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Pastrami & Pubs

Pastrami & Pubs

Published on 23 October 2025

The second and already last full day in București I used to tick off some more local food boxes. It was also the day that a large number of hashers with the same destination as I arrived, which usually means one thing: bar crawl!

I had breakfast in my hotel: rather unusual for me on any day but the last one of a stay, but since it was automatically included in my booking, I better use it! There I already bumped into another hasher from BMPH3, who had also arrived the day before. 

I skipped the coffee in the hotel—it it ever any good anyway?—to try some in the nearby espresso bar Coffee District instead. 

Today’s museum of choice was the Muzeul Municipiului București, the municipal museum. I actually had to pay separately to be allowed to take photos, and it cost me more than the museum ticket itself!

After another coffee at the Sfinx Espresso Bar, I headed to the Obor Market to try some mici, as supposedly the best ones are to be found at Terasa Obor. There was a short queue, but luckily not as bad as I’ve seen in some vlogs! Simple but tasty, and that’s another one from the list!

To continue checking off food items, I set course for In House Pastrami & More for something I never realised was originally Romanian: pastrami. 

After a last coffee at the rather fancy Sloane Specialty Coffee, it was time to get to the hotel and change, in preparation for tonight’s programme…

And the evening activity was the Bucharest H3 Pre-Lube Bar Crawl! It started at the Hop Hooligans Taproom—which I definitely wanted to visit—but I had no clue where it would lead us after that. Luckily most bars did not feature on my Wednesday itinerary, so I didn’t put my liver at risk by squeezing in all the bars on my wish list for nothing. After QP Pub, Londohome, and PaRdon Pub, we ended up at the Ironic Taproom, where I had been the night before. Well, I thought I had, but apparently the space next door was also part of it, with another thirty different beers!

Roman-ia!

Roman-ia!

Published on 22 October 2025

A new day, a new country! It’s absurd I hadn’t been to Romania yet, considering you can’t even spell the country’s name without “Roman”! Ready to discover which local dishes and beers Bucharest has to offer!

My Ister sleeper train wouldn’t even arrive until just before noon, so I had plenty of time to take in the views of the Carpathian Mountains and the Romanian countryside. Such a late arrival had the benefit I could check in straight away and have a shower at my ibis Styles Bucharest City Center. My room even has a balcony! Although judging by the presence of an ashtray there, it might have something to do with the prevalence of smoking in Romania…

Since I didn’t pack much of a breakfast for my train ride, I enjoyed The Pulled Pork Sandwich—and coffee of course—at Meron even more. 

Time to delve into some Roman history at the Muzeul Național de Istorie a României. Here they have casts of all the reliefs of Trajan’s Column, and full-size replicas of the base and top of the column. With the Museo della Civiltà Romana now closed, this might very well be the only place where one can still see casts like this! There’s also a lot of gold in the museum, but I’m not much of a pirate…

The museum was smaller than I expected, so I already had some time to visit my first beer destination in Bucharest: the Ground Zero Beer Taproom. 

Another coffee at Origo, and since I still had some time left before my dinner reservation, I already had a couple of beers at Ironic Taproom. 

Then it was time to start ticking off dishes of my Romanian cuisine list! Although it’s quite touristy, even experienced travellers and locals recommend Caru’ cu bere as the place to go for local food and a unique experience. Three checks in one go for me: zacuscă, tochitură muntenească, and papanași. While the main dish alone would have been enough to fill me up, they seemed to have given me a double portion of the dessert. So while every course was as tasty as I could hope for, it left me feeling quite stuffed. Maybe I should have joined the dancers when they asked me!

Then it was Beer O’Clock! No seriously, that was the name of the bar! They only serve their beer in half litres though, which is not ideal for tasting… Next door at Tap Craft Beer everything was available in a much more reasonable 200ml size, so I had a couple of beers there. 

The last stop for the night was the NoRoom Taproom—serving Maktoob and OneTwo beers—a place so small I first couldn’t find it, and literally no room to sit inside. 

Budapest by Day

Budapest by Day

Published on 20 October 2025

After catching up on some sleep, it was time to properly discover Budapest: visit a museum, do some sightseeing, and finally eat something local!

First things first: breakfast and coffee at the London Coffee Society. The Hangover 2. 0—think breakfast burrito meets shakshuka—certainly was enough to get me started for the day! 

And that start involved some climbing, all the way up to the castle, to visit the Budapest History Museum. 

Coffee at the heavily goat themed Zërgë, and then some proper sightseeing, in daylight this time.

Then it was finally time to eat something typically Hungarian: lángos. I headed to the Hunyadi Square market hall, because there is supposed to be a food stand there serving pretty authentic lángos, according to some Hungarian vloggers, but when I got there, it was closed due to renovation works! Luckily—while having a coffee at Cube Coffee Bar—my new Budapest friend suggested an alternative, so thanks to her I was eventually able to tick off this particular box at Gozsdu Lángos Bizstro. 

With this greasy snack in my stomach, I was ready for some beer! Of course I drank (at) Onlygoodbeer, or Csak a Jó Sör as it’s called in Hungarian. 

Beer Point turned out to be a weird mix of craft and macro beer, so I didn’t stay for long. HOPAHOLIC on the other hand had a great selection, and as it turned out, I had stumbled upon a tap takeover by Metalhead, a Bulgarian brewery. 

Then I was ready to tick of another box on my Hungarian food bingo, but the restaurant I picked turned out to be a daytime affair, and had already closed at five! So instead, I had a quesadilla dinner—and beer of course—at Beer Brothers. 

The last stops of the evening were the Gravity Brewing brewery and taproom—an awesome space, with a great view on the shiny brewing installation—and MONYO Tap House. 

FIRST time in Budapest!

FIRST time in Budapest!

Published on 19 October 2025

Five years after I originally planned my trip, I was finally there: Budapest! Run with the local hashers, drink the local beers, enjoy the local delicacies: lots of fun ahead!

Everything had to wait a little bit, though, because my rather dusty sleeper train arrived over twenty minutes late. On top of that, due to my accommodation downgrade, I hadn’t had the opportunity to change into my running kilt, so I had to sort that out first. Once that was taken care of, and I left my bag at the hotel, it was time for coffee and breakfast at Dorado. 

From there I headed to Nyugati railway station, since the hash run would actually start outside of Budapest, in Piliscsaba, a 38 minutes train ride away. 

Over there, I joined the Budapest H3 for Trail 1853 – The Jenga Farewell Run! The Jenga part referred to a recently torn down wooden viewpoint tower, on top of a hill. To get there, the hare picked the steepest way up, so even though we were only two kilometres from the start at that point, the beer stop there was very welcome!

After the run I could finally check into my ibis Budapest City hotel for a much needed shower and a change. 

As the restaurant I picked for dinner turned out to be closed, I had something to eat with my beers at FIRST Craft Beer. While tasty, it was not particularly Hungarian, something I’ll have to make up for tomorrow. 

Then it was finally time for a visit to Mad Scientist’s Madhouse. Finally, because it was one of the first breweries on my to-visit-in-Budapest list, although this actually isn’t the same taproom they had back then. 

Last call was at the Hops Beer Bar: small—just seven beers on tap—but cosy and definitely worth a visit. 

Good beers, good food, good company, and good times: after a rocky start, a perfect end of my first day in Budapest!

In my Pride Kilt in Amsterdam…