Gara de Nord

Another quick word on Romanian trains

by Craig Turp December 9, 2011 Bucharest

 There is no doubt that Romanian railways (CFR) online train ticket purchasing system works, and works well. We wrote some of this post on a train to Brasov, the ticket for which we bought online. But there are still problems. First of all, you can’t pick your seat. Being a but fussy, we like an [...]

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A few quick points about Romanian railways

by Craig Turp June 21, 2011 Romania

  First off, CFR’s online ticket purchasing system works better than ever. The problems that appeared when first launched back in 2009 (it threw up all sorts of weird seating plans) have been resolved, and it now – we can happily report – hands out better seating arrangements than some of the ticket clerks at [...]

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Gara de Nord: There’s more to it than onions and Carpati

by Craig Turp June 1, 2011 Bucharest

 Went to Bucharest’s Gara de Nord at the weekend (not because we were getting a train anywhere, simply for research purposes ahead of the publication of the next Bucharest In Your Pocket, which will hit the streets over the next few days).* We were more impressed than ever. Bucharest’s main railway station still gets a [...]

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Just in time for summer, Bucharest City Council opens a big, impressive Tourist Information Centre. Nearly

by Craig Turp May 31, 2010 Bucharest

 Anyone who has been to Piata Universitatii metro station lately – or who has at least used the Universitate underpass, and that is almost everyone in the city – would have noticed the welcome appearance of a Tourist Information Centre. Well, kind of. (This is Bucharest after all). Three or four months ago, work began [...]

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Catch this villain!

by Craig Turp July 17, 2009 Bucharest

 From the website of a Bucharest hostel: EXTREMELY IMPORTANT!!!!! REMEMBER: 1 EURO=~4.3 LEI/RON/NEW LEI (THEY ARE ALL THE SAME THING) There is a guy who scams travelers in Bucharest, please watch out for him and help us catch him!!! He is blond, tall, well dressed and speaks very good English, he says his name is [...]

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Buying train tickets in Romania

by Craig Turp June 17, 2009 Romania

 Is not easy. Like a lunatic (or a new arrival: I mean, we’ve been here a while, so we should know what to expect…) we went to the website of Romanian railways, CFR, and tried to purchase a ticket to Brasov online. Did we succeed? Of course not. After ten minutes of trying to find [...]

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From Otopeni to Gara de Nord by train. We tried. We really tried.

by Craig Turp March 9, 2009 Bucharest

 Back from a week’s self-catering in south-eastern Sudan with little more than an elephant tusk as a souvenir, we arrived at Otopeni at the weekend to be greeted by an enormous blue sign in Romanian and (quelle surprise) correct English telling us that we could purchase train tickets to the city from the booth on [...]

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