We have all morning at leisure today, with luggage outside by 8:30, check out by 11:30 and departure at 12:30 for lunch at Caru cu Bere, the Beer Cart restaurant where we had dinner on our first night in Romania, then onto the Monarch Governess, which is docked in Giurgiu, about an hour and a half outside of Bucharest (it is actually right near the border crossing we took on our Veliko Turnovo tour the other day). That all being said, we’ve nothing to do all morning, because as you know, we are early risers and don’t sit around much! We go to the gym which is on the 21st floor and has the best views of any gym we’ve ever visited, complete our packing, have our breakfast, then, well, hang out. We’re bored, and we sure as heck don’t want to just sit in the lobby with everyone else, so we decide to go get a Corvigi and have an early beverage at Cafe Dianei 4, the Ruin Bar Cristina took us to on our market tour. Its only 11:30, but what the heck? We’ve still got an hour to go before the bus even shows up, so we’re game!

It’s a quick little walk over to the bar and because of the hour, we have it virtually all to ourselves. It is just as cool as the other day, and to make it even cooler, they have the menus all on iPads! With pictures and prices! Sweet! We make ourselves comfortable at one of the indoor high top tables and sip our beer and wine enjoying the great atmosphere. So ecclectic!

We take the circular route back to the hotel, passing by the National Theater and the interesting statues, arriving at the hotel lobby with plenty of time to spare. We find our seats on the bus with Lori and Raul – we’re the team! – and head off to the Beer Cart, on the way snapping pictures of the Odeon theater and the CEC bank building in the daylight.

Arriving at the restaurant, we all file in to find places at our reserved tables. To be honest, the food is not anywhere near as good as when we ate here off the regular menu. We sort of get it, I mean there are a 100+ people in the group so it is more like a banquet meal, but still. First disappointing meal I think we’ve had. Not that it’s a big deal, food is food….At any rate, we had Ciorba (beef soup), an excellent tomato salad, passable sauteed pork with vegetables and a creamy flan-like dessert.

The highlight though was the inside of the place. We hadn’t ventured in when we had dinner, so we had no idea how ornate the decor was. It is like something out of, I don’t know, the gilded age? High soaring ceilings painted like the sky, arches, stained class windows, chandeliers. It looks like a church, and as it turns out, we find out from our tour guide on the bus (see below) that it actually was a church originally. Well that explains it!

Once everyone is finished we have about 45 minutes of free time to wander about the old town. We strike off in search of a drink, first passing by the Stavropoleos Monastery church with its beautifully painted frescoes and interesting architecture, to the Xclusive Bar and Grill where we visiting previously on the first leg of this tour. It was perfect for people watching as usual, and we used all our remaining Romanian lei, leaving the coins as a tip (which I don’t think the waiter was all too pleased about).

Then it was back to the bus for the drive to Giurgu. We had the sweetest tour guide, have no clue what his name was now, but he was young and adorable and funny and kept us a steady stream of interesting Romanian history and information as we passed through the old city and then onto to the broad boulevards with those incredibly huge and ornate block buildings, then out into the countryside heading toward Bulgaria.

A lot of the information we had already heard, but some was new (and entertaining) like the story of the Ceausescu postage stamp that was issued with his face on it and wasn’t selling well. Ceausescu couldn’t figure out why, so he asked a postal service person who told him the stamp doesn’t stick. Ceausescu his finger, puts it on the stamp and it sticks. What gives? The postal service man says, well I guess the people are spitting on the opposite side, so maybe that’s why! 

Other trivia, funny and true: Bucharest means happy shepherd; The People’s palace, otherwise known as the “marbelist” building, was called people’s palace because it’s so big it could fit all the people of Bucharest; Romanians (or at least those in Bucharest) refer to all sneakers as “addidas,” as in “I got a new pair of Nike addidas;” Pigs legs are also called addidas, and during rationing if you got to grocery store late, the only thing that was left were pig legs.  On a more recent note, Romania is supposedly #1 in IT. Initially, people set up network neighborhoods to be able to get onto internet, then, after revolution, companies bought the networks to begin a whole countrywide system.

Obviously our guide kept us busy for the whole ride! 

We arrive at the Monarch Governess as little after 4pm, get checked in, explore the ship (checking out the bar first, of course!),

then get ready for our nightly briefing and a lovely welcome aboard dinner of beef wellington

and later after we sail to Ruse which is literally across the river and takes less than an hour, except for border patrol, which slows the process down (oh, and we have the added attraction of more than normal vibration on the run across the river because we only have 30cm under the keel, which is also why all the tankers are just sitting around waiting, because the water levels are so low), we head to the lounge for a local folklore group. And that ends our first night aboard the Monarch Governess. Tomorrow we explore Ruse.