I began my day by coloring my hair. Normally, this wouldn't be newsworthy except that Europe doesn't carry my brand of hair dye, and the boxes I'd seen so far were all in a foreign language. Fortunately, I found a box of L'Oréal that was in English. It was in Romanian as well, but I was happy to be able to understand what to do since it was different than my normal stuff.

Once the hair ordeal was over, we met up with our tour guide for the day, Elena. She was the same age as Traci and had two boys, 6 and 4. We were the only ones on the tour, so away we went.

Elena pointed out all the historical buildings along Victorei Lane and told us about the uprising that happened at Revolution Square. It's so hard to fathom that communism was so rampant and fell apart not that long ago.

We were led down some passageways that were just off the Main Street--a former hotel that is now housing for low income people--and was a bit scary. Hard to believe that just a few feet away was a Gucci store!!

Another passageway adjacent to the first one was completely different, full of restaurants, bars, shops--night and day difference. We came back out onto the Main Street and headed for Old Town.

Old Town was where the first settlement began, fell into disrepair during communist times, and has only recently begun to be rehabilitated (within the last 7 years). We saw a TON of enormous buildings that were (and still are) banks. Some private ones went under during the communist rule, and those buildings are still in bad shape. The ones owned by the state have been kept up and are very impressive.

On a side note, we saw where Vlad Dracula's house actually used to be--the remnants anyway.

Most of Old Town is now restaurants, hotels, and other things to attract tourists. It's mostly a pedestrian area, so lots of outdoor seating areas. We wandered around for a bit and then made our way to Piata Unirii.

The former communist leader, Nicolae Ceaușescu decided he wanted to build a palace for himself. He displaced more than 40,000 people and began construction on it. I forget how big it is, but it's enormous and can be seen from a long way away. The boulevard in front of it is completely lined with fountains and we had our photo made while standing in the middle of the street. (Not to worry, there's an esplanade). What is so amazing to me is that the fountains are still working!

When communism fell in the city in 1989, he was captured, had a quick trial and was executed, along with his wife.

After we took pictures, we walked around a neighborhood very close to where we are staying. There are so many communist style apartment buildings in this area because of Ceaușescu, he loved the look and tore down a lot of buildings to make it happen. Just behind them, though, you can still find former nice, old buildings with character.

We eventually made our way over to Old Town again for our gourmet meal. We ate at a really old place, Caru' cu bere, that survived the communist years, and has been in business for over a hundred years. The building reminded me of Peles Castle, with all the dark, carved wood they used. It was very unique and just beautiful.

The menu was in Romanian, so Elena helped us decide what to have. I ended up with a pork chop, roasted potatoes and a salad of tomatoes with cucumbers, all traditional Romanian food. Rich had the exact same thing, except he had fish instead of the pork chop. It was all delicious. A typical dessert is a combination of flan and creme brûlée, and it was tasty, too.

We ended the tour at an old church that was built in the 1700's, it was very small but has been restored and is still in use.

We learned a lot and thought it was a great way to end our stay in Bucharest.

Back at the apartment, we turned on the air conditioning--first day warm enough to do so, think it was about 85. We had no sooner closed all the windows, than a HUGE thunderstorm began, with lightning and rain--we were glad we didn't get caught out in that!

We've enjoyed our time here, I think Romania will become a popular tourist attraction in years to come. I'm just glad we got to see it before that happens. :))