Ruse to Romania

Breakfast was a hearty affair with everyone aportioned a generous amount of cold meats, egg, and pastries, as well as a selection of fruit, cereal and yohurt. Unfortunately, we had to forgo the UNESCO world heritage listed Ivanovo rock hewn Churches rock hewn as it was closed. In its stead we visited the town of Ruse by the Danube River before we crossed the river border into Romania.

Back at the tavern for breakfast

We each got our own plate of cheese and cold meats

In all honesty, Ruse was a little disappointing. It was pretty enough but in the end just another town. The highlight was probably lunch at Happy Grill, the biggest chain restaurant in Bulgaria! I was not brave enought to take a photo of the very tight and very short skirts that were part of the waitress' uniform...

Looked like a small church

But the Bulgarians had dug and built the church partially underground so it would not be "taller" than a mosque as required under Ottoman rule!

Impressive ceilings not apparent outside

Expansive ornate interior

The first bank in Bulgaria

Another monument celebrating liberation from Ottoman Rule with gratitude to mother Russia. The arm of the statue points to Russia

Practising our Cyrillic alphabet. "P" = R, "C" = S, "X" = H

Happy people at Happy Grill!

Post lunch, our Bulgarian team took us across the border in to Romania. Passport control was quick and smooth and before long, we had bid farewell to our Bulgarian guide and driver, and were in our Romanian bus with a Romanian Guide and driver. We made our way north towards the capital Bucharest where we checked into Hotel Berthelot, our hotel for the next 2 nights. Although it was classified as a boutique 4 star hotel, it probably was closer to a 3 star. Having said that, it was clean and comfortable, and well located right near Revolution Square. George, our guide, took us for a brief orientation tour and also assisted us in changing some local currency. His dry sense of humour was just awesome! He gave an interesting and personal insight into his experiences of the former communist regime. By the time we had finished, it was close to 5pm. He made some dinner recommendations and the group would reconvene tomorrow morning to take on the sights of Bucharest

Moving from a Bulgarian van to a Romanian van

Romanian party bus!

Hotel Berthelot, one of the nice "modern" buildings

The famous Romanian Athenaeum, home of the Bucharest Symphony

Statue of Carol 1 of Romania, the first Romanian King from Germany, in front of the Central University Library. He was  responsible for many of the beuatiful French style buildings in Buchareset, giving it the name "Paris of the East". Until now, the old beautiful buildings are still collectively known as the "Royal buildings"