Bucharest, Romania

I am not one quick to judge but so far, Bucharest will not be one of my favorite places.  Perhaps it is the extremely hot weather that dictates a tone, maybe it is the dust, dirt and debris I see on the street.  Maybe it is the dilapidated state in which I see so many former grand palaces and mansions.  I am having difficulty.  On a positive note, the people are friendly and eager to help or chat.  Most are amazed that we are American visitors.  They often often say, “But that’s so far!” They are usually very happy to see us visiting their country.

The food here is varied and really enjoyable.  Romanians we were told love food, food of all types.  Favorites are Romanian traditional dishes, of course, like Ciorba de Burts (tripe soup), Ciorba de Perisoare (sour soup with meatballs), Mici (charcoal grilled finely minced beef/pork rolls) and Sarmale (cabbage rolls often made for special occasions since the dish takes 4 hours to make) served with polenta but they also love Italian food and American chains too especially KFC, McDonalds and Starbucks.  I have not garnered enough courage to try the tripe soup yet, but I hear it is very good so stay with me because I will have a bowl and will share my thoughts.  Most traditional dishes here contain pork, fondly called their third vegetable.  Already we have tried the Sarmale and Mici at one of the many traditional Romanian restaurants and enjoyed pasta dishes at an old-school Italian restaurant.  We can vouch, it is true, they do know great food in Bucharest; the tastes and textures make one think of old-time family dishes made in grandma’s kitchen.  Rich and delicious!  I think I am entering a growing stage.

I am hopeful tomorrow’s walking tour of Bucharest’s old town will change my perspective of this place.  If not, we may be moving on to another city, one that might be having cooler temps, or maybe Stan and I will stay home inside our comfy air-conditioned apartment and conduct planning sessions for our next destinations.

When Stan booked our Airbnb apartment here in Bucharest, the photos showed a grand old Renaissance mansion very near the heart of the city.  But when we exited our UBER on arrival day, we looked at its building with awe, not the good kind of awe but the terrible kind.  Our building may have once been a mansion but today it is a sad neglected one.   Let your mind recall The Addams Family house.  Weeds were growing around its footings; the driveway was broken and in ill repair, shutters were hanging off the windows, electrical wires were draped in places where there should have been none, and grapevines and shrubbery were overgrown and wild.  Oh Lord!  We took a deep breath and decided to give it a try.  We lugged our three 40-lb bags up two floors on a narrow circular marble staircase to unlock the door to 2A.  Ahh! Like finding a desert oasis, we walked into another world.  Ours is a well-air-conditioned, spotless, modern, spacious, beautifully decorated apartment.  Is this what all Bucharest’s buildings are like behind decrepit facades?  We shall soon find out.

We learned that our building was once home to a French diplomat over a hundred years ago.  It is on the historical register and cannot be altered in any way without the approval of the board that oversees changes and restoration of old historical buildings.  One of the owners we met told us he must obtain “many papers” in order to simply paint a room.  So that explains that.

We did the walking through the main plazas and the old town.  Like our walking tour experiences in Poland, this excursion was educational, entertaining, and all-round wonderful.  And as luck would have it, the sky was overcast and the day’s temperature, while still considered hot, was much more tolerable than that we sweltered through yesterday. 

Ok, first impressions are not always the best. Bucharest is a spectacular city.  We emerged from the underground Metro heading to the tour meeting spot only to be greeted by a stunning plaza of fountains at Unirii Square (Union Square).  The series of 40 independent fountains running a length of 1.4 kilometers in front of the House of Parliament is awe-inspiring.  They jump, dance, and spray. The fountains were part of the ambitious 1980s Peoples’ House Project launched by then-Communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu.   The fountains have recently been rehabilitated and lined with glass mosaiced tiles to represent coats of arms of various kings of Romania and equipped with lights that are part of a 45-minute music and choreographed light show every weekend.  That must be a sight to see!

As we started our walking tour, we were told much of the architecture of Bucharest is Neo-Gothic and French.  In fact, Bucharest is often called the Little Paris of the East.  Between the mid-19th and 20th centuries, lots of young Romanians went to Paris to study.  They came back bringing French words, French foods, French customs, and French architecture.  Even today, it is acceptable to say “merci” as thank you, rather than Romanian thank you, “multumesc.”  Back then, young architects were called upon to design new urban development buildings to replace wooden structures that had succumbed to age, flood, or fire.  Today, a century later, that area of the old town called Little Paris is reminiscent of the boulevards of Paris with elaborate limestone facades, dark roofs, and pure French elegance.   Some of the buildings have been well-kept or restored, some, I am afraid, need an injection of money and work.  The city also has a grand boulevard just slightly longer than Avenue des Champs-Elysees in Paris.  It runs 3.5 kilometers from the Palace of Parliament.  Construction of the Palace and the grand boulevard came at the hands and near starvation of Bucharest citizens.  Communist Dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in his 1971 visit to North Korea became enthralled with the mass adulation he witnessed in the ideology there.  He sought to implement a similar government style in Romania.  An earthquake in 1977 that caused major damage, gave Ceausescu the impetus to launch his dream.  He relocated 67,000 families living in the area to concrete apartment buildings on the outskirts of the city and demolished houses, factories, and workshops.  Because churches are not a part of Communism, 20 were destroyed in the project and eight historic churches visible from the Palace complex were physically moved, like the 16^th century Mihai Voda Orthodox Church that was moved on train tracks 289 meters back from the street view by means of a bonified engineering marvel. 

Ceausescu mused, at the completion of his House of the Republic (now called Palace of Parliament) he would stand on a great balcony overlooking a massive crowd of people in the grand boulevard, cheering and shouting words of adoration.

He used forced labor and the military working in three shifts of over 5000 people per day from 1984 to 1987.  During that time all state resources went into the project; Romania accumulated overwhelming debt.  They undertook a policy of austerity to repay the debt.  Communistic people’s services were done away with; there were no goods to be had.  Ordinary people (non-members of the Communist Party) typically waited in line 8 hours each week for rations of bread, milk, eggs, and meat. 

A little more about the building itself.  The Pentagon is the world’s largest building, but Bucharest’s Palace of Parliament is the second largest.  It has a nuclear bunker and stands 42 meters tall, and its foundation goes 92 meters below ground.  Made of marble, it is the heaviest building in the world at 4.1 billion tons and is valued at 4 billion Euros.  It boggles my mind to try to calculate that in US $.

Ceausescu never saw the completion of his project and never received the adulation he imagined.  On Christmas Day 1989 after weeks of protests, a bloody revolution ended the 21-year reign of Ceausescu and marked the end of 42 years of communism.  He and his wife attempted an escape via military helicopter, but it was a coup.  The military took over.  After a 2-hour televised trial for treason, the arrogant, egotistical dictator and his wife, Elena, were executed by gunfire on national television.  These were some fed-up people!

Folks . . .   At that time, Bucharest’s people were not uneducated peasants; they were and are still very much like you and me.  In many regards, they are or could be your relatives.  For me, 1989 does not seem like a lifetime ago.    My youngest child was seven years old at the time this was going on.  Can you imagine???

But this is not the first of horrible rulers in Romania.  Like so many European countries their history is laced with horrendous kings, invasions, occupations, and takeovers.  As Paul Harvey might say, “Page 2, there is more to the story.”

To a certain degree, Romania is still suffering today.  Inflation is roaring and wages cannot keep pace.  In the last 30 years, the population dropped from 23 million to 19 million with about 4 million people having left Romania in search of better opportunities.    What a dilemma for a country to overcome.

As a final note, it is almost unbearably hot here!