Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Kuwait City, Kuwait on March 31st.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Grocery shopping in Romania

We woke up to rain yesterday morning, so we just relaxed at the guest house. There are only four rooms here, and the basement is the common area with a nice living room and kitchen space. We've been the only ones here for two nights, although two more rooms were occupied last night.

This is a popular guesthouse, but it's low season for tourism here in Romania, so it's only been full on weekends.

Around lunch hour, we decided to get outside despite the rain. It had actually stopped by then, but we were only going out to do some shopping. We've been making our own meals here, but only buying what we needed for the day, so we decided to go to a bigger store and pick up enough supplies for the next four days.

Our host Daniel pointed us towards the large Coresi Shopping Resort (yes, that's what it's called), with a huge grocery store. We got in the rental car and drove about 3 kms. Man, you have to have eyes in the back of your head to drive here! Big, busy traffic circles that seem to have cars flying around in all directions. But, we're doing fine. I've learned that when driving in other countries, just pay attention to what the locals do, and drive just like them!

Along the way, we stopped at at a smaller Lidl store. They are a discount type of grocery chain in Europe. The store was pretty busy. We picked up most of our vegetables at this store.

Then, we carried on to the big mall.

We were walking through the mall, when I checked my email on the phone. I was reading a blog comment to Ruth and the person who made the comment was recommending a restaurant here in Brasov. I read the comment, and Ruth pointed at a restaurant in the mall, and asked "is that the one?"

And it was! There are only two locations of this particular restaurant in Brasov, so it was a very strange coincidence!

Then, we went into the massive Auchan supermarket. I didn't have my camera with me, but here's a photo I took with the phone that I had posted to our Instagram account...



This has to be the biggest grocery store we have ever been in! It took us almost two hours to do grocery shopping. Of course, it's a little more of a procedure for us because we're constantly checking ingredients to make sure things are gluten free, and trying to translate things.

Everything is far cheaper here than in Canada. The only thing we found slightly more expensive is the gluten free bread, which was actually cheaper, at 10.49 lei ($3.56 CAD, $2.70 USD)...but it's quite a small loaf.

A pound of lean ground beef cost 8.20 lei ($2.79 CAD, $2.00 USD).

10 eggs cost 1.99 lei ($0.68 CAD, $0.50 US).

A basket of about 25 plums for 3.50 lei ($1.25 CAD, $0.90 USD). Yes, for the whole basket!

And so on. It's pretty cheap for us to eat here.

We made it back to the guesthouse around 4:30pm, and decided to just stay in. Ruth made a delicious thai red curry dish, and we watched a movie on the laptop. Later, another couple who is staying here came down to the common room. They are from the city of Sibiu, Romania which is our next destination. It was late though, so hopefully they'll still be around to talk to today because she spoke quite good English.

Raining again this morning, but we're going out anyhow to visit a castle!

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17 comments:

  1. 3:30AM here - celebrating!!! Even grocery shopping sounds fun in Romania. Nice that you can find gluten free foods when you travel. I always take note of what you eat. Feel so much better eliminating and making better choices. Can't wait to visit the castle! Have a great day!
    B&C

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not sure I would call grocery shopping fun but it certainly is interesting in a different country and a different language. By the end of it we had had enough and wanted out! ;-)

      We are happy to see a few gluten free foods and some that aren't too badly priced.

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  2. So much fun exploring new places and grocery stores in different countries. We can always find something to do on a rainy day too.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's all a new experience so everything is interesting even grocery shopping, especially on a rainy day.

      Delete
  3. Had my surgery yesterday all went well

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great watching your journey look forward to your posts everyday! Thanks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Brigitte for following along with us. :-)

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  5. What are clothing prices in Department stores?

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    Replies
    1. Didn't really look but I noticed a few prices walking through the mall and they looked to be similar to ours.

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  6. So far, when comparing this Romanian/Moldova trip to your past Colombian trip, you two have had it a lot easier this trip in terms of quality shelter, transportation, food, and health. Such things make it possible to enjoy your explorations to the max. That is my kind of trip.

    Dee

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    Replies
    1. I would say that it is still way too early to compare the two. We are only a week into this trip and have only stayed at two places, taken the train once between two cities and as for health, that was a very odd occurrence for us in Colombia. I think our accommodation was cheaper in Colombia than here but we still stayed at some nice places, I have to say that our cooking facilities are definitely been better here. We have only eaten out here once so it is still to early to compare as we had some great meals in Colombia. I think the transportation system for both countries in pretty much on equal footing, there seems to be plenty of buses going between cities and the price seems comparable, perhaps slightly more money here but we will have a better idea on Sunday when we take the bus from Brasov to Sibiu. We totally enjoyed our trip to Colombia and so far this one is shaping up well too.

      Delete
  7. Your phone takes great pictures. Do you think that with globalization that most modern things are all pretty much alike?

    You hit the nail on the head with driving. I think that's where a lot of people have problems in Mexico. Follow the crowd.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Chris, it does seem to do the job. Yes, we have to agree with that comment on globalization. I think you can find much the same products here as you can in Canada or the US.

      I think the only time Kevin feels a little uneasy in getting into the busy roundabouts and then out on the right exit without hitting anyone. Sometimes it takes nerves of steel!

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  8. Bigger than a Super Walmart or Costco! Quite a trip you're enjoying! :-)

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    Replies
    1. We think it was probably bigger than a Super Walmart but smaller than a Costco. It certainly had lots of "stuff".

      Yes, it is a great trip so far but we are again finding ourselves short on time to be able to do all the things that we would like to do.

      Delete

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