Bucharest Bound

Summer in the city - chill out, relax and enjoy Barcelona!

It's time for Bucharest!

Old ladies and shawls - myth?

My trip through South America had ended, I'd returned to Catalonia after 3 years away and spent June there getting to know Barcelona again, but still this wasn't 'reality' yet, a normal life. I started summer in a city that loves summer, relaxing on the beach and walking it's streets and enjoying what it had to offer. Reality had hit in some ways though - I was very strapped for cash. I managed to find a teaching job for July, teaching 9 - 15 year olds in a summer camp in Romania, so that was my next destination - a little bit of work and a little bit of a holday. Not a bad combination really. I didn't really know much about Romania before going there - a few famous people (Nadia Comăneci, the famous gymnast who, in 1976, became the first person ever to score a perfect 10), the capital city (some people think Sydney is the capital of Australia, or Rio for Brazil so...) and of course Dracula. I also have a few friends from Romania that I met way back in my days in London, friends that have been telling me I must go and see this very beautiful and yet unspoilt European country. Finally I would have my chance to visit, enjoy and debunk all the stereotypes and myths that surround the country - was Dracula actually from here and was his name actually Dracula? Do all old ladies wear head scarfs? All the answers to the important questions and more would soon be discovered. I flew from Barcelona at about midnight and landed in Bucharest at around 3am, not a great time to be flying but it was the cheapest. On the up-side, my company had organised a hotel transfer and a hotel for the next few days before heading to the camp - the guy also spoke English, but I was in no mood to talk at this time. I was here, and straight to my hotel bed for some sleep before heading out into the city.

Typical apartment buildings in Bucharest.

The 'Onion' domes of a church.

A fountain on the main avenue.

Lonely Planet describes Bucharest as 'a city that is hard to love,' but I'm not sure about that. These travel books like to sound catchy and funny, maybe making a terrible place seem not so bad or a so-so place sound like it is THE place to see before you die. Bucharest was neither of these, and that's OK. It's not a grand city like Rome, museums and 2000 years of history, Medieval buildings or little Piazzas with cute coffee shops, and it's not the busy metropolitan city that is London, the hustle and bustle of suits going to work, the fight on the metro and Happy Hour on the Thames at your local. Nor is it Barcelona with the modern buzz and new tourism mixed with traditional stores and locals going about their business, National Monuments everywhere you look. I have a theory about Great Cities though - you need a wide, navigable river (like the Thames or Seine) for your city to sit on (Bucharest is 60kms from the Danube) or to be a coastal city with a harbour for people to come in by (Sydney obviously comes to mind with the most perfect and beautiful harbour, but New York is there too). 

One of the many beautiful churches in the city of Bucharest.

A big, blocky apartment building, with a difference!

Bucharest architecture (and a BIG can of Pepsi).

This is isn't everything though I guess, and Bucharest (and Romania) has had a hard time of it in general and is making up for it as best it can. The Romans first had a go here way back when and really 'Romanised' the place, which is why the language here is still a 'Romance' language (thus in the same family as Spanish and Italian), the Turks also gave it a going over for about 400 years from the 15th century, and in WWII they made the mistake (or had no choice) of teaming up with Germany before changing sides in '44 and then facing the Russians. After this, they were forcibly made a 'Socialist Republic' and the people and the country did it tough until, in 1989, they overthrew the Soviets and emerged once again as free people. Romanians remember all of these things and are looking to the future, which has become brighter after joining the European Union in 2007. There's nowhere left to go but up from here! Seeing the city, there is everything you see in a modern European city - a Zara store, McDonald's and various other fast food chains, more clothing stores and electronic stores. It just doesn't have that International European city feel about it, most people here are from here, unlike Barcelona or Paris where there is nothing but tourists flooding the streets with their selfie sticks, bad fashion and sun-burnt faces. Since joining the EU, Romanians are travelling more and becoming more and more European - hopefully this won't change them too much! Change and modernise but please don't lose your identity and culture - and don't change your bakeries, they are awesome!

That's one big building!

A view of the Parliament House.

Beautiful churches are everywhere.

After a quick nap I headed out into the heat that is summer in Bucharest - it could put Spain to shame! Not as humid and a Sydney summers day but reaching the mid 30s, it was hot but not unpleasant. The first thing on the list to see was obvious - the Government building in the centre. I walked up the broad avenue from my hotel to the centre of the city, a 10 minute walk, going past the communist style apartment buildings, big square things that aren't pretty but are functional. The Palace of the Parliament (Romanian: Palatul Parlamentului) is a colossal building and really deserves this adjective - I have never seen anything as big as this, it's sheer size is quite impressive, even though it's not very attractive. Perfectly symmetrical, it's kind of a big square with 'wings' at each corner, or a fat X, either way, it's the same no matter which way you look at it and the only thing unsymmetrical about it are the windows - some people like their windows open and some prefer air-con. Plans for construction started in 1978 as was supposed to look like the government building in Pyongyang in North Korea (another square Communist monstrosity), but actual construction started in 1984 and it was eventually finished in 1997, 8 years after the fall of Communism here. The building holds the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies as well as the National Museum of Contemporary Art, conference rooms and more than 1,100 individual rooms on 12 floors - it is the 2nd largest administration building after the Pentagon and 3rd all time biggest building (with a volume of 2.5 million square metres) after the Kennedy Space Centre and the Temple of the Feathered Serpent in Mexico. 70% of the building is empty - what a surprise! I had to stand a far way back to fit it in the frame of my camera - the building is a monster.

The Palatul Parlamentului.

A city church.

People are always praying.

Another thing that I noticed here is the amount of people who go to church, but not just 'go' but really mean it with all their heart and soul. Europe is, on the whole, not an overly religious place anymore - yes there are grand churches and cathedrals, but they were built hundreds of years ago and aren't really popular with the kids as much as they used to be. Greece, although I've never been, would have to be one of the most religious countries (if Greeks in Australia are anything to go by), their churches encased in gold and icons of Saints and Jesus. In Romania, it is like this - the church always has people in it, no matter what day of the week it is, and usually a lot of people too. Beautiful to look at from the outside and the inside, these churches are different from most in the rest of Europe - here, it is Orthodox, and they know how to make a church look beautiful and Holy at the same time. They are not huge, tall structures trying to impress you with how many stones are in the building and how large they are, making you look up at the arches and at the stained glass windows. These churches are smaller and don't have the usual shape, instead are more squat and compact on the inside, wall to wall with decoration and gold, on the outside there are at least 5 onion-shaped domes pointing upwards to the heavens. I never stopped being amazed at how beautiful these churches are inside - that and the people that come to visit cross themselves (the father, the son and the holy spirit) twice, kiss the church's artefacts and icons of Saints, and sometimes there is even a queue. You also need to cross yourself when you see a church, start a car trip or cross the road. Well, not the road, but pretty much every other time.

Busy in church today - and it's only Tuesday!

Vlad III the Impaler AKA Dracula.

Art Museum.

A strange combination of old 19th Century buildings and blocky , ugly, 60s Communist apartment building, Bucharest is an interesting city. Just over 2 million residents, you can see that it's a busy city, shops selling anything you could want and people getting on and off the metro, buses and trams. It's a normal city, and why shouldn't it be? Does every city have to be the best you've ever been to? Why can't we have less expectations for these things and enjoy what it is. The bakeries on the other hand are not ordinary - cheap prices to start off with, and Romania is very affordable for Europe, but the variety of bread and treats that you can get is wonderful - it's hard not to drool every time you walk past one, and they are everywhere! The Old Town of Bucharest of very pleasant though and worth a wander around, not just for the architecture but the places to eat and drink too. A pint of beer will cost you less than 2 Euros in most places and a decent meal maybe 5 or 6. There is a vast variety of food to be had, from traditional Romanian fare of sausages and other meat with sauces and salads to Turkisk or Greek food. The indluence of the East and Mediterrean is big here in terms of food - kebab shops and Greek barbecue restaurants to name a few. Wander around after lunch and find a secret church hidden in between majestic stone office buildings, a 19th Century building holding the nations treasure in it's Art exhibition and a memorial commemorating the fall of Communism or the Jewish people who did during the Holicost - there are things to see and do here, just take your time and see what you find and you may be surprised by this city.

The beautifully decorated facade of a church in Bucharest.

More church visiters.

Holy water on tap!

I only had a few days in the city before I had to start work at the summer camp, which was the reason why I was here in the first place. Although you don't need that long to explore the city, I can't say any really bad things about it - it's not on my list of top cities to visit, nor is it terrible, it's just in the middle somewhere. It'd been fun here, the people are friendly and most speak English in the city, which is great because Romanian isn't easy. I was heading up into the mountains, 2 hours North of Bucharest, for the next 4 weeks and really looking forward to seeing the countryside, something which is known to be absolutely stunning. I had hopes of not just teaching kids but also exploring the area and even seeing the famous Bran Castle and anything other surprises that came my way. Plans were forming in my head about where I'd go and what I'd see, but the fact was it was only three days down and my journey in Romania had just begun.

Beautiful places or worship and very devout people - a good combination.