Good afternoon everyone, I hope you enjoyed my post from yesterday: Trip Report: Visit Chisinau, Moldova & Transnistria (Breakaway State / Frozen Conflict Zone).  In today’s post, I am going to tell you what I did on my 6 hour layover in Bucharest, Romania.  My friend and I were flying from Chisinau, Moldova (KIV) to Sofia, Bulgaria (SOF) with a connection in Bucharest, Romania (OTP).  Since there were no nonstop flights between KIV and SOF, we intentionally built in a 6 hour layover in OTP so we could explore Bucharest.  We boarded our Tarom Airlines flight in the morning and I was excited since I never flew Tarom Airlines before (I like flying new airlines).  I’m not sure what type of aircraft it was, but the checked bags went right behind the cockpit and passengers boarded from the back of the plane.  The seats were pretty tight and I have never been on a plane that had economy seats facing backwards.  That must be a pretty interesting takeoff and landing experience.

Unfortunately, I picked a window seat right next to the propeller.  I hate sitting next to the propeller since I am always afraid that one of the fan blades is going to break off and…

Anyway, after a short flight, we landed safely in Bucharest at around 10:45am.  After going through customs/immigration, we were ready to explore the city.  Uber is in Bucharest, so we took a 15-20 minute Uber ride from the airport to the Palace of the Parliament.  The total cost was about $10 US Dollars.  The Palace of the Parliament (aka The People’s House) is the second largest building in the world (after the US Pentagon).  We went on an hour long English guided tour of some the largest and most impressive rooms.  I was very impressed by the size and amount of detail in each room.  Here are some photos from outside:

Here is the stage of the music hall:

Here are some beautiful meeting halls:

Here is a huge curtain that weighs 500+ pounds, that was our tour guide, and another massive meeting room.

After leaving the Palace of the Parliament, we walked around the city, I bought my mom a Starbucks mug, and we got a delicious pita/shawarma wraps for lunch.  Here is a beautiful equestrian statue of Carol I (close to the Hilton and Radisson Blu).

After a fun day in Bucharest, we requested another Uber ride back to the airport.  Since we had walked toward the airport, our Uber ride was only $6 US Dollars.  We arrived 90 minutes before our 6pm flight and found out there are no Priority Pass lounges in Bucharest.  There is a MasterCard lounge, but our fancy World Elite MasterCards from the US did not allow us to visit.  We went down to the food court area and hung out until our flight began boarding.  It was a similar Tarom Airlines aircraft and I was sitting right next to the propeller again.  I had a great time in Bucharest and wish we had spent 1-2 days exploring the city.  If you have any questions about Bucharest, please leave a comment below.  Have a great day everyone.