As one of the biggest cities in Europe, Bucharest has a lot of choices and challenges to getting around the city. It was intimidating at first, but eventually we learned to love living without a car and embraced traveling by walking or metro.
In Romania, there are a lot of ways to get around. Most of them might seem familiar, like walking, biking, by car or bus. However, things are a little different in Romania than they are in America. Romanian's love their cars. They even have their own car company here called Dacia (Dah-chya), named for the Ancient Romanians who fought the Romans. Bucharest has one of the highest amounts of traffic in the world, and the highest amount in Europe. Initially, Kelly and I were shocked by how fast the cars would drive. Our first time crossing the street, our lives flashed before our eyes when we had a car speed around the corner and slam on the brakes a foot before the crosswalk we were walking on! It scared us at first, but now we're used to cars driving right up to the crosswalks when they are turning. We definitely make sure we walk with other people, too, so the drivers are sure to see us when we cross.
