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Published: March 31st 2011
Former Communist Party HQ
The balacony where Ceausescu gave his final speechI have a book about football in Eastern Europe that basically describes Romania as not a very easy country to like - a cross between the appalling and the appealing. I have also have a friend who when inter-railing around Europe in the mid 1990s described being so scared on arrival at Bucharest’s Gare du Nord, that he and his band of merry men got straight back on the next train to anywhere..........well he actually put it a bit more bluntly than that, but this could end up being family reading! However before filing Bucharest in the pigeon hole of your mind, somewhere next to Iraq and Libya and just up from Helmand province, as a place to avoid at all costs, it is worth considering that places change and one man’s hell is another man’s version of heaven. I wouldn’t say it has got to our heaven status yet, but it’s on the up and the good people are trying.
The omens did not bode well as the plane touched down at Bucharest Baneasa - it was somewhat wet, which never helps – places always look better in the sunshine. The airport is unusually for one dealing in low
cost carriers, is somewhat closer to the city centre than the main International flight venue – but where was the ATM? If you were expecting the facilities of Terminal 5 think again and what appears to be the solitary cash machine was located in the Departure and not the Arrivals Hall. The wolf pack of taxis was waiting offering their wares at prices ranging from the almost competitive to the ridiculous, but the normal service RATB buses do the job for a mere 30 pence – go across the road and hunt down a ticket. The ticketing is the standard punch it on the bus variety, but not available from the driver or the news stand and can only be bought from a rather non-descript grey box of a hut to presumably stop most of the ticketing monies being “borrowed”. The buses on the main routes conveniently have real time electronic location map screens within, so even though you have only a remote clue as to where you are at least you know at which stop you have got lost! Once you leave the very efficient metro system behind, it certainly isn’t the easiest city to get your bearings. We
Arcul Du Triumf
The Paris of the East got our first taste of the Paris of the East – past the Arc de Triumf, through Charles de Gaulle Square – and we alighted at the Piata de Romana only one block from base. We opted not to get the Metro for just one stop and found the hotel with relative ease just behind the National Theatre.
The first night did nothing to help us discover the “appealing” tag. Despite being fairly close to the Old Town, we somehow managed to skirt round the party zone central with a combination of bad luck and ineptitude having been successfully put off the obvious route by a succession of “mud” streets. Daylight revealed that your EEC Euro is hard at work relaying them with authentic cobbles in a bid to turn back history on 40 years of socialist government and recreate the Old Town that every Eastern European city deserves. We ended up in a bar called Lost Society – quickly deciding that maybe they were. There was a massive price differential with the beer – a kiosk will sell you 2.5 litres at about 3 Lei ............ 60 pence .........but a lot of the bars around the city centre
turn that into 7 or 8 Lei for a 500 ml bottle. We abandoned our explorations in favour of that most traditional of Romanian foods - a pizza! One of the waiters gave us a run down on his appreciation of Millwall FC. There was a serious point somewhere in there about a common bond with fans of Rapid Bucharest who have also had to endure years of under achievement, but he clearly hadn’t had to spend his afternoons down the New Den testing this theory.
We returned to our turn of the centre hotel – straight out of the Fortunes of War TV series – grand French windows, creaky floorboards and a lift so old that nobody seemed to risk using it! Unfortunately, the music from the bar underneath showed very little in common with 1939 and the bass boomed on past 3.30 in the morning.
The morning brought no improvement in the weather – still damp and gloomy. We headed out via the National Theatre, University and down the Boulevard Bratianu to the Piata Unirii. The huge square is flanked by what was the former Communist Department store, which has now been transformed in individual units
Palace of the People
..........allegedly the 2nd biggest administration building in the world after the Pentagon selling all consumer items familiar elsewhere in Europe. We crossed over the “River” Dambovita. It doesn’t look like a river and has an almost canal like appearance............. it disappears under the Piata. Ceausescu apparently thought that all great cities should stand on a river, so among many of his other madcap ideas he diverted this one to flow through his capital. His ultimate achievement or folly depending on your perspective is just around the corner – you can’t miss it, it is rather large. The Casa Poporului – “the House of the People” – is alleged to be the 2nd largest administration building in the world running the Pentagon a close second. As you would expect, a fair size plot was needed so Ceausescu flattened an entire area or two taking out 30,000 homes in the process, making a serious number of the population homeless and if the stories are correct causing 1000s of stray dogs to be released on to the streets (where they remain to this day). Where is that Dan Petrescu when you need to him? Bucharest is synonymous with stray dogs, but in truth it’s no worse than Belgrade or Sofia and there was no apparent
Romania v Spain
IRB World Cup Qualifier
Romania 64 Spain 8Arcul du Triumf Stadium
Saturday 19 March 2011
Attendance :2,200 danger of us being hunted down on a night as we sought out new sources of refreshment.
The House of the People is approached down the Boulevard Unirii – built to be wider and longer than the Champs Elysee. We tried and failed to do a tour – closed. We eventually succeeded in finding it open for business after the weekend – prepare to leave your passport at the desk and undergo airport style security! Ceausescu never saw the finish of his creation – world events had seen him removed from power before completion – and the Romanian people considered either finishing it or blowing up as part of removing the legacy of the Communist past. The guide said Option 1 was chosen, but only because they couldn’t afford the dynamite. The tour covers 2% of the rooms in 1 ½ hours, so it’s big and certainly impressive – if marble is your thing, don’t miss out! The place is now a showcase for all things Romanian, as well as the Parliament Buildings. I’m sure they are glad they kept it now.
Friday night was opera night, so we booked early to avoid disappointment. The princely sum of
Piata Unirii
Tractor in downtown Bucharest £2.20 guarantees 3 ½ hours of what can loosely be called entertainment, although it was too hot in there and we always manage to select the equivalent of opera with extra time and a penalty shoot out. After a complete inability to figure out the map, we ended up in a bar called Dreamers – and they certainly were in football terms, as they had created a small shrine to Andy Carroll’s new chums. We somehow ended up at the Military Museum via the Gare du Nord, neither of which were particularly commendable. There is obviously a master plan for improvement judging by the big Ibis hotel nearby, but for the moment the area seems to spell all those things for which Bucharest has been known in the recent past and looks like it is a hot spot for all the scam merchants and undesirables. We weren’t aware of exact location when nipped in for a beer in a cafe nearby and were treated to some ladies of the afternoon bizarrely wearing pink dressing gowns running regular excursions down the adjacent alley with their happy punters.
The Military Museum is a throwback in time and the copious numbers of
staff seemed quite keen that we were ushered along at pace, so they could knock off early. The collection of military hardware in the rear garden has a degree of interest, but the museum could do with more English.
The retaliation day of sport for the opera on Saturday was inevitable, although after another bout of suspect map reading Steaua II in Division 2 nearly didn’t happen. The club of the army and pet of Ceausescu, it’s a shame nobody thought of putting a metro next to the ground – it is a pain in the a*** to get to – but try bus 385 from Piata Unirii as your best if you must...............
Steaua II kicked off at 11 am in one of the mini stadiums that are part of the greater Steaua Club. We were clearly supposed to go to the main ticket office first, but just followed the others in the crowd through the grounds and explaining the system in English was beyond the stewards – so we got in for free and probably saved the sum of 50 pence as a result. The 2-2 draw against Dunarea Galati is described in somewhat enthusiastic terms
Old Town
The cobbles are being carefully relaid presumably with EEC money as “spectacular” by the Steaua website. Miranda wasn’t convinced!
After the reserve game finished, we thought it prudent to get some tickets for the Steaua game in the evening. Time might be tight with our proposed rugby interlude and given the total mess we’d made of getting to the ground for the reserve game, we had to be on the cautious side. The Steaua ticket office needed ID for the purchase of a seat! Was it part of the Romanian FA’s plan to combat violence or just general over the top officialdom from the European Cup winning brothers? Dinamo’s relaxed approached the day after, suggested that Steaua were indeed operating in a 1986 bubble and had aspirations to be the new Luton Town. Still, a ticket with your name on makes a better souvenir!
We sort out food and beverage across the road from the ground, just in case time permitted a swift half before the evening kick off. The venue chosen didn’t have the most encouraging start – being attached to Bucharest’s answer to a Kwikfit is not usually conducive to good business. It turned out to be very hospitable and despite having most tables reserved for
Bucharest
...........fine dining an expected party, they made room for us. We speculated ........... was it Dunarea Galati having a meal before heading for the hills? .............. it turned out to be a family celebration for a 1 year old and the family duly arrived to get stuck into bottles of spirits and Romania’s answer to Red Bull. A number of the group were still getting stuck in at 8 pm, when we nipped in for that swift half before kick off at Steaua.
The rugby international with Spain was more worthy of the "spectacular" description. The game was at the Twickers of Romanian rugby by the Arcul de Triumf. Twickers it wasn’t, but at £2 neither was the price. We were sat so close, you could feel the tackles ..............and reminds you why going to a non rugby playing school is a smart idea for your body. Romania overpowered a spirited Spain .......... literally .....64 - 8.
We left before the end to make kick off at Steaua v FC Vaslui. It was good we had our tickets, as it was pretty chaotic outside. Miranda was less than impressed by being directed to another queue to be frisked by female
Bucharest Electrics
..............scary stuff ....a job for Big Al stewards and I when showed some concern regarding the delay, Mr bored Riot Policeman enquired in English whether I drink. The smart reply would have been .........no thanks, just had a few ....... but you don't when faced with a likely eviction from proceedings. Miranda eventually was allowed through the cordon - good job we'd not given her those flares to carry then. At the turnstiles, more body searching ............. this time excitement about a small digital camera ......... you have to ask yourself whether they could cope with another big European night!
The game with FC Vaslui was surprisingly entertaining and the football of a reasonable standard. FC Vaslui arrived as 3rd in the Legaue and clearly fancied their chances against a struggling Steaua, who’d sacked former hero, Lacatus, just 2 weeks ago. They created their own problems, gifting Steaua a goal and then proceeded to bend a 25 yard free kick into the top corner for the equaliaser - prompting much derision of their own team from Steaua and on youth put his feet straight through the back of a seat in front. It was equally chaotic on the way out and the numbers of people waiting
Plata Unirii
.................stalls selling anything and everything with the shopping centre across the Square for the return 385 did not bode well. There were visions of a train en route to Eindhoven in 2000, but in a scene from Indian railways where there is always room for one more on the roof a minor miracle ensued and everybody got on board. The only plus point was saving the bus ticket – you can’t punch it, if you can’t get to the machine.
Aside from the People’s Palace, the main must see is probably Revolution Square – the scene of Ceasescu’s last stand so to speak – except it wasn’t called Revolution Square at the time. The square contains the former Communist Party HQ building and it was here that Ceausescu made his final speech to the “loyal” followers – except that the loyalty had been stretched a bit too far by this point and given encouragement by other events elsewhere in Eastern Europe, they turned on him. A helicopter escape from the roof top was the order of the day and Romania’s world was changed forever. The balcony is quite low down, so the only surprise is that someone didn’t pick him off sniper style as he spoke. There are now two monuments
Romania v Spain
The scorer of the 1st try .......Catalin Fercu in front of the building to the martyrs of the Revolution.
In view of the ticketing position at Steaua, we strolled across to the Dinamo Stadium to secure the best seats in the house for the match. I was poised with ID, ready to pre-empt the request, but that turned out not to be required at Dinamo – so much for Steaua’s insistence of a document to allow you to buy a ticket. We were poised to purchase 25 or 30 Lei tickets, but as was pointed out ………….this is Romania, you can buy these and just walk along the stand. We took the advice. A warm feeling towards the Red Dogs ensued. The other major bonus with Dinamo is that their ground is right next to the Stefan Le Mare metro station, which means you can be back drinking in the Old Town in 20 minutes after the final whistle.
Alternatively, you can be back in the Old Town in 20 minutes after buying your ticket ……. so we poceeded with that plan. The Sports Bar at the lower end of the Old Town near the river did the job and has a meal deal of huge
proportions before 6 pm.
We were back at Dinamo for the 2000 hours kick off. We took the advice of our ticketing man and relocated our seats to under the roof of Tribune 2 – strangely the main Tribune 1 doesn’t have any cover at all. The sight lines across the running track made the pitch distant and the Red Dogs were unable to create any atmosphere with a meagre 3,000 in the ground. The external security was a lot less hassle than Steaua – the only thing to fall foul of the search this time was some loose English change, though Olympic javelin qualities would have been required to throw it on to the pitch from our location. The area behind the goal is christened Peluza Catalin Hildan, after a Dinamo player and captain who died of a heart attack during a game in 2000. The early end to end exchanges demonstrated why Dinamo score a lot of goals and concede a lot of goals. The gamble paid off as the 4-0 lead was established, but it was clearly perceived that the job was complete and Tg Mures fought back to 4-1 and it could easily have finished
4-3. The biggest cheer of the night was reserved for the youth team, who beaten Steaua in a competition the day before and were parading their trophy at half time.
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