I woke up feeling pretty good, the sofa was comfy! My back a tiny bit stiff but nothing like it's been sleeping on the bed in apartment lately! I did a few stretches and that helped! I knew it was a good idea for me to sleep out in the living room as those pair sleep for wales now haha.

I tip toed around and put the pan on the stove to boil water as there is no kettle only a coffee machine with beans in. (That wasn't the best last night). Let's use mums coffee sachets instead! It took a bloody long time on the gas stove, good job I did it before they started to shift around! By the time they got up the curtains were open, my case was tidy again and my clothes were out for today and tomorrow, mums Senegal basket I bought her was taking up some room and packing needed to be logistical haha. I'm getting a little too OCD with things I think!

Not a cloud in the sky again today but fresh out on the balcony when we all came around and the pot boiled ready for the coffee and mums hot chocolate. We were on the penthouse you could say, looking out over the city minding our own business, we had a slow morning.

We were on the corner of the old town, so me and dad made a plan of attacked walking, over to the fountains and around to the parliament building, we had to find mum a cafe for breakfast and toilet as she was getting hangry and panicky haha. She needs a toilet nearby at all times incase of emergencies.

The sun was boiling! 24 degrees on the 9th April, what's going on! Not a cloud in the sky still, fresh when you were in the shade though but that was a relief!

We found a little Italian almost in front of the huge palace parliament building which was so impressive! We sat outside and had breakfast / brunch as it was 12 midday now. It fuelled us up ready for another long walk!

We strolled through the parks and streets, some amazing buildings, dramatic architecture clearly built in the 18/1900s but then next door there was usually a shabby old tatty building that was housing stinkers with no pride in themselves it looked. Which was a shame but visible on every corner.

The streets as expected and seen before in Eastern Europe are huge and clean, with the occasional homeless man on the corner sprawled out unconscious on the street, enough room for all. No buzzers on the crossing though so you have to waited for the lights to automatically change before you walk, probably better for flow of traffic because you don't have people pressing buzzers unnecessarily.

There are so many orthodox churches around the city all small and quaint very different in style and colours, from the inside very old paintings on the walls and mostly black and very dark drawings, I'm starting to notice perhaps why the Dracula and scaries come from Romania. No services in motion however every church we looked in or went passed loads of people casually walking in and out and doing the cross sign on the chest over and over and over again before they got in whilst there were in and on their way out of the churches. Some putting their heads against each corner of the wall and on the frames of the angels or gods in the photos. Not that they were in there long, some only 1 minute, others 5 minutes or so. Very peculiar I'd say. I understand Christianism and its various abbreviations of the religion less and less the more I live in a Muslim country. Orthodox Christian's are they similar to Hasidic Jews?

The cobbled streets, the music, the lovely buildings were great, the sun of course made it even better. And mum can't resist a cheeky ice cream on a day like today, drawn into the parlour we past like a magnet. We sat down and had an ice cream, I had sorbet. People watching us our thing, very different fashion styles to anywhere I've seen before is Bucharest (so it seems) I'd say there are lot more "gothical style" people here, dark colours but when they were bright it was sculls on or some sort of gothic icon on them. The dark lipstick and black hair. Some you would mistake for Egyptian or Jordanian / Arab if they had a slight tan. But the pastey white skin with the black hair and dark makeup gives them away. Not sure why but I was expecting a lot more blonde people maybe I was associating them with Russians and Scandinavian looks.

We stumbled along Caru Du Beer, a big bar that was an old fashioned brewery in the 1800's it was again dark and creepy inside very orthodox and medieval like. We decided to sit outside and have one of their brewed beers, mum was very very tired so put her sunglasses on and had a nap sitting up right in the seat. Mum would sleep on a chicken's lip!

We just had one for the road and carried on strolling, we didn't last long before we stumbled upon another one, this time in the old town square or one of the streets should I say. In the sun. A transalvanyian brewery, they gave us free crisps when sitting down and a free half pint of raspberry beer when we ordered a beer each, very nice! Me and dad didn't like them so mum had them, we then ordered an IPA and a ginger chilli beer which tasted a bit like ginger ale.

We FaceTimed Ross for his birthday, and played dominos. A weirdo homeless or dirty man came and spoke to us and wouldn't leave, tried to kiss mums hand. Not sure she knew what to do or what was going on as she didn't pull away until me and dad could see what was going on and we shouted uhhh nooo. Weirdly stood around by us talking with two men for a while so bags went from the spare seat back between our legs for a while. Why can't people just respect boundaries. And clean themselves. Yuck. The sun was boiling, you could feel it piercing you. Mum in her element, she hasn't seen it since December so they say haha.

Time for some grub, we walked on to a pub that looked yummy, not so far up the road in another alley. Lovely seating, ordered a cider and beer with some popcorn and olives, they had nothing on the menu that we attempted to order twice so we paid and went elsewhere.

Their manners and service etiquette out here is very different to the rest of Europe, almost the same if not a little more harsh than Hungary. Food was delicious in the restaurant across the road. Not as drunk as last night, mum has hit her peak now and is 'full up to there' with alcohol already lol.
Went back to the apartment and watched the total eclipse on the tv in the Americas and Canada, pretty cool. We won't see another one in our life time in the UK, won't happen until 2090 there. Scary thought. :(

Soon enough it was bed time and I was ready to get back onto my little perch in the sofa, this time around it wasn't as comfortable, back is feeling it a little bit even though we were shattered. Off to Brasov tomorrow!