Sightseeing in Bucharest included many different highlights. First of all we went to ‘Old Court’ in the old part of town, the resting place of Vlad the Impaler, also known as Dracula. After a small walk we came to Pasjul villa cross, which was an old shopping mall. Finally, we reached Revolution square, a square that represents an important part of the history of the city.

At the same time other people went for what almost seemed like a traditional breakfast, found in  the nearest subway. This breakfast (which helped some of the night owls gain some energy for the rest of the day) was followed by a search for souvenirs. This appeared to be a bit more of a challenge since the souvenirs seemed almost hidden in the new part of Bucharest. In the old town of Bucharest the hunt for souvenirs was however successfully concluded.

After lunch, we gathered at half past two at the Palace of Parliament. At 2 o’clock we had a tour through this enormous building. The palace of Parliament is the largest building in the world after the Pentagon in the USA. The Palace of Parliament houses the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.

Not only the building itself was ginormous but also what could be found inside. For instance a giant chandelier which weight was about 5 ton. If right now you’re thinking “one giant chandelier in such a big building is not really too much” you are surely wrong. In the building there are at least 480 chandeliers to be found, with the second largest at 3 ton.  The chandeliers were not the only thing which could be found on such a large scale. We were also shown a carpet which weighs 3 tons and had to be rolled out with at least 30 people. When bringing this carpet inside, this had to be done in multiple smaller parts because otherwise it would not fit properly.

After the tour we had some free time again, before we would have to meet up at Caru’ cu Bere, the restaurant were we had our last dinner with the complete group. Since we had been walking around for a while, some of us decided to sit down somewhere in old town. While searching for a place which offered nachos, craved by part of the group, a nice restaurant Bordello was found. Until this time it is still not completely sure if the restaurant changed into an actual bordello in the evening or just really committed to their theme.

When arriving at Caru’ cu Bere we found ourselves in a very busy and seemingly traditional restaurant. We were seated at the tables reserved for us and were instructed to choose one of the dishes which we could share with one of our fellow BAT-travellers. However, it seemed this choice was already made for us by accident. Where we expected to choose 12 dishes we were actually served 24 dishes. This lead to one of the most extensive dinner ever seen by any of us. It was delicious but way too much. Of course this lead to many funny ideas of what to do with this food, from giving everyone who did not finish at least one of the plates a fine to slowly replacing all the BAT-travelers by homeless people and leaving them in the restaurant with a paid bill and lots of food. Luckily we got all of the remaining food in doggy bags and in this way we could still give some of the homeless people in the city a smile on their face.

After dinner, we thanked the committee for organizing this amazing trip and we went back to our hostel to sleep or relax in the living room. We had till 02:45 hours till the bus would arrive, on which time the entire group was standing outside half asleep and ready to go home. At 3 o’clock we left the hostel and went to the airport north of Bucharest. During the bus trip we could see the Arc the Triomphe, which was one of the highlights of Bucharest. During the flight most of us tried to get as much sleep as possible and at arrival on the airport we collected our stuff and said goodbye to each other. While driving with the bus to Eindhoven station we said goodbye to each other one stop at the time. This unfortunately meant the end of our amazing study trip to Bucharest and Transylvania.

– Marjolijn Kleijer & Dana de Vreede

– Leon Cavé & Noortje Geijs

Around 08:00 the bus left from the hostel, the same time on which the cupcake store nextdoor opened. This unfortunately peanut butter meant no cupcakes.

The two and a half hour bus ride was the perfect time for the night owls of us to catch up on some sleep.

For those counting, we got to Zieke Soeara (Sighișoara) at 10:30, a small town where apparently Dracula (Vlad the Impaler) lived.We walked uphill to a church with the god of thunder displayed on the tower. After a snowball fight with some Romanian school children we went for lunch and got back to the bus.

At 15:30 we arrived at Bran Castle, the apparent legendary home of Vlad. After a walk through the castle, we took lots of pictures in the snow covered garden, where Mees bested a frozen pond and made an interesting portrait. Then we went for dinner at a local restaurant with most of the group, after which we had to hurry back to the bus due to irritated bus drivers.

Then, after a long ride in the dark on a road full of hairpin turns and mountain hills, we arrived at our hostel in Bucharest. Everyone was tired of the lots of sleeping in the bus so went to dream the most amazing dreams of count dracula eating cupcakes in the snow.

– Ivo Kraayeveld & Bart Bas

During the first hours at the university we were introduced by vice-dean and a professor. After this talk the labs of the university were introduced. When visiting those we were quite surprised by the ancient analog equipment they used to teach their students about the origins of the modern measurement tools they will use in the next coming years. In the next room the vice-dean told us about different projects happening at the faculty of Electrical Engineering and demonstrated some of those. Having told about all the serious stuff it was time to head to the real man-cave of the teaching staff. We were taken to a basement and were introduced to the toy store of the professors. A nice gaming rig, comfy chair, large beamer and a mining rig were all present in this room. Besides various battle bots from the university’s own yearly championship were presented.

After seeing the completely awesome leisure room we went by bus to visit another building of the university. We got to talk to various master students about the curriculum and way of teaching at their university. Next we left the university and went to an enormous shopping mall with our two guides. We got some spare time here and looked around in the various stores.

After dinner we would meet in front of the hostel to go to a pub together with Dani and Andra. At the Che Guevara social pub. We got a great evening here and were complimented by our guides because of our enormous drinking skills.

After a nice night we went to bed to start our next adventure to Bucharest visiting Sighișoara and Bran castle, two very nice places of interest. We were Mees Geurds and Kevin van Hastenberg and were proud to inform you about our very inspiring and joyful day.

Luckily for us, security was not a problem. Everything went smooth and we could continue buying ourselves some too expensive breads and Donald Duck pockets. The confirmation from the university was received after passing passport control and the last call to them was made just before boarding the plane. We would meet them at 9 o’clock the following day.

Next to the complaining women in the plane, the flight was just fine. Romanian people don’t make as much noise in a plane as Dutch people normally do apparently. We landed in Cluj, the weather was okay, the busses were almost easy to find, multiple tickets could be bought at the same time (entering 19 and press + till 25) and the people are nice. We did forget to increase the cash withdrawal limit on our card, but luckily we brought Meeuwis to fix this (thanks Meeuwis).

Our hostel can be described as a ZEN hostel with really nice people, good facilities (apart from one bathroom) and dedicated heating. Pressing the buttons of the heating resulted in a blinking display and a room continuing to be hot. We went out for dinner in groups. A local restaurant was recommended to us by Constin from the hostel. Some however, among us, chose to eat pizza instead. Which tastes great, when we had found the pizzeria. Sings and front doors don’t always mean that the restaurant is not beneath everything via some stairs in Romania.

After having found the 24/7 supermarket with 8.5 lei (~ 2 euro) 2L beer and really bad tasting pizza chips, everybody went to bed to prepare for the next day.

On behalf of the committee,

Jim Beckers & Tom van Teeffelen