Last Stop: Bucharest, Romania

Hard to believe we are coming to the end of this journey through Europe. This is the bittersweet part of the trip where I am looking forward to going home and sad to leave this experience and the thirteen amazing fellows who have been my travel companions over the last three weeks.


Bucharest is a big city that I compare to NYC. Romania was under communist rule until the late 90s and you see this in the architecture of Bucharest. Next to elaborate, detailed stone buildings stands the tall, grey buildings that have no distinguishing features. Walking through the streets, we could have been in any large city In America. Around our hotel there were many high end clothing stores, but no parking anywhere and very few customers. I lost my only lip gloss in the Sarajevo airport, and lucky for me there was a Sephora around the corner. As for the overall traffic, it was a mess with people parking all over the streets and the middle of intersections with no rhyme or reason that I could see.

We had the opportunity to meet with Valeriu Turca, the President’s State Councilor on Communication and PR, as well as Roberta Anastase, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputy. Both buildings were beautiful. The Parliament building is one of the largest buildings in the world next to the Pentagon and we were told several times that this building can be seen from outer space. During our tour, we stopped at the balcony where Michael Jackson addressed the crowd and said how much he loved being in Budapest – needless to say, that did not go over very well, but according to our guide, he was not alone and many famous people mix up Bucharest and Budapest.

Our most interesting meeting was with a group of NGO leaders where I had the pleasure of talking to Tincuta Baltag from the Dinu Patriciu Foundation. This foundation focuses on education in rural areas funding scholarships for secondary and post secondary education for students and teachers. We shared stories about children and education in our respective countries, which brought to light that children issues are the same everywhere. Access to quality education and higher education is a challenge, especially for children living in rural areas. At this same dinner we met Leslie Hawke, mother of Ethan Hawke, who has lived in Romania for 10 years working with Roma children.

As for Romanian cuisine, they love meat of all kinds – my stomach rebelled after the first night and for most of the trip I was living off of Rolaids, sprite, saltines and the Lara Bars I brought from home. I did partake in the hot chocolate that was literally melted dark chocolate with a hint of mint – for an oddball girl who is not the biggest fan of chocolate; this was very thick and very yummy.

I am not sure I will ever venture to this area of the world again, but glad to have this experience now.