We made it to our hotel in Bucharest the hard way, having taken a wrong turn on leaving the metro station. But we reached it in the end. After checking in, we realised that a day on the train was pretty tiring so rather than trek down town, we settled for a meal in the hotel restaurant and an early night.
The room and meal were both excellent, and very reasonable to boot. Two mains, two desserts and a bottle of very nice Romanian wine came to about £36. We reckon the same meal would have cost over £60 in Devizes.
As we were spending only one night in Bucharest and catching the 17:40 overnight train to Budapest, we planned to make the most of our time by joining the free guided walking tour. However, despite being in apparently the right place at the right time, we couldn't find the meeting point so we had to organise our own tour, with the help of a map provided by the hotel. Once again our luck was in; the weather was dry and sunny, warm but not too hot.
Bucharest is a big town and very busy. Everyone seems to have celebrated the downfall of communism by buying a car, and they drive and park as thoughtlessly as in Athens or Thessaloniki. Despite the size of the city, there are plenty of sights to see within a mile or so of our hotel.
The room and meal were both excellent, and very reasonable to boot. Two mains, two desserts and a bottle of very nice Romanian wine came to about £36. We reckon the same meal would have cost over £60 in Devizes.
As we were spending only one night in Bucharest and catching the 17:40 overnight train to Budapest, we planned to make the most of our time by joining the free guided walking tour. However, despite being in apparently the right place at the right time, we couldn't find the meeting point so we had to organise our own tour, with the help of a map provided by the hotel. Once again our luck was in; the weather was dry and sunny, warm but not too hot.
Bucharest is a big town and very busy. Everyone seems to have celebrated the downfall of communism by buying a car, and they drive and park as thoughtlessly as in Athens or Thessaloniki. Despite the size of the city, there are plenty of sights to see within a mile or so of our hotel.
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| Wanted: window cleaner |
Top of our list was the Peoples' Palace, a folly in the grand style started by Nicolai Ceausescu in 1985 and just about complete when he died (executed by an ungrateful poroletariat) in 1989. The project involved the demolition of several thousand homes, a couple of dozen churches, several monasteries and two hospitals. In their place, old Nic created the second largest building in the world - only the Pentagon is larger.
It's ENORMOUS, people. Absolutely HUMUNGOUS. Over 100 metres high and about two miles in circumference. You can't deny that it's impressive. Since the fall of communism. the building has been used as the nation's parliament, and also contains two museums and a contemporary art gallery.
We decided to visit the gallery, even though this meant walking halfway round the building. The gallery is tucked away near the back, which turns out on closer inspection to be a lot less impressive than the front. The gardens have become a weedy wasteland, and the condition of the building itself is surprisingly poor given that it's only 25 years old.
We spent an interesting hour or so looking at the art. It's modern stuff, much of it by local artists. It includes striking images and video installations, many of which were disturbing. But maybe that's what happens in a country with a history as troublesome and varied as Romania's.
It's ENORMOUS, people. Absolutely HUMUNGOUS. Over 100 metres high and about two miles in circumference. You can't deny that it's impressive. Since the fall of communism. the building has been used as the nation's parliament, and also contains two museums and a contemporary art gallery.
We decided to visit the gallery, even though this meant walking halfway round the building. The gallery is tucked away near the back, which turns out on closer inspection to be a lot less impressive than the front. The gardens have become a weedy wasteland, and the condition of the building itself is surprisingly poor given that it's only 25 years old.
We spent an interesting hour or so looking at the art. It's modern stuff, much of it by local artists. It includes striking images and video installations, many of which were disturbing. But maybe that's what happens in a country with a history as troublesome and varied as Romania's.
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| Parcu Cismigiu. Pretty! |
After a walk through the beautiful Parcu Cismigiu, our next stop was for lunch as we anticipated a lack of refreshment on the train. Our choice turned out to be a good one. Romanian cuisine includes a range of dishes common with countries such as Greece, Bulgaria and Hungary, all of which have been adopted and adapted to produce tasty and hearty dishes. Just what we needed.
We returned to the hotel to collect our bags, picking up a few snacks on the way. Tonight's journey is due to take over 15 hours and we want to survive it. This means buying plenty of water, a bottle of wine and a corkscrew, plus two jam jars - we couldn't find anywhere that sold plastic wine glasses and we're not proud. Jam jars are tough, cheap and they have lids. We also picked up fruit and snacks and Dec bought a book at the English Language bookshop - there really is such a thing. "The String Of Pearls. A Romance" It may not sound too inspiring, but it's the original story of Sweeney Todd. No sleep till Budapest!
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