13 DAYS in ROMANIA! (Our New Favorite Country)
When the time came to leave Romania, we didn't. Although we came here intending to stay just a few days to film some cute little vlogs. When we realized Romania had this, this, and oh, my, look at that. Well, we just couldn't quite say goodbye. So we freed up our calendar to visit five different Romanian cities, explore all the top sites, meet loads of locals, and try dozens of dishes over the next 13 days. First up, Bucharest.
Now coming to you live as past Wyatt and Reyka with the obligatory introduction shot, having no idea how much they are going to end up loving this country. Welcome to Romania, everybody. Today we're exploring Bucharest, the beautiful capital of Romania and giving our first impressions.
We honestly have no idea what to expect. And we're going to start with coffee. Let's do it. Coffee. Somebody's a little grumpy because he didn't get his coffee yet. I'm tired. Let's get coffee. It'll be better.
Multumesc Multumesc That's thank you in Romanian. That's so good. We're going to get some food. We're pumped to be here. The fall vibes are awesome. Reyka's been freaking out all morning about it, so there it is.
He's back. They have sandwiches. Mm. Bro, that's a huge apple. Oh, my gosh. It's like, as big as Reyka's head.
Breakfast of Romanian champions. Hello. Cool. Gonna eat some breakfast. Yay.
While we eat, we thought it'd be fun to zoom out and let chatgpt teach us a little bit about Romania. Located in Eastern Europe and bordered by Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Moldova, and the Black Sea, Romania's history is a long one. Originating from the ancient kingdom of Dacia, Romania was later absorbed by the Roman Empire, and today, it is the only country in Eastern Europe (plus, Moldova) with a romance Romanian. 86% of residents are part of the Romanian Orthodox Church, according to the 2011 census. And, after a period of monarchy and then communist rule, it transitioned to democracy in 1989.
It emerges today as a nation known for its folklore, resilience, and stunning landscapes. And just recently, on March 31, 2024, Romania actually joined the Schengen area. This means no more passport stamps or internal border checks, allowing for easier travel to Romania for EU residents and visitors alike.
This is the 30th country Reyka and I are traveling to on our journey to 50, and we have two full weeks here. But for now, it's back to Bucharest. What church is that? Biserica Zlatari. Oh, boy. These Romanian pronunciations are going to be tough.
Looks super pretty. There's a lot of mini churches around the city. It seems, this being one of them, really pretty. I like the Romanian style. Medieval. That's the word I'm thinking of, like medieval.
Medieval architecture. Yeah. Yeah. We're walking past the National Museum of Romanian History and it is massive. I've been missing European architecture and just like the whole Europe vibe. So I'm so excited to be here.
I can't say that enough. The Palace of Deposits and Consignments. It's a bank. Leave it to Europe to have a bank be looking like this insane. Insane.
Bucharest architecture is already putting on a show. They got pumpkins and fall things because it is so close to Halloween. And I'm loving it because that's my favorite holiday look. Love we could sit in a globe. What the heck? Oh, is that for, like, the cold? I think so. Like a greenhouse.
We're walking around, looking at the windows, and right here they have a bunch of, like, kids clothing. It looks like very traditional, like, Romanian style dresses. I mean, obviously we're in the city and it's way more modernized now, but I feel like this is what, like back in the old times and more like older generations used to wear in Romania, probably during festivals and stuff. Yeah, Check that out. Should I buy one and just like, walk around Bucharest today with it You would look like a total tourist. I mean, we already kind of do.
Yeah, true. So obviously this building's under construction, but I think it's hilarious that they have the tarp, like with what the building looks like. Yeah. Or what they used to or something. These guys right here kind of look like Mickey Mouse a little bit. You see that?
That's the Romanian Mickey Mouse. Mickey and Minnie. Maybe. This is it. Bucharest has a lot of different alleyways and passageways that have different vibes. One of them being the Macca Villacross passage, which we're going to right now because it's right behind us.
The tarp construction areas seem like a common theme. Seems like they don't want to sacrifice the beauty of the city when they're fixing it. Yep. That's pretty crazy. This is super cool. It's like we're inside, but we're also outside.
People just be chilling. Yeah. It's so artsy fartsy. It's got lights. I love lights.
This is absolutely crazy. Check that out. There's like, globes and the ceiling's insane. And there's a whole bunch of chairs here. Yeah, you can eat at a restaurant too. Or a cafe. What a great idea. Passageways. This is the first time I feel like we've seen something like this.
I would have to agree. What a cool vibe. It feels like we're inside of a cathedral. But also an alleyway. But also like a bunch of cafes. Have you seen that like every table has their own blanket.
That's amazing for the cold weather. I love that. And they have the heat lamps like they're ready for the cold here. Yeah.
Have you ever seen an alleyway with stained glass ceilings? You know, I don't know if I have. That right there is the Macca Villacross. If you're in Bucharest, highly recommend stopping.
That was a awesome stop. It was pretty cool. You know you're in Old Town when the streets start turning into cobblestone pathways. True.
So fun just walking around the streets. It's crazy looking at these buildings. Even just apartment buildings have these awesome, like, sculptures in between windows. Just something so beautiful casually in the city. Hey, kitty.
Hey. Buna ziwa Buna ziwa, kitty. She is taking a nap on the biggest pile of leaves. It's Halloween time, we're in Romania and there's a black cat. That's.
That's just so many crazy things. Wow. Come over here, dude. You know we're talking about you, don't you? You are a big pigeon.
We are at Cismigiu park, which is actually the oldest park in all of Bucharest and well loved by many people here. €7 to take a boat out on the lake. Here we go. Hey, little ducky, ducky, ducky. Turn. Come on. Okay.
Backwards. No, that doesn't work. This is really hard. This is so peaceful. I love this.
We have never done this before and we've been to many parks where you can, like, do this pedal, pedal boat. Yeah. And I'm loving it right now. The fall vibes are so real, let me tell you. Like, colors on the trees, cool crisp air, sun shining. It is very hard to steer though.
I want to get some cool footage for reels. Okay. Hey, check out our Instagram. Reyka's always busting her butt to get daily Instagram. So follow us over there. Yeah.
Why are we going this way? You keep turning us around. It's harder to. Here, I'll let you. Here. Reyka's going to give her. Give a steer.
See? How are you doing this so well? It's not that hard. That's not what I want to hear. I love you. I'm just messing with you. Oh, we got some oncoming traffic here. Hey guys, you're in the wrong lane.
Look at all the grass on that fountain. That's super cool. It's like moss. You see that? Look at all the different trees that are surrounding us too. Okay, we're getting dangerously close to the fountain here. No, we're fine. I'm under. I got it under control.
Big fans of the paddle boats. We're gonna have to do this again sometime. Definitely. And it's only €7, which is about 7 USD. And I think it was 30 Lei. So those are all the currencies. Yeah, Lei.
We kind of thought they used euros here, but they have their own. It's so funny being a tourist because everyone just stares at you when you do like, stuff like this. But yeah, we're totally. It's like we're on stage because everyone's on the outside, on the benches are staring at us .Yeah.
Hey, but we're putting on a show. Okay. Let's try to make our way back to the parking. How good's your parking skills? We'll see.
Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, you too. That was very fun. Nice. So glad we did that.
Look at this. There's an old scale. Geez, I'm zero kilograms. I've lost weight.
Wow. And there's a cute little clock behind me. We have another one of Bucharest's amazing passageways. And this one is all umbrellas. I feel like this is the third or fourth umbrella street Reyka and I have seen. And as touristy, as kitschy as it is, they never really fail to disappoint just because they're so colorful.
These guys with a cool camera were just like, hold on, hold on, hold on. We took a photo of you. Not the best photo, but that's okay. Famous people of the city. I'm like, it's actually pretty cool, eh? Yeah, it's so cool. It's like photoshopped into a newspaper.
Don't miss kicking the leaves? Yeah, it's great. Wyatt underrates fall. I don't like the cold, but I like this fall. Like right at the end of summer, you know, and it's still warm enough.
This is Izvor Park. Another fall vibes. Very beautiful park. I feel like this one has even more trees than Cismigiu. I think that was what it was called Yeah, I think that's right.
Let's keep going. The leaves here are crazy. Gotta get the camera. We're trying to decide if we should go to Romanian or Mexican. There's a Mexican restaurant right next to here. I don't think this is Romanian either.
We're gonna get totally bashed in the comments for this, aren't we? Honestly bring it on, guys. We can take it. I'm honestly excited to read all the. "Oh, you got Mexican food in Romania? It's half a world away." I can't wait.
I really don't know why that's upside down. Oh, already? Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Let's eat some food.
Where's our food? There it is. Yum. Let's go. Oh, man, that's a huge burrito. Wow.
They covered it in tomato, cilantro, sour cream. Sour cream? Yeah, and chips and guac. Guys, this Airbnb is so cozy and it's super cheap. It's only $30 a night. We'll put some overlay here. There's a nice bathroom.
There's a kitchen, huge bed. It has this old school vibe. There's a balcony. $30 a night for all this. This is crazy. And it's like two seconds from Bucharest old town, which is nice too. Yeah, chips and guac are really good.
Okay, burrito in Romania. We got the veggie mega burrito. It is one kilogram, which is two and a half pounds. It's huge.
And it was only like $10. $11. It was 11 USD. Yeah. For that big thing though. Really delicious.
A lot of flavors, really hearty. Delicious. Hey, guys. Today we're exploring the most popular sites in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, starting with the Palace of Parliament. The Palace of Parliament has a height of 84 meters, and it's actually the heaviest building in the world, weighing in at 9.04 billion pounds. It's also the third largest administrative building in the world as well.
This thing is huge. Did you just say billion? Billion. What the heck? I know. Since it's fall, the flowers aren't in bloom right here.
But I bet if you come during the spring, it'd be so pretty because there's so many areas with flowers. Yeah. There's gardens everywhere and there are some flowers, but not many. Not many. I love these geometric shaped walk paths. It is such a modern touch.
And then you just have the old Parliament building. As Reyka said, the Palace of Parliament is the third largest administrative building in the entire world. The first being the Reichstag in Berlin, the second being the Pentagon in the United States. This is the third. Absolutely massive.
It's hard to comprehend just how big it is. And it was developed, actually by the second and final Communist leader here in Romania to replicate Pyongyang in North Korea, which is super fascinating. Okay. We asked a police officer, actually, who was super nice, and he told us that's not the front. So we're gonna walk around. Okay.
We found tour buses, which is a good sign, because usually if you follow tour buses, you're led to the front. A comment on our first video here in Bucharest was like, "oh, the Communist architecture is just destroying the city." It's interesting to hear that sentiment, because when we're here, that is an amazing, beautiful building. So I don't know. I hope Romania doesn't destroy all its Communist architecture, because that's just breathtaking.
Boulevard Unirii is so epic. They got fountains, a beautiful median, and in the background, you can see the Palace of Parliament. Pretty epic.
It's crazy how even in just six or seven days, the leaves are changing so much and falling so much more. Yeah, like, there's a few inches wherever it hasn't been raked, just of leaves. It's crazy. One Mac semințe susan and one Courig cu Caşcaval.
So we just stopped by Luca, which is a shop here in Romania that sells, like, snacks and stuff. We got a Courig cu Caşcaval which I think is just like a baked cheese bread in a circle, as you can see. And I'm excited. Looks super good. It's like grilled cheese.
It's still kind of warm. It tastes like a pretzel. But then the nice cheese is just kind of toasted on top.
It's just a wonderful, cheesy bread. Kind of tastes like pizza crust. Actually, Reyka is going to see what hers is called. I got the Mac semințe susan, which looks like they just have a bunch of seeds on it and potentially salt, too. It's like a bagel with seeds on it. Mine definitely looks more like a pretzel.
100% looks like those are sunflower seeds. In total, it cost about 6 lei, not bad. If that Luca was too far away, you can go to this one there like within 100ft of eachother. How do you choose? Right there's the Biserica Buna Vestire, which is the Church of the old court.
It's also the oldest church preserved in Bucharest. I love the red little lines on top of the white paint. Super beautiful. Highly recommend this church if you're in Bucharest now.
We're actually going to go to Hanu Lui Manuc, which is the oldest standing hotel in all of Bucharest, and they have a restaurant. So we're going to try some Romanian food for the first time right here. Woohoo. Are you excited to eat or something? Yeah. Oh, my word.
They have a whole drinks menu and food menu. It is so big. Look at how many pages the menu is. The 30th most legendary restaurant in the world. Wow. And we're here right now.
The first dish we're trying is a starter of bean puree, which is basically boiled beans with vegetable oil topped with fried onions. This dish is traditionally eaten by members of the Romanian Orthodox Church during Lent or other fasting periods. And I'm super excited to try it myself.
Ooh, I got it with the onion. Let's try it. I love fried onions.
Oh, my word. Yes. Has the consistency of hummus. It's got a little bit of the bean taste, but the onion is so potent. I feel like there's garlic in there as well.
It's delicious. Like a really, really good hummus. I'm gonna have to eat the whole thing. Sorry, Wyatt. Veto that decision Oh, wow. I love that.
It's kind of a dip. You know, the onions are so strong. Dang. All right, Romania. All right. Thank you. Oh, wow.
Oh, it smells so good. I got stuffed cabbage leaves with beef and pork inside. Just looked it up. These are also called sarmale in Romanian.
And also a side of polenta. These are probably two of the most popular dishes in Romania, and you apparently have cabbage leaves a lot during Christmas. Oh, look at the insides of that.
It's like falling apart. Ooh, that's really good. The meat is cooked so well. It's juicy. You bite into it, the flavors burst. Salty, savory.
Kind of reminds me of like a spaghetti Bolognese, but without the pasta. And tack on cabbage leaves. Really good. Oh, my. The polenta has a very interesting consistency. Kind of like a wet cornbread.
That's good. Buttery. The consistency is sticky, but not, like, in a bad way. It's really good. The mix of the consistency of the polenta and, like, the salty savoriness of the cabbage leaves. Great.
Definitely recommend having them together. That's probably why they are put together in a dish. Being in Eastern Europe, they have a ton of these hearty Dishes. One of them being stew. I got the green stew. It has chickpeas, spinach, lemons roasted tomato, and then kind of crouton bread on the side.
Wow. That is actually fantastic. Salty, like, seasoned to perfection. I love the tomato because it gives it kind of an acidic sweetness. Wow.
For dessert, we got papanasi which are cheese donuts fried with cream and berries on top and powdered sugar. Whoa. You just, like, bite into them and they have the best crunch. Warm. The berries are very potent. What's inside of it? Fried dough. Yeah.
We actually weren't gonna get this, and then we saw the waiters walking around with it and we're like, we gotta get that. I'm gonna get one down below where it's like, soaked up the juice, you know? Oh. It's like a jam and syrup soaked donut with cream on top. That's phenomenal. Dang.
Romania can really kill a donut hole. You can taste the berries without even eating the berries. Yeah, you can. Oh, look at that dripping sauce. Oh, the cream is sour cream.
What an interesting mix of savory and sweet you got there. It's time to get out of here and go to more places. You guys gave us amazing suggestions in the comments section of our Bucharest first impressions video, which led us to go to this restaurant and have an awesome traditional meal.
And then now we're gonna go to Carturesti Carousel, which is a really cool bookstore. Thanks, guys. Thank you. This is gorgeous. Like, so beautiful. So colorful. There's winding staircases that lead to thousands and thousands of books. Wow.
There's a whole section for teacups and mugs. Fits the bookstore theme, eh? Definitely. I love how open and white it is.
It honestly makes it feel kind of like an apple store. It's like, so big and clean and fresh. Love bookstores. There's literally so many stories here.
I think we're on the sixth level and it's a little cafe up here. So cute. Phenomenal book, by the way. This is Beartown in Romanian. In invingatori.
Fredrik Backman Fantastic book. Awesome bookstore, guys. Thanks for that recommendation. Man, Bucharest Old Town is just something else.
It's so pretty here. Dating back to 1724. The Church of Stavropoleos Monastery is an iconic part of Bucharest. And I can't believe we missed all these places in our first day here. But it's super pretty.
It's really small, but, like, ornate and very old. So old. One thing I particularly love is the engravings in the stone of ancient writing. It's just so awesome. It's, like, so thin and narrow. It just looks old.
I just like it. All right, Reyka, there's an emergency. This building's under construction, and it doesn't have what the design underneath is. Oh, no. How are we gonna know what it looks like? I don't know. We noticed that most construction sites, if they're a building, have these tarps on top of the building just to preserve the sort of appearance of the building, even when it's being renovated, which I think is so funny.
That is a really nice one. They literally just took a picture and printed it. That is not the actual building. That's a tarp. And over there, too.
I swear, it's a thing. Here we are at the Romanian Athenaeum, which opened its doors in 1888 and is the most prestigious concert hall in all of Bucharest. It's domed, ornate, and pretty gorgeous. So cool to catch it, too, right when, the evening sun is sort of setting and the light's projecting right onto it. Yeah.
The inside is just as beautiful as the outside. Beautiful, colorful. We even got to go upstairs and they were practicing their symphony for one of their shows, which was so cool.
$7 USD for both of us to get in. Not a bad deal. Dang, what an epic sunset. Am I right? Beautiful. These clouds look like cotton candy. Olive oil is so good for you.
Reduces all risk of mortality percentage by 19%. You could just eat it with stuff. We're actually leaving Bucharest today, but on our way out to Brasov, which is our next city, we're going to stop by Herăstrau Park, the Arcul de Triumf, and like a. It's kind of like a museum, I think, or like an ancient village, a Romanian village. Have you guys ever gotten a souvenir, and then you're like, oh, man, why did I get this? I don't want to carry it around.
What a cool thing to have an Arcul de Triumf in Romania. It was actually created by Petre Antonescu, which was a Romanian architect, not a French one, in 1921-1922, and later renovated in 1935-1936. It was built in commemoration of the victory of Romania in the First World War, and it was built after the original Arcul de Triumf in Paris. So now we're entering Herăstrau Park, which is the most famous park in all of Bucharest, and we're actually walking down Michael Jackson alley because Michael Jackson is one of the first artists that came back to Bucharest and performed here after the end of communism.
And so he's kind of celebrated. So right now, this is Michael Jackson Alley. That's actually super interesting. Yeah, right. Geez. There's so many sirens, like, I hope everyone's okay in Bucharest.
This is the Dimitrie Gusti National Village Museum, and it was made by Dimitrie Gusti to sort of showcase traditional Romanian life. Yeah, and they're such versatile homes. They're different in color and structure, in use of materials. Yeah. It's crazy. There's not one traditional way to do it. There's, like, a lot of different ones. This museum contains 123 authentic peasant settlements, 363 monuments, and over 50,000 artifacts of Romanian life. Wow.
What is the likelihood that that well still works, you think? I don't know. Oh, nope. Just for show. Just for show. Very shallow. We just went right in there. That's actually a Jewish house from 1860.
And we asked the worker inside, and she said, yeah. So each one is from a different timeline and from a different ethnic group and from different regions. We're not allowed to take videos, so I guess you're just gonna have to come to Bucharest and see it for yourself. But it's pretty cool. No way
the ancient Romanians had TVs, flat screens in there. It could be for, like, viewing things. You know how many people have a slideshow? Yeah, yeah.
Romanians, 200 years ago were just watching Netflix. Did you see this tree over here? That is a massive tree. Beautiful. Look at it. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
Isn't that insane? Look at that. This looks like the ancient village performing grounds. Yeah, it does. Should we put on a show for everybody? Yeah, we should.
Yeah, we definitely should. Gather around, ye Romanian folk. This right here is supposed to be an old mill. You can see the whole area here. And then underneath, there's a turbine where it would spin, and then the rest of the water would come out here straight to the lake.
We just exited the village. It was super awesome. And now we are walking across the bridge to a little island in the middle of Herăstrau park, right by the lake. And it is gorgeous. This is our third park we've been to in Bucharest. Herăstrau, far and away ismy favorite.
I just love how big the lake is. There's so many people out. There's cool bridges, that cool museum.
So breathtakingly red and yellow and green. Yeah, it's cool because it really is like an island. There's water over here and water back there. Man, this park just keeps going. It's literally so beautiful. It's breathtaking.
Oh, I'm so glad we came to Romania in the fall. Just chilling and reading? Yeah. Her backpack is too heavy.
So Reyka just ended up chilling here. You want to go get some food? Yeah, let's do it. It's time to have one of our favorite foods in all of Europe. Falafel shawarma. Yum. They're so big.
They were 25 lei per person. Hey, my hat's coming in handy here. And now, tens of thousands of steps later, it was finally time to say goodbye to Bucharest. We are heading to the famous region of Transylvania, beginning with none other than Dracula's castle. Yep, you heard that right.
Watch your necks and don't get bit. It's Dracula, y'all. Today is the day we are heading to Brasov and then Bran to go see Dracula's castle. I'm super excited. Reyka and I were just talking about how we never really get up this early, but we're always so excited when we do because it's such a fresh beautiful world in the morning. We made it to Bucharest north, which
is where we are taking the train to Brasov. Let's go. What is the train we're taking? Multumesc I've been saying metsamusk. Multumesc. 30 lei per person. How much is that? No clue. I don't know in USC. We'll put it right there. This is 16. Where is 7? It's chaos.
And it doesn't seem like everyone gets to seet. That's a lot of people. We made a Romanian friend.
Nice to meet you, everyone. This is Alex. Like and subscribe.
Thank you. We made it. Okay, we've made it to Brasov, which is a city about two and a half hours north by train from Bucharest, the capital. And I just wanted to highlight how nice people have been so far. Like, a nice man helped us find the train.
And then we met Alex. We had a great time on the train, chatting for two and a half hours. Learned a lot about Romania, and it was just a pleasure meeting him.
And I don't know, people here have been very, very friendly. They seem like they just want us to have a good time here, which is just really nice. Yeah. Somebody is a bit hangry, so we're trying to get her some food asap. I want a slice of pepperoni pizza and a Covrigi.
The pretzels. Covrigi? Covrigi. And one of the back there. Thank you.
I'm so excited. Okay, time to try the Covrigi. It's basically a pretzel, but the Romanian style pretzel. And it's in this, like, circle. It's good, flaky, has everything bagel seasoning on it.
Everything you'd have in an everything bagel. This is a dollar for a whole big slice. Crazy. That's good. I'm happy now. Crisis averted.
Okay. Should I get it? Nice. Thank you. We are finally here. Bran Castle, also known as Dracula's Castle. We got our tickets online in advance.
We'll put the link in the description. There is a very long line to get in. Bran Castle has a lot of really tight, tight passageways. It's not a very large space. So there's long lines to get in the castle because there can't be a lot of people in there at once. So excited.
I feel like this is the first proper castle we've ever visited. The line's going really quick. I think we were here for 20 minutes max. We're going inside.
It's super cold, so I'm excited to get inside the castle for a little bit of warmth as well. Here we go. Bran Castle, often referred to as Dracula's castle, is located in the heart of Transylvania, a region steeped in folklore and mystery. Built in the 14th century to defend against invading forces, it later became associated with Vlad the Impaler, a notorious ruler whose brutal methods inspired Bram Stoker's fictional Count Dracula the vampire. Although Stoker never actually visited the castle, its association with such an iconic character has earned it its spot as the number one most popular tourist destination in all of Romania.
So the iron doors here date back to the 1600s. So these doors are older than the United States of America. He's holding up the tables. Poor guy's been lifting that thing up probably for centuries. Got to be tired by now, right? He should take a load off.
The view from the castle is top notch. Those queens be killing it with the views. Into our dark chambers we go. This feels like the most Dracula thing yet. Just a teeny tunnel upwards. Yeah.
Got to watch my head. That was cool. Oh, my gosh. This is even shorter. Wow. So many stories. You just, like, keep going up.
To get around you follow these creepy pointer fingers that look like a witch. Looks like all of these are, like, scary legends like the Grim Reaper, which we all know, and apparently the Lele, which are like, three scary females. I don't know. They're just dancing over there. I'm very overwhelmed in this space.
It seems we weren't the only ones who thought it'd be fun to visit Dracula's castle near Halloween. But we get why. The floors creek. They Creek so much.
The history is long and fascinating, and it feels like a mix of a haunted house and an ancient battle fort, which makes sense because it kind of is both those things. Going to do the bell? This has been super cool. So beautiful.
Honestly, it really doesn't have anything to do with Dracula, but super cool. All right, let's go to the town. And before you know it, you're swept out of the medieval past and back into a crisp 21st century fall day. I love this weather.
How pretty is this with the leaves falling? So pretty. Just filmed a reel. Follow our Instagram right here.
Link in the description. For now We're just kind of enjoying it, though. Alrighty, guys. So as of the date of filming this, there are three days until Halloween. And although Romania as a whole doesn't really celebrate it, it's more of like a United States holiday that has started to transfer to other places. We did want to celebrate, so we bought some candy. Yeah.
And it's Mr. Beast Chocolate. You got to support your creators. This is some of our first time. Maybe we've tried it once before a long time ago.
I've never tried this. You've never? No. We have been loving Romania so far, everybody. It is truly a spectacular country. Like, people have been so nice. Are you waiting for the chocolate? I just didn't know whether you were going to get me some or not. I could have just kept stalling.
and just made you wait. Don't make Reyka wait for food, though. That's asking for trouble. Okay, cheers. This one's just milk. traditional original chocolate, dark chocolate.
It's good. It's good. Oh, can you help me up. Oh, too heavy. Man. What an epic castle, though. Am I right? Welcome to Dracula's castle.
That right there is Dracula's horse. I love just walking around and looking at the trees. I could do that all day. Yeah, it's pretty neat. On top of the amazing castle, they have, like a huge area of grounds that have been manicured.
And they have these nice little pathways. Just a stroll. Feel like we need to do a jig. Show me your best jig.
What's the jig? It's like Irish. Yeah, that's it. There you go. I love all the traditional Romanian souvenirs you can get.
They're everywhere once you enter the little town of Bran. Now we're going in the Castle Groazei which is the Haunted Castle. The Halloween vibes are here. Yeah, the Halloween vibes are coming out here. Like costumes and stuff. Really makes you soak up the time of year.
Halloween activated. He's a wearwolf, guys. I didn't even notice that's what the thing was doing. Pumpkin cookie. Oh, we should definitely get a pumpkin cookie. Can we get the pumpkin cookie? Yeah.
It's Halloween time. Of course. This is Reyka's excited for food thing. This is exactly the type of cookies I've been waiting for. The cute ones that have the shapes. Pumpkin.
Look at how cute he is. Don't want to break it. It's too cute to eat, but I'm gonna have to try it. Gingerbread pumpkin cookie. It was harder than I expected, but really good. Sweet.
Festive. This is Halloween. This is pumpkin cookie. This is pumpkin cookie.
I love gingerbread. Wow. Really is Halloween, isn't it? Something about that taste really kicked it in. I guess by the time we post this video, it'll be Halloween. It's got all the fall spices. Hey So I'm pretty sure Bran, the town where Dracula's castle is, only has about 5,000 people, so it's pretty small actually. Yeah, But I think we're gonna walk around before heading out to another town in Transylvania.
It seems like Bran is just centered around the castle. It's really small. And everything is just around the castle and it's towering over everything.
Yeah, anywhere you go, it's just right there. Odds you jump in that pile of leaves. I don't want to mess up the landscaper's work. I bet they took a long time to do that.
Yeah, somebody spent at least 30 minutes raking up those leaves. PSA. If you're coming to Romania, Uber works great. It usually is easy, but this one's taking a second. Okay, update.
Bolt is more reliable. Yeah, Uber wasn't working way out here, so we'd downloaded Bolt and it worked like a charm. Hi. Hi. Hey. Just take a nap. And now, welcome to picturesque and Chill Râșnov. The sun is slowly going down, but we're actually going to walk to the top of a hill overlooking Râșnov, which has a fortress.
We actually booked our Uber, thinking we were going to get taken there, but we got dropped off in the middle Râșnov, because it was all in Romania. No bowl. But I'm kind of glad we got dropped off here because it's so pretty. There's a lot of kitties, too. It's so fun to be out of the tourist area.
The buildings are so pretty. So many different colors, and it's just cool. Guys, we're in Eastern Europe. Different. Different place than we've ever been. And it looks like we're going to be able to take some sort of train up this mountain. B is very pretty.
It seems much more like traditional old vibes, less modern city. I really like the clock tower right there too. Look what it is. Construction.
And they paint the tarp, the design of the building underneath classic Romania. So obviously this building's under construction. But I think it's hilarious that they have the tarp. Like with what the building looks like. Yeah. Or what it used to. Or something.
Thank you. We get it all to ourselves. Oh. Oh. It's okay. Reyka is very scared of heights.
How you feeling? It's really trippy. You all right? Yeah. You don't want to move? No. He's laughing at us.
It's scary. Made it. It's only 10 minutes away from Bran and Dracula's castle. And what a contrast. Huge and empty.
Except for us. Like, obviously Dracula's castle is insane and is worth the visit. But in terms of enjoyment. Oh. I mean, there's nobody here. Doesn't get any better than that. It's a lesser-known town, but it's still pretty well-known.
So beautiful though, like, I definitely think it could be underrated. So underrated. So underrated. Are there bears in Romania? Really? Yeah, really. We are in the Transylvania forests. Yeah.
But I mean, more, you know, probably within. Away from people, away from the. The city, more in the mountains, you know. Man, Transylvania is beautiful though. Yeah. But it does say, like, we could spot a bear, so there is potential.
You've never seen a bear? No, I've seen him at the zoo. Well, yeah, this nature is like so new and I love it. I don't think I've seen fall in like two years. Like legit. I'm not even joking. Yeah, you're totally right.
Because we have just been out of the country during fall or we're in the tropics in fall. Yeah, we're normally in the tropics, so I don't think I've seen fall in like two years. Classic. No seasonal clock ever. Yeah, I know. We just switch around seasons so much.
Like a week ago we were in 95 degree heat in Oman. Now we're in fall and then we're going to be in winter pretty soon. Actually, I feel like the closest comparison to this landscape in the United States for all our viewers back home would be the Smoky Mountains. It's not towering mountains like the Cascades or the Rocky Mountains, but they're just more than hills.
But less than those towering ones, which makes just for some beautiful landscapes because you can see one past that one and the trees are all turning, so it's like just rolling hills breaking. Unfortunately, we can't go into the fortress because it's under renovation, but they do let us roam the ground, the gardens and all the stuff, which is pretty and I'm loving it. All right. Here, watch me climb. This is about to be the best dirt climb you've ever seen. It was a pretty good dirt climb, I gotta say.
So the first record of this place ever being mentioned was in 1331. And it was actually built by knights to protect against Tartar invaders, which are apparently Turkish ethnic groups. We read online that it's so big so that when invaders would come, all of the villagers could actually like fill the fortress and survive in there and sort of outlast the invaders, which is pretty cool. Anyway. Okay, can you get me out of this thing, please? Yeah, this just comes off. There you go.
Look at how many planes are in the sky. 1, 2, 3. Yeah, you're a good kitty. Yes, yes. Go visit.
Go visit her. Go visit her. Oh, look at his paws. Who's a good boy? He's a baby.
And good morning from beautiful and crisp fall Brashov. Today we're going to be exploring the entire city. Let's go after. Honestly, just being stunned by the beauty in Bucharest, Romania's capital. We're eager to see what a smaller city is like here.
So whether you're visiting Brasov soon or just curious about Romania in general, there's something in this video for you walking down the streets of Brasov. It looks absolutely like we're straight out of Storybook. They have the cobblestone streets, the traditional colorful houses. Yeah, I mean, Bucharest was pretty, but this is like so cute and old. I love the colors of the buildings and I also love the doors.
These old archway wooden doors are so cool. And there's like nobody here. Cuz we're out early in the morning. Yeah, for once we woke up early and I am craving a coffee. But Reyka is pushing us to get a few stops under our belt before then.
Welcome to Council Square in the center of Old Town. It is absolutely gorgeous. Nobody here. We have all this space to ourselves, basically. And right behind me is the council's house and it used to serve as the town hall, but now it actually is a museum. Just look at all these houses, guys. But it's so pretty.
Again, the colors of the buildings, like, I feel like no building is the same color as another. It's beautiful. And also the fact that we're kind of inside the mountain. You can see all the beautiful fall colors around us as well.
It feels like we're in a. Like a toy village. A toy Christmas village and a snow globe. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And like we're the little people in it. We did two stops, kind of. Can we get coffee now? Fine.
They even have a Starbucks in the center. I know. And it's in, like, an old-school cool building. They didn't just build a pop up, you know, so I feel less like a tourist because it's in a cool building. I don't know if that. We're still pretty tourists.
And back to your average Starbucks. As the glass starts to fog up from the cold. Oh, does it? Yeah.
Is that better? Yeah. And then one hot chocolate. Yes. Small. This one's small. Now the hotel. Halloween's over. Step aside. It's holiday time and I'm getting my first hot chocolate of the season.
I'm pumped. Wow, John, thank you. Thank you. You're welcome. Nice.
Thank you so much. Ah, this is warming my hands. Yeah, I got something pretty bland. Just normal, you know, no flavor. Just kidding. I got a pumpkin spice latte.
He's a basic teenage girl. Hey, anyone who hates on pumpkin spice lattes needs a reality check. These things are insane. Truth. Oh, man. Romania does PSLs very well.
PSLs? You've never heard of that? No. Let's go. We don't got time to waste today. You know, rumor on the street is that you're gonna go get the camera this time.
This is the Black Church. And check out up there. Just like in Hollywood, they put the name of the city on the hill.
Big old white letters, Braşov. I am totally gonna summit that. Get up there. Let's head to the front of the church.
Wow. Absolutely gorgeous. And look at how colorful and pretty that clock up there is. They have a little clock tower connected.
This is the Black Church. It is a gothic style church, as you can see from the architecture. And it was built in the Middle Ages and is actually.
Actually the largest and one of the most important houses of worship in the region of Transylvania. I understand why they call it the Black Church just because it's kind of dark and tall and foreboding, you know. If anything, it's impressive they can garner that feeling.
It's beautiful, though. I love the clock tower, the designs on them. Oh, my word. And there's a different design on the different walls. It's cool too, because the sun is just hitting this side right here. It's beautiful.
Coming from the US where historical sites at most are 3 or 400 years old. Maybe if you go to Boston. It's just crazy coming to Europe and just seeing some of these super old sites and seeing the dates. Ground was broken for this construction site in 1383. Was finished in 1476. For context, that was 300 years before the US declared independence from England.
I like that it's black. Rarely do you see a black cathedral. It's striking when you see it.
Wow. Ropes. Rope Street. It's called Rope street because of its rope-like quality. And it was actually built in the 15th century for fire brigades to get between the main roads. So cool. It's said to be one of the most narrowest roads in all of Europe and I can see why.
I almost can touch both ends. I bet Wyatt could touch both ends. I can easily touch both sides. My wingspan's pretty, pretty big.
I want to write our name, but I don't want to if it's considered graffiti. So our names are in spirit. Yeah. In bright pink lettering. Subscribe. And now we're on the other side. What a cool little street. Yeah.
Hey, if we have to put out some fires over there, just zip on over. I'm so curious if all these wooden archway doors that are super wide were built for like horses and chariots back in the day, but they just still exist. It's funny too, because now they've like converted them, and they have little man-sized doors. But we're gonna go back through Rope street to the gate. We are just passing Sky Gate, which means we are leaving Old Town.
But we're just gonna go a couple feet that way and go to Catherine's Gate. The trees are back and the sun is out. Yeah. As you can see, the sun's finally crested the ridge right above Braşov, which feels nice. Man, the trees are beautiful here. This is Catherine's Gate, which was named after St.
Catherine's Monastery, which was here back in the day. And it's actually the only original gate of the city that was kept from medieval times. This looks like Disney, but it's real.
Look at how big that leaf is. It's the size of your head. It's the size of my entire face. Rotten Banger Von Hamlin Park. They've got all these cool little wood shavings Wood shaved sculptures.
Wood carved. Wood carved, yeah. Oh, literally. I got that on video.
Did you catch it? Yeah. Oh, it's meant to be nice. Man, it has been so easy to make Braşov look beautiful in the B roll. Like, I literally just point the camera at any building, and then it's like, wow, you know? Yeah. I love how they have blankets at every table at the cafes and restaurants, so you can just get all cozy there.
Right behind me is city hall, and it is gorgeous. It also has a clock tower, and it looks like they're already starting to set up for Christmas with the wreaths around the windows and the little ornaments on them. Hey, princess. What are you doing? Princess, come here. Give me some sugar.
That looks very vertical. That's what I'm climbing. We'll see how it goes. Here's the start of the hike, and look what we might see. Black bears.
When we were in Râșnov off the other day, we saw signs for black bears. Are there bears in Romania? Then we posted that video, and everyone's like, yeah, Romania has the largest population of black bears in all of Europe, if you don't count Russia, which Russia's like a million times bigger. It's funny, even from a place like the Pacific Northwest, I've just never seen one.
Guys, look at that cool little cave. They have, like, a gate there. You may be wondering why Rika didn't join me.
Reyka's not that big of a hiker, and also, we want to get these Romania vlogs up, so she's staying home and editing. This is a really hard hike. It's like, all stairs. I'm having to take a lot of breaks. One of my favorite parts of hiking is when you can just haul upwards and really get a good workout. I think I'm getting close.
Looks like they're building a building or something here. I think I walk through there. Yeah you can walk around. Yeah, they're renovating some building on the top of this tower.
Right up there's the flag, the Romanian flag, on top of the hill. I was looking for the sign for Braşov, but I think it's a little bit further, so I'm not quite done yet. But that is cool, right? Made it look beautiful. B R A Ş O V. Braşov
Very cool view. At the top, there's, like, a chill area. There's a bunch of groups just chilling and having lunch. At the top, I did see people carrying bear mace, and I think that was my mistake not buying some in town before coming up here.
So, yeah, if you come on this hike, there are bears. Like, you'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it. Right. Kind of difficult.
It took me about an hour to get up. Well, I'm gonna head back down, and I'm gonna bring Reyka this leaf from the top of the mountain. Just like, a little gift or something, but. Cool. Yeah. I'll see you guys back at the bottom of the mountain. Here's a present from the top of the mountain. Oh, wow.
Oh, the camera got so foggy when we came in here. You have the heat on, eh? Yeah. The next day The one with a lot of romanian food... This is our fast "hungry walk Thank you.
Thank you so much. We're starting off with a bread spread. We have carp ro salad zakuska, which is, like, eggplants and red peppers mashed together. And then this is a bean mash. So how this works like with any dip, you just take your fresh loaf of bread.
They have a spoon. Let me try with the bean mash first. It's red. Look at that.
On top of some bread. Literally. So phenomenal. It's like hummus, but with a little bit of bean taste in it. Salty. A little sweet. Delicious. I have the duty of trying carp roe salad.
Carp roe are fish eggs, basically. Ooh. It's silky smooth. The mayo in there is delicious. Salty. I love it. It kind of reminds me, I mean, of tuna salad.
I feel like a lot of fish salads taste the same. So this tastes like tuna salad to me. Really good. I love tuna salad and apparently carp roe salad, too. And now the Zacusca Zacuska is eggplants and red pepper mashed together.
Reminds me kind of like a chili. Wow. Both of these are phenomenal. Like, so flavorful.
You can taste the beans in there. You can see the red pepper flakes. What hasn't been blended all together, you know? Not a bad start, Romania. Not a bad start. Okay, I gotta prepare Reyka some Zacusca and some bean mash. Oh, wow. That's a huge thing.
That's the massive bite you need. It's good. It is salty.
Great texture. I love the texture of hummus. Kind of reminds me of, like, a salsa. Like, a really good salsa. Peppery, a little bit of a kick. Not like spicy, per se, but has a spice.
That's what I'm going to say. You know, we are so hungry, so, like, cannot wait to try more Romanian food. It took me eating the whole thing of Zacusca to realize what it reminded me of. Reminds me of tomato soup.
Thank you. Thank you. Wow. We literally have so much food on the table.
And look at these french fries. These are my favorite type of french fries. So excited the next time. The next dish we're going to try is mici, which is a homemade sausage made from a mix of meats. In this case, lamb and beef. And it is a barbecue staple here in Romania.
It's actually one of the most popular dishes here, and 440 million mici are consumed yearly. That's a lot of mici. Dang. Romanians, be pounding down the mici. Yeah, they also give you dipping sauces in this case.
This looks like some sort of sriracha mayo. Maybe I'll try it and let you know. Oh, my God. First off, it's a mustard, which makes more sense, actually, because mustard is very commonly eaten with mici.
This is delicious. The sausage, so well cooked, so spiced. Like, hold on. It's so good. You get a mix of, like, pepper, salt, good seasoning on the mici, and then you have the, like, boom, pizzazz of the mustard, because mustard is very strong.
I love it. Absolutely. Will eat this whole dish. I would eat it on a regular day. It's so good. Plus, they have the good french fries.
My favorite type of french fries, which are the ones that are cut thick. What an added bonus. Man, I feel like it's been forever since we've had potato wedges. Phenomenal. And coleslaw, too. They got some tragic.
They have some coleslaw, too. Look at that. That's fermented. That's really good. This next dish is bean soup with smoked ham, and it's inside a bread bowl. It looks delicious, and it super traditional here in Romania. People in Romania tend to make it in different ways, so I'm excited to try this particular one.
That's so cool that it's literally a bread bowl too. Yeah, it keeps it warm, too. This is delicious.
Still hot after being out here for, like, 10 minutes. The beans are cooked really well. It's warm, hearty. Oh, man, what a great dish to have on a cold, cold day.
The ham is really good, too, and cooked really tender. I dare you to take a bite out of the bread bowl. Good. You can eat this whole dish here. They even have onions on the side.
Definitely adding those in because I love me some onions. I'd like the bean soup, which I'm not a big bean soup gal, but it's good. Does it taste like chili? Like traditional chili? Exactly like traditional chili.
Probably some of my favorites so far. Like, legit. I know we say that all the time, but it just keeps getting better. And this is probably one of my favorite food tours already.
We've only been to one place. Wow. Uh huh. Saw one comment in our first Romanian video that was like, I know someone named Reyka and they're from Transylvania, so maybe that's like Reyka's long lost twin sister. But it makes sense that she loves this food so much. We had to get inside because it was getting really cold out there, but we ordered some desserts, and we're super excited. La Ceaun means the cauldron, which makes sense with the logo, because the logo is a cauldron.
Cauldron in Romanian. Ceaun. How do you pronounce it? Does Google help you? We're saying it so wrong. La Ceaun la Ceaun. Wow.
Thank you. Those are huge. This is like a version of papanaşi, but instead of orbs or spheres, like a different shape, but essentially it's the same. They have fried dough with cheese inside, like, cheesy fried dough with sour cream and then blueberry jam with blueberries on top. So. And they have yogurt too. Oh, this is so good.
It's such a moist donut just slathered in jam and sour cream. Oh, my gosh. These seem right out of the oven. Look at that.
Yeah, these are delicious. I feel like I got a lot of powdered sugar in this bite. It's delicious. Sweet. Who doesn't love a donut? Top five desserts I've ever had in my life. Right there. Seriously, it's that good. Wow.
These are really good, though. Look at how beautiful Barasov is. And look at how beautiful she is. Well, that's it for our Brasov portion of the food tour. We're gonna head west to Cluj Napoca for food.
Now we're in Cluj Napoca. Yeah. And we have more food to try. Super excited. Let's do it. I'm so excited. Oh, the camera's kind of. All right. Three, two, one. That's better.
The beef goulash with dumplings. And I'm going to get you the polenta with cheese and sour cream. Oh, wow. Nice. Guys. The tea comes in this teapot.
There's, like, a cup inside of the bottom. Oh, and soup. Thank you. It's very hard. Be careful. This is the legume soup. Yes. Looks delicious. Thank you. Wow. Let's go try the mint tea first. Oh, my gosh.
I love how they give you honey. That is so refreshing. It's like it's impossible to be cold at these tables, because even though it's chilly out. You just get a bunch of warm stuff. Gonna try the legume soup. It's full of veggies, full of legumes. It's fresh.
I can see, like, the little droplets of oil on top. Yeah. I'm so excited. It's, like, steaming. So I'm gonna get it while it. Oh, man, that's delish.
Potatoes. It's like yet another hearty Eastern European dish. The vegetables are just, like, squishy.
You can taste the oil. I feel like it's just going to fill me up. So this dish is basically what I tried back in Braşov at Le Ceaun, but without the ham. So it's just bean soup instead of bean soup with smoked ham. Ooh, Very delicious. It's like, scalding.
So, like, it warms your body up real quick. And all the vegetables are such comfort food. Vegetables, potatoes, carrots, onions.
It's great. Oh, it's still. The bread landed in the soup. Yeah.
They gave us a side of bread. It's sourdough bread. It's so good with it. Sarmale is stuffed cabbage rolls with different stuff in it. Normally it has meat in it. However, in this case, there's mushrooms instead.
They made it vegetarian for us. This is very commonly eaten during Christmas time. It's like a Christmas staple. I think I might like it even better with the mushrooms. It's got, like, tomato sauce in there.
The veggies are grilled really well, and the cabbage leaves just kind of create this, like, softness to it. It just goes right into your mouth and melts. Whoa. The cabbage leaves honestly kind of disintegrate in your mouth. It is full of mushrooms and vegetables.
It honestly tastes like rolled up goulash a little bit. This sarmale came with a side of polenta, Romanian polenta, also called mamaliga. But we actually got our own full mamaliga dish too. We're gonna be so full after this. So in this polenta dish, we have a side of cheese and also sour cream. Romania loves their sour cream.
It's a staple in a bunch of dishes. Mamaliga is the Romanian style of polenta. Polenta. Polenta is an Italian food. It is boiled cornmeal that has the consistency of mashed potatoes. And the difference between Italian and Romanian is actually this mamaliga is made to be much, much thicker, and it's made to be a bread substitute in plates. So as you can see, there's no bread here.
It's just sour cream. Mamaliga and cheese. Who. Whoa. Wow. That is very, very good.
This mamaliga has a much better taste to it. You have so much sour cream on your lips, love. I do. Yeah. This mamaliga has a much better taste to it. It's like. It's just softer.
It's a lot thicker, actually, than the stuff we had back in Bucharest. And the thing about mamaliga in Romania is you can change the consistency of it depending on how you want it to complement the dish. So here it's actually, I'd say, a medium amount of thickness, but you can actually have it so thick that you can slice it like bread. Yeah. The cheese adds a lot to it. The sour cream adds that sourness.
It's unlike anything I've tasted before. That sour cream is so good. They give you so much sour cream too.
As soon as this dish came out, I was so excited to eat it. It is beef goulash, and while goulash originally comes from Hungary, it's also super common here in Roman Romania as well. I got beef goulash with potato dumplings in it.
I'm so, so pumped. That tasted exactly how I wanted it to taste. Delicious. I love potatoes. I love meat.
Great combination. Super hearty, warm. This is definitely the best dish I've had in Romania so far. There's kind of a tomato base to it. So good.
And the best part about it is, selfishly, I don't have to share it with Wyatt. I feel like Rika does this sometimes on purpose. She'll get a meat dish just so that I can't take any of this. Is Union Square, the largest and most important square in all of Cluj Napoca.
And it also houses St. Michael's Church, which has the highest church tower in all of Romania at 80 meters. That's pretty tall. These Romanian old towns have been nothing short of breathtaking.
So pristine, so beautiful. If you can see all these little towers that have lights wrapped around them. I think they're setting up for a Christmas market here. Unfortunately, we leave tomorrow, so we
2024-12-19 03:10
