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I visited this taproom in 2023 with friends and it had just opened, so I thought I’d pop in again since I was in Bucharest for the afternoon.

The beer list and there was a range of styles there, although I’d tried a number of those beers before. It took me a while for a team member to come to the bar, but I was hardly in any rush. Some of the beer names are quite bold, but I think that’s the anti-corporate type vibe that they’re aiming for.

Many of the bars aren’t open in the afternoon and this is probably why, but I appreciated being able to visit them. It didn’t get much busier during my time there, but it always felt welcoming and comfortable. There’s some outside seating as well, but that’s not really my style in general.

Last time I visited, the venue wasn’t doing food, but they have a separate kitchen now specialising in burgers and loaded fries. Customers have to order food and drink separately, but the process felt clear and well managed. The guy at the kitchen hatch was also personable and engaging, he added positively to the whole arrangement. Firstly, the beer, which was the Split Pot from the Ground Zero brewery themselves, which was hoppy, tropical and juicy.

Onto the food and this very much surprised and delighted me. The fries were served as a generous portion, they had an element of spice to them and they were crispy on the exterior and fluffy on the interior. The toppings added texture and this would have been a sufficient snack just on its own. The smash burger with bacon was served in a soft bun and it packed a huge depth of flavour, it was meaty, had a pleasant taste and was really very good.

Overall, I spent around ninety minutes here before going back to the airport and the food and drink really was what I had hoped for. There were also power sockets available which was very handy as I didn’t want to be low on power before a flight. Ground Zero were one of the earliest craft beer brewers in Bucharest and it’s good to see them offering such a quality product.

It’s hard not to be a little intrigued by this building in central Bucharest which isn’t in the greatest of shapes. Originally conceived in the mid-1980s as the Museum of the Romanian Communist Party, the massive structure was designed to be a centrepiece of the ‘Civic Center’ redevelopment project that transformed much of old Bucharest.

The idea of course was that of Nicolae Ceausescu, who led his country to fall apart and collapse whilst he focused on grand projects such as this and the Parliament building which Romania simply couldn’t afford. He was the sort of leader who would build a big ballroom because he thought it would help his reputation. I make no comment.

By the time of the 1989 Revolution which led to the execution of Ceausescu, the exterior was largely complete, yet the interior remained a hollow shell of concrete and steel. It was mostly left as it was, but there were plans to relocate the state broadcaster here, but there wasn’t enough money. There wasn’t always a big gap between the buildings, that was more recent work for a brand new project that also fell apart.

There it sits in all its modesty by the river, never to hold the museum to the history of communism that Ceausescu wanted. There are plans to bring the building back into use, but it’s so large and in a state of such disrepair that any project will require huge sums of money.

I didn’t realise that there was a train service from the main airport in Bucharest to the main railway station in the city centre. It was quite decadently priced at twice the bus fare of the 100 city link bus, but since that’s £1.20 and 60p respectively, it’s not entirely a concern. I was staying nearby overnight and wanted to spend the afternoon in Bucharest, so this seemed a more efficient way of doing it.

The train was already in the railway station when I arrived, so I walked to the end of the platform to the ticket machine. A ticket guard, wearing jeans and looking like a passenger, helpfully came up and said that there was no need to buy a ticket in advance, just buy on board. I’m always slightly suspicious of such things, but as everyone else was just boarding, I took the risk.

And indeed, all was well. Or certainly in terms of the ticket purchase, the guard who had spoken to me earlier came along with a card machine and that was all very efficient. The train itself was packed, although fortunately I had a window seat, and it was far too hot. It’s not a long journey, but it wasn’t particularly comfortable. There was the vaguest of evidence of air conditioning, but I suspect that was more because a window fell out or something rather than anything else. This wasn’t the most modern of trains.

It was too busy to take a photo during the journey, but this was the excitement of disembarking. One set of doors didn’t seem to work which slowed matters down somewhat.

I hadn’t realised that this was the central station of Bucharest and it wasn’t built as such, but yet here we are…. I have stayed nearby many years ago on my first visit to the city, so I really should have known that.

Well, it’s traditional I suppose.

There’s plenty of stuff going on in this station, it felt like something from thirty years ago with a market, cafes and a variety of other shops. I suspect that it will all be renovated at some stage, but there’s something rather charming with it as it is.

And safely in Bucharest. This station was first built between 1868 and 1872, with the Monarch Carol I of Romania being present when the foundation stone was laid. It has been extended and knocked about many times over the decades, but there’s still some nineteenth charm to it.

There’s an underground metro station, trams and buses to the city centre, but as it was only a thirty minute walk that’s what I did. I decided to get the 100 bus back to the airport though….