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Other entries in Bucharest

Megalomaniacs with Power

Bucharest.  Saturday and Sunday, April 12th and 13th.

Finally got to Bucharest, but getting to where you want to arrive still requires one more element, being finding a place to stay. Found my desired hotel on my own and lugging my knapsack behind, all 22 K. Unfortunately, it was closed for renovations. Back to my Lonely Planet Guide and came up with another, but decided to let the taxi find it. As is often the case, the taxi would not use the meter and charged me well over the market price to get to the hotel, which was open and very well located.

Bucharest and the president of Romania from 1965 to 1989, Nicolae Ceausescu, are closely connected. Ceausescu wanted to make Bucharest a world class and grand city. He demolished whole neighborhoods and built a spectacular boulevard called B-dul Unirii. One end is anchored by the Palace of Parliament, the world's second largest building (the largest is the Pentagon in Washington, DC). The boulevard runs 3.2 K from this point, making it 6 metres longer than the Champ Elysees in Paris. It  tries to outdo it in grandeur (have not been to Paris, so cannot comment). Along either side are 10 to 14 storey apartments, with beautiful balconies and plazas, water fountains, marvellous traffic circles with gardens and shooting water works, all brought about by careful planning. Likely when everything was new and working, it would have been something to see. As NATO had a meeting in Bucharest and many of the world leaders were there the prior weekend, everything was kind-of working, if you did not look too closely. Certainly looked impressive, but things were put together very haphazardly on closer inspection (which George Bush and others likely did not do).

Ceausescu built many over-bearing buildings throughout Bucharest. He was overthrown in a very short revolution in December 1989. On December 21st,  he made a speech from the balcony of the Central Party Building and was shouted and booed by the crowd. About a dozen protestors were killed. He fled by helicopter from the roof of the building. He was captured by locals a few days later, was brought to trial and was executed on December 25th. When he died, much of the work on his many projects also stopped. In at least two places that I saw, there were half finished huge buildings that had been abandoned mid-stream, but it must be said that his footprint on Bucharest is huge. His megalomaniac vision certainly made Bucharest into a city that does not feel Balkan or Eastern European, as it has too many beautiful buildings, parks and well planned roads.

What strikes you is the overhead wiring. The back alleys and many streets have so many wires hanging from them that the wires are pulling the poles somewhat over. At one point I had to duck under a wire as I got out of a bus. Some intersections have so many wires crossing them that it is worrisome. Being an electrician here must keep you busy, as you just keep adding one more wire to the system. Eventually there will be one too many wires and the electrical grid will collapse, which is just a matter of time.  (Note: found out later that these wires were fiber optic for internet use, not electrical.)

It is easy to figure out Bucharest. You walk up one on the major streets in the historic centre and every kilometre or so there is a traffic circle, surrounded by impressive buildings. What puzzles me is where does the money come from? I was told that Romania is poorer than Bulgaria, but it presents itself as though it were a prosperous Western European city like Amsterdam. Unlike in the smaller towns outside the capital, you see many expensive cars and many well dressed people. Reminds me of Buenos Aries, where the people put up a show of being rich but in fact they are living beyond their means. In the past few years real estate has more than doubled in price, so that may be the source of much of the wealth. But such prosperity is not sustainable and prone to sharp downturns if and when the speculative bubble bursts.

Had a minor incident in Bucharest.  Once I got settled in, I started to use the public transit system.  First challenge is to figure out how and where to get tickets from.  All the ticket booths were closed as it was Sunday morning, but a local donated a ticket to me.  As soon as I got to the train station (booking by train ride to Brasov and back to Bucharest, then onwards to Istanbul) I got some bus vouchers.  Had the ticket for the return ride verified.  Sure enough a ticket policeman was checking for tickets, so I proudly produced one.  Turned out it was for the ride in and I searched frantically everywhere for the ticket for this ride, but could not find it.  A 50 lei fine later (about 20 dollars, but for a local a serious amount), I was on again, but I had missed my stop and was in the middle of nowhere. However, sure enough, the next day I found the ticket in one of my too many pockets in my shoulder bag (note, between my trousers, shirt and bag there are 15 different places to store things in). Hope the ticket policeman gets a commission for nabbing me.

Finished the day by going to a museum. That is code for need a change in pace, as I'm getting bored. It was a curious museum, the Museum of the Romanian Peasant.  The museum had limited funding, so they made a museum which was fun, original, sarcastic, and different. For example, there were hundreds of mannequins in local costumes. What was neat is that each and every mannequin was unique and looked different from the others; some were short, others tall or plump, or had interesting facial features. The exhibits posed all sorts of existential questions which engaged you. It suggested you walk through the exhibits as though you were in a field, a good suggestion. Rather than have lots of text to read (which I do, I read every plaque), they just moved into the complex, whole homes and churches and windmills. My kind of museum, and was able to get out in 90 minutes. Of course there were the ceramics and pots, but not too many and easy to avoid.

Bucharest was much better than my guide book suggested it would be, but I am ready to leave Eastern Europe, and will do so later this week and end up in South East Asia.

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