Romanian Travel Guide 2014, part one

In June 2014 me and my boyfriend decided to travel over to Romania for a week's holiday. The trip was mainly inspired by cheap flights from Wizz Air and the fact it was somewhere neither of us had visited before. If I'm honest before we started to do our research I don't think I even realised Transylvania was in Romania! 

Here is part one of my little guide to having a great time in Romania.

Our itinerary consisted of:

One night staying at airport hotel

Two days in Bucharest

Four days touring Transylvania

Last day & night back in Bucharest

We used an itinerary we found in a travel guide which was actually for ten days touring so as we were condensing it into a week it really was a whistle stop tour!

Getting there:

We live in Greater Manchester so the easiest way for us to get to Romania was to drive to Doncaster/Sheffield Airport (AKA Robin Hood airport) which took about an hour. Flights go weekly to Henri Coanda  Airport (AKA Otopeni airport - what is with all these airports having two names??) which is just outside Bucharest. The Wizz Air flights we were on, arrived in Romania in the early hours of the morning. This meant arranging accommodation at the airport rather than figuring out transport at a silly hour of the day. Our 'casa' was basic but only 5 minutes walk which was a huge plus!

Motel Casa Romanesca:

Although basic this hotel was also super cheap (£25 for the night) and included breakfast (1 hard boiled egg, 4 slices of ham, 1 x tub of jam and a basket of bread - see picture above!). For a base it was convenient - we also heard rumours that it's a great place to sample traditional Romanian cuisine, so it's worth noting if you want authentic food.

Airport to Bucharest:

We opted for the bus into Bucharest, we managed to purchase tickets at the airport but then got caught out on the bus for fare dodging! Apparently we hadn't registered our card correctly on the bus despite the fact we swiped our card and pressed the button on the machine. It did feel a little bit like they were trying to catch us out to make a extra money on paying fines as we weren't the only tourists being targeted. Best to be aware of this if you are going & ensure your card is properly registered. Our fine was £5 each, so still cheaper than taxi!

Useful information about routes from the airport into Bucharest can be found here

There is also the option of a taxi (which we did on the return journey) though if you go down this route it's best if your hotel/accommodation can ring for you to get you the best deal. There is a train as well, though none of the guides recommend it as an option as it's quite a convoluted journey.

Currency: 

The Romania currency is the LEU (usually referred to LEI or RON to add to the confusion!) it's not the easiet currency to get hold of as most places only hold popular currencies such as dollars or euros. We ordered ours from M&S and they took about a week to arrive. More information can be found here

Weather:

We visited in June and the weather was lovely; warm enough to wear sandals and summer wear but not too hot that you felt exhausted moving around. Due to the warm weather and the fact Romania is very mountainous we did experience a couple of epic storms, so waterproofs are useful to pack!

Bucharest:

In total we spent three full days in Bucharest, not exactly time to get a exhaustive feel for the city but enough to see the main highlights and start to navigate our way round without problems. I thought I could manage a full week in the city - though my other half wasn't quite as convinced!

Key things we did whilst in Bucharest:

The Palace of the Parliament - possibly the biggest attraction in the city, this took up most of our first day. It is the second largest building in the world and the largest in Europe. It's slightly insane if I'm honest - we were booked on a tour by our hotel, I'm not sure how you book otherwise! The main reception area was chaotic. Coach loads of people wandering around, no organised queuing, no proper welcome desk, security guards patrolling and intimidating. However when we finally spoke to someone they ushered us to the front of the masses and onto an English tour. Not sure if this was something to do with our hotel booking us in or the fact an English tour was just leaving. It resulted in grumpy looks and mutterings from everyone else. 

The building is huge and very striking, our tour covered 1km and the guide told us that's only 5% of the building!  Be prepared for huge amounts of walking, which leads me onto:

National Museum of Contemporary Art - this is actually part of the Palace of the Parliament, but it's miles away! We weren't quite sure how to access this gallery once we'd finished our tour so we set off walking round the perimeter. It wasn't well signed so it was quite confusing; even when we got to it, the outside looked very scruffy and unfinished, we had to walk through large pools of water and broken paving. Inside it was fun to look round the art but did feel a little bit empty, there were only a few other people and hardly any staff. We had drinks on the terrace but sadly although it looked as though it might have been regenerated in the last few years it wasn't being well maintained.

The old town - this is your classic area filled with beautiful buildings, churches, museums and places to sit out and eat. Very touristy but when you are on holiday it's what you want! 

Lots of walking -  the best way to get a feel for anywhere, whilst out walking we stumbled across a free music festival taking place in one of the many parks. We stopped to watch 'Vunk' a premier Romanian pop rock band:

For an exhaustive list of things to do in Bucharest check out Romania's tourist information page here

To finish a few more Romania pics:

Coming soon in my Part Two Romanian Travel guide; food and touring Transylvania.

Manchester to Margate

As always it's took me ages to get round to blogging my thoughts on Margate. Looking in my diary it was February when I visited, so only two months ago! My trip to Margate came about due to my other half (Mike) flying out to Jordan from Gatwick. We spent a couple of days in London beforehand and then once I'd waved him off I decided not to head straight back to Manchester but to go home via Margate.

I was interested in Margate mainly to see it's new gallery; the Turner Contemporary. A few years ago I went on holiday to Bilbao in Spain, a city completely rejuvenated by arrival of the Guggenheim Gallery. I wanted to see if The Turner Contemporary had done the same for Margate. Also out of interest I'd never been to Kent so I thought it might be nice to touch on the outskirts via the train journey.

Getting to Margate from London felt fairly exciting, I opted for the high speed train called the Javelin which had it's own platform at St Pancras (I had to stop myself from taking a picture of it!). It took 90 minutes to Margate and passed through fairly interesting countryside. Though the main thing that stood out for me was the rising water levels. The day I travelled to Margate was right in the middle of the recent floods and every stream, river or pond I passed was bursting its banks or overflowing.

On arrival at Margate I got to see the famous 'Dreamland' signage - a nod to the town's tourist heyday, when people flocked to Margate on the train to visit the seaside fun. Dreamland itself was a funfair and amusement centre dating way back to the 1880s. It closed its doors for good at the start of the 2000s. It's now fell into disrepair. When I was reading about its history, it sounded like there was small visitors centre still open but I couldn't find it!

I had booked myself in for an overnight stay in Margate as I wanted the full day there before heading home (Margate - Manchester takes around five hours with changeovers). I stayed at the Reading Rooms which was amazing. It was a little bit more than I would normally spend (though I did get a mid week discount) and had sheer bathroom luxury...check these pictures out:

 

 
After I'd checked in I went to visit the Turner Contemporary. The building itself is very striking:

And it has stunning views of the coast:

 

But once inside I did struggle to comprehend the tiny size of it, I had eaten in the cafe, looked round the shop and seen the exhibition in around 1.5 hours! Okay for a small local gallery but not for one that is hoping to revive a whole town! I personally like galleries that feel like you'd need a lifetime to work through the collections and wander round finding hidden gems.

 

If I lived in Margate I'd be very happy that the Turner Contemporary had arrived and would probably call in on my lunch break (or to eat my lunch there) but I'm not sure I'd regularly make the journey from say, London - Margate to visit! A little bit disappointing if I'm honest.

 

After my short visit to the Turner Contemporary I was left a bit at a loose end. The weather was atrocious. I did plan to do a coastal walk with my free time and go to the next village, but unfortunately it was so wild my umbrella snapped and I had to give up. I was drowned. I ended up looking round the town (sorry to say it was a little bit depressing on a rainy day) and sitting in a seafront cafe watching the rain and wondering whether it would be safe to venture out again!

 

There are other attractions such as the Shell Grotto but as I was visiting during winter season, none of these were open.  

 

As I also had the evening I decided to keep up with the cultural activities and went to see a production of 'The Seagull' by a company called Resort Studios. It was very enjoyable, though it did take place in a freezing cold garage, heated only by industrial gas heaters so I was chilled to the bone when it ended. Quite a bizarre experience but I decided that my whole Margate trip felt a little bit strange so I just embraced it!

 

As this has turned into an epic blog post I may as well end with one more picture...

 

Its happened again!

Since I discovered blogs they've been a huge part of life, especially the reading side of blogging. Its now rare for me to go a day without reading through my favourite blogger's new posts and finding out what they are up to, or the products they are using and recommending. In fact, I'd go as far as saying I'm more interested in reading my blogging feed than my Facebook feed most of the time!

In my last post I was lamenting the loss of Google Reader to read my blogs and how I'd found a new alternative - The Old Reader. Well today I discovered that The Old Reader is closing its doors (well, website) to new users such as myself as they can't cope with demand. 

This put me in yet another mini panic and I've had to find another alternative. I don't like Bloglovin' as it only brings up the header of each blog post and not the full thing. I like to read my blog as a continuous feed (a bit like a magazine) without extra clicking!

My new new alternative is:  InoReader it seems very similar to The Old Reader and transferring my subscriptions took less than ten minutes! I'll be trialling it for the next couple of weeks to see what I think. So far I'd recommend it - especially if like me you're not a fan of Bloglovin' and like slightly clunky old school RSS feeds!

My Alternative to Google Reader

Like most people recently I was in a panic when I discovered that Google Reader was closing. Searching for information about what I could use as an alternative to read my blogs I found Jessica's post really helpful and changed over to Bloglovin'

However after using Bloglovin' for a little while I didn't like the way you had to click on each individual post header to read the rest of the post. So I had to find a new alternative which I can now say that I highly recommend: The Old Reader

The Old Reader is basically identical to Google Reader, I can log in using my Blogger login and it allows me to read all the recent posts from my followed blogs as a continuous feed. 

I like this layout best as it feels a bit like reading a magazine (albeit a very long beauty magazine!). The only thing I didn't like about changing over to The Old Reader was the import time to transfer my followed blogs from Google Reader to it. This took around a week. However I think the panic of Google Reader closing had triggered a huge volume of traffic which I'm sure will eventually calm down again.

As mentioned above as part of my research to find a new blog reader I joined up to both Bloglovin' and also She Said Beauty so (little plug here) if you want to follow The Buzz About Beef and Beauty you can now do so on both sites!

Thanks - Leanne x

Life without make up...

I thought I'd draw attention to a blog post I particularly enjoyed reading this morning. In it Rosie from A Rosie Outlook talks about going without make up and how her skin was better before she started wearing it. She also discusses how it has become such a big part of her life (link here).

Judging by the comments its obviously an issue close to lots of people's hearts and I also commented. I've put my comment below so you can see my thoughts on the subject but do have a look at the post and see what you think.

"This is a great post and looking at all the comments its obviously something that a lot of people also have issues with or thoughts about. I've been wearing make up since I was in my early teens, and am now 31 so can't really remember life without it!

I wear make up everyday and occasionally when I don't, I get asked if I'm not feeling well or a bit run down.

I'm happy to carry on wearing make up as I enjoy the 10 mins I spend putting it on, its not a chore like say, the 10 minutes brushing my teeth at night is!!

However there is a lot to be said for not getting into the habit of wearing make up, I know lots of older ladies who I work with that have never wore make up and look fantastic without it and have aged better than those who have. I guess its just what makes you comfortable.

If I didn't enjoy make up and putting it on I'd definitely stop wearing it and people would just have to get used to me looking unwell! It would also give me at least 20 minutes a day extra in bed!

Maybe that's the real reason people who don't wear make up age and look better, they just get extra sleep!!"

Starting out with Bloglovin'

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/4597909/?claim=qjkak9bq3zz">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

But I'm not really sure what I'm doing!

Half Price YOU Beauty Advent Calendar

An email has just popped into my inbox from Latest in Beauty to tell me that the YOU Beauty Advent Calendar is now half price.

If you enter the code: EX2649 at this address you can purchase it for £29.98 + £2.95 postage. A total bargain at £32.93.

However, as much I want to spread the exciting news about this offer. I have to say it has left a very bad taste in my mouth and I feel a bit upset with Latest in Beauty. 

I asked for the advent calendar as my Birthday present and have been looking forward to opening it on 1st December. Knowing that my boyfriend forked out nearly £60 when he could have bought it today for half that price is gutting. Plus it would have still arrived in time for the start of December and my Birthday so it turns out there was no incentive for making the purchase so early.

I know companies will reduce the price of items once Christmas is over but this is even before the start of advent!

I'm currently looking into whether I can return the advent calendar to take advantage of the half price offer and am about to send Latest in Beauty an upset email.

On a separate note; Latest in Beauty also made out that if you bought it early you got free postage which was also a bit of a con. I've never seen it for sale yet without free postage on offer (or at least a code to get free postage on it). 

Gutted :(

Woe is me :(

Very quick blog update to say there will be no new beauty reviews for the next week or so. I'm currently off work poorly and typing this one handed!

After a year of having an achey elbow last week it got really bad, puffed up and basically gave up. I've not been able to move it since. I think its all down to 8 years sat at a computer repetitively moving my mouse and probably sat with bad posture!

My arm is now in a sling, I'm on super strength prescription painkillers and I'm back at the doctors next week to check its progress and have tests to check there's nothing underlying that could be causing it.

This all means blog wise that no beauty products are being used. I keep looking longingly at my samples but with only one hand/arm in full working order no make up is being worn, no nail polish painted and just trying to do anything in the bath is impossible.

Fingers crossed it starts to heal soon. My moral to this story is: if you work at a computer, take breaks, make sure you sit properly and if your hand, wrist, shoulder, back etc start to hurt, do something about it sooner rather than later! Or you too will end up an old lady like me with a puffed up arm and no make up!!!

Have you had any workplace injuries that I should watch out for too??

Since my last post...

I have:

* Been off work poorly with a sore throat and general off 'colourness'. Which gave me time to:

* Read the first of the Fifty Shades of Grey book and move onto the second one. When I first started on Fifty Shades of Grey I thought it was quite gripping and a real page turner. However after the first half I got a bit bored by the indecision of the main character's 'will I sign the contract', 'am I enjoying this', 'he's so attractive but messed up' pondering. So why have I started the second book? Who knows! I'm only skim reading the series so I reckon by the end of this week I'll have finished and the trilogy should be back with my friend who has kindly lent them to me.

* (After feeling better) I went bramble picking yesterday with my Mum & Dad. I live pretty centrally in Manchester (which is amazing after years of commuting from various different sides of town) and near my flats are large wastelands which are fascinating and full of wildlife and foraging opportunities. They are also full of rubbish and general nastiness - but I try to look past that! The brambles are just becoming ready so it was fun filling an enormous bag with all the ripe ones. Weirdly I'm not actually a fan of berries but the fact they are free really impresses me :) My next step is another trip later in the week and to find recipes to do something with them. Any ideas welcome! I'm thinking jam as I can cope with berries when they are all sugared up!

* Got totally up to date yesterday with all my boring paperwork, cleaning and tidying. YES!!

It's been a while - sorry!

I should have realised that starting a blog at the same time as moving was a bad idea! Plus in between numerous trips to IKEA/Argos/Home Bargains(!)/Sainsburys/etc I've been trying to do the odd bit of beekeeping, keep up the beauty maintenance/go to work and fit in showing people round the new flat.

However I've decided that as its a new week and I've got lots of pictures on my phone from various activities I should restart blogging.

The first exciting thing that happened over weekend was being a winner from a competition on another blog that I'd completely forgotten about. I love We Were Raised By Wolves and this is the exciting haul that I've won:

(piccie from: http://wewereraisedbywolves.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/japanese-beauty-giveaway.html)

Also I recently attended a beauty course at Ministry of Craft (Fred Aldous, Manchester) which I look forward to writing a post about. The course was entitled 'beautiful bath and body products' and another session is taking place in July if you are based in the Manchester area. More on this to come....

Finally I took advantage of the Burts Bees grab bag that I've seen on lots of other blogs talking about. It was even better value for me as I used the Glossybox code: GLOSSYBOX0412 which I think is valid until the end of the month and takes the total cost to £19.95 including postage! I'll be doing another post soon on what my bag contained.

Right back to the grind - hopefully I'll manage to get some more posts up soon x

Camera Phone

You might notice I put 'camera phone' in my blog blurb and also the pictures I've posted aren't amazing. No you aren't reading a blog from 2005 -  I just don't have an iphone or Blackberry and don't really have any intention of getting one!

I've got a Nokia E5. It looks a bit like a fake Blackberry and has about a tenth of the functionality. Its on pay as you go and costs me £10 a month for 400 free texts and free internet (when it works). Still its practically space age compared to my boyfriend's first generation Nokia...from the early 2000's.

What's in a name?

Starting a blog is something both me and my friend Nazia have talked about a fair bit in the past. On one of our most recent discussions she was asking me what it would feature. The answer was beekeeping, food and beauty, to which I jokingly came up with 'The Buzz about Beef and Beauty' for the title. She didn't believe I'd really use it. Me being mischievous decided I would.

I agree the world 'Beef' in the title is dreadful so if anyone has anything food related that sounds even remotely more sophisticated please let me know!

Why blogging?

I'm going to do a lot of name checking here but it was actually Becca from BDP world that introduced me to blog reading. Earlier than that I'd briefly had a blog Zarfoot and Lightfoot with my friend Nazia (apologies for re-posting the link Naz...!) which we used to record the many activities we were partaking in at the time. We got bored after about three posts and then I ignored the world of blogs until Becca informed me that were other people out there that had whole pages devoted to nail varnish and eyeshadow and I was sold on the idea.

This blog isn't going to be solely based on beauty as I figured there are plenty of others out there doing it better than I could. See: Gem Fatale and Do Not Refreeze as my personal favourites.

I see it as more of a place to record any good places to eat out in Manchester (and maybe further afield) putting to good use a camera phone full of food images. I also want to link it to beekeeping which I've just started and have another work blog for: Museum and Gallery Green but also occasionally draw people to any good beauty buys I've found oh and interesting exhibitions.

So in short it's all over the place, has no theme and definitely no USP. Great.

My main concern for the blog is that it become a beast to manage. I say this because in my teens I ran a music fanzine called glampunksuicide (hence my username - I've never got round to thinking of anything else to use even though I'm not remotely glam, punk OR suicide these days) which in the end felt a bit like a chore.

No gig I went to was safe from thinking 'I should be reviewing this', the pile of demos (on tape can you believe!) had to be listened to/reviewed and I had to think of things to say about other people's fanzines when I just wanted to read them in bed! Hopefully this will be a more leisurely affair...fingers crossed.

A bit more name checking of fantastic blogs that friends have that have inspired me before I go:

Do a Barrel Roll Dave's been doing his blogging thing for ages and is brilliant at it, he's also one of the most motivated people I've met when it comes to writing. No flopping around saying 'one day I'll write a book' Dave just does it. He always seems to be filling up my Facebook with writing groups, events and blog posts - good on ya Dave!

The Diary of an RSPCA Guinea Pig Hannah basically just needs a medal for all her animal work. Not only does she help out with the RSPCA, run marathons to raise money for them, take in guinea pigs in to look after and bond she found the time to recently start this blog which is a go to for all your guinea pig needs. Awesome!

Right - more blog posts to follow x