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You are here: Home / Trips / Bucharest 2025 / TRIP REPORT: A Nighttime walk with an iPhone – Miles to Bucharest

TRIP REPORT: A Nighttime walk with an iPhone – Miles to Bucharest

03/03/2025 by Kevincm

A Nighttime Walk with an iPhone
Miles to Bucharest

Romania Trip Report Cover

There comes a point where even I get bored of a hotel room. And also, there’s a supermarket around the corner – as well as some Communist architecture that is scarcely impressive. Let’s drag the iPhone out for a nighttime walk around the Bulevardul Unirii and Palatul Parlamentului… 

In this adventure

  • The Last Gasp of Silver (or British Airways did us all dirty)
  • Off to Heathrow and the wonder of Terminal 3
  • Lounging around Terminal 3 with Cathay Pacific and Qantas
  • BA886 London Heathrow to Bucharest Henri Coandă (Club Europe)
  • Exiting Bucharest Henri Coandă Airport and into the City – Of Trains and Trams
  • The Mercure Urinii – An Accor ALL Hotel
  • A Nighttime Walk with an iPhone
  • A Morning Exploration around Central Bucharest
  • Back to Bucharest Henri Coandă Airport and the Visa Satellite Lounge
  • BA887 Bucharest Henri Coandă Airport to London Heathrow (Club Europe)
  • Two Trains, A Tube and a Bus to Home
  • Silver Retained. But a New Battle Awaits

Given that I had a bit of a rest before heading back out, I was in no normal state – heck, I was tired as hell after only a few hours of sleep on and off.

But I was hungry. And there was a 24-hour Carrefour within spitting distance of the Metro station. The were also a few mini Carrefours and MEGAs in the area. But a 24-hour supermarket. I miss them. The ones near me have shifted to 18 hours a day opening (which when you doze off after a long day at work and wake up at ten to midnight isn’t a great thing – realising that it’s instant noodles later on that evening).

Nonetheless, I walked down Union Boulevard and passed a McD’s, KFC, a noodle joint and other places on the way. Maybe I was in the mood to be snacky, as opposed to a full dinner as I desired basic carbs, meats and crisps, rather than a full meal.

a street lights and trees at night
Bulevardul Unirii (Union Boulevard) 

a sign on a building
JERRY! JERRY! JERRY!

a flower shop with many flowers
One thing I saw a lot of… flower shops.

Certainly not a McDonald’s Hamburger – sorry, there are times when I want one… and this wasn’t that time.

a sign on a brick sidewalk
Carrefour

Besides, one of the things I love when travelling is going around other country’s supermarkets and seeing what’s the same, what’s different and what prices are like.

Call it a boring hobby. But it’s enough to keep me entertained.

a display case with food on it a display case with food in it
Hot sites 

a display case with food on it
Slice them up

a conveyor belt with packages of toilet paper
Best use of the middle of an escalator – add more items for sale!

a bag of food on a shelf a group of bags of cereal a group of packages of food in a box
Ok, people. Calm down. KitKat,  Lion Bar or Nesquik cereals? What the actual…

a store with shelves and clothes
Ethnic gifts here. 

With some snacks and nibbles, all in an attractive Carefour bag), I looked around. Certainly, where I was there were fountains – but at the bottom of the road, there was also the Palatul Parlamentului (Place of the Parliament) building.

I’m always up for an adventure. Armed with only an iPhone, I took my shopping for a walk. Finding places to cross the roads was… not challenging, but some obvious crossings weren’t available where one would think they were. Thus, there’s a lot of going around places. I could have bypassed a lot of this by going underground….

a sidewalk and trees at night a river with buildings and trees at night a group of people standing in a line outside a store `

a group of people standing outside a store
Late-night discounts.

… but, where’s the fun in that?

a sidewalk with trees and buildings at night

a sidewalk with trees and lights at night

Continuing the walk, it seemed I had hit the wedding dress part of Romania, with plenty of dress outlets on the parallel road against Bulevardul Unirii.

a building with a storefront with a few dresses in it a storefront of a clothing store

a building with storefronts at night a building with many windows and trees

Eventually, I came to my objective. The back of the Palace of the Parliament (Palatul Parlamentului). This building comes from the days of  Nicolae Ceaușescu.

a walkway with trees and a building in the background

With a height of 84 m (276 ft), a floor area of 365,000 m2 (3,930,000 sq ft) and a volume of 2,550,000 m3 (90,000,000 cu ft), the Palace of the Parliament is the third largest administrative building in the world.

a walkway with trees and a building in the background

And man… even from the back of Bulevardul Unirii – it’s bigggggg.

people walking on a sidewalk in front of a large building

If I’m shooting pictures I want to work with on the iPhone, I tend to save them as Digital Negatives (DNG).  This allows the camera sensor to work its best in ProRAW format, whilst giving me latitude to play with the image once in Adobe LightRoom Classic later.

a large building with lights at night a large building with lights at night

There’s one big downside to DNG – It’s very much a space hog as there is very little (if any) compression in it, with files starting at 60mb a pop, and going upward (compared to JPG which are only a few Mb at most.

If you’re running a phone with less than 128Gb of storage, I would skip using it, unless you don’t keep much of a photo library on your device. For those with 256Gb or larger capacity devices… just keep an eye on the library size. Don’t be afraid to switch back to JPG or HEIF if you’re inclined (least of all, you have to get those files off the phone – Apple insists on using USB2 signalling for its iPhone 15/16 lines whereas the iPhone 15/16Pro have USB3 signalling,  but you might need a new cable as the one in the box is signalled for USB 2 speeds… because Apple hates everyone)

One day, I’ll write about the mess that is USB-C and why you can have USB2 speeds over USB-C.

With those images in the can, I walked back to the hotel, taking my time. Whilst there were a few people out, it felt safe enough to walk up and down the boulevard.

a sidewalk with trees and people walking

a street light on a street
They see me tramming.

a city at night with a fountain and buildings
The Dâmbovița River at night 

a street with a building and a sign
NOODLE PACK
a group of people walking under a brick wall with graffiti
Why? 

a building with a parking lot and a parking lot at night
Nighttime return 

And yes, after arriving back at the hotel, I pretty much conked out.

Next:

A Morning Walk around Bucharest.


Welcome to Economy Class and Beyond. Your no-nonsense guide to network news, honest reviews, in-depth coverage, unique research, as well as the humour and madness I only know how to deliver.

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Filed Under: Bucharest 2025, Trip, Trip Reports, Trips

Comments

  1. Fonzi says

    04/03/2025 at 12:34 pm

    Besides, one of the things I love when travelling is going around other country’s supermarkets and seeing what’s the same, what’s different and what prices are like.– LOL I do EXACTLY same. Maybe for other boring for me informational and entertaining.. Still want to get to japanese 7-11.

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