Day 15 - 03/07/23

 Woke up this morning still rather groggy from the gruelling train journey here, so decided to have a rather relaxed day. The other two went out separately as we all felt we could have a bit of alone time, and I decided to stay in and make use of the first bath I’ve seen in weeks! Unfortunately the hot water system in this building isn’t great, so it was rather lukewarm, but still enjoyable to get the sticky sweat off in this muggy Romanian heat.

I appreciated the ‘English Home’ scented diffuser they had to make us feel at home (although after spending the last year in a university house I have to say my memory of an English Home smells much more like stale pizza). When the boys returned, me and Jagan left to get some drinks and dinner. Unfortunately there was some problem with my card initially, and none of the staff spoke English so I had a very awkward interaction of her repeating the same thing over and over to me (Romanians haven’t quite grasped that if somebody doesn’t speak Romanian, repeating the sentence louder won’t make them understand easier). We then went home and prepared to go out.

The first cocktail bar we went to was honestly the best I’ve ever been to. It was tucked away in a pretty rural part of the city, and upon entry we were greeted by a lovely bartender who told us it was not a bar, but actually a ‘concept’ (pretentious I know but still interesting). Inside the bar was another nice bartender who asked us each a series of questions, and from these questions made us each our own personal cocktail. My questions were

Favourite alcoholic drink: Caipirinha

Favourite non-alcoholic drink: Fresh lemonade

Favourite food: Beans on toast (I panicked and said the first thing that came to my mind, the other bartender who had worked in London before chuckled)

Favourite fruit: Strawberry

Favourite vegetable: Carrot (panic again)

Favourite spice: Paprika

My first drink was this beautifully sweet drink with some hints of summer berries (they refused to tell us the recipe), and upon the next drink she asked what I would improve; I said the drink was amazing but I finished it too quickly! In response she made it slightly more bitter (kind of like a less harsh Negroni while still retaining the sweetness of the previous one) and made it a bit more strong too, and somehow she improved on the last one! 

They were both fantastic, and the service was brilliant too. When asked if I wanted to tip, I said 15%, but she misheard me and added 50 Lei on to the bill (About £9), so I technically tipped about 50% but I think they deserved it.

We then went to a lovely rooftop terrace and had some beers looking out over the busy nightlife of Bucharest.

After bar hopping a bit more, we found ourselves in a club to end the evening, which actually ended up being really nice. After staying there for about an hour we decided to head home.