The Great Balkans Road Trip: Bucharest to Blackpool (Day 13)

Welcome to the final part of my series following my Just You tour of the Balkans – through Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia. If you’re joining us late, you can follow the whole series at the link below. This blog contains affiliate links to support my writing.

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Today it was time to say goodbye to the Balkans, Bucharest and my new buddies, as we packed our cases for the final time.

Breakfast at Radisson Blu Bucharest

Now this was a five star breakfast! I was spoiled for choice but, now well trained by Paddington, I leaned towards the healthier choices. I was super excited to find a whole salmon on one of the counters! I was all over that.

I remained unimpressed with the quality but mainly the quantity of coffee offered over here. Forgive the lack of coin for scale but this is how the coffee was served. No wonder I was topping up with water (and a glass of juice).

After breakfast, we congregated outside the hotel to wait for our bus. A passing cyclist waved at us. I so loved these Romanians! It was like being back in the North and I felt so at home here.

Palace of Parliament

The enormous Palace of Parliament was built in the 1980s, inspired by Ceauşescu’s visit to North Korea. It’s the second biggest administration building in the world after the Pentagon, with 1,000 rooms. It is as deep as it is tall, with a nuclear bunker. It is also the heaviest building in the world. The neighbourhood was demolished to make room for the palace, which was still under construction when Ceauşescu died in 1989.

You can take a tour of the palace in the video below, which tells you a little more about it.

I had been here on my previous visit to Bucharest – plus I was still scarred from Peles Castle the other day – so I advised in advance that I would be sitting this one out. Along with a handful of others (and our guide, who was not allowed to show us around himself) we spent our visit in the cafe.

There was also an art exhibition in the waiting area, with lots of nudeys.

One of my travel companions was very excited to tell me that he’d seen a pub called Two Bastards. And it was recommended I look into Great Rail Journeys for future holidays. House of Cravings also came recommended.

When the group returned from their tour of the palace, we got back on our bus and made our way to Bucharest Airport.

What is Bucharest Airport like?

We were dropped off at the airport more than three hours before our flight. I like to be early so I was good with that, in principle.

However, in real life, this was not a good situation to be in at Bucharest Airport, with the British Airways gates not opening until two hours before our flight was due to depart. The area that side of checkin was not particularly spacious, either, with not a great deal to do.

As always, I tried to make the best of the situation by seeking out a coffee shop with seating and parking up there for the next hour. A couple of others joined me in the small seating area, so I was able to leave my suitcase with them when I needed to powder my nose (I always thought that metaphor was about applying make up but now I’m wondering if there are drugs implied? Neither for me, obvs).

At length, I decided to go and join the rest of the group, who were waiting by checkin, despite it not being open. Surely it would be soon? We had been here forever already.

Dear reader, I must have been standing there for the best part of an hour. As I’m learning to realise, I do not cope well with standing for long periods of time, especially in crowds of people. I began rocking and pacing and felt as if I was going to black out, as it was very warm in there. At the point when I started slapping myself in the face, one of my friends from the group came running over with an orange Skinny bar, because she could see I was struggling. That was so sweet of her. I thanked her and gromphed it right down before sitting on the floor for the rest of my wait. Yay for low blood pressure and autism. Tick tock goes the clock.

At long last the checkin gates opened, with the 32 of us at the front of the queues. I had already checked in online but needed to drop off my bag before proceeding to security and queueing again. By this time I needed more food, so I had half an eye out for a suitable scoffery as we made our way through departures to passport control.

Passport control! Oh my word that took a long time. And we didn’t have a long time, with the clock ticking down to departure time. The man in front of me in the queue was an absolute age getting processed, with some technological administrative issue resulting from the new EU passport rules that had recently come into place. He had his face scanned over and over again and was questioned and questioned about where he had been. Meanwhile I stood impatiently in line and waited. Tick tock goes the clock.

At last he was processed and I quickly made it through before finally taking a seat (not on the floor) at the gate. Phew! And relax!

Here I found myself surrounded by tired looking men wearing Iron Maiden t-shirts, on their way home from last night’s gig in Bucharest. This video of the night gave me goosebumps and I’m not even an Iron Maiden fan! I cannot imagine how incredible it would have been to be down the front there!

Meanwhile I finally caught sight of the much anticipated crab Pringles. Would these be popped before we got on the plane? I hoped so!

As I attempted to relax by the gate, I became aware of announcements encouraging our group specifically to check all of their hand luggage into the hold, as this was a very busy flight and there were concerns about not having enough storage space in the overhead lockers. I wasn’t having any of that. I was done with airport administration now. I only had a rucksack that would fit underneath the seat in front – and it contained essentials for the flight. I never liked faffing about with the hold when I happened to be seated in an emergency aisle. Happily I was on the back row today, so that wouldn’t be an issue. Plus I might be able to get off the plane quickly at the other end.

Bucharest to Heathrow Airport

Here’s my view from the ‘window’ seat on the back row of the plane.

I might as well have been in the hold.

As I settled into my seat and unpacked my supplies for the journey, I quickly realised that my tuna was quite smelly in an enclosed space, so finished it off quickly, hoping that would help.

I was aghast to see a two year old child on the row in front of me and began to wish even more that I had been to that Iron Maiden gig and was slightly deaf this afternoon. Or actually in the hold. Happily, I was armed with noise-cancelling AirPods, should they be required. I find playing white noise helps me drown out nuisances on public transport as well as being able to concentrate on my book (music does not allow for this). As it turned out, the child was well behaved and I was able to read my book in peace.

The plane ended up departing late. In exciting news, the delay meant that we got free food again. Yippee!

Paddington would have given me a hard stare for eating these but (a) he was in the hold and (b) I was technically still on holiday so it was allowed. Also it was free food, if not in the SlimmingWorld sense.

On the subject of food, I was happy to have avoided the omnipresent tripe soup on holiday. We’d been joking about how to make it sound hipster and decided on consommé tripé.

I love flying. It is enforced ‘me’ time – just like sitting on a train. I immersed myself in my book and soon enough we were landing at Heathrow.

The plane unloaded from the front only, so I was one of the last to disembark. Boo! I was still hopeful that I would have enough time to make my connecting train at the other end, having baked in extra time in case something like this happened. Another member of our group, though, had a short connection for her connecting flight, which she missed, resulting in an overnight stay at Heathrow with no luggage.

Back in London

Passport control was pretty quick at Heathrow. There was even a person at the passport scanners instructing people to ‘scan the shiny side’. I was grateful for the pointer, as this confuses me every time. Perhaps now I have it written down I will remember for next time.

Would our luggage have made it with us? Yay it did.

I said quick goodbyes and switched to turbo mode as it was now time to make my way home. The next mission was to board the Elizabeth Line back to Tottenham Court Road. There, in my haste, I missed the lift up to the street, but a kind man offered to carry my case up the stairs. Yay for chivalry! In London too!

I made my way across to Euston Station on foot, comfortably in time for my train home. London was mid-heatwave – and I was wearing my big coat to save packing/carrying it – so I was hot and sweaty by the time I got to Euston. Time for a cold beer, then? I was still on holiday, after all…

The Signal Box, Euston Station

Aah! This place was accessible via lift at Euston station. I sat and enjoyed every drop of the above beer while I cooled down and waited for my train. This is the life!

London Euston to Blackpool North

I was drinking every last drop of this holiday, treating myself to another beer and another KitKat on the train to Preston.

As with the train down, I had reserved a seat which was close to the luggage rack (so I could see my case) and the toilets (so I didn’t have to lose sight of it for long). Now I could relax!

Unlike my journey down, I had to change at Preston on my way home (always a chore, never a treat). My train home from here was the penultimate train to Blackpool on a Friday night. Which, you can imagine, was full of people who had enjoyed a good night out.

Dear reader, this was an entertaining journey.

There were a couple of very worse-for-wear men, slurring heavily. On boarding, one asked me if this train was going to St Annes. I replied in the negative, because (a) it wasn’t and (b) I didn’t particularly want them sharing my carriage. They wandered off before eventually boarding anyway. I doubted there would be a train to St Annes at this time of night. Perhaps they’d be changing at Kirkham & Wesham? It soon became apparent that the more likely scenario was that they had forgotten (a) the answer I gave them or (b) that they’d asked at all…

Meanwhile there was a young man sitting across the aisle slumped forward in his seat and not looking in a good way at all. More of him shortly.

Somewhere between Kirkham (where they hadn’t got off) and Poulton, having tried and failed to order some weed over the phone, one man from St Annes decided he needed to get off the train – and proceeded to press the button to open the door while the train was still moving. Which is presumably why we have safety locks on these things.

As we pulled into Poulton, he and his mate got off. Within about 30 seconds, he got back on the train, asking again if this was the train to St Annes. I again answered in the negative and this time he didn’t stay on the train. Phew!

Meanwhile, I was aware of a rustling and noticed a man hastily emptying a Pret a Manger bag before handing it to the man who had been slumped over unwell – just in time for him to throw up into it. In his defence, he did diligently carry the bag with him off the train at Poulton, which I am sure the cleaner would be grateful for.

Welcome back to the UK!

It was close to midnight when I finally arrived back at Blackpool North, to be collected by Lee.

What an eventful and entertaining holiday that had been! There were bumps along the way but we all survived and had a wonderful time overall. Thank you, Just You, for organising trips like this for us solo travellers. I’m already looking forward to the next one! Meanwhile I’ll be back very soon with my travel diaries from my next trip, taking in Bratislava, Vienna and Prague. Subscribe to keep up to date with my adventures.

What did I learn today?

• Five star hotels really are a different level.
• Coffee in the Balkans is not the best.
• Palace of Parliament is the heaviest building in the world.
• BA checkin is two hours before departure at Bucharest Airport.
• It is best not to arrive at Bucharest Airport too early.
• Passport control is painful with the new technology.
• Tuna smells in enclosed spaces.
• Iron Maiden put on one hell of a show.
• You scan the shiny side of your passport.
• Chivalry is not dead – even in London.
• The Signal Box is handy for beer when waiting for a train at Euston.
• Getting a late train on a Friday night is entertaining but not pretty.

Is this part of a wider Balkans travel series?

Yes! If you want to start at the beginning you can find Day 1 here or navigate below or via the European Travel Diaries menu. The journey takes me from Romania, through Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Kosovo and Serbia, before heading back into Romania.

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