Tired of city breaks to the same well-worn European destinations?  If you fancy a long weekend with a twist, why not swap Budapest for Bucharest.    Associated with Dracula, Nicolae Ceausescu and packs of roaming dogs, it may not top everyone’s wish list but is guaranteed to raise a few eyebrows in the office.  However change is in the air with the canines moving up to dogtown and dilapidated buildings being rapidly re-vamped to make way for a new wave of up-market restaurants and trendy night-spots sweeping into the city.

St Nicholas Church

Weaving dodgem-style in tandem with over one million fellow lane-swingers, we note why traffic accidents are cited as the single most dangerous threat to US citizens visiting Romania.  Among the sights assailing our senses, we register the Arc de Triomphe rearing up along elegant tree-lined boulevards – giving rise to Bucharest’s nick-name Little Paris.   A little further along, Chernobyl-style tower blocks plastered with huge advertising hoardings announce our arrival in Bucharest’s Times Square.

Having recovered from the hair-raising journey, we take a wander to Lipscani, the old commercial centre of Bucharest which has been dramatically transformed into a pulsing night life centre.  Discovering a world of outdoor sofa-lounging, we settle in with a traditional black beer to watch the procession of svelte skinny-jean clad young Romanians treating the cobbled streets like a cat walk.   Not a hint of a gypsy headscarf or peasant blouse in sight.  Smoking is an essential part of the posturing as witnessed in fug-fuelled bars where anti-smoking legislation is still some way off. Image courtesy of sincretic on flickr.

Lipscani

Our next stop is Caru Cu Bere.  Billed on the door as “probably the best restaurant in the world”, we enter with tourist-trap-trepidation but are amazed to find a stunning interior draped in chandeliers, frescoes and stained glass.  Dating back to 1879, the house specialities include gargantuan pork shanks served with polenta and pickled cabbage washed down with litre jugs of beer concocted on the premises.  Elasticated waistbands essential on this trip. Image courtesty of chodaboy on flickr

Caru Cu Bere Restaurant

Walking off the thousand-calorie-meal, we stumble across the surreal sight of dazzling onion domes rearing out of a sleepy side street.   The jaw-dropping site is the stunning St Nicholas Church which was built with money donated from Tsar Alexander 11.  The darkly Gothic interior is every bit as fascinating with celestial shafts of blue light illuminating the wall-to-wall paintings. Images courtesy of mariosp and fusion-of-horizons on flickr

St Nicholas Church interior

Up early the following morning, my first port of call is the Romanian Peasant Museum.  Awarded Best European Museum of the Year in 1996, this quirky space is home to over 90,000 artefacts dedicated to Romanian peasant life.  From ceramics to funeral outfits, the artefacts are stylishly brought to life in the manner of modern art installations.   The highlights include a traditional classroom and  “the house in the house” – a traditional wooden dwelling uprooted from the countryside and plonked inside.   Allow a couple of hours to do it justice. Images courtesy of Louis makes stuff on flickr.

Museum of the Romanian Peasant

Museum of the Romanian Peasant

Bucharest may not be able to compete with the beauty of Paris or Prague but it is a fascinating city in transition where hidden gems and huge contrasts abound.  While sadly we had no encounters with any big, fat gypsies, no post on Bucharest could be complete without mention of Count Dracula and the infamous Count Dracula Club – enjoy!