How to (Not) Get Lost in Bucharest. A Guide of Daily Walks

Abstract

Bucharest is not a city that wins you over at first glance. It reveals itself slowly, one step at a time, through winding streets, peculiar houses, hidden courtyards, the scent of freshly baked pastries, and stories waiting to be discovered where you least expect them.
How to (Not) Get Lost in Bucharest is not a guide to the city's best-known landmarks, but rather to its everyday walks. It is an invitation to slow down, look more closely, and discover the city beyond the familiar routes. Because sometimes, the best way to get to know a place is to allow yourself to get a little lost.
Whether you live in Bucharest or are just passing through, this book invites you to spend a few hours exploring the city on foot: to walk without rushing, to observe, to wonder, and to discover a Bucharest that reveals its charm
only to those willing to look at it with patience.

The guide includes 12 walks and one anti-walk, each accompanied by a map and an online route accessible via a QR code.

Catinca Dobrescu is a landscape architect. Born in Bucharest, she has explored the city’s streets since her youth. She attended the “Ion Mincu” University of Architecture and Urbanism, as well as the Harvard Graduate School of Design. She currently works in Berlin, where she designs public and private spaces, addressing themes of green infrastructure, public participation, and stormwater management. Walking around Bucharest has awakened her curiosity about the processes and conflicts that shape the development of cities.