Bucharest Before Christmas. Photos from a Walk in Central Bucharest Ending at a Christmas Gift Fair

Herastrau Park is the largest park in Bucharest. It spreads over 110 hectares. A 6 km (3.7 miles) alley winds around a beautiful lake. There are many beautiful trees, and their spots around the park are rather inspired. This well-kept park is an oasis of beauty and freedom in a crowded capital city. It's also home to the Village Museum, which is also one of the favorite recreational spots in the city for Bucharesters.

I wrote about this place in the past. Here are two articles with more information and photos (if you click on the links, the pages will open in new tabs):

Photos of Herastrau Park in Spring

Photos of Herastrau Park in Summer

They were taken with an old version of the Canon Rebel T5i camera shown to the left. I'm very happy with Canon myself. I also have a Canon S110, which I carry around in my purse. The images below are taken with the S110. This latter camera does everything I want: ISO up to 12800 (much higher than my six-years-old Canon 350D camera), Full HD videos, photos of up to 12.1 MP. It's also small and light -- perfect for travel. The only thing I'm having trouble with is converting its RAW files, so I'm using my Canon DSLR camera in RAW mode when I want many gradations of white.

The distance between the main entrance to Herastrau Park (Parcul Herăstrău) and Romana Square (Piața Romană) if you take the Dorobanti St. (Calea Dorobanților) route is some 2 km. It makes for a pleasant walk. There are some expensive stores along the way, including a Christian Dior concept store and a nice wine shop. There is also a well-known flower shop called Iris. At this time of the year it was selling Christmas wreaths, mini Christmas trees, and waxed apples.

The Most Holy Redeemer (Roman Catholic) Church in Bucharest, on Magheru Blvd, is commonly known as the Italian Church. There was a service there as I was passing by.

Dalles Hall (Sala Dalles) is a central haunt in Bucharest where you can find a bookstore with Romanian and foreign titles and an exhibition center. While on various other traditional holidays you can find large fairs in various places in the city (The Romanian Peasant Museum, The Village Museum, The Geology Museum, Sala Dalles, etc.), in recent years there has been only one major Christmas fair downtown, and that’s the one at Sala Dalles. True, you can find gifts at another favorite bookstore downtown, Carturesti, and handmade gifts at various malls. But Sala Dalles has a wide range of gifts, including some that are Christmas-themed: wreaths, all kinds of ornaments for the Christmas tree, candy to hang on it, Santa chocolates, and so on.  

From a flier I received on my walk downtown I learned that this year we also have an (open-air) Bucharest Christmas Market next to Universitate Square. I should have looked at that flier while I was in the area instead of stuffing it in my purse. There have been Christmas stalls in parks in the past (Cismigiu Park downtown and others), but not a Christmas market.