Bucharest: Beauty with a Painful Past

When our friend, Ileana, invited us to visit her in Bucharest during our stay in Sweden, how could we say no? What could be better than visiting an unfamiliar (and slightly exotic) European city guided by an intelligent and cultured resident who is also a friend? So of course, we went.

Fake tulips in Amsterdam's airport.

On Monday, April 17, we left Uppsala on a cold morning (about 25 degrees) and took the train to Arlanda airport. We happened to see a large Ikea store (#1) in the outskirts of town. From Arlanda, we flew to Amsterdam and, after a few hours, got on the plane to Bucharest, landing at the Henri Coandă International Airport in the late afternoon. Henri Coandă, you will be interested to know, was a well known Romanian aviation pioneer and fluid dynamicist. In fact, it now comes back to me that I studied the Coandă Effect during my undergraduate days in Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Ileana was waiting for us at the airport and we all piled into a cab and headed into town. Along the way we noticed a large Ikea store (#2). We got to our hotel, freshened up a bit and went out for a walk. The temperature was a balmy 40-some degrees with skies threatening rain which never came.

Our hotel in central Bucharest. We did not park.

 As we walked, Ileana explained some of what we were seeing. When a communist government was imposed on Romania by the Russians after World War Two, many privately owned buildings in Bucharest were nationalized. Subsequently, the people who lived and worked in them had little incentive to maintain them properly. After the fall of the communist regime in 1989, an attempt was made to return the buildings to their original owners. Some of those people were dead, some were unavailable, and some could not afford the necessary repairs. Since many of the buildings were not only poorly maintained but had also been damaged in the large earthquake of 1977, sometimes repair costs were very high indeed.

As a result, many buildings in central Bucharest look like this. In the larger empty buildings downtown, we noticed lots of private guards to keep squatters from taking up residence.

Street scene near our hotel

 After the 1977 earthquake, Romania's communist dictator, Nicolae Ceaușescu, decided to embark on a major building program and, after a visit to North Korea, fixated on the architecture of Pyongyang as his preferred model for central Bucharest. His grandiose and tasteless vision was literally set in stone in the Palace of the Parliament shown below. 

The Palace of the Parliament, one of the largest buildings in the world. It takes an hour to walk around the whole thing.

Between the world wars, Bucharest had been known as "Little Paris" because of its fine architecture and sophisticated population. After the allied bombings in 1944, the earthquake in 1977, and Ceaușescu's ridiculous Pyongyang obsession, much has changed. However, the city's charm is still visible and it is vibrant with the arts, universities, government institutions, and a youthful population.

A square in central Bucharest

Old Town, young people; the dome in the background is a large bank or exchange building

The White Church (early 18th century)

We entered this Eastern Orthodox church while a service was in progress and listened for a while to the traditional chanting of the priests.

An historic 19th century restaurant in Old Town restored and owned by a Romanian Microsoft millionaire.

The ceiling of an indoor/outdoor shopping area

The nearly empty restaurant where we ate our dinner. This cafe has a history of being a place for intellectual gatherings and conversations -- we tried our best to live up to this. Also, fantastic desserts!

A government building on our walk back to the hotel

The next morning we got up early and had breakfast in the hotel dining room. We were the only guests present and it was a little weird being surrounded by piles of food meant for a crowd as we merely nibbled around the edges.
At about 8:30, we met Ileana for a full day of experiencing Bucharest. The city's English name, by the way, is pronounced Byoo-ka-rest as opposed to Boo-ka-rest. I learned this by listening to Ileana. In Romanian, it is București, a plural reflecting the fact that the city is an amalgamation of individual smaller towns which merged over the centuries.

The main building of the University of Bucharest

The tulips are blooming in the parks (unlike in Uppsala, so we were fascinated! How to account for this?)

The parks in central Bucharest are beautiful

The Palace of the National Military Circle

A large modern hotel. Quite a contrast to much of the city's architecture.

The school of architecture, Bucharest University

The school of architecture, Bucharest University

This is all one building! An interesting architectural inspiration.

 We visited the spectacular Romanian Athenaeum, which was funded largely by public subscription. Crowd funding in the late 19th century (and also in the 21st century, because the restoration of the building was funded by everyday people donating small amounts of money).

Romanian Athenaeum

Athenaeum Lobby

Athenaeum Lobby

Performance Hall in the Athenaeum

Athenaeum Performance Hall. The mural depicts the history of Romania.

The building in which Ileana works, an Institute affiliated with the University.

Ileana

George Enescu is Romania's most famous composer and musician. He composed and conducted throughout Europe and the United States in the early 20th century and his statue stands in the lobby of the Romanian Athenaeum.  In 1939, he married a wealthy lady and, when in Bucharest, he lived in the Cantacuzino Palace which is now a museum devoted to him. Apparently, he preferred a less pretentious and more comfortable home and that house is behind the museum and is also open to the public.

George Enescu Museum

A Boulevard in central Bucharest

Old Town

This is also in Old Town. In fact it is labeled as an historic site. There is some work to do.

The Old Court Church, the oldest church in Bucharest finished in 1597

Curtea Veche Palace, home of Vlad the Impaler

The Impaler himself

According to Ileana, Vlad was not the only impaler of his time, just the most notorious. But it's not like he was a misunderstood man who, in reality, meant the best for everybody. He actually impaled many people. In one horrifying story, he asked some visitors if they ever took off their turbans even if ordered to. They said no so... he had their turbans nailed to their heads! This was not a nice man.

The courtyard of Manuc's Inn. This the last surviving Turkish Inn in Bucharest

 The tiny Eastern Orthodox Stavropoleos Church

Column close-up

The church courtyard

We also went to the Museum of Art Collections which featured many works by Romanian artists, and the city museum or the Museum of the Municipality of Bucharest. 

Afterwards, Ileana hailed a cab and we took wild ride through the city with the intention of seeing the remains of Bucharest's communist era. The cab driver drove fast, as if we were trying to get somewhere on time (which we were not). We rode around for a couple of hours but I didn't take many pictures since creating a blur as you fly past the sights at high speed is not sound photographic practice. I would have feared for my life if not for the obvious skill of our driver who, it seems, spends his entire working day careering maniacally about the city while enjoying the constant beat of dance/pop music. My ears still hurt. 

We got a lot for our money though, as the fare was only about $10 for almost two hours of this entertainment. 

Apartment complex built during communist rule. This may have been the only time we slowed down long enough for a picture.

We ended our race through Bucharest at Old Town where, at our request, we ate at a traditional Romanian restaurant. I had a delicious Transylvanian Goulash (hold the blood!) and CJ had a huge amount of polenta with lots of cheese. We stayed and talked for hours before walking back to the hotel in the dark.

As I remarked several times during our travels in Bucharest, I had no idea where we were most of the time. If I had been asked to find my way back to the hotel, I'm sure it would have been impossible without a map and a GPS. As in most European cities, the streets go here and there with no discernible pattern and you just have to know from experience how it all fits together. Luckily, Ileana knew everything so we didn't have to.

The next morning, Wednesday, April 19, we got up, had a slightly less lonely breakfast, and again met Ileana. She had arranged for the same taxi driver who drove us on our tour to take us to the airport. We had no worries about arriving on time.

Ileana took excellent care of us, going so far as to pay for our hotel in spite of our strongly worded protests. She allowed us to buy the meals we had together but that was it. We will be looking for some ways to repay her in the future.

We waved goodbye and set off for our next adventure. We arrived at the airport in good time (duh!), and went to check in for our flight. As we did so, I  noticed pairs of young men in uniform sauntering about with automatic weapons. Should I feel afraid or be comforted by this? I still don't know.

At any rate, we boarded our flight on Aegean Airlines without incident. Our airplane took to the air in  a businesslike fashion and the pilot set course for... Athens!