Bucharest, Romania September 2015; Banality vs. bizarre + no concern for travellers

Romanians like all of Europe were forced to pay attention to the daily horror stories of refugees in numbers not known for many decades. But while I was there, the Mayor of Bucharest was arrested on charge of corruption (oh no, not that) and the Prime Minister was on trial for tax evasion among other charges (who could imagine ??).  Those are only two matters I was aware of and I was admittedly not very  aware as a kind of cork floating on top of a rapid stream.

Still, did that or anything else ever even slightly impact my comfortable travel?  No.  I  initially stayed at a nice Novotel in the city centre, but as they were sold out additional nights, I moved to another four star hotel, highly recommended in Trip advisor, called K+K.  It was also in the city centre, was a boutique hotel and had the most delicious and attractive breakfast - included - of any place on my trip.

The main reason I went to Romania, was that there are two beautiful old cities in the Carpathian mountains I intended to visit.  There are tours that will take you out for the day, or overnight, but every one of them spends much time at Dracula's castle.  I had no intention of wasting time on that.  But, the train schedules and available hotels just did not work out, and I had to spend four + days in Bucharest - which was not terrible.

The only thing most of us know about Romania after Dracula's great fame, is that the dictator Nikolai Ceausescu built his so-called palace.  It employed 700 architects to create a building of 1,100 rooms, which is 810' x 720' and was essentially complete in 1989 when dear Nikolai and his (not) lovely wife were taken out back, shot to death, and their bodies burned, which I need not mention did in fact, end their regime.

I walked to the right front side of the massive walls that protects the place, foolishly thinking I might enter it.  I knew that fairly expensive tours are required.  But I only wanted to go to the National Museum of contemporary art which is located somewhere in that warehouse made of marble. The reason I did not want to enter the Palace on a guided tour is that while 30% of the building is occupied by the Parliament of the nation, the rest is mainly empty rooms and there is little to see but decay and decline.

  An auto show blocked all of the front and a tour guide there said "Oh the entrance is a 2.5 kilometre walk from here around the building.  No taxi will take you such a short distance, and there is a bus, but we do not know the number or when and where it goes exactly." 

I walked.  I examined the non-stop concrete wall all around the property.  It is 25 years or less in age and is crumbling, like everything else I would soon see. On the way, I looked into an open gate where there was a receiving gate for freight items going into the property.  A guard with a gun furiously sent me on my way.  I went by another open gate with a (sleeping) guard, but his two mutts were sprawled out in the fine sunshine.

Here we see one of the sections of the wall still in o.k. condition next to a pedestrian and bike path with a lovely tree in the middle of it.  I do admire them for not sacrificing the tree and there are few cyclists anyway.

As I arrived through the guarded gate to the rear entrance, and walked down a street partially submerged in undrainable water and broken pavement, I saw there was a pro photographer shooting a wedding party.  I always love to join in photographing these.

But I encountered one of the most bizarre scenes ever.

There was garbage everywhere, plus an overflowing dumpster (bottom pic.).  This was not some new garbage; there were indications that ti had been there a long time.  My photos do not nearly show the huge amount and variety of trash involved.  I think I have seldom seen in my 72 years, a public scene as bizarre as the Men of the party looking serenely down at the trash.  I mounted the marble stairs to be sure I could include the the massive new cathedral being built on the property and the lovely green dumpster.  A guard ran up to me and demanded that I not be on the precious stairs.

I went into the National contemporary through airport-level security.  I started at the 5th - top- floor. Roof leaks had massively wrecked the wood floors and they were still wet despite the fact that the rain the previous night was not much heavier than mist. Because they cannot afford to heat the place in winter, it is all crumbling.
  As they have no "art" for the top floor, they allowed school children to make paper houses to form a village.  Cute, but...  Things did not improve on lower floors.  It was utterly depressing.  I swear to you that there was not one single item even worth $10 in the entire place.  In fact, everything together was not worth $10.  There was not much.  The walls did have some hideous junk piece about every 20 feet.  They were so pressed for something to exhibit that they pasted sheets of newspaper on the walls and put a name next to it as though it was art.  And, for this, they had two guards on airport-like security. Away from the walls was nothing - just empty space in these huge rooms with ruined floors. I completely wasted $1.50 on admission.  Damn those post-commies.

I asked the polite employee of some sort walking around, who had told me how to approach their gallery and collection, if there was some section of Bucharesti with commercial galleries.  Her reply "no."  But Ms., is there any commercial gallery I ought to see?  "No, I just told you there are none at all."  Well, that was all such a success !

I have not the slightest idea of what the above three photos mean, if anything.  Notice her lovely and powerful shoes which do compliment the graffitti so perfectly.  In the middle photo, where they are - of course, what else - both studying their phones, you can see the boy is nice looking, and wonder whether he is escorting his lost sister to some brothel?  Oh, no it could not be that.  But one is always amazed at how many carrot-haired women do love to wear PINK.

Of a Sunday afternoon, I happened upon a nice park with a small lake and many people and pigeons.  There was a dad who tossed bird food ever closer to his own feet, so that he could seize a pigeon - many times - for his truly lovely child to admire.

Among all the turmoil of the region, there is serenity and nature, somewhere.

The two ghostly images are my favourites of the whole trip.  They are pigeons prancing around on a translucent awning over a sidewalk cafe where I was having lunch.

A disturbing feature of Bucharest are the vast number of abandoned and collapsing building in every part of the city.  From the top photos, you can see that the city has a beautiful style which dates to around 1900. The surviving, well-renovated buildings are handsome.  But there are also a huge number of obviously failed renos.  You can tell by the trees growing out of them that the attempted reno failed at least 20 years ago.

In the bottom photo, on the left is one common example.  The vacant spot is where one building just collapsed entirely, To the right of that is a nice building, in good condition, but that barely visible to the right of it is crumbling so badly that there are industrial nets all over to catch falling material. 

Near this spot was an abandoned 18 storey glass tower, one of the tallest in the entire city.  Glass and metal panels had fallen out at various levels.  All the perimeter and walks were closed and a guard on watch as the falling materials were so large and constant.

You will think by now, that I have a bad opinion of the whole place.  Not so.  The people were helpful (if not pleasant), the food was wonderful, absolutely every meal better than I could get in Toronto in a mid-range restaurant. I think I ate every meal there at a sidewalk cafe.

They have an Old town district which is attractive,  really crowded and lively  The subway is efficient and modern, although the streetcars look at least 60 years or more of age.  I have never seen such old ones operational anywhere. 

There was a month long music festival which was mainly high-level classical music, although some modern and jazz too. I saw a Strauss Elektra as an opera in concert (no scenery or costumes), which was excellent.

 But in a world of choices, I would be hard pressed to suggest spending vacation time and money in Bucharesti.