Monday 11 July: Last night, the ship started motoring back up the Danube, heading for Bucharest. In the morning we arrived at Chiciu, Romania and boarded a bus for the drive to Bucharest, 125 Km away. The ship then headed upstream to Giurgiu where we would meet it later in the day.
Bucharest is the capital of Romania, a city of about 4 million people in a country of 20 million. Romanians are Thracian people who were colonised by the Romans (and others). Consequently the language is Latin-based as opposed to the Slovakian, Hungarian and similar languages spoken in neighbouring countries.
The temperatures vary from 35-40C in summer and as low as -25C in winter. We travelled along fields of sunflowers and maize grown in the Romanian lowlands. We also saw nesting storks on some of the telegraph poles and rooftops - Romania has one of the highest populations of storks in Europe.
We stopped across from Nicolae Ceausescu’s ‘People’s House’ a grand extravagance which was to be the showcase of the communist state. A 6,000 room building on a hill at the end of the main boulevard, which required the removal of 300, people and their homes.
Unfortunately, or fortunately, he was deposed and killed before it was finished. The building is only partially used, and the Versailles style garden at the rear was never completed. The garden grounds have been sold to the Othodox Church who is building a monumental church with their own funds. Romania still has a very strong Orthodox population which exerts a lot of pressure on government policy. His vision for Bucharest also included creating apartment buildings opposite and along the boulevard. The photos show the ‘People’s House’ and panorama shows the apartments opposite.
Initially, we did a circuit of some of the main buildings in the city before stopping to walk through the old city centre with our guide Nikoletta.
We saw some amazing old Orthodox churches, some restored, some not.
These are all much smaller than Catholic churches, and are distributed throughout the city.For example the Saints Archangels Michael and Gabriel Stavropoleos Monastary Church of 1724.
We visited the Caru' cu Bere, a beer hall unchanged from 1879, and a number of other historic and ornate buildings.
Unfortunately the History Museum with its massive collection of Thracian gold was closed, although we did see the slightly controversial bronze figure of Statue of the Roman Trajan and the She-wolf.
The she-wolf head with a snake’s body relates to a symbol for the region.
Some Bucharesters, who met it with derision, due to the nudity and the awkwardness of Trajan's statue, described it as "a monument to Romania's stray dogs".
Nikoletta’s story of the fall of Ceausescu and communism paralleled that of our guide, Rosen in Bulgaria – exploitation by the previous elite, financial mismanagement, opportunism followed by stability but some enduring inequalities. She said that under communist collective farming, many underemployed farmers (70%) moved to the cities to work in manufacturing. With the construction of the many apartment buildings, almost everyone had a home and security.
Under Ceausescu, over 5,000 intellectuals were persecuted and were sent to work camps. Ceausescu also pursued a heavy export drive which helped the economy at the expense of production for local consumption. Nikoletta said that while Western Europeans ate chicken, Romanians ate the feet. With 1 TV station and 2 radio stations and print media broadcasting only state controlled messages, people were just not aware of any revolutionary actions that took place elsewhere. Part of the success of the overthrow of Ceausescu was that the revolutionaries occupied the media building in the early stages.
After 1989, many people returned to their farms but lacked finance to restart the run-down farms. Also those who left money in banks lost almost everything because of hyper-inflation - only those who invested in new businesses or speculated did well. Now over 90% of the population own their own homes, even though the quality may be low. For example in the last 10 years of communism, they were built with 1 instead of 2 elevators to reduce costs.
Many of these buildings were built quickly from pre-fabricated panels, poor workmanship, with little insulation and without provision for centralised air conditioning or heating. A consequence of this is that they have crumbling exteriors and are covered in air conditioning units. Many of the west-facing windows have makeshift sun protection, including aluminium foil attached to the glass.
We saw a number of derelict and crumbling buildings, a result of neglect during and post the communist era. Some are the result of over-ambitious plans that lacked sufficient funds since that time.
Some were deliberately run down by allocating them to homeless Roma (gypsies) who only used them as transient accommodation. The state and owners are slowly refurbishing them some; refacing, adding external insulation and painting them, but the process appears fairly random, and the city has a patchwork appearance. Similar processes are occurring in Budapest and Belgrade, the other Eastern European cities we visited. Although it’s over 25 years since the fall of communism and break-up of the USSR, it’s still a short time for the complete transformation of a socio-politico-economic system.
There’s not much nostalgia for communism or Ceausescu here. A monument to the 1st Communist president has been re-purposed as the monument to the unknown revolutionary.
The tour went to Locanta Jaristea in Bucharest, one of the remaining traditional Romanian restaurants from the 19th Century.
It is essentially unchanged from the 1800s, still using the same crockery and cutlery which are definitely showing the signs of wear.
The woman owner also maintains the tradition of approving plates of food before they are served, rejecting the odd one with a flourish. With at least 2 bus-loads of people at the lunchtime sitting, the food was all pre-prepared, and there was no menu – everyone got the same.
Entree was a Chicken Breast Salad with Tuna and Cabbage – not bad, but too salty.
Main course was Roast Pork with Rosemary Potatoes and Cabbage. The pork was nicely cooked, but the potatoes were overdone and the cabbage raw and un-dressed – not memorable.
The dessert was a slice of Crème Brule – not bad, but the sauce was extremely sweet.
The coffee that followed was almost undrinkable.
We’ll be remembering the dining experience rather than the actual ‘traditional’ Romanian food.
After lunch at the Locanta Jaristea we continued our tour around Bucharest. It’s a very large city, with wide tree-lined streets, many parks, some very large with small lakes.
Car ownership is high, and the traffic was horrendous, and cars were parked on every available. Although the city is essentially flat, there were hardly any cyclists, motorcyclists or scooter riders.
This may be due to the weather extremes or years of pent-up frustration at the difficulty of owning a vehicle.
We stopped briefly at Revolution Square and saw the republican monument, a tall spire with the heart of the Romanian people impaled on it. It stands opposite the balcony (above the 3 black doors) where Ceausescu last addressed the revolutionaries before trying to flee the country.
Speaking of impaling, Bucharest was founded by Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler, and inspiration for Count Dracula. He earned his name from the way in which he dealt with his enemies, or those who opposed him. Quite acceptable practices in the 15th Century, so he may have been a really nice guy. There are lots of souvenirs for Vlad the Impaler and Count Dracula. There are no Ceausescu souvenirs.
Bucharest is the capital of Romania, a city of about 4 million people in a country of 20 million. Romanians are Thracian people who were colonised by the Romans (and others). Consequently the language is Latin-based as opposed to the Slovakian, Hungarian and similar languages spoken in neighbouring countries.The temperatures vary from 35-40C in summer and as low as -25C in winter. We travelled along fields of sunflowers and maize grown in the Romanian lowlands. We also saw nesting storks on some of the telegraph poles and rooftops - Romania has one of the highest populations of storks in Europe.
We stopped across from Nicolae Ceausescu’s ‘People’s House’ a grand extravagance which was to be the showcase of the communist state. A 6,000 room building on a hill at the end of the main boulevard, which required the removal of 300, people and their homes.Unfortunately, or fortunately, he was deposed and killed before it was finished. The building is only partially used, and the Versailles style garden at the rear was never completed. The garden grounds have been sold to the Othodox Church who is building a monumental church with their own funds. Romania still has a very strong Orthodox population which exerts a lot of pressure on government policy. His vision for Bucharest also included creating apartment buildings opposite and along the boulevard. The photos show the ‘People’s House’ and panorama shows the apartments opposite.
Initially, we did a circuit of some of the main buildings in the city before stopping to walk through the old city centre with our guide Nikoletta.We saw some amazing old Orthodox churches, some restored, some not.
These are all much smaller than Catholic churches, and are distributed throughout the city.For example the Saints Archangels Michael and Gabriel Stavropoleos Monastary Church of 1724.
We visited the Caru' cu Bere, a beer hall unchanged from 1879, and a number of other historic and ornate buildings.
Unfortunately the History Museum with its massive collection of Thracian gold was closed, although we did see the slightly controversial bronze figure of Statue of the Roman Trajan and the She-wolf.The she-wolf head with a snake’s body relates to a symbol for the region.
Some Bucharesters, who met it with derision, due to the nudity and the awkwardness of Trajan's statue, described it as "a monument to Romania's stray dogs".
Nikoletta’s story of the fall of Ceausescu and communism paralleled that of our guide, Rosen in Bulgaria – exploitation by the previous elite, financial mismanagement, opportunism followed by stability but some enduring inequalities. She said that under communist collective farming, many underemployed farmers (70%) moved to the cities to work in manufacturing. With the construction of the many apartment buildings, almost everyone had a home and security.Under Ceausescu, over 5,000 intellectuals were persecuted and were sent to work camps. Ceausescu also pursued a heavy export drive which helped the economy at the expense of production for local consumption. Nikoletta said that while Western Europeans ate chicken, Romanians ate the feet. With 1 TV station and 2 radio stations and print media broadcasting only state controlled messages, people were just not aware of any revolutionary actions that took place elsewhere. Part of the success of the overthrow of Ceausescu was that the revolutionaries occupied the media building in the early stages.
After 1989, many people returned to their farms but lacked finance to restart the run-down farms. Also those who left money in banks lost almost everything because of hyper-inflation - only those who invested in new businesses or speculated did well. Now over 90% of the population own their own homes, even though the quality may be low. For example in the last 10 years of communism, they were built with 1 instead of 2 elevators to reduce costs.
Many of these buildings were built quickly from pre-fabricated panels, poor workmanship, with little insulation and without provision for centralised air conditioning or heating. A consequence of this is that they have crumbling exteriors and are covered in air conditioning units. Many of the west-facing windows have makeshift sun protection, including aluminium foil attached to the glass.We saw a number of derelict and crumbling buildings, a result of neglect during and post the communist era. Some are the result of over-ambitious plans that lacked sufficient funds since that time.
Some were deliberately run down by allocating them to homeless Roma (gypsies) who only used them as transient accommodation. The state and owners are slowly refurbishing them some; refacing, adding external insulation and painting them, but the process appears fairly random, and the city has a patchwork appearance. Similar processes are occurring in Budapest and Belgrade, the other Eastern European cities we visited. Although it’s over 25 years since the fall of communism and break-up of the USSR, it’s still a short time for the complete transformation of a socio-politico-economic system.There’s not much nostalgia for communism or Ceausescu here. A monument to the 1st Communist president has been re-purposed as the monument to the unknown revolutionary.
The tour went to Locanta Jaristea in Bucharest, one of the remaining traditional Romanian restaurants from the 19th Century.It is essentially unchanged from the 1800s, still using the same crockery and cutlery which are definitely showing the signs of wear.
The woman owner also maintains the tradition of approving plates of food before they are served, rejecting the odd one with a flourish. With at least 2 bus-loads of people at the lunchtime sitting, the food was all pre-prepared, and there was no menu – everyone got the same.
Entree was a Chicken Breast Salad with Tuna and Cabbage – not bad, but too salty.
The dessert was a slice of Crème Brule – not bad, but the sauce was extremely sweet.The coffee that followed was almost undrinkable.
We’ll be remembering the dining experience rather than the actual ‘traditional’ Romanian food.After lunch at the Locanta Jaristea we continued our tour around Bucharest. It’s a very large city, with wide tree-lined streets, many parks, some very large with small lakes.
Car ownership is high, and the traffic was horrendous, and cars were parked on every available. Although the city is essentially flat, there were hardly any cyclists, motorcyclists or scooter riders.This may be due to the weather extremes or years of pent-up frustration at the difficulty of owning a vehicle.
We stopped briefly at Revolution Square and saw the republican monument, a tall spire with the heart of the Romanian people impaled on it. It stands opposite the balcony (above the 3 black doors) where Ceausescu last addressed the revolutionaries before trying to flee the country.
Speaking of impaling, Bucharest was founded by Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler, and inspiration for Count Dracula. He earned his name from the way in which he dealt with his enemies, or those who opposed him. Quite acceptable practices in the 15th Century, so he may have been a really nice guy. There are lots of souvenirs for Vlad the Impaler and Count Dracula. There are no Ceausescu souvenirs.
