Raluca Gavris (1987)

Mojo is one of the most appreciated places in town for going out on a Friday or Saturday night. I suppose this happens because the karaoke evenings are so popular across the city. They have good karaoke equipment and an entire floor for this activity upstairs. Here you can sing until the dawn, but it is always crowded. That’s a minus because sometimes you have to wait even two hours before getting to sing.

Downstairs it can be found a club – called The Brit Room – where a band (whose lead singer is also the place owner) plays live music – covers of popular British songs (but not only). The band takes several breaks so, in between, everyone dances on a great music.

Here I go very often – and I always have a good time, the way it is decorated (even if downstairs the room is too fragmented with lots of walls and pillars), the (live) music and even their guitar-shaped menus. I don’t like the fact that the rest room is placed in the middle level, where you can find also the wardrobe and a non-smoker room. This means that you have to go up or descend using some narrow spiral stairs to get to the toilets. Also, it is one of the few places in Bucharest that keeps the habit to ask for an entrance fee, maybe to support the band (10 lei).

Taken together, Gradina Icoanei and Parcul Ioanid are the kind of places you choose for a walk when you’re searching for a quiet and small public garden able to give you an evanescent mark of nostalgia.

Gradina Icoanei (Icon’s Garden) is a neat and charming park in an area famous for its architecture. It has been taken good care of – and it still is, so I would say this place may be viewed like a living piece of an old Bucharest, left untouched by the communist era. You will find nearby lots of fancy restaurants (most of them with French or Mediterranean cuisine) or intimate teahouses in case you want to eat or drink something.

Even smaller than Gradina Icoanei, Parcul Ioanid (Ioanid Park, now “Ion Voicu”, but nobody knows it by its recent name) is placed right in the neighborhood. Its style and architecture, besides its settlement (on a former creek named Bucurestioara) had inspired some writers to describe the moments spent here in their writings or diaries.

So, what’s so special about these places? The mood. An authentic and inspirational mood. A walk here may resurrect some wistful memories – but this is for inhabitants like me. For the others, so-called strangers, the reassuring effect of these public gardens cannot be denied. It’s the perfect place for an introspective mood – no matter who you are.

At the Western periphery of Bucharest, near the railroad and in a not very clean and cared of neighborhood, you can find the ruin of the biggest church built in Bucharest before 1800. The spot wasn’t turned into a landmark for tourists maybe because the last part of the road is awful and the place is wild and far from the centre.

The story of this spot is a little bit creepy – the legend says the church is cursed because the Ottoman bombings took place right before the sanctification – so the blessing of the place never happened. Now it is supposed to be haunted. The bell was thrown in Dâmboviţa (the river crossing Bucharest) and now the story says it can be heard at midnight if it is a full moon night.

Yet, I must admit I didn’t hear the bell ringing but I assume it is because I was visiting the place daytime and I left before the sun was preparing to set. Though, I don’t recommend nighttime visits being given the safety of the neighborhood at night.

Anyway, I can assure you it’s a really interesting place, worth seeing even if, like me, you’ll unsuccessfully try to spot the image of Lady’s Chiajna daughter on the right wall of this huge ruin.

Bucharest has lots of Irish pubs, but this is one of the oldest and most well-known of them. Maybe it is because it provides lot of space especially upstairs while the others are quite small. I choose to come here because I’m always sure that the evening can’t go wrong: after all, in an Irish pub the atmosphere is always cheerful and lively no matter what.

Yet, I have to admit that even if the place has somewhat the appearance and the style of an Irish pub, something doesn’t match: for example they have in the menu really tasteful sandwiches, delicious fish’n'chips but also… pizza and pancakes. I think that if it is to recreate the Irish concept you need more than Guinness beer and the appearance. You need also Irish music and unfiltered beer. Here you can’t find those.

But beyond those inadvertences, the place is really nice and cozy. I like the fact that the Guinness beer is well-served and, as I mentioned before, it is impossible not to have a cheerful environment if you go there.

Located in a renovated patrimony industrial building (which used to be the Commodities Market building), The Ark is a fancy place, a multi-talent one. It is a club, a bar, a lounge, an art gallery (photo, paintings and sculpture exhibitions), and a set-up for music concerts and film projections.

Usually, the place is filled with Uranus 144′s clients (a huge place nearby with an open-air cinema) but not only. That’s because The Ark is huge and really good looking, and they organize all sorts of fancy events. You can also borrow the place for a specific one if you want so.

Also, I heard they have a marvelous cuisine, but I haven’t tried it yet. But, when it comes to beverages, I can only say I would not recommend the flavored hot chocolate, only the simple one. The prices are not very low, but going out here it’s affordable.