Bucharest

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Wednesday, a few of us took a walk and stumbled on a park very close by. There was a huge lake and lots of bridges and sculptures and walkways. As I mentioned earlier, there is a huge convention of French speaking nations coming to town next week. Workers have been digging up the roads, installing marble or quartz stone curbsides. I thought I procrastinated, but they take the cake. The park was buzzing with workers cleaning up the parks, trimming trees and planting flowers. There has been a litter problem here, and maybe the big clean-up will give people the inspiration to keep the area clean.

There were some lovely lakeside cafes and we stopped for a bite to eat. We have found traveling around town without a Romanian escort to be a little more difficult when trying to communicate with the regular town people. Our Asebuss students speak English very well as do the hotel and restaurant staff in the resorts. Things are a little tougher here. Not many waitresses know pizza ingredients in English. We managed to eat quite well!

That night a few of us were invited to Champions sports bar at the J.W. Marriott, by one of our Romanian friends, Marious, who gave us a nice tour of the city at night on the way to the hotel. The Marriott was a beautiful hotel with marble staircases and fancy restaurants. A rowdy sports bar seemed a little out of place, but we had fun watching two Romanian football (soccer) teams play. The teams were Stauea v Dinamo and the crowd seemed to cheer for both. Three of our American friends actually attended the game and I was quite jealous. One of the professors said it was not in the best area of town and the people seemed a little sketchy. He really did not think it was safe for a woman. I had a great time at the much safer Marriott, with the about 6 Romanian teammates and 3 other Americans. It was fun just being part of “normal” Romanian life!

Turns out it was good we did not go, as a controversial yellow card, sent the crowd into a frenzy. We watched the Ro police tear gas the rowdy protesting crowd. Small fires broke out and stadium chairs kicked from their anchors. I was happy to be at the nice and cozy Marriott. We found out later that our American attendees were safe, probably because the ticket taker did not let them sit near the rowdy fans when they came in. He steered them to a safer area from the beginning, regardless of their seat number. FYI- Dinamo (in their home stadium) won the game with a goal in the last minute. We were with Stauea fans, but they took it okay.


See below for more pictures.

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Photos

Flower Delivery
There were several carts delivering flowers for a quick installation before the dignataries arrived.

Big Head
Close up.

Plaza
We stumbled across a circle of big bronze statues. In our limited Romanian, we believe these men are founders of the European Union.

Parkside Cafe
Here was a nice place to take a break.

Clean-up
Notice the pile of fresh-swept leaves and trash behind me (oh yes, and the lake).

Champions
A typical American sports bar. Notice the table located inside a soccer goal.