Bucharest

We travelled by train through the Carpathian Mountains to Bucharest, a city of 8 million.  It’s quite a contrast to the other places we have seen in Romania.  It’s unkempt and uncared for, with angry graffiti and parks filled with weeds to complement the massive Communist era buildings.

We went for a tour of the Palace of Parliament, the second largest government building in the world, after the Pentagon.  It was built under the direction of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in the 1980’s but has never been finished. It has 1100 rooms decorated with chandeliers and gold. A palace nearby was also built for his wife and second in charge Elena. This was all being built while the people lined up for bread.

The building has 20 floors including 8 underground. The floors beneath included a nuclear bunker and a route to the airport in case of a revolution. All this caution didn’t help him when the revolution came in 1989. He and Elena were captured by the army and executed on Christmas Day, 1989.

We then went on a walking tour of the highlights of downtown Bucharest and its recent history. Communism means the state comes before anything else including the church, but Ceausescu knew how important the church was to Romanians, so he moved the churches to be hidden by the state buildings.

The “old town”, and many of the statues surrounding it, are actually only about a decade old. All the other capitals in Europe have them, so they were added here.

Bucharest is the earthquake capital of Europe. An apartment building crumbling from neglect stands next to a new luxury hotel that has been abandoned because the apartments will likely collapse in the next earthquake.

Revolution Square has a damaged memorial to the hundreds of people who died in the revolution. It stands in front of the balcony where Ceasescu last spoke before his attempted escape.

The whole downtown was just a little depressing.

I had an extra day here but it was a Monday and attractions were closed, including the Ceasescu mansion that I would have liked to see.

Leaving Romania by plane the following day, I sat next to a tall soft spoken young guy who asked if he could think with me. I didn’t understand at first, but he wanted to help me solve the sudoku game I had on my iPad. After some futile thinking together, I started asking him questions, slowly drawing out his story. He played sudoku with his grandfather, was on his way to Germany to play table tennis, was a European champion in 2016, would be at the Buenos Aires youth olympics in October, and hoped to play in the Olympics in 2020. He is from Constanta, Romania. I will watch for him!