Bucharest, Romania

[Doug Taylor]

Taxiing out in JFK near sunset:




My "cabin sweater" so I can go back on break without someone in Business class freaking out and wondering why the pilot came back for a nap mid-flight:


Picture Kristie took over eastern Europe somewhere (I dunno!)


On arrival into OTP:


Water park off of short final into OTP (By Kristie, not I!)


View from the hotel:


Out to dinner with the crew at "Mama's"



Kristie and the other FO:


Ladies, ladies, ladies!


Kristie and one of the flight attendants


Another crew shot:


Myself and a self-proclaimed Romanian rapper that is trying to get to the us (No, I will not have your baby for immigration status)


Bucharesti Fruit Market


Place where the revolution of 1989 started


Eastern Orthodox Church:


Monument to the 1989 revolution symbolic of a new beginning. AKA "The Olive on the Toothpick"


Where are we again?! Oh, time for pictures.


"It's ok Bob, she's an engineer, you can talk lat and long with her and she'll understand! "


Wanna be relief pilot little girl?


A joke the ER guys'll get:


View from the rest seat watching "300" on my 3 hour break

[Doug Taylor]

Sitting there with the engines off waiting for our ground stop to end in JFK:



Bad video of clubbing "Eastern Bloc"-stylee ("Club A")

[amorris311]

great stuff! thank you for sharing.

[SharkFisher]

wow! Amazing stuff thanks!

[Kristie]

it's a pic of a location as we were going over romania... doug likes to talk about how often he or crew gets asked "what river is that?".. and i immediately thought Snake River! hahaha

[Doug Taylor]

It's always the "Snake River" no matter what river you're flying over!

Heck, I'm barely able to find OTP on the world map, but magically I was able to find my way there and back.

[Kristie]

I swore Bob looked just like that guy in "scrubs".. i just can't remember his name.. but Bob is just as funny as him.. i guess if he ever needed another job, he could always body double!

see






btw.. doug, put up the 360 of the revolution square area that you took (you know, with the french/italian/russian buildings).

[ASpilot2be]

Awesome pictures Looks like an absolute blast.

[Doug Taylor]

Oh man, there's some funny videos from dinner, but those won't see the light of day on the internet! Maybe at NJC or something, but I don't want THAT hot potato!

But here's the 360 of the square: (if it doesn't show, try a little bit later)

[amorris311]

no longer available. you are playing games now!

[Doug Taylor]

Oh, it's up now.

The camera was in some strange mode

[amorris311]

good deal. thanks its a cool shot!

[SkyCougar]

How fun! Looks like you two had fun! I'm jealous!

Kristie, I should have married, and put a pilot dude through school, instead of an M.D.! At least we'd be sharing the passion of travel, and experiencing new places together!

Very cool. Did you both find the locals friendly in Bucharest? Just curious.

[Nick]

Great pictures as usual! I love the looks of all those Europe layovers.

[sdfcvoh]

Awesome as always - thanks for sharing!

[Doug Taylor]

Originally Posted by SkyCougar

Very cool. Did you both find the locals friendly in Bucharest? Just curious.

The locals are friendly, but there were two things that I thought were of note.

First, they think Americans have fat pockets and there are many people that beg for money.

The other ones that don't beg for money will generally overcharge you for food and services. Often we'd receive our dining bill and find a variety of 'extra charges' for meals that we didn't order. Plus, what would normally be a couple of LEI (their national currency) would usually be an astronomical amount of LEI and then it'd exchange for a slightly inflated price in USD.

Like you'd never see a breakfast for 60 LEI in Romania, but it's about $25 USD which is quasi-acceptable in the United States at a large chain hotel. But honestly, it should have been about 10 to 15 LEI.

It's still got a communist mentality to a certain extent and the whole capitalism thing with the expectations of 'wealthy tourists' are concepts they quite haven't figured out yet -- IE 5 euro for a pitcher of wine in Paris doesn't neccessarily mean that we'd pay the equivalent of 15 euro for a glass of bad Romanian wine.

I think once they get their crap together, it might be a more interesting visit, but if you travel there, be very careful when money starts changing hands.

[SkyCougar]

Originally Posted by Doug Taylor

The locals are friendly, but there were two things that I thought were of note.

It's still got a communist mentality to a certain extent and the whole capitalism thing with the expectations of 'wealthy tourists' are concepts they quite haven't figured out yet -- IE 5 euro for a pitcher of wine in Paris doesn't neccessarily mean that we'd pay the equivalent of 15 euro for a glass of bad Romanian wine.

I think once they get their crap together, it might be a more interesting visit, but if you travel there, be very careful when money starts changing hands.

I've heard that as well Doug - a bit of the gypsy mentality going on there as well.

[skidz]

Originally Posted by Kristie

it's a pic of a location as we were going over romania... doug likes to talk about how often he or crew gets asked "what river is that?".. and i immediately thought Snake River! hahaha

These river banks look like a great place to land a supercub

[skyrunner1500]

The river *could* very likely be the Jiu and the houses part of Tintareni or Filasi.

Doug, I hope you did not pay your bills with USD?
Get a few bucks in local currency and your bill will shrink magically... usually 8-10$ should be sufficient for dinner for two including the drinks, as long as you are not aiming at the high-class places.

[Doug Taylor]

Nope! We took out some LEI for the days we were there.

Pretty interesting money too. Plasticky, tear proof and pretty!

[Skygrabber]

Cool shots, Doug!

So, when are you going to BUDAPEST, HUNGARY?

[Doug Taylor]

This month. The week after next.

[SmoothLanderJ]

Great Pics....hope to there one day.....

[Kristie]

Originally Posted by Skygrabber

Cool shots, Doug!

So, when are you going to BUDAPEST, HUNGARY?

how do you know about that? or do you live there?

[Skygrabber]

Originally Posted by Kristie

how do you know about that? or do you live there?

I work for the CIA....

I'm from there, my family is there and I have flown GA there before (lots of fun). You should have fun there.

Let me know if you need any helpful pointers in Budapest (ie. I can try and hook you up).

In California now...

You guys started flying to Hungary again recently after a hiatus. Let me just say that I remember the days back when Delta used to fly there in the 90's, with the L-1011. Seeing it parked at the gate with the very unique LHBP control tower in background is something I will never forget. I'm going to try and find a picture somewhere. It was a beautiful sight.