Bucharest Expat » Vitan http://bucharestexpat.com Thu, 19 Jan 2012 02:36:23 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 Late Night Cinema http://bucharestexpat.com/2010/01/late-night-cinema/ http://bucharestexpat.com/2010/01/late-night-cinema/#comments Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:04:48 +0000 Bucharest Expat http://bucharestexpat.com/?p=805
  • Recommended Hospital
  • The “New” Old Lipscani
  • Filling/Petrol/Gas Stations Closed for Shift Change….
    • ]]>     So it’s now a toss up… as Vitan Mall has grown a customer base that is “unsuitable” for a proper movie-going experience (unless you enjoy teenage social hour), then you’re left with AFI and Liberty center for really excellent Cines. We like the theatres quite a bit, soundsystem and all in AFI, however the lines are still entirely too long. This will change over time though, as AFI is the “hot” place to be right now. Liberty Center however, has a secret (I should keep my mouth shut, but this is a scoop for the expat community). That secret is the “late nighters”. We just saw “Avatar” last night at 11pm, also now the third time we have gone to a late showing here, and the movie and the experience was great… no regrets. For 3 of us, with 2 popcorns and to “buckets” of pepsi, we were at about 110ron, including the 3 tickets, which were for a 3-D movie. Avatar was great, this is not a movie review post, but it’s definitely worth seeing in 3D.

    We had probably 20-ish people in the theatre, and for the first time ever (the previous 2 times at Liberty there were a tiny few “conversations”) there was NO talking or rowdiness. Wow. maybe we can directly attribute this to these possibilities:

    1. The Movie was 3D, so watching movies through strange glasses required too much attention to divert energy to talking or cell phones.

    2. It was 11pm on a weeknight, the mall was “closed” at every Avatar fan was at home in bed.

    3. Avatar has been out long enough that everyone who wants to see it has seen it???

    4. 3D films are just out of the budget of teens so that audience migrates to the normal films?

    But at the end of the day, I think Liberty is just our new number one choice for late night movies when you’re bored monday through thursday.

    Click Here To Go To Liberty Centers’ Move Listings

    Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

    Incoming search terms:

    • late night english movies
    • 3d movies in bucharest
    • 5 d cinema bucharest
    • late night cinema
    • Liberty Center-cinema

    Related posts:

    1. Recommended Hospital
    2. The “New” Old Lipscani
    3. Filling/Petrol/Gas Stations Closed for Shift Change….

    ]]>     http://bucharestexpat.com/2010/01/late-night-cinema/feed/ 1     Another Huge Mall For Bucharest? http://bucharestexpat.com/2009/12/another-huge-mall-for-bucharest/ http://bucharestexpat.com/2009/12/another-huge-mall-for-bucharest/#comments Thu, 03 Dec 2009 23:32:53 +0000 Bucharest Expat http://bucharestexpat.com/?p=572
  • Reál Hypermarket 24hours?
  • Seek Alternate Route From Baneasa
  • La Motoare to close?
    • ]]>     About 6 months ago I stumbled upon a website for what was or is to be called the “Colosseum” on the North Side of Bucharest. It will be the biggest mall with a immense list of amenities. I thought that when AFI Mall had opened up, that was what all the hype about, and it had just “changed names”. However that is apparently not the case. Here are some photos of this new mega-mall:

    Colosseum Front Entrance
    Colosseum Front Entrance

    Colosseum Indoor Atrium
    Colosseum Indoor Atrium

    Colosseum Map
    Colosseum Map

    … and this is it’s future location.

    Here is a copy of a Press Release that was issued and is presently on the Colosseums website at http://www.thecolosseum.ro

    The Colosseum: Construction of one of the largest Shopping Centers in Europe will start in Bucharest in Autumn 2009

    PUZ for first class European style shopping center approved on August 1st – More than 70 percent of the first phase leased out – Anchor tenants: Carrefour, Flanco, LeroyMerlin

    A spectacular shopping and entertainment center will be created in Bucharests Sector 1: The Colosseum Shopping Centre & Retail Park will comprise 140,000 square meters of covered retail space, with more than 480 shops and 8,500 parking spaces as well as 58,000 square meters of Retail Park. The construction works will start in autumn this year on the site of 620,000 sqm in Sos. Chitilei. Building contracts for the Retail Park have been signed with Bouygues, one of the largest international contractors, and work will commence in October 2009.

    In the first phase of construction, a retail park will be built – with units ranging from 1,500 sqm to 19,500 sqm on a leasing area of 58,000 square meters. More than 70 % of the retail park is already leased out. Among the tenants are well-known brands such as Carrefour hypermarket, a Flanco store, Altex and a DIY-market of Leroy Merlin.

    Upgrade of traffic infrastructure
    The investment volume for the whole project will exceed 350 million Euro and is being placed by the company Nova Imobiliare, an English company. Currently Nova Imobiliare is in negotiations with major Romanian and international banks, who are interested in financing the project. The investor of The Colosseum will spend an additional amount of 30 million Euro to improve the surrounding roads and public transport. Upon completion of the Colosseum the upgraded infrastructure will be donated to the community so that all inhabitants will benefit from this development. A modern traffic solution will offer a cosy access to the shopping center. Additionally a bus station and a tram station will be located within the center. More than 2.03 million inhabitants live in the catchment area of 60 minutes.

    Project partners
    For the realisation of this unique project, the best European and US-American companies, of their class, were engaged to create a team of unrivalled expertise. The architectural planning is carried out by Leach Rhodes Walker architects, one of the leading architecture firms in UK and Romania. Interior design is created by Darrell Schmitt Design Associates from Los Angeles, California. Leasing and long-term center management of The Colosseum is carried out by ECE Projektmanagement, European market leader for inner city shopping centers. The extensive planning of the transportation and technical structure is conducted by the international engineering companies Waterman International and WSP Group.

    Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

    Incoming search terms:

    • mall colosseum
    • colosseum map
    • colosseum shopping center bucuresti
    • colloseum bucharest
    • maal kolosseum bucharest bilder
    • mall colosseum bucuresti
    • colosseum shopping mall bucharest
    • colosseum mall bucuresti
    • the biggest shopping centre in bucuresti
    • coliseum mall

    Related posts:

    1. Reál Hypermarket 24hours?
    2. Seek Alternate Route From Baneasa
    3. La Motoare to close?

    ]]>     http://bucharestexpat.com/2009/12/another-huge-mall-for-bucharest/feed/ 1     The Best Place To Buy A Used Car http://bucharestexpat.com/2009/10/the-best-place-to-buy-a-used-car/ http://bucharestexpat.com/2009/10/the-best-place-to-buy-a-used-car/#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 12:26:58 +0000 Bucharest Expat http://bucharestexpat.com/?p=255 moto_2200 With the “Search Meter” that I’ve got setup on this site, I’m able to log what searches  are attempted in the search field within this site. One of the more common questions I  have is to go into more detail about actually buying a used car. I can tell you that from  the side of the road and from a car showroom are the two worst places. The best place  that I’ve found, and that I have used personally to buy vehicles, is the Used car  market/swap meet-up over in the Vitan area that occurs every Saturday and Sunday. I  will edit this post later to get an exact address, but any taxi driver or person over near t  he Vitan area is fairly familiar with this, as it is cause for most of the weekend traffic  over in that area.

    This car market is best in the mornings, as by the afternoon the owners of cars tend to  give up and head home. What you have here is a few hundred cars brought together by  their individual owners and grouped somewhat loosely by price and type. You can walk  through at your own pace, open up the cars, start them up, look them over, and take  them for a quick drive around the park. The owners are all very much on top of their  game here, whether they are in the business of buying and selling, or this is their  personal car, or they are reps from a company, they all try to make the best presentation they can. You will need a mechanic unless you are very mechanically inclined. Romanians are the best as far as I am aware at the “rip off” and making cars appear functional even when they are ready to drop. Even though there will be a LOT of lemons, because there are so many owners competing here, there will also be a lot of great vehicles, and hopefully those are the vehicles that will sell, and sell first. That’s another reason to get there early, as you won’t typically see the same cars there more than 2 weekends in a row.

    Now here are some pointers when actually searching for a vehicle here. Stay away from the high end cars unless you are very familiar with what you are doing. More often than not these are black market vehicles, with “doctored” paperwork. The sellers will almost always “know” someone that will gladly “help you through the paperwork process”. I would recommend going the other direction on these (keep in mind your exponentially larger tax bill based on engine capacity as well). ((if you see an exotic black market car at a really great price, just shoot me an email first…lol)). Another potential scam is the American car mark-up. No a Jeep Cherokee or Chrysler 300 does not cost 30,000.00 Euros. Not to bring over here, not to pay in taxes (if you notice they’ll all be the smaller engine size) so don’t get sucked in… unless you want an American car specifically. This is their business, they’re making money at this. We are talking about people who just have a car they wish to sell…that’s it.

    Here’s a great piece of advice… take a look at the license tags on the front and back of the car. You’ll want it to say B as the first letter, for Bucharest. Imagine that. If it is from outside of Bucharest, but inside Romania, you’ll have to pay a hundred or so ron to switch it over to a new “B” plate. Now if it is from outside Romania, you’re looking at possibly paying more money to straighten out the documents leaving its country of origin, even though its already left, and then you will be paying a premium in importation taxes here as well. Don’t let the sellers tell you this is already taken care of, because common sense will tell you if it’s paid, then they’d have proper plates. Again, these may also be black market cars. So keep sharp.

    As far as registering the car and making it “yours”, we’ll get the actual addresses of all the locations you;ll need to go to in order to pay the taxes, registration, insurance, title, tag, yadayadayada. If you have a family member or someone you trust that is Romanian, put it in their name. It’s cheaper and ten million times less of a paperwork nightmare. My car is in my Romanian wife’s name… and it still took 4 days to run around.

    Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

    Incoming search terms:

    • used cars bucharest
    • buy a car in bucharest
    • used cars in bucharest
    • buying a car in bucharest
    • used cars for sale in Bucharest Romania
    • second hand cars bucharest
    • used car in bucharest
    • cars for sale in Bucharest
    • bucharest used car
    • cars for sale in bucharest romania

    No related posts.

    ]]>     http://bucharestexpat.com/2009/10/the-best-place-to-buy-a-used-car/feed/ 7