Bucharest, not Budapest

Good: Bucharest metro day pass for just 1.5 EUR when it costs 0.50 EUR per trip. I took the metro 9 times in all.

Not-so-good: In short, Bucharest. The city is grimy and dusty, and many areas look abandoned and forgotten. Despite making full use of my metro day pass, I still ended up walking a lot as the metro stations are not near many of the sights. Perhaps the city (and country as a whole) is still desperately trying to recover from an era of cruel dictatorship (its first democratic elections were held only in 1990), and in the future things might improve. But till then, Bucharest is not a city I would recommend to visit if other options are available, and definitely not one where I would like to live in.

Noteworthy food/drink: I wasn’t going to have anything to write about, given that Bucharest food is as unappealing to me as the city itself, but there was a surprise free barbecue when I returned to the hostel at night, where I tried mici, a beef and pork sausage. I didn’t really like it, but that could have been due to typical barbecue over-seasoning rather than its actual taste.