Day 24 - Goodbye, Bulgaria and hello, Romania.
After our hotel's breakfast, we had the hotel call a taxi and paid almost US $7 to go to the bus station in the new part of Varna. We waited and exactly at 9:30 am a van rather than a large bus showed up for us. We got on with just two other gents. We headed off and went back towards the north central town of Ruse in Bulgaria. We stopped for one other young woman before getting to the city on the southern shore of the Danube River. In the Ruse bus terminal, we filled up the other 11 seats.
When we got to the middle of the bridge we were in Romania. It is called the friendship bridge and although small in the 1950s, it has grown in importance as a crossing after these two countries joined the EU in the late 2000s. Although this was part of the Schengen area, on north side of the river a border checker made a cursory review of everyone's passport of ID card. Then, onto downtown Bucharest we motored!
The Pegasus van dropped us off in front of the historical facade of the Horoscop Hotel near the old town. I opened my phone and got an Uber to come to take us to the My Continental Hotel in the North Station neighbourhood. It took about 20 minutes and cost US $7 with a tip to the courteous driver.
As soon as we'd checked in and unpacked, we walked to the station area and had Subway® for a quick bite. Then we checked the Metro subway system and saw it has around five lines. We found a machine where we discovered it was less than CA $14 for an unlimited weekly pass, So, we bought two.
We tried them out immediately and, completely by fate, ended back near the middle of the fantastic fountains that we'd passed in the Uber. We know we'll be able to get around using either method. Bucharest seems larger than the cities we've been in recently. Any city worth its salt has adequate urban transit options!
We went to a local neighbourhood Lebanese restaurant for a little dinner. I am not quite sure why I feel so tired. The day hasn't been especially long. More importantly, the 6.3 kms that we walked is substantially less than most days in the last three weeks of our southeastern Europe galivanting.