Well, this is embarrassing. Two nights in Bucharest with Mrs RM and I seem to have a hundred pictures of modern bars and ancient buildings; where’s the graffiti, dereliction and donkeys ?
Frankly, I could have been in Manchester Brew Dog, or the Port Street Beer House, if they’d decided to halve their prices overnight.
We didn’t go for the beer, of course. We went for the new country tick, and in the forlorn hope that Ryanair would give us something to complain about. Not yet, Michael.
As long as you can fit your luggage in a bag this size you’ll have no problem with their new luggage rules.
For our £80 return flights (for 2) we even get the joy of being placed as far away as possible for the duration of the flight, as we refuse to pay for any extras like sitting in the same half of the plane or being allowed to go to the loo.
We’ll need that cash we saved to afford a third in the Mikkeller bar, we thought.
Henri Coanda Airport is efficient and well-equipped, though the stare they gave Mrs RM as they checked her passport was disconcerting.
A 45 minute slog on the coach into the centre (80p) is pretty much what you’d expect from the suburbs of Lille or Milan, packed with Ikeas and Lidls and big signs and grey tower blocks.
So we got out at Piata Romana and looked for tat.
We were suddenly hungry, having opted for the Momo porridge at Stansted a decade earlier (no 7am Punk IPA for us).
This’ll do.
It’s marked on Google maps as “Romanian Craft Beer“, which seems a teeny bit definitive. It’s actually called Fabrica de Bere Buna, easy to remember.
We followed a group of students from the nearby University in; surely students can’t afford craft ?
No, they were doing some media course, and spent the next hour filming the barman sliding a bottle of beer across the bar, like in the Westerns.
Here’s my own arty video which may gain me an honorary degree in the future.
My concern was that the bars like Mikkeller would all be pitched at ex-pats and tourists, but Fabrica seemed to have locals, bar the lone young Japanese lady going through the flight of beers.
Actually, Crofters Rights in Bristol could twin with this place.
5 Lei to the £, so about £3 a “pint”, though of course only Mrs RM would drink a 7% Red ale in pints.
I’m no beer bore, but the house Zaganu beers were frankly superb, as was the grub. I’ve had some good chips but fizzy beer in Brew Dog of late, these beers seemed far less carbonated. We even got some tailored (“Taylored” ?) recommendations.
If Fabrica is just the result of beery Romanians taking a cheap flight to Manchester or Berlin and nicking ideas, then they’ve made a superb job of it. Nice loos, too.
Friendly staff on whom to try our two words of Romanian (“beer” and “please”), and we wobbled out with a vague idea of how to get to our hotel. Hopefully.
retiredmartin 
Looks fizzy to me. And, why travel across the continent to a bar that could be absolutely anywhere in the world? I’m sure Bucharest has something more authentic to offer.
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The Romanian for NO GIRLS ALLOWED is probably that girls should be seen and not heard.
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I have more great Romanian female toilet art coming up, of course.
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Zaganu? Isn’t that what Vic Reeves used to say, in his deep voice, when Ulrika got it wrong?
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“being allowed to go to the loo” – and at just “£80 return flights (for 2)” would that be outside toilets ?
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Probably outside seats. Ryanair are based on the Indian railway concept, aren’t they?
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Videos work best in 16 x 9 rather than in 9 x 16, IMHO, Martin. TBH, many stills do too. Those using ‘phones can always rotate them, but it’s not so easy with a laptop.
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Videos generally work best when there’s something happening in them.
Unless,like young Martin,you attended the Waiting for Godot School of Photography.
Reminds me of an old pal of mine from many years ago sent along by a TV news company to film the last Big Ben Bongs before it closed for a period of refurbishment.
Now the old boy was a bit slow,hard of hearing and with dodgy eyesight but no-one had the heart to sack him and as he was nearing retirement age they sent him on jobs that required very little to do except set up the camera on a tripod and press record.
Which is what he accidentally did on arriving in Parliament Square half an hour before the last bong commenced.
Which is why when he got back to the studios they found 29.30″ of Big Ben’s clock going round and then footage stopped 30 seconds before the last bong commenced as he thought he was turning the camera on.
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Yep, there is an identikit ‘Craft Bar’ in most big towns and cities across Europe and America. Similarly in China and across the Far East, judging by the images my son sends me.
It just reinforces the need to support and enjoy the British local, although these have always followed identikit trends at various times, through the last 120 year or so. All we have now is a varied selection of what is left from different era, but isn’t that good? I wonder how many of the Marston’s out of town new builds on a roundabout or a shopping/entertainment centre will still be there in 50yrs? If there’s an odd one or two, that will suffice as a reminder.
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But it’s only Marstons, Greene King and Whitbread that have enough confidence in pubs to build new ones.
The one on a roundabout near me offers a good pint of Pedigree but I won’t know if it will still be there fifty years from now.
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Yes, a good point, although Sam Smith’s have just got planning permission for on in LS14 – on a cross roads near a proposed development (housing) site at Coal Rd junc Skelton’s La. I’ve yet to visit the Fly Line, a Marston’s identikit new build in Garforth at a new retail development.
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Judging by the latest reports on new build houses, I wonder if anything being built today will still be there in fifty years time. Give me millstone-grit-and-Bangor-slate any day.
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If you bang a cask into stone, or into London brick for that matter, the cask generally comes off worst. I wonder what happens when you smash one into dab-dot plasterboard on breeze blocks? Or on timber studwork?
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Those craft beer bars (we have one not too far away from where I work and it looks exactly like the one in Bucharest) are worse than the mock Irish bars you find in every city around the world. English pubs are unique, there is nothing unique about the craft beer scene.
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Oh, cheer up, Morten. Where else would Brits get pissed on European mini-breaks ?
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I would take a counter view. There are many very poor English pubs, just as there are many excellent ones – it’s the same with all types of bar/scene.
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I can’t recall you commenting that “there are many very poor English pubs” before your visit to the Rifle Drum.
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I thought you said you weren’t going to New York?
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Hasn’t the Palace of the Parliament been transformed into a Spoons yet?
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I believe Martyn Hillier has designs on it.
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Or possibly Humphrey.
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Sir Humphrey to you.
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I was thinking of the Downing Street cat.
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Not only “Mrs RM on her phone” but also an absence of Autovacs.
Was much notice of your visit needed for all the signage in Bucharest to be converted to the English language ?
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Two weeks notice was sufficient Paul.
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“and donkeys ?”
If this were Tijuana I’d say in one of the bars as a floor show. 😉
“Henri Coanda Airport is efficient and well-equipped”
Here’s me not making fun of foreign language maps. 🙂
“Tat”
And you can tell it’s good because one of the signs on the left has three (three!) exclamation marks.
“Pleasing “craft bar in grimy building” scenario”
True, but have you seen what the buildings look like around The Fighting Cock in Bradford?
“Here’s my own arty video which may gain me an honorary degree in the future.”
Might have been better in black and white (can you do that fancy filter thingy like you were doing with photos for a time?). 🙂
“though of course only Mrs RM would drink a 7% Red ale in pints.”
Surely two of the 11% 330ml #22 would suffice?
“Bound to confuse”
Naw. Makes sense. If it was the loo for the ladies the ‘V’ shape on the person would spread out at the bottom. 😉
“Mrs RM on her phone.”
And they’re STILL practising the beer slide.
Cheers
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Simon and I and others are more grateful for your interest in our ramblings than you’ll ever know !
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(shuffles feet and blushes) 🙂
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Just 2 art film questions from me…
1. Did Mrs RM get a part as an extra in the ‘bar slide’ video…?
2. What’s your video called…? Suggest ‘Study of Backside in Denim’ sounds suitably arty…?
🙂
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Correct on both counts, Hermit. You should go into filmmaking, perhaps a fictional story about the mythical Isle of Wight.
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I think it’s already been done by Enid Blyton… 🙂
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