Day 21 – July 3rd – Istanbul to Bucharest
We were up early, negotiating the stairs from our 3rd storey room at the Basileus Hotel with our back-packs on our backs. Actually, we have four back-packs but we wear the smaller ones on the front. Mine is green so I look a bit like a ninja turtle. The Hotel had arranged an early breakfast, and in no time we were sitting in the back of our hire car to Ataturk International Airport (at excessive speed!).
We were sad to say farewell to Istanbul, but at the same time we were quite excited to be going to Romania. Ataturk is a massive airport, and building an even bigger one believed to be the largest in the world. All went smoothly. It was lovely to stand in queue with two lovely Australian girls who were backpacking through Europe for 6 months, from Melbourne. They said they were very impressed by us ‘granny back-packers’ (my words, not theirs….but they agreed!).
It was wonderful to see Istanbul from the air. The plane flew out over the edge of the Black Sea, which we followed for most of the trip before coming in over Romania which looked beautiful from the air. The fields were large ‘checkerboard’ patterns and very flat, although the Transylvania mountains were in the far distance. A beautiful black ‘Skoda’ limo was waiting for us (incredible for 20 Euro) that saved the hassle of the long trip by taxi or wrestling with the train. There seems to be no speed limits in Bucharest!
Romania has a population of about 20 million people, and borders the Black Sea and also with Bulgaria, Hungary, Ukraine, Moldova and Serbia. It is now a Republic, and part of the European Union. The capital city is Bucharest, which is the 6th largest city in the EU.
Modern Romania has its origins in the ancient province of Dacia, and was formed as late as 1859 through a union of the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, gaining independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1877. After WW1, Transylvania, Bukovina and Bessarabia united with the Kingdom of Romania. During WW2, Romania allied with the Nazi Germany and participated in the Holocaust. In 1955, Romania became a Socialist Republic (the Soviets had occupied adjacent Moldova in WW2) and member of the Warsaw Pact, a military alliance of 8 Communist countries including Russia.
A people’s revolution erupted in late 1989 against the strict dictatorial communist rule of Nicolae Ceausescu. The military switched allegiance to the protesting population. Riots, street violence and murder intensified during a single week in December of 1989, resulting in the Dictator Ceausescu and his wife fleeing, being captured, hastily tried in a kangaroo court for violations against the Romania people, condemned to death and immediately executed.
The country, despite its challenges, has flourished ever since. With a democratically elected Government, Romania joined NATO in 2004 and the EU in 2007.
Bucharest is a beautiful, well laid out European city. Our hotel, the Europa Royale, is in the old city centre and is surprisingly ‘up market’ for the price. We were delighted when told that they had upgraded our room. It is a beautiful room and far above our ‘pay scale’ but a fitting place to share our 40th wedding anniversary.
It was now early afternoon, and despite a heavy downpour of rain, we were keen to explore the old heart of the city. The old city centre doesn’t seem as old as other cities, with oldest buildings typically 18th and 19th century. The narrow lanes are all cobbled and seem to be dominated by bars, small restaurants and night-clubs. We loved the sights nevertheless, and found a lovely historic building that resembled a livery stables now converted to small quaint shops to have coffee and ‘chips’, which we quickly learned were more like ‘Smith’s crisps’ than the chips we are more familiar with.
We spent more time in our room, sorting our bags and ‘putting our feet up’ before heading out to a cute corner café for dinner on the cobbled sidewalk. The old heart of Bucharest literally comes alive with people at night, mostly young people out filling the bars and night clubs. The women dress beautifully, and make us back-packers seem elderly and poorly dressed by comparison. By this time in the evening, all the lanes and streets are filled with tables and chairs and packed with people out having a good time for the evening. Smokers are prevalent, so you have to get used to people smoking and blowing smoke on you while you are eating. No point complaining.
It was hard to think that only that morning were having breakfast in Istanbul. We are here for two full days before picking up a hire car for our adventure through the Romanian countryside.
From our delightful room on the 3rd floor of the Europa Royale Hotel in downtown Bucharest, we send our love! Until tomorrow….
KRA
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