Don't Go There!

 

Decoration inspo from the Romanian Kitsch Museum ;-)

I guess ever since Eve was instructed NOT to eat that shiny apple in Paradise, there is something irresistible about things we are explicitly instructed or even just recomended NOT to do. Not quite as extreme, but I have frequently been told that I should not bother visiting Bucharest as it was "ugly, boring and depressing". Admittedly, I had let myself be influenced by that verdict of pretty much everyone who had ever been there among my friends (with the exception of one enthusiastic friend in whose heart Bucharest holds the same special place as Sofia does in mine) and would not have paid a hefty sum to go there. When the city popped up in Austrian Airlines’ recent offers for mileage rewards, however, I pitched the trip to my Mum and off we went. What we had not anticipated in this geographically more Southern place than Vienna was to find the city covered in a thick layer of snow at the end of March. You could argue that snow actually makes some ugliness prettier by metaphorically sugar coating it, but I am sure I would have like Bucharest even better without wet feet and the constant danger of a "rooftop avalanche" landing on our heads. We had read about the many beautiful parks, but not had the opportunity to enjoy them because of the weather. Even so, I can imagine how nice the Old Town must look in summer and how lively the city probably is in the warmer months. On the other hand, we might not have visited so many museums if the weather had been friendlier. And those museums really were worth a visit! In a nutshell: if you are interested in weekend breaks off the beaten track and want to put a pin on the map in the “Wild East”, I can wholeheartedly recommend visiting Bucharest.
Any other cities you think I should not bother visiting?