Week in Review: Week 14

This week we made our last stop in Romania before heading south and west to Bulgaria and Serbia. After almost a month in Romania, we were excited to head to Bucharest to see what a big city in Romania was like. It was nice being in a large city again! We spent a few days sightseeing and tasting delicious coffee before we travelled to Bulgaria. In Bulgaria we had a few quick pit stops to see some of the beautiful landscapes and natural wonders of the country. We are now in Serbia, where we will be for the next 8 days.

Highlight of the week

Sharleen: Vinarija Jovic. On our way from Belogradchik, Bulgaria to Nis, Serbia, we made a pit stop at a winery called Vinarija Jovic. We had read rave reviews about this winery and were excited to check it out. I had looked on the website the night before we were travelling there, and saw that we needed to book a tasting. I sent a last minute request, around 9pm, and we hoped they would get it in time. Since we didn’t have a cellphone plan for Bulgaria, I wasn’t able to get a confirmation email before we left the next day (we were leaving before the winery opened). We decided to roll the dice and drive by to see if they could fit in a tasting anyways.

We pulled up to the winery, and poked out head inside, where we were met by Gregor. He had gotten our request and sent a note back to me in the morning, but it was just after we lost wifi. He was so friendly and accommodating, and he had everything ready to go for a tour and tasting of their wines. Darrell and I were the only ones at the winery, which was in a beautiful, hilly part of Serbia. The winery has been in the family for 8 generations, and Gregor was very enthusiastic and engaging as he explained the history of the wines and winery. The buildings and tasting room are really modern looking, and from the small parking lot we could see acres and acres of grape vines. It was so beautiful! Gregor took us on a tour of the facility and the coolest part was the wine cellar, where they age their older wine. Some bottles have been there since the 1980’s, and they were covered in dust, cobwebs, and mold. He also showed us where they store their schnapps-like liquor, as well as some cognac-like brandy that they do not yet have in full production.

After the tour we went to the tasting room, where he had prepared a meat and cheese tray for us to snack on as we tried their 7 wines. Each wine was so flavourful. Our favourites seemed to be the whites and the rose, as they were so refreshing in the 35 degree weather! We decided to grab a few bottles, and look forward to enjoying them over the next few weeks. The experience was so great, largely due to Gregor’s hospitality. He was so nice and really went out of his way to give us the best experience. We really couldn’t have made the request more last minute, but he did not hesitate to share his family's winery with us. He was even up until 3am the night before and showed up to give us a tour! The wines were also super delicious, and we enjoyed being able to taste them without any tourist crowds.

Darrell: The Parliament Building in Bucharest. This building is really nuts! It was one I knew nothing about and had never heard of before. The communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu started its construction and it took more than 13 years to construct, although the building was never truly “finished”. Out of more than 1,100 rooms, only around 400 rooms were finished and are in use today. The building is also only one of three buildings that can be seen from space – the Great Wall and The Pentagon being the other two. It really is a crazy and imposing building, and it is massive from every angle! It’s so large in fact that it is still compressing the soil beneath it. It is estimated that the building is sinking 6mm a year!

It is a prime example of the Socialist Realism style of grand and imposing architecture. I definitely could see how a building such as this is built by a dictator to help extend their control over the people.

Least favourite part of the week

Sharleen: Cockroaches in Bucharest. Bucharest was really the first place where we noticed cockroaches, and they were pretty gross. Especially because we just don’t have anything like them at home in Calgary! Every few 100 meters you would see dead ones on the sidewalks, and we also had a few in our apartment building stairwell. The grossest was when I woke up before Darrell one day and noticed one on the floor beside our bed, next to our laptop. Fortunately it was a smaller one, and only half the size of my pinky. But it was still not very fun!

Darrell: Driving in Bucharest. I can say with some certainty that I have never driven in a city like Bucharest before. For someone who has grown up driving in North America, this was probably one step below driving in India. There were no lines on the road, the stoplights were near impossible to see, and cars were darting in and out of what I thought was two or three lanes, but frequently became 4 or 5! Trying to make left hand turns was comical. The cars would start to make their way into the intersection, but instead of waiting in a single file line, they would stop beside each other door to door. This meant that when the on-coming traffic’s light turned red (which you could not see, you only knew because people started honking their horns) then all 6 or so cars that were parked in the middle of the road had to somehow funnel into 1 or 2 lanes. It was truly bizarre! I was very excited we only had to drive into the city on the first day and out of the city on the last day.

Favourite city/town/village visited

Sharleen: Belogradchik, Bulgaria. This was our only overnight stop in Bulgaria, and we chose this place for the cool rock formations and fortress in the town. You see the rock formations about 5 km before reaching the town, and once in the town you can get a pretty good view of the rocks and the fortress that was built inside of them. It reminded us of Utah, Arizona, or Drumheller, but it wasn’t a desert. There was a lot of greenery, many trees, and shrubs throughout all of the formations. The main attraction for the town is the fortress, and we spent our day there exploring the old fortress walls and climbing on the rocks. It was pretty fun! Looking back we really didn’t need to spend two nights here. One night would have been plenty to see the town and the fortress.

Darrell: Bucharest, Romania. Bucharest is the largest city in Romania and it is full of history. Romania has gone through countless governing changes from the Ottoman Empire, the Habsburg Monarchy, and Imperial Russia just to name a few. It has served as an important political and strategic city in Eastern Europe for hundreds of years. Although the history of Bucharest is vast, it is not as evident as other European cities that we have visited. This is largely due to the communist rule of Nicolae Ceausescu. During his rule from 1965-1989 a large portion of historic buildings throughout the city were destroyed to make way for Socialist Realism style buildings. This drastically changed the face of Bucharest. The city definitely has a different feel when you walk through the streets. Rather than being transported back to the renaissance era when you walk through a city like Vienna or Stockholm, I am reminded of the 1960-90s Iron Curtain and the hardships that took place during these decades. Between the insanely large parliament building and all of the concrete housing-blocks that were built during the socialist rule, Bucharest has as distinct “eastern block” feel to the city. It is a city that I will definitely never forget!  

Favourite meal

Sharleen and Darrell: Brunch at Dianei 4. We loved this place so much that we went two lunches in a row. We honestly would have gone once or twice more, but we figured we should try some other places while in Bucharest! Their brunch options were on point. Our favourites were:

• Sharleen - German breakfast with sausages, scrambles eggs, soured cabbage salad, and potato wedges.
• Darrell - Steak and eggs with sous vide steak, scrambles eggs, potato wedges, and a salad.

Not only was the food amazing, but they also made excellent specialty coffees. You got a free specialty coffee with your meal, and Sharleen found picking the coffee just as hard as picking her meal. She had a mocha and a spiced latte, both were great, but the spiced latte was basically the best chai latte either of us had ever had. Darrell kept it simple with a cappuccino both times. He thought the first one was the best, and said it was the best cappuccino he has had so far on our trip! We also really liked the vibe of the restaurant. We could have easily sat on the patio for hours drinking delicious coffee and people watching.

We had a great time in Romania, and it really set the bar for other Eastern European countries we are visiting. We will now be in the Balkans for the next month and a half, and we are excited to explore the beautiful countries of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Slovenia! This next week we will be in Serbia, and we will be splitting our time between the city of Nis and the Nature Reserve of Uvac.