Palimpsestical Romania

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Hey guys!



Just over a week ago I took a trip for a few days to Bucharest, capital of Romania, after having wanted to visit the city for many years. Being the capital of a communist satellite state, the city retains many strange features not present in other places, making it a unique tourist attraction.



The city is famous mostly for the Palace of Parliament, the second largest, most expensive, and heaviest building in the world - containing several different functions of the running of the state. It is also open for tourists to visit, and on the second day of my trip I took a tour, visiting many rooms (including state meeting rooms and a theatre), the basement and the rooftop terrace.



The building is almost completely made out of marble with huge chandeliers, and has some impressive views. The balcony overlooking the 2 mile long boulevard was particularly impressive, and just standing on it even made me feel very powerful! I imagine that anyone with real power must feel incredible! Despite the tour lasting almost an hour and a half, we still only saw 8% of the building.



The whole area was redeveloped after 12% of the city was demolished, and it now looks absolutely stunning. With many fountains and beautifully landscaped boulevards. However one thing was immediately clear...it was very grubby. With a good clean it would be absolutely beautiful and could really increase tourism to the city.



Also visited were some of the many churches and monastries, parks and gardens, theatres, and famous sites in the history of Bucharest - such as Revolution Square, and Arcul de Triumf.



Interesting too was the Village Museum, where traditional houses and other buildings had been moved from all over Romania to show urban dwellers what the countryside is like. This gave me the opportunity to see what traditional houses were like without actually having to go - and with the entrance fee being just 50p, this was well worth the visit.



Bucharest on the whole was pretty cheap, and gave me a packed three days of sightseeing, and there was beautiful weather to go with it! Even at 18:30 it was 27˚C, as well as being sunny all day long!



Kevin.

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Photos

Marble Interior
Palace of the Parliament

Inside a House
Village Museum