Museul Antipa si National de Istorie

Museum Hunting

One of the beautiful things about Bucharest is there are about twenty museums you can visit. And while they aren't the price of DC museums, they are cheap enough to head into especially if you have a toddler who needs to run around. The key is this: finding the ones free of breakable delicates and cranky staff who yell at you to stop touching the glass displays.

Deets and I took a field trip to the National Museum of Natural History which was closed for remodeling for several years until recently. With toddler high corridors (yes!) the museum guides you through any habitat of your desire, complete with taxidermied animals and various reenacted scenes of Animals Gone Wild. It was definitely worth the trip; I got to see some blood and guts in the human body exhibit, and Deets got to explore "on his own" without interference of mom constantly trying to redirect his attention.

Total Eclipse of the Heart

Now shake dem skeleton bones!

I told the Witch Doctor that I was in love with you!

Ooh Eee Ooh Ah Ah!

We got a hot crustacean band

On another day, I took Deets and our neighbor's son downtown to check out the Romanian National History Museum. At first I was a tad worried when we were directed to look at blurry black and white photos of grim faced priests and farmers, but beyond that they had an interesting mishmash of collections: gorgeous gold jewelry, crowns, weapons, and coins all cozied in the velvety purple basement. They also had a barrage of chiseled Roman stone you could walk through and touch (thank you Deets). 

I dunno, what do you want to do tonight? 

Noooooose.

I enjoyed some awesome hat- wearing men-folk paintings and the two boys feasted their eyes on the car and toy collection from yesterday's children. This is where I got yelled at for Deets touching the glassed-in stuffed animal display (seriously, there were filthy, stuffed bunnies, bears, and dolls from the 60's on show). Worth the visit? Eh. Probably, considering it was only 8 lei, about $2.50 and it was miserable to be outside in the rain with a fiercely independent baby boy.

Find one thing that's wrong with this hat.

No clue who they are.

Caged animals.