Romania - Bucarest (Bucuresti)

Romania - Bucarest (Bucuresti)
Couchsurfing - low cost city - and a "cheap" airport taxi - and a vulcano

as i still have to wait 72 days until my take-off to southamerica, i write about my past travelling experiences. 

Starting with my first couchsurfing trip to Bucarest, which was extremly thrilling :-)

"Once upon a time" i heard about the Couchsurfing Projekt - and as i never visited Romania before and i found a quite cheap weekend flight (58€ for the roundtrip - Vienna - Bucarest ) i thought: "wow! let's give it a try!"

home sweet couchsurfing home in bucarest

As a new couchsurfing member i was so unexperienced, that i wrote my request just in the bucarest-group, but fortunately i got an answer, that someone is willing to host me. :-)
So everything was perfect! Of course i was a bit nervous at my arrival in Bucarest. Not just because of couchsurfing, also about the Vulcano in Iceland, which errupted before and i wasn't sure when the airports open again. (more about it on the bottom of the post)  Then i catched the first taxi - or better "the taxi catched" me :-) Unfortunately i paid an exorbitant price - 2.5 times more than with an "official" taxi. but it was still cheap and i'm sure the driver is still happy about it ;-)

my host Mona and her mother were so nice. even they live in a quite small bungalow in bucarest, they managed it, that i have my own small room.

my first couch

Day number one:
Sightseein tour through Bucarest. a short summary in pictures:
more about bucarest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bucharest

Palace of the Parliament

The Palace measures 270 m (890 ft) by 240 m (790 ft), 86 m (282 ft) high, and 92 m (302 ft) underground. It has 1,100 rooms, 2 underground parking garages and is 12 stories tall, with four underground levels currently available for the general public and in use, and another four in different stages of completion.
more about this building: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Poporului

beautiful town center

Restaurant Caru cu bere

a nice restaurant i can recommend to all people who visit bucarest is "Caru cu bere"
impressive atmosphere, traditional romanian cuisine and much more
you wanna know more? here is the link to their page http://www.carucubere.ro/en/homepage

i felt like a rich guy

original communistic restaurant

Salata KGB :-))))

museum of national history

a dictator ?

"my friend" lenin ;-)

one unforgettable experience was the couchsurfing barbecue in snagov. my host Mona invited me to join a barbecue with friends a bit outside of bucarest, in a village called snagov (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snagov).
and exactly that's why i'm addicted to couchsurfing. i won't have visited this part of romania. as a "normal" tourist you don't join a barbecue with a bunch of romanians you never saw before.

couchsurfing barbecue in Snagov

The Vulcano:
a big THX to the nice vulcano Eyjafjallajökull
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eyjafjallaj%C3%B6kull

as the vulcano errupted, i fortunately was able to stay longer. :-) 2 more days in bucarest!

it was no problem for Mona & her mom to host me for 2 more days, and now i also know the movie Black Cat, White Cat - a movie directed by Emir Kusturica.

Ecuador

as i will arrive in Quito at 8th July, i've already a bunch of things to see/do on my list:

If you know hidden places, more important things to see, or you just've an advice about Ecuador - please write a comment! THANKS!

• Quito - Second highest capital of the world with a well preserved colonial center.
• The Middle of the World: 45 mins from the capital Quito
  

  

  Mitad del mundo

• Parque Nacional Cotopaxi is in the central Andes of Ecuador, about 50 km southeast of central Quito. Cotopaxi, the central feature of the national park, is nearly 5,900 m in height and is one of the highest active volcanoes on earth, although its present activity is limited to a few steam fumaroles.
  

  

  Cotopaxi

• Riobamba: best known as the starting point of the train ride to Nariz del Diablo.

  

  Nariz del Diablo

  
  
  
  
• Esmeraldas - One of the most popular beaches in Ecuador - i'm still thinking about it
• Guayaquil - largest city in Ecuador
• Cuenca: a vibrant colonial city in southern Ecuador and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Trust site
• Montañita 
• Loja: the city is full of public artworks, including massive painted tile murals, frescoes, and statuary.
  
  

2nd Bulgarian-Greek-Couchsurfing-meeting

About a crazy WE in Bulgaria and Greece - Sofia - Thermes - Xanthi - Porto Lagos - Zlatograd

Quite short in time i decided to spend a weekend in Sofia - some airline-offers are irresistible.

While i was sending some CS-requests, i saw in the Sofia-group that someone was going to attend the CS meeting in Greece and had a free place left. As i really like such meeting, i changed my plan slightly and joined. :-)

Friday:

After a long journey through whole Bulgaria and extreme twisting mountainroads we arrived in Xanthi. A tiny village in the Greece mountains near the bulgarian border, which is "famous" for the thermal springs. (by the way: the border control was very surprised about an austrian travelling with a bunch of bulgarians)

the greek mountains

the cosy room

Saturday:

Daytrip to Porto Lagos / Aegean sea 

Quite nice to spend at least one afternoon at the seaside - especially for austrians who lost their connection to the seaside a long time ago.
It was more difficult to return to Thermes than we thought as the GPS went crazy and decided to show us every tiny road of Xanthi. 

Porto Lagos Beach

Xanthi

... and what would be Thermes without the thermal spings:

thermal springs - greek style

our musician

... a couchsurfing meeting without music and drinks:

by the way: It was really funny, when some locals started a small dispute, started shouting (unfortunately i don't speak more languages) and left the bar for a fight. Maybe i looked a bit frightened, so the waiter came to my place and told me "No problem, no problem - It's a baltic discussion. Tomorrow they're friends again" :-)

Sunday:

Back to Sofia with a short stopover in Zlatograd.  

So i was just able to see my original destination at night.

a traditional bulgarian?

Sofia at night