Friday, 13SEP
This morning we disembarked at Oltenita, Romania, and traveled inland to Bucharest.
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| Our first view of Romania |
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| Abandoned factory outside Bucharest |
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| On the road outside Bucharest |
Based on our trip to Bucharest, Romania seemed to be in better economical and physical shape than Bulgaria, but significantly worse than Hungary. Most of the communist-era housing seemed to be renovated, although there was still a lot of stuff in disrepair.
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| Housing in the suburbs of Bucharest |
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| Another apartment building |
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| Street on the outskirts of Bucharest |
The city of Bucharest itself was in fairly good shape. It has a lot of wide boulevards, and a lot of the pre-communist buildings have been renovated. The main site in the city is the
Palace of the Parliament, which was built in the 1980's by the Communist leader
Nicolae Ceaucescu. It's the second largest building the world (after the Pentagon), and building it and the surrounding buildings caused a large part the city to be leveled, at a time when a large part of the population was starving and freezing. Did I mention that people in Eastern Europe don't care for the Communists?
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| Parliament (center right). Picture taken from about 3/4 mile away |
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| University building |
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| On the streets of Bucharest |
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| Early 20th century building, half renovated |
Part of our tour included a visit to the Parliament building. The building is not completely finished, and Ceacescu was overthrown and killed before he could occupy it.
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| Parliament building, from about 1/4 mile away |
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| Hallway inside the Parliament |
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| Inside the Chamber of Deputies |
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| Another hallway in the Parliament building |
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| Chandelier in the Parliament building |
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| Meeting room in the Parliament building |
Ceaucescu also built a mile-long wide boulevard (originally named Victory of Socialism Boulevard, now
Unirii Boulevard) that ended at the Parliament, and constructed large buildings on either side of the boulevard.
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| View down Unirii Boulevard from Parliament |
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| Another view of Unirii Boulevard |
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| Buildings facing the Parliament |
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| Driving down Unirii Boulevard--Bucharest has a bit of a traffic problem. |
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| Central Bucharest |
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| Another boulevard in Bucharest |
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| Central University Library |
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| Old Parliament Building |
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| Strada Lipscani, a pedestrian street in the old part of Bucharest |
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| Another view of Strada Lipscani |
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| Coltea Hospital |
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| Flea Market in the courtyard of the Bulgarian Church |
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| Romanian Atheneum, home of the Romanian Philharmonic |
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| Athenee Plaza Hotel, where we spent our night in Bucharest |
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| My chance to smoke a Cuban cigar in the hotel bar, which I didn't do |
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| Artwork which was probably not on display 25 years ago |
Saturday, 14 SEP
Up bright and early to our drive to the Bucharest airport. From there, it was on to London, then JFK, then RDU. Nothing worthy of pictures.
