What You Might Need to Know about Bucharest

1. Transportation

Capital city in general is a crowded place, and so does Bucharest. Taking bus to explore the city, is definitely not a wise decision to make. Furthermore, you need to worry about the authoritity who might be wearing mask under the uniform. Unlike the cities in Turkey, or perhaps other countries too, Bucharest's buses do not provide the ticket scanner (machine) at the nearest door to the driver. But, they (ticket scanners) are attached in the middle of the bus. This allows passangers to enter the bus from every door, which at first sounds like a good idea. But if you know what's in the authority's mind you would change the whole perspective.

When you enter the bus please do scan your ticket immediately! There will be authotities coming to check your ticket. If they find out you just scanned the ticket, you will be their prey. They will be fantasizing money coming from you. If you happen to be the one who scan his card when the authority coming, please whatever happens do not hand your ID to them. Once you handed your ID, they will not give it back unless you give them 50 lei.

This might sound illogical, but foreigners are the easiest people to fool. As foreigners we often think that we are obligated to show our ID, when the authority asks. Not in this case, it is just a trap. Or perhaps you could show your ID, but don't allow them to touch it. Just let them see it from distance.

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Fortunately, Bucharest has subways that are well connected. You could literally reach all the cities by taking the subways. If you wanna go to the old city, for example, you can take the subway that goes to the University of Bucharest. From there you just need to walk 15 minutes.

One of the things a traveler must have is a devise that has GPS on it, if you have GPS - nothing you need to worry about. Atleast in the case of Bucharest, where you can pretty much walk on foot everywhere- the touristy places are mostly in the center of the city. And also, from my experience, the route of transportation in Bucharest are very well recorded on googlemaps, instead of asking the passersby you can just utilize your divise, right? Sometimes asking the passersby can waste your time.

For metro (or subway) you have the option to buy daily ticket that costs 8 lei, I suggest you to buy this ticket if you are staying in bucharest less than a week. And, If you are planning to stay in Bucharest for the whole week, it might be better if you buy the weekly ticket that costs 28 lei.

2. Accommodation or Where to Stay?

I am not talking about a big budget traveler's accommodation here. I am just gonna focus on low budget traveler's accommodation, which is hostel - since I failed to get a host through couchsurfing. Try to join couchsurfing, who knows may be you are lucky enough to get a host.

For a hostel, I have only one recommendation, the Cozyness of Downtown Hostel. This is my very first experience staying in a hostel, and I am impressed by it. I have so many worries regarding hostel - or I listen to much to the voices out there.
If you happen to be in Bucharest, this hostel is definitely where you should stay. What I feel most about this hostel is a sense of trust and community. They provide a shared kitchen that you can use for free. And there is where you are made to feel like you belong the community. Plus, the community you have is international community. When I was there I met people from the USA, Finland, Belgium, Italy etc. If you are lucky enough, you can exchange stories with these interesting people. They are normally very open-minded.

The stuff of this histel is unbelievably kind - when you first arrived she will instantly offer you a free towel, a pair of sandal, a lock for your locker, bucharest map, and other brochures regarding Bucharest.

What would make you attached to this place, I think is the living room - or the lobby - if it's lobby at all, I think they failed to create that image, because it's so hommy.

I don't want to praise too much, because it will make it sound cheesy. So, again, if you are in Buchareat you should definitely stay here.