
We left 14 May, 2024 to head to Romania. Above photo is us in the airplane, on our way. So we arrived in Bucharest, Romania and spent a few days on our own. We then went with a few other people on a 3 night Land Tour, that’s what Emerald Cruise Lines calls it. We traveled a bit around Romania by bus. After that, we joined an Emerald River Cruise going to Serbia, Croatia and Bulgaria for 7 nights. We finished in Budapest, Hungary and then we stayed there a few days on our own. After that, we flew to Istanbul, Turkey (on our own). We were there a week before we headed to Amsterdam to stay there for a week (also on our own) and then we went back to Toronto. It was a good trip, we really enjoyed Bucharest, Romania; Budapest, Hungary and Istanbul, Turkey in particular. Let the first Blog post start!
We flew out of Toronto and landed in Bucharest where we had booked a driver to pick us up and take us to our hotel. It was the Radisson Blue and was a very nice hotel and in a great location. It had the most beautiful lobby and a really nice bar, which I did end up at a couple of times. There was also a beautiful big patio on the other side of the bar with a pool and an outdoor bar and we did sit out a few times in the evening when the weather was nice. We did a LOT of walking while in this city.

Lobby from up above 
Bar ! 
Outdoor Patio 
Our hotel at night
We went to the Kretzulescu church, walked down by the water, stopped at the oldest beer house in Bucharest, the Manuc Inn, Parliament building, Opera House, and many restaurants, bars and other attractions. It’s a beautiful city and very walkable, for the most part. We tried Transylvanian goulash and quite a lot of other delicious food that we hadn’t had before. A lot of the photos near the bottom of this post are just a lot of shots I took around the city as we walked ALL over the place ! It’s a very walkable city, we saw everything we wanted to by walking to it, even the Parliament building.

Kretzulescu church 
Me at the church

Zlatari Church 

Opera House at night 
Street view 



I think that’s enough for now, next post, a bit more on Bucharest and then off to Count Dracula’s castle !

