Day 22 – July 4th – Bucharest
We both found it hard to get going today. I think the toll of walking big distances every day, including hundreds of stairs and difficult surfaces has had its impact on our bodies. In addition, not having a set program that we have to keep means that we can make our own pace in the mornings. We made it to breakfast at 10:20am to discover that it closed by 11am. We enjoyed the lovely breakfast nevertheless and were ready to explore more of the city (on foot) not long after 11am.
Our best hunches told us to pack our rain jackets, which proved very wise. We headed south from the old town for the 2k walk to what is the largest civilian building in the world – the Romanian ‘Palace of the Parliament’ which is only 2nd to the Pentagon as the largest building in the entire world. It is gargantuan and beautiful. The Palace was designed by 28 year old architect Anca Petrescu and was commenced under the Ceausescu regime in 1984, who failed to see its completion by the time of the people’s revolution in 1989 and the subsequent execution of both he and his wife.
It would be close to 4k around the block on which it is built – we know because we walked it looking for the main entrance – had we turned right and not left we would have found it within 1k! It is a stunningly beautiful building, and so large it not only houses the Romanian Parliament, but also the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Museum and Park of Totalitarianism and Socialist Realism, as well as numerous conference halls, salons and multiple courts and meeting rooms. Still only 70% of the building is in use.
Just as we arrived, the heavens opened and it poured raining for several hours. We crowded into the small visitor entrance, where many hundreds of people on tours had also crammed, queuing for the guided tours of the building. We gave it a ‘miss’ – just seeing the building was enough for us – we weren’t keen to wait ages to get our chance at a guided tour.
We waited ages though for the rain to ease but in the end we donned the rain jackets and made our way back to the old town, but stopped in at a café (dripping wet) for coffee and a break from the weather.
From there we headed back over the channel that divides the old town from the southern part of the city, heading for the other famous place – the Plaza of the Revolution (Piata Revolutiei), the place where President Nicolae Ceausescu, the Communist leader of Romania from 1974 to 1989 gave his final and infamous speech from the balcony of the Communist Central Committee building overlooking the ‘Piata’. The crowd revolted, Ceausescu and his wife had to flee by helicopter from the roof, was eventually captured by civilians, tried, found guilty of genocide and treason and both executed by machine gun all within 3 days of the fatal speech.
It was fascinating to stand in the square. There is a memorial of names, presumably of those who died in the people’s revolution, but otherwise it is rather void of anything that marks the significance of this spot. On the way I stopped a Policeman to ask ‘where is Revolutionary Square’ and he didn’t seem to know – we were just a few hundred metres away.
Bucharest is a city of very grand, beautiful buildings. It would be good to have more time and the knowledge of the history and purpose of the many grand structures that stand very proudly (many showing the signs of communist rule where these buildings were not necessarily maintained very well). We passed the beautiful ‘Palace of Justice’ as we crossed the channel, which looks much more beautiful by night. The beautiful Kretzulescu Orthodox Church stands out in contrast to the surrounding more traditional buildings, as does the Orthodox Basilica Zlatari where a wedding was taking place.
Up in the immediate vicinity of the Revolutionary Square is the Royal Palace (now the National Art Museum) and the Biblia Centrala University Carol 1, with its massive replacement statue of King Carol 1st, the first King of modern Romania. The original statue of bronze was melted by the Communist regime in 1948, the bronze being used instead for a statue of Lenin. King Carol was named King of the newly founded Kingdom of Romania in 1881 and reigned for 48 years during which time the country flourished in economy, society and culture.
The other building in this sector is the Romanian Athenaeum, a concert hall of some significance which resembles a smaller version of the Washington Capital building. Built in 1888, it was also the site of the conference that ratified the unification of Bessarabia, Transylvania and Bukovina with the old Kingdom of Romania to form modern Romania. It is a building of some beauty.
As the heavens were now dropping its lovely downpours of heavy rain again, we made our way back to our lovely Hotel in the middle of the old town, but enjoying the sights of the beautiful narrow lanes and the quaint shops, pubs, bars and tiny restaurants that are so closely packed in but which give the old town its character.
The day was late. We always enjoy ‘putting our feet up’ before making our way out again to find a suitable place for dinner. Tonight was no exception. We found a lovely quaint bar/restaurant in a narrow, cobbled side street where we share a single ‘plate for 2’ of traditional Romanian ‘Mici’ – a meat which presents like a sausage but is not a sausage. The plate was laden with other meats and some veges but tested our capacity to consume it all. The price was similar to a single dish back home of chicken ‘n chips!
It was the end of a magnificent day. Before heading out to dinner, we watched some of the first day of the Tour de France – a much more respectable time than midnight in Australia, with the Aussie Rohan Dennis winning the Time Trial with a Tour record breaking time, and starting Day 2 in the famed Yellow Jersey.
Tomorrow is our 40th wedding anniversary. We are delighted to celebrate this in Bucharest with a ‘hop on, hop off’ bus tour of Bucharest and a quiet dinner to finish the day. Until then…..
KRA
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