until everyone is inside and it departing but they will remain closed since the very first moment and you'll have to push a hidden button near the door to make it open for you. Knowing this, some scammers impersonating railway clerks are waiting near the button that opens the door to try to take advantage of you being clueless, play the role as if he was checking your ticket, that you could not get into the car and that you have to pay for another ticket or a fine because that one is not valid and stuff like that. Just avoid everyone, push the button and get inside the car because once you have the ticket it will be checked inside.
YouTube Short watching through the window of the very first traim I took in Romania and broke down in middle way:
https://youtube.com/shorts/Ap6JH5YPykg?feature=share
*Anecdote: After waiting for a delayed train on station and finally getting on board with all my luggage, not only also delayed for departing but after 35 minuts on its way Bucharest, the train just broke down and stopped in the middle of nowhere. It took plus 2 hours laying there to someone come and repair it.
So, after 5 hours total (the regular trip -on a non-broken train- from Brașov to Bucharest takes only 2 hours and a half) I stepped foot in the capital and my first sensation was that of a grey, somehow sad and half-empty city (compared with the green and beautiful town of Brașov, full of life at all times).
I checked in a regular hostel and left there my heavy lugagge (35 kilograms total distributed in 2 backpacks, carrying the lighter one on the chest) to have some walking around the city and see some of the most iconic buildings and places.
Walking around Bucharest
Next place I visited it's the most iconic of them all in Bucharest: a colossal building that is the world's second largest administrative building (floor area), after the U.S. Pentagon and the third largest in volume (after Cape Canaveral Space Centre in the U.S. and the Great Pyramid in Egypt).
*Tip: Since it's a highly visited and touristical place, both scammers and robbers will try to take advantage of clueless tourists so be aware.
*Anecdote: There were some people taking photos and selfies in the same spot of my selfie when a Just Eat delivery man (funny he was of Indian descent) on a scooter deviated from his route to approach me and ask me if I wanted him to take a picture of me, thing I obviously rejected nodding in disapproval, aware of what he really wanted. And it turns out that he was an oportunistic robber with a modus operandi that, for sure, worked for him plenty of times, asking the same to clueless happy tourist while his scooter is still running, and if you accept and hand him the smartphone for him to take a picture of you, the guy just has to gas a little bit the scooter to get away with your phone.
Walking down all this boulevard full of jet dancing fountains I arrived to the place I liked the most in Bucharest (of the few I visted), and even though it's specially beautiful at night, you will also appreciate its charm at sunset. I'm talking about the Urban Fountains in the park of Union Square, recognized as the World's Longest Chain of Synchronized Choreographic Fountains, by World Record Academy.
YouTube Short appreciating the Fantana Piata Unirii from one of its sides:
https://youtube.com/shorts/P4YpIQpPRek?feature=share
Since this fountain built in 1980 is quite big (1.4 km with a water mirror of 16,200 m²), there is no way to capture it in its entirety in a photo or video, except by using a drone.
To give you an idea of the magnitude of this fountain, I am sharing here a photograph of which I am not the owner but that you have to see.
In the next article I'm visiting one of the The Seven Wonders of Romania, the Peleș Castle in Sinaia (Prahova Valley), a historical monument that was one of the most importants in Europe in the 19th century.
Leaving All Behind series: Day 1, Day 2 (Part 1), Day 2 (Part 2), Day 3.
All photographs except the last one were taken with my Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G camera.
YouTube Shorts recorded with my Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra 5G camera.
Image of the train trip to Bucharest is a screenshot from Google Maps.
Some sources on which I relied to give some accurate info about City Hall, The National Cathedral, The Parliament Palace, Union Boulevard and Urban Fountains: (1), (2), (3), (4).
Bucharest and Romania tourism website.