Four Bucharest attractions you shouldn’t miss

As most people that have been there or even travel guides would tell you, Bucharest is a city of contrasts. What was once the ‘Little Paris of the East’ has suffered not only from the demolitions initiated by the communists in the ‘80s, but also from the abusive residential projects that sprung at the city outskirts in the late ‘90s. But as any country capital, Bucharest is a place of renewal and innovation. Here you will find the most refined restaurants, the hottest clubs in Romania and a fascinating underground culture.

And the truth is that the old Bucharest is not dead: it might have been buried by the dull, socialist buildings, but its young spirit has still survived and continues to inspire generations of writers, artists and entrepreneurs. No matter how much time you are willing to spend in Bucharest, you can be sure none of it will seem wasted. Especially if you know to focus your attention and resources on those kind of places that perspire authenticity through all their pores:

The National Museum of Contemporary Art

The Museum of Contemporary Art might be the youngest museum in Bucharest, but here are some of the advantages of seeing it: for a minimal admission fee, you can get acquainted with the works of Romania’s most innovative young artists and get a peek inside the gargantuan ‘House of People’ (a living proof that Ceausescu’s megalomaniac plan of building the largest palace in the world has almost succeeded).

The Museum of the Romanian Peasant

Not to be confused with the Village Museum (which is an open-air museum in Herastrau Park), the Museum of the Romanian Peasant concentrates the essence of the Romanian traditional art and lifestyle. With an impressive collection of traditional clothes, furniture, ceramics and religious paintings, the museum will give you a deep insight into everything Romanian.

Laptaria lui Enache

A free translation for ‘Laptaria lui Enache’ would be ‘Enache’s Milk Bar’. After hosting countless gigs, breeding dozens of new music bands and making the subject of a famous song, we can as well consider this popular Bucharest bar as a historic site. Laptaria lui Enache is the ideal place to grab a Romanian beer, meet some locals and dance in the rhythms of some hype underground band.

Snagov Monastery

For those of you that are still hoping to meet Dracula somewhere in Romania, I have two pieces of news. The good news is that Dracula, or as Romanians know him, Vlad Tepes, really existed and had been the king of Walachia (the south eastern part of the present-day Romania) for three times. The bad news is that, far from sleeping in a coffin and sucking people’s blood, he is long dead and buried at Snagov Monastery near Bucharest. Vald Tepes has played a major role in the history of Bucharest, as the city was documented for the first time during his reign.

As I said before, Bucharest has much more to offer than these four attractions (which, by the way, could be visited in less than a day). For more Bucharest attractions, take look at this extensive Bucharest Travel Guide.

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