Bucharest Day 1: Recovering from Ister

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Our Romanian Concert

Argh! This is being written on the train from Bucharest to Sofia since last night in Bucharest was a recovery day from the marathon train ride between Budapest and Bucharest. Last night we slept a full night’s sleep from 11PM to 8AM plus a two hour nap for Manny from 4PM to 6PM.

Hotel Intercontinental & the Teatrul

The hotel from which reporters watched the massacre of students in 1989 on University Square below, this is a classic ambassador hotel in a third world or developing country. Manny is tempted to go on a diatribe on the operation of this place, but has elected to hold back. Just know that if visiting in Bucharest, stay at the Ramada or the Novotel, NOT at the Intercontinental.

The hotel is nice and up-to-date but has no ironing boards or irons in the rooms which foiled our little laundry routine which we had so well-devised in Budapest. This meant the poor low-wattage hotel hairdryer got a nice workout and miraculously did not melt under the extended use. Do you think it’s a good idea to pull a wet sock over the top of a hairdryer and let it sit on there? Too late, we did that (Manny did . . . okay, okay mom).

Our room was on the 18th floor and had a view towards the northeast, so nothing much to see there, but all rooms still have full access balconies with only a statement glued to the window between the hotel and a lawsuit. The benefit of this was that what started out as a cello solo from our neighbor in 1824 earlier in the day ended as an operetta later that night from an open-air stage at the Teatrul Romana right below us. So we stood out on our patio at 10PM, 18 floors above what was really incredible open-air singing, and, according to Jennifer, very romantic (and to Manny free; and therefore good).

Battle of the Taxis

Romanian Taxis and Chinese Taxis are neck and neck for aggressiveness and scams for arriving tourists. Good thing is that unlike Manny’s arrival in China, we were prepared and we walked by the fake guy hawking his services inside the station to the guys waiting outside who at least had yellow cars with a taxi sign on top. It turned out that after a little discussion with these characters and some less than polite language, we ditched them, pulled out the backpack harnesses, and started making our way to the center with bags on our backs. The taxis were offering a 6 lei ride for 20 lei, so more than three times the price, but which is only about $8 for a 10 minute ride, not unreasonable by our standards. But having been taken for $75 in Beijing, Manny was making a principle of it and backpacks it was, besides, we paid all that money for the new luggage with straps so we had to use them right? It really makes no sense on our part when you do the math.

We finally located a nice young taxi driver about 5 minutes walk from the station who took us down to the hotel, he got a nice tip so we actually didn’t save all that much money, but a good guy deserves his just reward.

Revolutionary Square

We started our day here and basically spent the rest of our short day in the area. First we started with lunch in the Securitatae Headquarters since the nuts, beer, and Hungarian booze didn’t cut it from the night before. The Securitatae is - was - the KGB-style secret police of the commies. The Securitatae is long gone, as is most of the building since it was bombed my demonstrators in 1989 and our chic little restaurant occupies the basement of the refurbished building. Right next to it is the old Central Committee building for the Communist Party where Ceausescu was booed by the crowd and had to escape with Elena by helicopter only to be caught up with and summarily executed by firing squad following a "pretend" trial.

After we went across the square to the old Royal Palace which now houses, like in Budapest, the National Art Gallery. This place was like a sauna and we learned that one thing that is imperative for the Romanians is that there is a set direction that one must follow in a museum and rather than purchase a good signage package, it is much better to have a large staff of people to corral you around the place. What’s great about this museum, like the Hungarian one, is that there was hardly anyone there and you could get right up on the art (not too close or you would get yelled at, no really!). Most of the art here was from churches destroyed by the communists and there was very little 18th or 19th century art like we had seen in Budapest which we had really liked.

Following we went to the Athenaeum designed by a Frenchman with many French created elements. Probably the most beautiful building in the city, it further reinforces Romania’s (and Hungary’s) eon-long desire to imitate the great world powers. Like just about every other site in the city, visiting it was either not an option or was not made easy. Here we got a little bit more emboldened and walked in a side door to be greeted by a uniformed small old man who responded postively to Manny's French. So for what he called a “tax” of 16 lei (made up on the spot we are certain), we got a wonderful personalized tour from this gentleman in his broken French. The building is truly impressive and we saw it in full pre-show functioning as floors were being hand-polished and the orchestra was rehearsing on the stage. Our guard instructed Manny to hide his camera as we entered this last and we overheard the musicians asking themselves “who are these people?” But we just followed right along looking like backstage VIPs asking questions and commenting on the beauty and symbolism of the décor in the place. We didn’t get kicked out after all that and we were able to snap one shot of Jennifer in front of the honorary staircase reserved only for heads of state and the orchestra. Yes sir, we were big timing it!

Following this we walked the streets of the historic district and had lunch in a covered small street in an LP Guide referred place that was charming in its own Bucharest Paris-imitation style, called Bistro Villacrosse. We had a couple of dishes containing, among other adjectives, the word “Transylvanian,” so we assume it was authentic but the food was nothing special. As with IO Café, we had our Ursus beer here and it tasted again differently from in America, but there's nothing like having a stream of cheap half litre bottles of beer in a developing country.

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Photos

Romania!
In front of the National Art Gallery

University Library
It's on Revolution Square, and I'm pretty sure that's what it is.

Central Committee Building of the Communist Party
Where Ceausescu held his last speech and was booed by the crowd but kept speaking until someone advised him that boos were in fact a bad thing.

Intercontinental Hotel Bucharest
Immensely ugly, visible from everywhere.

Our room at the Intercontinental
Another one of those super-low and somewhat hard beds. But when you walk as much as we have been you're happy it's big and it doesn't move (like on the trains).

Community Dogs
A member of this vicious gang of 10,000 vagrant dogs prowling the streets of Bucharest. This one seemed a bit senile however.

Athenaeum
Our favorite building in town with great weather for photographing it!

Jennifer at the Ceremonial Staircase
Only the VIPs here please (we actually did go up another staircase).

Commie Buildings
They sure knew how to put together a fugly building, and always right next to a really beautiful old one.