Bucharest, Part I-Pleasantly Surprised

Although our introduction to Bucharest wasn't the most positive with our crazy cab driver, we were pleasantly surprised with our visit. The hotel Rembrandt was offered excellent customer service and was very accommodating-had our twin beds, allowed us to pay the bill with two credit cards, had decent and functioning wifi, offered a town map and suggestions for restaurants and spoke great English! What more could we ask?

Bucharest is the capital of Romania and probably gets a bad rap, but in fact it was a cross between unreconstructed communism meets unbridled capitalism. It was where the two forces of WesternEurope  (EU) meets the influences of the Balkans and the Middle East. There are some excellent museums, impressive parks and boulevards left over from their "Golden Age" at the beginning of the 20th century. By the end of the 1930's, Bucharest was known in Europe as "Little Paris" or the "Paris of the East".

However the bombing by the Allies during WWII, coupled with a 1940 earthquake, destroyed much of Bucharest and then the Communists (under the dictatorship rule of Nicholae Ceausescu's) came in post 1945 until the late 1980's to destroy what little beauty was left of the city!

The violent revolution of 1989 inflicted serious wounds both physically and psychologically on the people and their city. Many of the buildings still bear bullet holes as testament to these turbulent times. It seems as if Romainia, just in the past 6 years, has emerged from their controlling and violent past. We saw a lot of renovation going on, magnificent buildings of gradeur statue emerging from the rubble, an electricity reminiscent of an optimistic city, nightlife and lots young people on their iPhones! There were still signs of the communist-like attitude at some bars or restaurant waiters and clearly with the police (when we tried to ask directions and they just stared at us like we were political dissidents), but we enjoyed our visit.

We did two walking tours-one by night and one by day.

This blog is dedicated to our night tour.

National History Museum

Views of the City from Old Town

The Romanian Central Bank

The Symbol of Bucharest-The Trajan of the She-Wolf. Head of wolf is joined to the tail of the Dacian Traco. Sculpture made three statues total, other two are in Rome and Sevilla. Contraversionally seen by the Bucharestians who were upset by the nudity of the statue and thought they were making fun of their stray dog issue.

Made me think of my Mother in Law. This is the cafe where we had our breakfast every morning.