Blogs from Centru Civic, Bucharest, Muntenia, Romania, Europe

12 juillet J'attend mon bagage à l'aéroport de Bucarest, assommé par mon vol Québec-Roumanie et son trop court transit à Londres. L'aéroport international de la capitale roumaine est quelque peu délabré, minuscule et plutôt démodé. Devant les carrousels, quelques étagères longeant les murs remplacent les hors-taxes clinquants des gros hubs. Une pyramide de boîtes rouge en évidence propose aux voyageurs les ''Dracula's Magic Pralines''. C'est donc confirmé: je suis de toute évidence dans le bon pays pour chasser le vampire. Autour de moi, les roumains de l'aéroport m'ignorent. Ça cachent bien leur jeu les vampires! Il est 17h00 à Bucarest et minuit tapant à Montréal. Lorsque vous dormez, les Roumains, eux, s'activent. Vous savez, c'est bien connu, les vampires vivent la nuit. Voilà: moi je dis que c'est louche. Je quitte l'aéroport dans u... read more

I've been living in Bucharest for 18 years and I tend to walk through it without looking around much. At some point, I noticed that there are some wonderful buildings in this city and that, even though most of them are not very well taken care of, there are still plenty of things to see here. This is more of a photo album than a trip and I hope it will grow over time. There are plenty of beautiful things in Bucharest that I haven't seen and plenty others that I've seen too often and became used to pass by without a second thought. I intend to change that.... read more

Then – Bucharest. We made our way, gingerly, down the fantastically bad Romanian road system, marvelling at the only length of motorway in the country. A decent part of the road this, and it really didn’t go anywhere. We had decided to live it up a little in Bucharest after a few months of camping – we booked a pretty flash room at the NH Hotel Bucharest. A bathroom, aircon and telly – it even had tea and coffee making facilities. Fighting through the Bucharest traffic was easier than I had anticipated. Or perhaps I had simply grown used to the peculiarities of Romanian driving. Romanians, I had discovered, were really pretty ordinary drivers. Sure, they made it a matter of pride that they can pass on a blind corner, or aiming straight at the Tatra ... read more

5 May 2010 After a sleepless night on the overnight train from Ankara, we arrived in Istanbul on the Asian side early morning and caught a ferry over to Europe. Istanbul from this viewpoint is absolutely gorgeous. We enjoyed the short and cold ferry ride over to the European continent. Nina, our tour leader, led us to the Constantine Hotel, which is the main Intrepid hotel here in Istanbul. We were able to leave our luggage and went with the others to a Turkish ‘McDonalds” type of place to have breakfast. We said our good byes, as this was the last morning of the trip and went to check out the Grand Bazaar. It was around 9am at this stage. The Grand Bazaar was very different from most of the other markets we had been to. ... read more

Another Aeroflot flight, aboard a Tuploev 134, brought us from Moscow to Bucharest and the beginning of travels though the Eastern Bloc countries. I primarily recall walking in a pleasant park in Bucharest, though we did see the Curtea Veche (Old Court) and many of the historic churches of the city, including the Old Court Church and the Metropolitan Church. Both had been royal churches. We stayed at the Hotel Bucharest InterContinental, opened only in 1971 and the tallest structure in Bucharest by far. It was located across from the university and afforded a view all over the city.... read more