Days 164 to 165 | Simple Days in Bucharest

These few days in Bucharest have been pretty laid back. Each day we’ve gotten out to have a meal, walked around town a bit, then had some time to rest at the apartment.

After spending three months in a smaller apartment with a four foot long couch, one sitting chair, and dining chairs to sit on, it’s been really nice to have so much sitting space here. We have two long couches, this twenty foot long bench at the dining table, and a few other chairs. It’s probably more than we need, but it’s nice to have more space and sitting options.

On our way to have a late lunch!

Restaurants are only allowed to serve take out or have seating outside. With such nice temperatures and umbrellas for shade, we’ve really enjoyed these meals!

We ate at this restaurant when we were here in February. That’s when we had our first authentic Romanian meal which included this honey mint lemonade. We knew we wanted to have that again and it was even more fun drinking it outside in the warmer weather.

The restaurant is called Caru cu Bere. It has been around for over a hundred years and you can tell that they’ve had lots of practice making this food! It’s so good! I always get the bean and pork soup in a bread bowl. A lot of their other dishes are different kinds of sausages, potatoes, and polenta (a corn dish). I may have to find some good recipes to use at home!

During our meal Naomi told us that she was so happy. She was full smiles, giggles, and dreams of the future today.

Walking through Old Town. This area has almost no cars driving there, so it’s such a nice place to stroll through.

We often come upon church buildings. They are usually fairly small and ornate like this one.

And this one.

Some streets of Old Town are narrow and filled with restaurants, stores, and people.

Another church building along the way.

This church building was being worked on. I thought the top of it was pretty peaking through the trees.

One problem with this apartment was that it was pretty warm at night. There was a small air conditioner but it only slightly cooled part of the living room.

We finally had to get the scissors out and turn some pants into shorts. She was hesitant, but was very glad to be a little cooler at night!

Nathan has really been enjoying time to practice watercolor painting. He is so talented!

Just relaxing. I love evenings like this. This living room has large windows that we open up while we’re awake. The warm lighting and the breeze coming through the windows is perfect.

The next day…

We walk by this area a lot. I think it’s just a little plaza area.

She was so tired, she slept through lunch!

A cool old building on our way back home.

The cherries we bought here were so good!

When you stay at random apartments versus hotels, you can get a wide range of styles and layouts. The layout of this one kind of weird, but I really liked the vintage style. The black and white tile and eclectic, vintage furniture is something that feels so homey to me.

I rarely lie down in the middle of the afternoon, but when I do, I love it. This was another relaxing afternoon that I hope to remember.

I love these big open windows!

I struggle with this view. In some ways it seems so desolate and neglected. On the other hand, the neutral colors and the age naturally shining through is beautiful to me. I wonder what it was like years ago when people lived and worked in these buildings. I’m guessing there were some happy times and some that were pretty scary.

I’m thankful for the chance to see this view and to get a glimpse into history and another culture. When we visited here in February, we learned about the difficult times the Romanian people went through in the 1980s. If you want to see that post, you can go here.