As an ieșean, I’m happy that we have several of these places in our city. I’m not going to list specific coffee shops and bars that offer this kind of solitude, I’ll only list some of the public spaces.
Starting with the parks, any of them will do really, but the three main ones I keep ending up in are Palas, Copou and Expoziției.
Palas Park is just behind the Palace of Culture, to the South. It’s a relatively large park, but it’s the smallest of the three. It’s also the densest, with the largest number of coffee shops and other attractions in and around it. In good weather days, its main alleys and impeccable grass areas are filled with people of all ages walking around, sitting down, enjoying life, but you can easily find your own patch of grass, in a more secluded corner, or in the middle of everyone if you so prefer, open your laptop, your book, throw on your headsets if you feel like it and just do your thing. I’ve had some of my most productive work sessions leaning against a tree in this park.
Copou Park, up on the hill of Copou, is a larger and “purer” kind of park, with less focus on the drink & food side of things, a more intellectual experience if you will. The main alley is a hotspot of Romanian literary history, with Eminescu’s Linden Tree in the middle of it all. Close by, more than a dozen statues and busts of the most important figures in the city’s literary history make it an open-air museum. In summer days, especially on the weekend, it’s main alley and the central area are packed, but the more you go towards the edges, the more solitude and quiet you will find. It’s well shaded, with big trees, lush green grass and colorful flowers all around.
Expoziție Park (Exhibiton Park), also up on Copou Hill, looks like a stylistic mix between Palas Park and Copou: more drink & food options than Copou, but not as packed with them as Palas. It’s clearly separated into a few distinct sections: a small children’s play area and a skating park to the South and South-West, the food, beverage and refreshments area to the North and the main park itself in the middle. On warm weekend days especially it gets really crowded, but even at its fullest, I never fail to find a spot to work, think or simply relax.
Stephen the Great Boulevard, Union Square and Lăpușneanu Street form a great walking route, full of people on good weather weekends, or on holidays, including the winter holidays. Sometimes I walk it just for something to do while I ponder something or another. Other times I take my camera with me and do some street photography along the way. I can always stop at one of the coffee shops if I want. The three locations are connected and the to end route takes me 20 to 30 minutes, at a leisurely pace, if I stay on the main path. Frequently though I take some kind of detour, through the nearby Theater Park, the nightlife hotspot at Stephen Galleries, or the Mitocul Maicilor Park. Go during the day to see the architecture and visit the monuments, go after dark to enjoy the nightlife.
The city’s farmer markets are chaotic, crowded places, where farmers from the surrounding villages come and sell vegetables, fruits, cheese, pickles, flowers. They’re most active in the morning. I don’t go all that often to these places, but every time I do, I get a buzz from their energy. The largest are the Nicolina and Alexandru markets, but the Chirilă one is also worth seeing if you’re in the area.
Last but not least, Stephen The Great Galleries is a large underground area at the base of a huge brutalist building to the West of Stephen The Great Boulevard. Go during the day and and you’ll find a perfectly empty space, with an almost deserted vibe to it, save for the pigeons flying around inside the huge glass ceiling above a psychedelically colored spiral staircase, startled by the occasional echoey footstep of the rare passer by. Go during a weekend evening and you’ll find thousands of people around the several pubs, bars and clubs packed next to each other in that underground space, spilling outside into the corridors, music coming from all sides, rap improvs, crazy fashion. You can find anything here, from elegant wines and cocktails to shots served on the go, from vintage rock music to electronic to a death metal themed place. It’s the beating heart of the city’s nightlife, it’s raw, it’s unfiltered, it’s organic, “unorganized” and wonderfully stylistically messy and it’s my favorite nightlife spot in the world.
