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Published: June 13th 2007
The Photographer in Wait
Outside the People's Palace Matt and I were on our own in Bucharest again on Tuesday. We have gotten to be relatively comfortable exploring on our own--as long as our taxi driver speaks some English AND we have our map. Our taxi driver today was cool--his #1 CD was Soul: the Supremes, Barry White, etc. His favorite song, "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor--the essence of the Romanian people.
Our mission today was to tour the People's Palace, technically called the Palace of the Parliament. Words can't explain nor can pictures depict what we saw today. During the tour, we were stunned by the massiveness of everything; but never did we hear "but the people were starving." Our guide was a Romanian girl about 25 years old; her English was relatively good but she seemed to be guarded in what she said. During the whole tour, she gave only one hint of the evilness of Ceausescu. Had we not had the opportunity to spend with Maria (a local who lived through the Communist rule under Ceausescu) we would not have known the background of the beautiful Palace.
Visit the site of
Palace of the Parliament to read some of the facts on the building. A
Theater Hall
600 leather-covered seats. Massive! few things you won't read on this site are:
* Ceausescu was an uneducated man so he didn't understand architectural drawings. He had to have everything built to scale beforehand so that he could review it before the actual construction.
* He was a small man so things were built to accommodate him. We saw a flight of marble stairs that he had torn out and rebuilt 3 times so that he could walk down them easily without having to look down--head and chin up.
* There was no air conditioning in most of the building. Natural ventilation was designed. Gas could be piped through A/C to kill Ceausescu so he said no A/C.
* Ceausescu had projects going on throughout Romania. This palace was the straw that broke the camel's back. The people revolted, tried him, and killed him. The building was only 50% complete at the time of his death. Today, 17 years later, it still isn't complete because of money shortages.
We next went back to the art district (?) -- don't imagine any art district in the USA. We returned to the road construction project to find that it is actually an archaeological dig
Massive
1,000,000 tons of marble in the building sponsored by the museum. That was interesting.
We spent Tuesday night sharing dinner at a local restaurant where Americans and Romanians gather to become one culture. Doug and Betsy have some neat friends who have made
The Team feel very welcomed--and the food isn't that bad either.
The Team is off to Italy so blogging may be limited because of lack of Internet service. We will see. Nonetheless,
The Team Photographer will surely take thousands of more pictures. We are very excited. To
The Photographer's Italian teacher--here is Matt's real test. When Blue Air lands, Mom is in Son's hands--with total trust!
The Mom & Son Soon-to-Be Italian Bonding Team
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nicole
non-member comment
about the massive door pic
the "massive" door picture...this would be a perfect painting. matt...i'm already starting to make a list of prints i want!!! i know only more will be added as you all venture through italy. love and miss you two!!!