June 2009

Number crunching with Romanian railways

by Craig Turp June 29, 2009 Romania

 The Bucharest Life kids are off to the countryside this week for their annual peasant experience. We went to get their train tickets this morning, one each for them and one for Bucharest Life’s mother-in-law. Not for the first time this month, we turned up at the CFR agency on Strada Brezoianu and were left [...]

7 comments Read the full article →

The all-singing, all-dancing Bucharest sightseeing tour bus

by Craig Turp June 26, 2009 Bucharest

 With eternal thanks to George Hari Popescu, who wrote about this yesterday on his terrific blog, it now looks as though Bucharest is to get some kind of tourist bus route. The final decision will be taken on Tuesday, but it looks a done deal. In a nutshell, some kind of hop-on, hop-off bus (probably [...]

5 comments Read the full article →

Otopeni Airport: How to avoid Fly Taxi

by Craig Turp June 25, 2009 Bucharest

 The wealthy, or those who like to see monopolies thrive can ignore this post… It is much easier than you think to avoid the monopoly held by expensive taxi company Fly Taxi at Otopeni Airport, Bucharest main airport. (Of taxis at Baneasa airport, stand by for a separate post). Fly Taxi, to remind you, charges [...]

5 comments Read the full article →

Desperate dictator goes shopping. Again

by Craig Turp June 24, 2009 Romanian Politics

 Increasingly desperate to prove that he is a ‘man of the people,’ Romanian president Traian Basescu yesterday went shopping at Carrefour, in a carefully planned and stage-managed attempt to boost his flailing poll ratings, badly affected by the election – which his party arranged – of his daughter Elena to the European Parliament. Perfectly timed [...]

3 comments Read the full article →

Athenee Palace Hilton Bucharest downgraded? No

by Craig Turp June 23, 2009 Bucharest

 You barely have to read between the lines of this scandalously wrong story to see that there is more in play than a hotel’s grading. For the record, the Athenee Palace Hilton has not been downgraded from five to four stars. Besides, even if it had, stars in Romania mean nothing because the Romanian Ministry [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Notes on the sales figures of Romanian ‘quality’ newspapers

by Craig Turp June 23, 2009 Business

 Firstly, it should be noted that in any other country these newspapers, classified ‘quality’ in Romania, would be called mid-market. Romania has no genuine quality newspapers, leaving aside the niche, business dailies. Adevarul, the clear market leader (as it bloody well should be, given the money that’s been thrown at it in promotions and marketing) [...]

3 comments Read the full article →

Where can we find Bucharest’s best ice cream? Because it ain’t Betty Ice

by Craig Turp June 22, 2009 Bucharest

 As anyone who has children will know, there are few things on earth more dangerous than a two year old with an ice cream cornet, which is why, given the option, we always go for the ‘stick it in a cup and give us a spoon’ option. So we tried that yesterday, at an ice [...]

2 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries