Having recovered somewhat from our lengthy train encounter, we woke up in Bucharest wanting to get a good view of the city with our morning, since our train to Vienna left at 2 that afternoon. 


We opted for a walking loop, hitting up Cismigiu Park and the Parliament building before heading back through the edge of the old city and admiring architecture on Calea Victoriei. 
The architecture is an amazing mix, spanning from decaying facades of the cities pre-socialist past, through the concrete glass and metal structures erected in the 60-80s, to the resurgence in revitalizing and preserving more and more of the historic structures. The contrast was amazing to behold. 


There were no tourists. We were the only ones taking pictures, and we certainly didn’t hear any English. But we never felt judged our out of place, every person we interacted with was incredibly friendly and understanding of our lack of Romanian language comprehension. Even our botched attempt at a late breakfast where we tried to pay with the wrong currency with a line forming didn’t show the slightest bit of frustration. 
We ended our brief journey back at the hotel, agreeing that we would love to com back and spend more time in this great city, and likely see more of the beautiful country. We gathered our bags and hopped onto what we were hoping would be a smoother train ride. 


A real train. With multiple cars. A diner car. Sleeper cabins. What was this magic? Awe struck compared to the prior day’s journey, we settled into our room, marveling at having beds, a sink, and so many places to store bags and hang clothes. We sprawled out on the lower bunk and quickly took in the sights as we pulled out. 


After a few hours of beautiful rolling countryside full of sunflowers (Romania is a world leader in sunflower seed/oil production, we learned after seeing so many huge fields) we approached the Carpathian Mountains. Slowly meandering and climbing up valleys, we were treated to splendid vistas and quaint towns as well as larger tourist centers aimed at ski slopes. Eventually we descended into Brasov, leaving the mountains as a constant reminder on our left as we turned and headed towards Hungary. 
As the evening progressed, we decided to try out the lap of luxury that was having fresh food on this train (compared to our loaf of bread with packs of cheese and salami from the last trip). Our very friendly waiter/cook happily explained the confusing menu, and we soon had entrees, salads and a bottle of wine to accompany the setting sun. 
Meal finished, we polished off the bottle in our room playing continuo. The black countryside the only view we had, we decided to try our our bunks and get some sleep. And sleep we did. 
Until a 1:30 am border crossing into Hungary. But taking less than an hour for both checks, and having beds to get back into, it wasn’t long until we were on our way and back asleep, Vienna in our future.