There was a short time in my life when Bucharest was home, and I can assure you, it was the cosiest time of my life. Living in a place called the Cozyness Downtown Hostel gave myself and every traveller passing through Bucharest, the opportunity to experience a home away from home.

Cozyness is an international abode, with some nights spent playing board games and drinking tea and other nights spent playing music and drinking plastic-bottle beer. No matter what mood you’re in, staying at Cozyness will give you the opportunity to enjoy beautiful Bucharest in the comfort of your own international home.

The beautiful hostel is run by Marius, who could pass as a Thai philosopher disguised as a friendly Romanian. Along with all of the other beautiful Cozyness staff and Snowflake, the resident feline- the hostel was an absolute pleasure to be a part of. I had the honour of cooking donation-based dinners for guests and definitely learnt some culinary skills during my short stunt as a backpackers chef. My hottest tips as a foreigner amateur cook in Bucharest are:

• Always translate shopping lists into Romanian first. Especially herbs.
• Some ingredients are as rare as honest taxi drivers in Bucharest – this includes (but is not limited to) nori paper and cider
• Seriously – there is no cider in Bucharest. None. Anywhere.
• Beer is cheaper than water though – and you can buy 3 litre plastic bottles. (Picture a family sized coke bottle)
• There is no good asian food in Bucharest. With the exception of Marius’ cooking.
• There is lots of amazing hummus though…
• There is an art to cooking pasta. My advice is to convince any Italian guests to help you out while you poor yourself a family sized class of coke beer.
• If you need an excuse to get them to help you – say you are gluten intolerant so can’t tell if it is al dente. (Don’t drink your family  beer while using this line though because they may be aware of the high gluten content in beer…)
• Stock in Romania is basically just MSG in a sachet.
• According to Marius, fish sauce is apparently an essential ingredient in every dish…
• Always label your food at Cozyness – unlabelled food is communal and disappears quickly.
• Romanians don’t like spicy food (with the ultimate exception of Marius who always requires chilli)
• It is possible to acquire many friends by making cookies.
• I make a mean batch of cookies.
• I have many friends.

My time in Bucharest was honestly one of the best of my life. Getting the opportunity to meet such interesting travellers every day, whilst learning so much about Romania’s charming quirks from the Cozyness family was a complete privilege, and every day presented the opportunity for adventure.

Some of my fondest memories include:

• Hunting down a replacement laptop charger from ‘the guy’
• Hosting an Australia Day Hottest 100 party in the midst of a -20 blizzard
• Having my Canadian friend Naz work extremely hard to start the BBQ for our Australia Day Hottest 100 party in the midst of a -20 blizzard…
• Learning the pronounce ‘lemon’ correctly in Romanian so I don’t mistakenly ask for oral sex at the fruit market
• Attending a local meditation group
• Spending hours of my life (with a boy who was willing to get up at ungodly hours and face deathly cold conditions) dealing with the US embassy, which finally resulted in a fresh US passport
• Many cozy movie nights – accompanied by immense amounts of popcorn
• Eating wasabi by the spoonful as a staff discipline routine
• Helping some cool German tourists in a hitchhiking adventure
• Playing competitive rounds of Catan (my favourite German board game)

If you are heading to Bucharest and are searching for that home away from home – check into the Cozyness Downtown Hostel. Only a 15 minute walk from downtown, and just around the corner from the metro, The Cozyness Downtown Hostel is tucked away in a beautiful residential corner, in the heart of the city. The hostel itself is beautiful and has great facilities – including a extremely well-equipped kitchen. With great company in a beautiful hostel, I can promise you a cozy stay in Romania’s capital.

Thank you for all the beautiful people who made my time in Bucharest so lovely – in the words of Marius ‘I love you so much I could throw myself behind a train’.

The Cozyness Downtown Hostel