Country #56 - Romania

The Sickness

After a very quick four hours of sleep, I woke up to find that I have a bad cold. It’s unfortunate but after the past few days not surprising. I took a taxi to the Chișinău, Moldova airport around 5:00am. My flight was supposed to leave at 7:00am, but ended up being delayed until after 8:30am. This would have been fine except there was literally no information ever given that the flight was even delayed so none of the passengers had any idea what was going on which was pretty annoying.

The flight itself was another short one at about forty-five minutes. I landed in Romania and went through immigrations and customs easily. It’s nice to be back in the EU! I used Uber to go into the city and it was super cheap. It was about a forty minute drive for under $10. There is also a bus that goes to the heart of the city but being sleep deprived and sick I wasn’t exactly in the mood to figure it out. There are two floors at the arrivals terminal so it took me a bit to find my driver because he didn’t speak English. For reference, if you ever take Uber here pickup is on the top floor but the app fails to tell you that.

I arrived at my hotel, The Mansion, which is located in the Old Town of the city. I was met by Alex who was so helpful! He checked me in, told me all about the hotel, and then we chatted about my trip. The Mansion is such a unique place in the center of Bucharest. First off, it was so nice! From the moment that I entered the hotel, I fell in love with it. The hotel is also unique in that each room has a name, and theme, instead of a number. My room was Provence, which was accordingly themed Italian.

After checking in I decided to take a nap because by this point I felt truly sick. I fell asleep so quickly and woke up six hours later… It definitely wasn’t the plan, but it helped me to feel so much better. I really needed the sleep I guess! After my snooze, I headed to eat dinner. I found a great place called Pasta Restaurant where I had, you guessed it, pasta. You choose your pasta and then your sauce - I had the four cheese of course along with a tasty baked cheese and speck ( a type of ham) appetizer. It was only a short five-minute walk back to my hotel through the old town, and on my way, I stopped by a pharmacy to buy some medicine. Thank goodness the pharmacist spoke English and she recommended a cold medicine that I had taken in the U.K. before.

I made my way back to my room where I worked for a little while before falling asleep again. And getting eight more hours of sleep. I hate that I was unable to see more of Bucharest today but it was definitely a necessary rest day!

The Romanian Orthodox Churches

I had a great night’s sleep and woke up early enough to have a very filling and tasty breakfast at The Mansion hotel, complete with an omelet and everything. I was still not feeling great so I lied down again for a bit and took my time getting ready to try and make sure I would feel well enough to see Bucharest today. I was lucky enough to have a late checkout which really took the pressure off having to hurry and I really appreciated it!

Once I was ready around 1:00pm I headed downstairs to leave my bags. It was here that I met Simona, who is the manager. She was so cool! It was great getting to talk with her about my trip and to be able to thank her in person for an amazing stay at The Mansion. After taking a picture and saying our goodbyes I headed out for the day!

My first stop was Stavropoleos Monastery Church. I had no idea how unique the churches would be that I saw today but I was in for something special. Stavropoleos Monastery Church was a Romanian Orthodox Church like the rest that I would see today. It was very small but so unique - it was dark with frescoes and really you just need to see pictures to understand. From there I walked around the Old Town for a bit which was really nice. You can tell that they are really working to make it even better by all of the scaffolding around!

In the Old Town, my second church stop was Biserica Sfântul Anton. It was amazing. Tourists were allowed in but it almost felt like an intrusion. It felt like such a sacred place and people were very actively using it unlike I have seen before - for example, some women were crying inside. After taking it all in I made my way to Piața Unirii, one of the main intersections in town with very large fountains. I then had a long walk up to Patriarchal Cathedral of Saints Constantine and Helena where there were a lot of churches but they were unfortunately closed.

My next walk was the longest of the day. The good news, though, was that the weather was actually perfect for once on this trip. The cool sixty-five degrees made it much easier to walk farther while I was feeling under the weather. I walked to Palace of Parliament which you could only tour with your passport on hand and a reservation beforehand. I can understand the reservation, but needing to keep a passport throughout a tour is a bit ridiculous. If Buckingham Palace didn’t need my passport I don’t think this one does. It was an easy decision to not do the palace as I didn’t have my passport on me (though it is the main attraction of the city), but I was glad to be able to see the outside of it from up close at least as it really was magnificent.

After the palace, I walked through a few parks (Parcul Izvor and Cişmigiu Park) on my way to The National Museum of Art of Romania. Both were beautiful and made the walk more enjoyable. When I arrived at The National Museum of Art of Romania it was also unfortunately closed. It was a very random closure too, as there was just a sign on the door that it was closed for three days. I did get to see Revolution Square which was out front, at least! After that stop, I made the walk back towards the hotel. I stopped across the street and had some really good gelato at Cremeria Emilia to end the day. I then got my bags and headed to take an Uber to the airport.

I was really glad to be able to see the city today even though I was unable to actually do some of the main attractions. I enjoyed getting a feel for Bucharest, seeing the architecture, and seeing the people as well. It was honestly probably best as I could go to the airport an hour early and make sure that I avoided potential traffic. It was really important that I made my flight to Oslo, as you can imagine there are not many non-stops from Bucharest! The airport was basic but fine and I found a place to sit and wait for a few hours. I had no idea what to expect coming into Romania. However, it was a unique European country and definitely beat my expectations! I really enjoyed my time in the country even though I was sick, and would love to come back someday.

When I landed in Oslo, Norway I took the train from the airport to the heart of the city (the National Theater stop) and then walked to my hotel, Scandic St. Olavs plass. I had an unfortunately short stay in Oslo due to my flight schedule but Scandic St. Olavs plass helped to make the few hours that I did have perfect! I was greeted with enthusiasm about my trip and I loved talking about it with the kind employee who was working the night shift! She gave me a great room that was really large and super comfortable. There were heated floors in the bathroom, a nice couch, and a window overlooking a really cool giant sculpture outside! I was exhausted and got such a great night's sleep before having to wake up super early and wish the same employee goodbye. Like I said, it was an unfortunately short trip! I wish I had had more time to explore the hotel and visit Oslo as it is one of my favorite cities. However, I’m very excited for Bergen tomorrow!

56 countries down, 140 to go.

To learn more about The Mansion click here.

To learn more about Scandic St. Olavs plass click here.

Country #55 - Moldova

The Mixup

After a short flight from Ukraine, I landed in Chișinău, Moldova. It took me a while to find the taxi stand in the airport but I eventually did. The driver still overcharged me by about two dollars but after my day I was in no mood to haggle. It was a twenty-minute drive into the city where I was dropped off at Zentrum Hotel. While checking in it was realized that my booking was never made at the hotel even though I had corresponded with them about a sponsorship and that they were fully booked. I had been dreading this for a while and knew it had to happen eventually. Zentrum and its staff, though, were fantastic throughout the entire situation. Special thanks to Lupa at the front desk who worked this all out!

They rebooked me at the Jolly Alon hotel which was very nice. I was still able to tour Zentrum which is such a cool little hotel in the heart of Chișinău. It has a modern yet chic feel to it and I hope to stay with them if I ever make it back to Chișinău! I cannot thank them enough for all of their help throughout the ordeal. My new hotel was fantastic and they provided for everything, including dinner which was much appreciated after a very long day.

I wish I had more time to see Moldova but once again the flights just don’t work. Everyone that I met, though, was so kind throughout my time here and I found that many people spoke English which was very helpful. I have a very early morning flight to Bucharest, Romania, and I can feel that I am starting to catch a cold (no thanks to the smoky Ukraine airport) so these four hours of sleep are going to be much needed but also not enough. This region of Eastern Europe (Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova) has been filled with confusion - it was a weird day for sure and I am definitely glad that it’s over and happy to be headed to Bucharest, Romania tomorrow.

55 countries down, 141 to go.

To learn more about Zentrum click here.

Country #54 - Ukraine

The Signatures

I arrived in Ukraine only to realize that I had to change airports. If I knew this at some point I had completely forgotten. Luckily, I had five hours between flights and the fifty-minute drive was only a ten dollar Uber, so no harm no foul. I’m not going to lie, I didn’t have a great five hours in the Ukraine. I transferred from IEV to KBP airport within Kiev, and things were fine until my arrival at KBP. In an attempt to find my second witness signature I was turned down rudely by two airport employees. I was also told I needed to pay $55 for my luggage. All within about five minutes so while I realize it doesn’t sound like much it was not ideal.

Thankfully it got better quickly. The third airline employee was so sweet and a willing witness! She asked me to send more information about my trip to her email and was so interested in everything. That immediately made things better. Then I decided to just take my bag onboard. I only tried to check it because of misinformation online. Ukraine Airlines supposedly only allows one carry on, but they also allow a personal item. The check-in agent said I was overweight, but since I already had my printed boarding pass I just went on through security and basically ignored him. This works sometimes (basically anytime you are allowed only one hand luggage bag and you find in the fine print that you can also have a personal item i.e. a small backpack) but not others (never with EasyJet, WizzAir, etc.).

After arriving at my gate I became annoyed with Ukraine once again. The airport is obviously non-smoking but the smoke from the smoking rooms wafted throughout the entire airport. My head has hurt and my nose has been irritated ever since. Also, the power went out in the airport and I have no idea what that was about. Other than one friendly encounter (thank you again for making my day better, kind gate agent!) I was not treated very well and the smoke was just a nuisance. I’m sure there are nice parts of Ukraine but I, unfortunately, did not see them on my trip.

54 countries down, 142 to go.

Country #53 - Belarus

The Airport

This morning I woke up at 6:00am, headed to the business center at Vilnius Grand Hotel to print out my upcoming plane tickets, and then took a (super expensive) taxi to the Vilnius, Lithuania airport. The Uber to the hotel was only fourteen euro but there were none available on the way back so I had to pay more than twice as much (thirty euro) for a taxi. I arrived at the airport only to stand in a five-person line for over twenty minutes. I don’t know what the deal was but the first person in line was having all sorts of trouble taking up nineteen of those minutes. After checking in I headed to my gate. Unfortunately, I had to go through passport control. This isn’t a huge deal I am just sad to leave the Schengen Zone.

The strangest thing happened on the plane. I had a business class seat? I still have no idea how. I checked-in online ahead of time and picked my seat on the third row, nothing special. When I got on the plane, though, it was in business. My guess is that since it is only a thirty-minute flight that they treat every seat on the plane all as all the same. Good incentive to always remember to check-in online when it’s an option!

After the incredibly short flight, I landed in Minsk, Belarus. If you’re wondering why I flew instead of, say, taking a train or bus, it’s because U.S. citizens (and many others) can only enter Minsk visa-free if flying to and from Minsk Airport. The immigration lady did not speak English so she had to use the floating translator (lady walking around helping English speakers) to clarify that I wasn’t just transiting because I had to check my bag through (I don’t normally check my bag but I had to when flying Belavia but it was free so I had no problems with it). I also wanted my passport stamp but I was going to stick with the legitimate reason.

After getting my bag I walked around the airport for a short bit, took a few pictures, found witnesses to sign (this was a little difficult but I found two English speakers from Vilnius on my flight), and made a new friend. Olga was a very kind woman who asked if I needed help when I was walking around aimlessly looking for my check-in counter. The departures sign was very confusing, but she had figured it out and helped me as well. Olga was born in Russia but has lived in the UK for the last over twenty years. So her accent was super interesting but you could definitely hear both! We realized that, contrary to what the departures sign led you to believe, check-in gates would only open two hours in advance. This left us with over thirty minutes of waiting. I was flying to Kiev, Ukraine, and she was flying to Moscow, but our flights left within ten minutes of each other. We spent that thirty minutes talking and I really enjoyed getting to know her!

After saying goodbye and checking in I went through security where I then had Burger King for lunch. Lame, I know, but it was legitimately the only restaurant in my terminal. The exciting part was being able to try the unique foods that ours at home don’t serve. In particular, I had the cheese medallions that were basically fried cheese and I also tried the cheese sauce and the garlic sauce for my boring fries and chicken fingers.

I then headed to my boarding gate to sit for an hour before heading to Kiev, Ukraine. It was a very short visit to Minsk, Belarus. I definitely thought of the Friends reference while I was here if you were curious on why you might have heard of Minsk on a tv show (when Phoebe’s scientist boyfriend David moves to Minsk FYI). I wish that I would have had more time to spend in Minsk, but it was so incredibly cold that right now that it would have been too freezing to see anything anyways. I was treated kindly by everyone I met, though, and definitely had a good few hours in Minsk!

53 countries down, 143 to go.

Country #52 - Lithuania

The Cold and The Rain

I slept so poorly last night - I don’t know if it was due to jet lag or what, but I fell asleep accidentally at 9:00pm, woke up at 1:00am, and never went back to sleep. So it’s definitely going to be an exhausting day today no matter what! I left Tallinn, Estonia early (around 6:30am) and took an Uber from Go Hotel Shnelli to the airport. My driver was nice and we had a good conversation for so early in the morning. I arrived at the airport and was to my gate within a matter of minutes. I am going to miss the Schengen Zone when I am no longer in Europe! The airport was really cute and is considered a very comfy airport - in fact, it was recently ranked the third best in Europe and I believe it. I grabbed a croissant for breakfast and enjoyed the non-stressful airport environment that is sadly so hard to find.

I had an uneventful flight to Vilnius, Lithuania where I then took an Uber to my hotel, Vilnius Grand Resort. The Uber was a little on the expensive side and I had to wait a bit for it to arrive. The price was only high, though, because Vilnius Grand Resort is outside of the heart of Vilnius. It truly is grand from the moment you arrive; in fact, it takes up an entire exit outside of the city! The imposing entrance leads to a welcoming front desk where I was given details about the hotel, a map and directions for Vilnius, and had all of my questions answered as well.

I was already loving the hotel but my room was the icing on top of the cake: it was beautiful and with an amazing view over the entire property! The room was grand as the name implies - it was very large with a giant bathroom, and had a balcony overlooking the entire resort. I wish the weather had been nicer to enjoy the outside areas of the resort, but maybe next time! I cannot thank Vilnius Grand Resort enough for sponsoring this night of my trip! The entire property was beautiful and the only downside to the entire stay was the distance from the city - but they even helped with that with the free shuttle!

I took the shuttle around 12:30 to the heart of Vilnius. I walked to eat lunch at Boom Burgers Lithuania which had an awesome lunch special of a burger and fries for six euro and it was a really good burger too! And there was aioli sauce so I was definitely pleased. After lunch, I started my day walking around town, which I quickly realized how cold it would be. It was freezing (real feel was about 33 degrees Fahrenheit) and a drizzle lasted throughout the day. I seem to have this thing where I am really good at visiting traditionally cold countries when it is very cold and I seem to be keeping that up on this trip (it’s definitely not intentional but it always seems to work out that way).

My first stop was the Vilnius Cathedral. It was rather plain inside but the outside had columns that made for a unique look for a traditional cathedral. From there I walked next door to the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania which was supposed to be open but was unfortunately closed. My next stop was Gediminas Castle Tower which was quite the hike but definitely worth it. They are working on the funicular so the only option was to climb the hill. The path is cobblestones and I definitely took my time walking both up and down in the rain. At the top is the tower that you can go in. There is a tiny museum and you can climb up to the top (this climb actually wasn’t that bad). For only two euros for a student ticket, it was a bargain and a warm break from the freezing rain. From the top of the tower, you have an excellent view out over the entire city.

My next stop was Bernardine Church. I intended to go to St. Anne's Church as well but it was closed. However, it’s a unique church architecturally so I was glad to be able to at least see it from the outside. Bernardine Church was very pretty and well worth the stop. To be fair, though, at this point I would have loved anything that was not outdoors. From Bernardine I walked to Literatai Street which was really cool. It’s just a small street but it has been turned into a permanent outdoor art exhibit. Art pieces related to literature line the street and it was really interesting and something quite different. I recommend it for sure, and it definitely doesn’t take much time as it is just walking along a street. Next, I walked to the Užupis area. I was (and still am) pretty confused by it. Supposedly it is a region that is independent but isn’t really. Everything that I read described it as a uniquely happy and cheerful area but perhaps the rain was getting them down as well? If nothing else the streets were beautiful similar to Vilnius as a whole.

I then spent a little time just walking around Senamiestis (Old Town) on my way to Gates of Dawn. Gates of Dawn is really quite unique. I don’t know how to describe it other than it is a gate (the only original one in the city that is still standing) but with huge religious importance. It looks sort of like a chapel above the street, and a former Pope prayed in it. After a quick stop, I then walked back to the shuttle stop which was a long way from where I was. Like, over thirty minutes. In the freezing wind and rain. Once I made it to the stop I was a few minutes early and found a place to grab some hot chocolate and sit for a minute.

On the ride back I think I even fell asleep I was so exhausted. I worked on planning for a little while and then fell asleep relatively early. But still not early enough considering my 6:00am wake-up time. I have really enjoyed all of my time in the Baltic States (Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania) and I cannot recommend them enough. Each one is very unique, very welcoming, part of the EU (honestly I didn’t know this), and they feel like charming European countries without the scores of tourists. I had a great time in each despite the cold weather and would love to visit again in the future!

52 countries down, 144 to go.

To learn more about Vilnius Grand Resort click here.