Post 45. Bucharest, Romania. Part 1.
Introduction
Bucharest is a big sprawling city. The photo above was taken in the centre, near Piaţa Unirii. One of
the first things that I noticed about the buildings in the city centre
was that there were huge advertising hoardings on the top of many (if
not most) buildings. I know it is done for commercial gain but it really
destroys the look of the buildings.
Bucharest has a population of 2.5 million, double that of Dublin and just like Dublin it has terrible traffic jams. I wondered if both cities had a similar geographic area, so I checked this on the True Size Of website. The comparative size of both cities can be seen in the image below.
The Journey
The train from Braşov to Bucharest was modern and comfortable. The scenery was flat agricultural land and was fairly monotonous.
I was able to get a 1st class ticket for €5 extra so took it. To be honest the carriage didn't look that much different from 2nd class, but it involved less walking on the platform and there was nobody walking up and down the carriage during the trip.
On arrival in Bucharest, I opted to take a Bolt taxi from the train station for a cost of about €8. I followed the route on the live map on my phone, as the driver zig-zagged to avoid traffic build-ups. Because of the random route we were taking I found it hard to get my bearings.
He was able to communicate using limited English. It turned out that he is a dentist who works one day a week as a Bolt driver for extra income and he also likes to get out of his surgery and chat to all walks of life in the taxi.
We compared prices for fillings between Ireland and Bucharest and as an example the cost of removing a mercury filling and replacing it with a white one here would be €60. A regular filling would be €40. He gave me his number. I might be back!
The Accommodation
My accommodation (below) in Bucharest was in the east of the city, in a brand new development, in an area called Pantelimon.
My hosts were a couple called Bogdan and Andreea. They exchanged their home, a bright modern apartment for GuestPoints.
It was a penthouse flat on the 11th floor of the Vivienda apartment complex built in 2023. Bogdan arranged to meet me there and gave me a guided tour.
It was very peaceful and blackout curtains made for a very restful night’s sleep. The place was exceptional. It was absolutely spotless. I felt very relaxed and comfortable there. The hosts left wonderful instructions and lots of suggestions to experience Bucharest to the full.
The views from the living room were amazing over the city, with communist blocks and old warehouses to the left ...
... and modern apartment blocks to the right. The balcony was a great place to sit out as the weather was in the high 20s.
Right outside the apartment, there was a cozy coffee shop, serving superb coffee and several supermarkets, including a brand new Lidl.
Getting Around
For orientation, the official Bucharest Metro map is a good place
to start, as the metro lines do correspond to the actual map, unlike the
London Tube Map or the Paris Metro Map. The tube lines are overlaid on a
map of Bucharest's different sectors, from 1 to 14, going in an
anti-clockwise direction.
My apartment was a short 8 minute walk from the Costin Georgian metro stop, on the east of the city. There
were also multiple bus and tram stops, ensuring quick and easy access to
Bucharest city centre in 20 minutes. A Metro ticket or indeed any
public transport ticket is 5 Lei (€1) for travel anywhere in the city.
Research and Planning
I found the following travel blogs interesting and full of ideas for things to do:
The city
Bucharest isn’t what you would call beautiful at first sight and it doesn’t help that the architecture on every street is a mix-match of different styles and eras.
The use of concrete is ubiquitous.
The concrete communist buildings from the sixties are not ageing well, while some of the older historical buildings could do with a good clean up.
Then sometimes you will find a cool modern building squeezed in between two older ones or indeed inside or even on top of another building as in the case below - however I don't think this one actually works somehow!
That said, there are a lot of very nice areas. I discovered this newly developed area all along the riverbank.
Here, there were lots of cool places when it comes to bars, coffee shops and good restaurants.
I went into one of these in late afternoon on the first day and sat outside with a view of the river. The menu was not Romanian food, but I fancied a change. As the portions had been so big up until now, I opted for two starters - dirty fries and loaded nachos. When they arrived they were as big as main course sizes in Ireland!
The Walking Tour
In early evening I went on a guided walking tour called Tales of Communist Bucharest. The tour guide was brilliant; even though she was too young to remember it, she had loads of stories to tell from her parents' experience.
This is where the tour started, outside the police headquarters. It was surrounded by the apartment blocks (below) that Ceausescu built in the 1960s and they have a particular style that I think is probably unique to Bucharest.
When Ceausescu went on a visit to China and North Korea, he became impressed with all the new modern concrete buildings he saw and on his return he wanted to build a similsr new perfect communist city.
A powerful earthquake in 1977 that destroyed a lot of buildings in Bucharest, gave Ceausescu the excuse to demolish anything he wanted.
This included razing about 20% of the buildings in the city centre to build a huge new parliament building (below).
I booked a tour of the building for my second day, so more about that in the next post.
In total, over 10,000 houses, 20 churches, several hospitals and many schools were bulldozed.
This church was actually raised up on a concrete plinth first and moved fully intact on railway tracks, 300m from its original position, to make way for the new building.
Inside the church, a nun was deep in prayer, oblivious to visitors.
Outside, there was a structure for lighting candles, like the one I had seen in Iaşi. Following tradition, I lit one to honour the living and one to honour the dead.
The End of Ceausescu
This building below is where it all ended for Ceausescu and his wife on Christmas Day 1989. This square is now called Revolution Square.
Thousands of people gathered here to protest about living conditions in December 1989, after similar protests in other Romanian cities such as Braşov, Iasi and Timisoara.
Ceausescu and his wife tried to calm the crowd from the balcony (over the three doors above), but the people had had enough. They were both arrested and executed on Christmas Day 1989.
I still remember vividly seeing this all unfold on the news on Christmas night. I wonder in hindsight if this was the spark that ignited my interest in all things to do with Eastern Europe.
End of Day 1
After the guided walk, it was getting dark and as I walked to take the metro back to the apartment, a lot of the new luxury international hotels that have sprung up in recent years were illuminated. The city did look really well at night.
In contrast, the metro stations were not pretty by any standard.
They are functional however and the system transports huge numbers of people very efficiently. The trains were the longest metro trains I have ever seen, open from one end to the other.
Finally, I arrived back at the metro stop closest to my apartment - Costin Georgian. Like the others, it was full of marble and concrete, but was not that beautiful to look at.
First Impressions
As I walked back to the apartment, my brain was alive with the sights, sounds and all the information gathered on my first day of my three days in Bucharest. There were things I loved and there were other aspects of the city that I was disappointed in. However, I was looking forward immensely to the guided tour of the Parliament Buildings that I had booked for my second day. I was tired after all the walking and knew I would sleep soundly in the very comfortable bed.
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