Dracula and a humongous building

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As part of a work trip I was able to spend a day running around Bucharest to have a look at a few bits and pieces. I was lucky enough to be staying at one of the nicest hotels, so started the day with a swim in the stunning bean shaped pool before heading out on a tour, it was a very hot day.
First we went to the square where it all kicked off back in 1989, revolutionary square. Old Nicolas and his wife were captured on the top of a building trying to escape the people and where soon after executed. But our first major stop after about an hour of driving out of Bucharest was a monastery. More importantly, it is said to be the tomb of Dracula....ooooo .... however, the tour guide tried to play it down, crazy when that is the only reason for driving so far out of town! On the way back I asked about all the land that seemed to be vacant and not utilised. Apparently this is land from the communist era that had been taken and attempts had been made to give it back to the people, but in such small plots that the people couldn’t really do anything with it or there are still legal battles going on. There are miles and miles of land like this, it is very sad. We saw lots of horse and carts running around as well, they are still a main stream form of transport, I love a horse and cart.
Once we got back into town, in the mid-day heat I went on a walk around the old town, well the remains of old town. They are really trying to re-generate the area. Encouraging the pavement side cafe culture, however some of the old houses are still in dispute, similar to the farm land so no one will do them up and in fact some travellers have taken advantage of this fact and are squatting. After the walk around and a few visits to some churches, we headed to the main event; the Palace of Parliament. It is a massive building, only the Pentagon is bigger. After Ceausescu’s visit China and Korea he decided to build this huge thing, plus razor all the building around it to create an huge road way. It cost a fortune to build and basically bankrupted the country, and effectively lead to his down fall. It cost well over £3billion to constructed, the insides are plush and rather stunning, but how crazy. One room is all in pink marble; in fact he used the last stock in the world. But in the end it is a pretty impressive structure.

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