Post 47. Bucharest, Romania. Part 3.
Casa Ceausescu
I booked a guided tour of Ceausescu's mansion. This was the home of former dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, his wife Elena and their children, from 1965 until their death in 1989. They also had grand summer homes on each of the Romanian provinces.
The luxury life the tyrant led in contrast to the misery of Bucharest residents comes across loud and clear.
Ceausescu was very easily influenced. When he went to Japan he brought back peacocks, their descendants are still there in the garden.
When he went to Mexico, he was impressed with Mexican marble mosaic tiling and installed it in an extension at the back of the house.
When he went to China he brought back silkworms and started a Romanian silkworm industry, where every school had silkworms and pupils were expected to bring food from home to feed them.
All the silk wall coverings in the house come from these worms, as is the case in the main public rooms in the Parliament House.
The best room is the swimming pool in the basement which is fully tiled in mosaic art by two prominent Romanian artists of the day. As a reward, he allowed them leave the country.
The tour finished with a 40-minute documentary on the rise and fall of the Ceausescus, in the original basement cinema.
Lipscani - the Old Town
I still hadn't visited the Lipscani quarter, so I took a Metro there from the Ceausescu House. I wandered around the area for an hour or so.
It was full of pedestrian streets, restaurants, bars and cafés.
This was my favourite area of the city and below is my favourite building - The Palace of Justice.
I wandered into a fabulous bookstore with lots of character, called Cărturesti Carusel. It is huge, on three floors stocking 10,000 books and 5,000 albums /DVDs. There was a good English language selection.
For an early dinner, I had my sights on Caru’ cu Bere. in the Old Town.
It is a huge old beer hall and was recommended by all the travel blogs as a must-visit, to experience authentic Romanian food. I should have been wary of these inflated reviews however, as my experience was similar to the day before.
The atmosphere inside was lovely with high ceilings and dark wood panelling. I got a table in the old cellars. The food however was mediocre, two recommended dishes that I saw on the tourist blogs were homemade chicken noodle soup with fresh noodles, followed by pan-fried carp with polenta and garlic sauce.
The soup was quite tasty but I didn’t enjoy the carp and wouldn't order it again. I did get quite a taste for polenta over the ten days in Romania and Moldova and will look for it when I go home.
When I told the waitress that I didn’t enjoy the carp, she brought me out a glass of palinka (plum brandy) to make up for it, which was a nice gesture. I thought the restaurant was just a tourist trap and similar to Restaurant Hanu ‘lui Manuc in that respect.
Overall Impressions of Bucharest
Bucharest will not win any beauty competitions for best-looking European capital. It has its charms, but on the whole, the constant mix of architectural styles, where 1960s concrete boxes sit cheek by jowl with old historical buildings creates a jarring effect.
This visual set of contrasts is not pleasant to look at. All in all, the bland 1960s buildings, constant traffic, and cigarette smoke everywhere do not contribute to an enjoyable experience.
Bucharest does get under your skin though and once you have your bearings you can begin to appreciate what makes it tick.
Unfortunately in my last hour in the city, I was pickpocketed on the Metro as I made my way back to the apartment. It was rush hour and the train was packed. I was standing for the whole trip. My wallet was in the inside deep pocket of my jacket. How the thief knew it was there and how s/he removed it, I will never know - I felt absolutely nothing.
I know this can happen in any large city anywhere in the world, but it did happen to me here and unfortunately it confirmed one of the stereotypes in the media about petty crime being rife, and I left Bucharest with a sour taste in my mouth.
Luckily I was able to freeze all my cards once I realised, and had access to one other card on Google Pay which I could use. I cancelled the cards the next day and Revolut was able to provide me with a new card and number, which I was able to use instantly.
Overall Impressions of Romania
Based on my short one-week of travel in Romania, with limited interactions with locals, here are some random observations.
1. The food portions are huge. It is difficult to manage a starter and a main course, so soup is often a good option. Maybe that explains why it is so popular with Romanians. There are usually at least three choices of soup on menus.
2. Obesity among males is a huge problem, I am unsure if this is as a result of the big portions, or if it is genetic, or if it is just a cultural thing. It seemed to me however, that many men from Romania regard having a belly as a badge of honour. In Ireland, overweight males (me included) make some attempt at hiding their paunches, not so here. Many of them even wear tight shirts and tee-shirts, making their bellies seem even larger.3. Smoking is extremely widespread, even among young people. It is quite a shock coming from Ireland. It is impossible to escape the smell of tobacco smoke if you eat outside, as people light up between courses and I even saw some smoke while eating.
One of the strangest sights I saw was outside a gym, a few blocks from my apartment. There were five gym goers out on the pavement, in their sports gear taking a break and all five were puffing on cigarettes.
4. Betting seems huge. I have never seen so many betting shops and casinos in one city before. This one was near my metro stop, there was another a few doors away.
6. Romanian sour cream was served widely on a range of dishes and it was delicious.
7. The Romanian language may have Latin roots but the people also came across as Mediterranean, definitely closer to Greeks and Italians than Hungarians or Poles. They are warm, expressive, and greet each other with warm handshakes or hugs. They were very helpful any time I stopped a passer-by and asked a question.
Comments
Post a Comment