Bucharest

A night out in Bucharest

Since we´re on a holiday in Bucharest for some days now, we decided to invite my family out for a better meal. Choosing a restaurant would normally sound like a nice and simple task, but proved to be a mine field this time. Not this one, not that other one, not in the city centre, ´cause the buildings are crumbling down, not traditional food, ´cause it´s not properly cooked, but not Italian, either, ´cause you don´t go to town to eat spaghetti, you get the point… The whole thing turned into a quarrel and I and my father no longer speak for the moment. Democracy was never the strong point in our family.

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Bucharest

We´re back in Bucharest and it´s great! 😉 Haven´t been on a holiday since last year, except for a short 3 days´ break in Vienna at the beginning of January. In addition to that, Romania is really nice this time of the year- the accacia trees are in bloom, the temperature is warm, but not steamy and everything is green.

We got here on Wednesday about midnight, my brother and sister-in-law picked us up at the airport and we had some drinks at our auntie´s place where we´re staying this time. They´d bought some corn puffs and my mother had made some roast potatoes and chicken, so we had a late night dinner, too.

Yesterday we woke up late- it had poured all morning and the air was fresh, but warm, just the way I like it. 😉 We had coffee and breakfast at Origo, where we´re regulars when in town. They have the best coffee ever. Afterwards we walked for a bit and grabbed a cab to my brother´s place to catch up with mom and babysit our niece while she was going to the dentist.
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Traveling around Romania

We´re organizing a trip to Romania with some friends of ours since I want to show them a glimpse of my mother country and at the same time discover some more of it myself. We´re planning it in May, since it´s her birthday, but also because spring is awesome everywhere, and even more so back home. A week´s time flies fast and we want to make sure we get to see as much as possible, but still enjoy it at a nice pace. We´re hoping to get to see Bucharest, Sinaia, Brasov and Cluj-Napoca. If the latter proves to be too far, we´ll choose Sibiu instead. What do you think? Any suggestions?

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Return from Mother Country

As you might have realized, I´ve been away for a week. Back to my mother country, or, to be more precise, Bucharest. More than anything, it was a time travel- as I implied last time I mentioned my trip- to a stage in my life when the future still held everything in store and my hopes were sky-high. I´ve been living in Norway for 14 years now and I look back on my year in Bucharest with a mixture of nostalgia and of “things that could have been”.

This being said, my “future” turned out just right, my country´s, however, never raised to my expectations. Buildings are crumbling down, corruption is still everywhere, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, even the middle class seems to be flattening out into a mass of people learning how to survive with what they have.

Leaving politics and the deplorable speed at which things happen aside, Bucharest is a nice city to visit. Plenty of coffee shops, restaurants, stores and bookstores. Throw in some museums, lovely architecture in the old town and some of the city´s main streets, fairly low prices and welcoming people, there´s no reason why you shouldn´t give it a chance for a weekend or so.

I was there for a week to see my family, especially my niece, who is the crown jewel of our “dynasty”, to meet up with friends, have some laughs, some drinks, get hold on some books in Romanian and shop. I love Max Mara and they don´t have it in Norway any more! Can you even imagine?;-)

So I dined and wined, visited people and places, mostly the same places (and people!;-)), as my need for stability is ever so present, ate the eclairs and the pies my body had craved for an entire year, stayed in the same lovely hotel Cismigiu and explored. The city was sad and grey in the dirty February light, the temperature was nothing to fuss over, either, but the 1st of March brought a token of spring and people gave each other flowers and symbolic jewelry as they do every year. And it was lovely to see everybody, now I´ve recharged my batteries for a while. I´m sure I´ll go back to feeling home sick in no time!

Check out Amsterdamming´s entries on Bucharest!

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It´s getting cold

Today´s outfit is from Max Mara, one of my all time favorite brands. I love their clean cut elegance, the quality of their fabrics and the luxurious feeling of wearing a truly feminine piece of art. As a student i Bucharest I often walked past their shop in Calea Victoriei, but I never dared enter, it was way out of my price range. As a young woman, I´m building a small Max Mara wardrobe, it takes time, but the pieces are exquisite. And such a joy wearing them! This is what I would wear if money were no issue.

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Jewelry

I´m not a jewelry person. I have a couple of rings and a few bracelets, a string of pearls and a couple of modern necklaces which I almost never wear. From time to time, though, I feel that jewelry is the one statement piece that can lift a whole outfit.

Marion Vidal! I loved her colorful, eclectic jewels from the first time I saw them in a boutique in Bucharest! I can´t refrain myself from saying that the sales persons in that wanna be high end store were awful- regarding me and my man with a mixture of disdain and awe as in “how dare you come into our shop, you mortals?!” Still, I had to have the necklace- perfect round ceramic pearls, one of the “pièces de resistance” of my wardrobe.

Introducing you to her magic world of eye candy!

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Bucharest

Following up on my nostalgia and my missing the mother country, I decided I should write about Bucharest and share some hidden treasures with you. I´ve only lived there briefly, from 1999-2000, as a language student at the State University. That didn´t stop me from falling in love with the city, its dusty charm and its veiled grandeur. On the contrary, it might be the very reason I never get enough of Bucharest- I wasn´t given the chance to grow tired of it. Many people I know say that I would feel different if I actually lived there- between late working hours, the ruthless bureaucracy and the everyday struggle many Romanians experience, there wouldn´t be much enthusiasm left. This might very well be the case, but I choose to believe that you have to make time for a relationship, the way you do with your loved ones. Take your time and discover the city, go for a stroll in the newly renovated old town, have a coffee on a lovely terrace in the shade, grab a beer at a beer garden or mingle with the young and the restless by Herastrau Park, the choice is yours. And it´s not only about money, don´t give me that, I don´t buy it! As a student I had no money and still I loved the city. Fill a thermos with cocoa and get out in the open air if the money doesn´t stretch. Go to a gallery, it´s free of charge! Don´t just indulge in your feeling sorry for yourself!

Old Bucharest
Old Bucharest

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