Bucharest and Budapest

It was almost the last thing we expected. The first person we met in the Romanian capital, Bucharest, was an Italian taxi driver.

We emerged from the airport terminal into a cold, wet night to be met with a familiar buona sera. It was a lovely surprise for us and, as it turned out, for our driver too. You know that thing of finding a small patch of common ground in unfamiliar territory? It was that. We were instant BFFs and at the end of our thirty-minute trip to town it was baci and abbracci all round. We waved a final farewell and our new friend and his taxi disappeared into the night.

Half an hour later I realised I’d left Greg’s wallet in the car. Of all the places to lose something, the back of a Bucharest cab at 10:30pm on a rainy night is not one you’d choose. But there it was. At least, we hoped it was there – still.

The upshot of the story is that after a fair bit of mucking around, a lot of help from a couple of local people and the determination and kindness of our lovely Italian friend we were eventually reunited with the wallet.

It was a relief and also a reminder – especially for me – about taking better care of valuables and the value of a caring friend.

Bucharest

Bucharest became the capital of the newly proclaimed Kingdom of Romania in 1881

There's a lot of beautiful architecture here; at one time - particularly between the two World Wars - Bucharest was an elegant and sophisticated city

At that time Bucharest was known as 'Little Paris' and parts of the city still reflect that cosmopolitan culture

Despite damage caused by World War Two and later by the Communist Dictator Ceaușescu, many of Bucharest's historical buildings have survived; this is the Cantacuzino Palace which houses the George Enescu Museum (the Romanian composer and violinist was also Yehudi Menuhin's violin teacher)

This is Ceausescu's colossal Palace of Parliament; it's the world's second largest administrative building after the Pentagon - the Communist Party leader fled Bucharest during the Revolution in 1989 before his 'folly' was completed

Our favourite building in Bucharest was the magnificent concert hall, the Romanian Athenaeum

Designed by a French architect and completed in 1888, the Athenaeum was financed almost entirely by public donation

The magnificent foyer includes these marble staircases that sweep up to curved balconies

The beautiful ceiling is decorated in gold leaf

In the Concert Hall itself, a circle of frescoes draws the eye up to the spectacular dome; it's a wonderful building

There's an obvious (and not always successful effort) here to preserve the past while embracing the future

We saw quite a few of these questionable 'historic facade meets new construction' examples

We really enjoyed Bucharest; there's a bit of a sense of 'faded glory' about the city but that also gives it an authenticity that we liked a lot

Budapest

And then it was on to the Hungarian capital, Budapest

A grand and beautiful city

And popular too - more than four million people a year visit Budapest

The famous Chain Bridge linking Buda and Pest, the western and eastern sides of Budapest

And from Buda Castle - sweeping views of the city and the River Danube

The Dohány Street Synagogue - Europe's largest synagogue and heart of the city's old Jewish quarter

Monumental sculptures outsides the World War I Museum

Budapest does seem to be a capital that has it all - culture, commerce, art, technology, entertainment

It regularly appears on lists of 'most beautiful, most idyllic, and best' cities in the world

We loved this sculpture on one of Budapest's main streets

And we also loved that the man seemed to have found a handy parking space right outside his window

Budapest and Bucharest - two very different cities, both worth getting to know