We took the 301 bus from outside the campsite that delivered us to Piata Romana in the centre of Bucharest. Our guidebook had a suggested itinerary and we followed it after a long walk down the tree-lined boulevard that has three different names before it meets Piata Unirii. On the way there is some impressive, mainly relatively modern, architecture. Being a recent addition to the EU, it was not surprising to see a huge amount of reconstruction and renovation taking place and this particularly applied to the old town area. We were heading off the route to see Ceausescu's 'House of the People', so decided to stop for lunch at a small café. Jane had an omelette and chips, I had a chicken dish on mixed vegetables and, together with a beer and a coke, the bill came to 24 lei, less than £7.
Ceausescu demolished most of the historical southern part of the city in order to build huge government buildings. The whole area is covered by high buildings bearing government department plaques. The massive 'Department of Statistics' building was sobering – Ceausescu's regime had a huge number of informers and he had files on a vast number of the population. Was it in this building that all of those files were kept? His 'House of the People' dominates the area. It is the second largest building in the world (after the Pentagon in the USA) and was not quite complete when he was overthrown. The statistics about the building are quite staggering – 360,000 sq m, 1,000 rooms, halls up to 2,600m in length, took 20,000 workers and 400 architects six years to build. Of course, it cost an absolute fortune to build and this, together with his other megalomaniacal schemes were financed partly by exporting food whilst his own people starved – one of the main reasons for the uprising against him. The building, now used as the Romanian Parliament Building is enormous and impressive in an austere way. We hoped to go on a tour of the building but there was a one and three quarter hour wait and we decided that we didn't have that much time. We walked back into the old town passed one of the monasteries that are in the centre of the city and continued on our walking tour. Resisting the temptation to go into the 'Caru cu Bere', a beautiful building and famous beer cellar and restaurant, we found the very pretty Stavropoleos Church dating from 1724, the only remaining part of a monastery. Here we met a couple from Milton Keynes who, like us, were clutching a couple of pages torn out of their guide book. We were able to confirm exactly where they were on their map. They were spending two months exploring Europe, they started with an Easyjet flight to Istanbul and have booked another Easyjet flight back from Warsaw. The rest of the trip was unplanned, so they had the flexibility to go wherever they wanted in between. They had stayed in everything from hostels to B&Bs to a top hotel in Bucharest (€270 per night!). Although his wife was much younger, he was 72 – I hope that I am as adventurous at that age.
We strolled through the Cismigiu Gardens before moving on to see the areas associated with the overthrow of Ceausescu. Many of the buildings around the Piata Revolutiei (including the Cretulescu Church, the Royal Palace, the National Art Museum and the University Library) were badly damaged during the 1989 revolution. The Central Committee of the Communist Party building faces onto the square and it was here on 21st December that Ceausescu arranged a mass rally to show the people's support for him. Demonstrators booed him off the balcony when he was making a speech. He appeared on the balcony on the following day but had to retreat back into the building when he was booed again and objects were thrown at him. He and his wife were evacuated by helicopter but were later arrested and were executed on Christmas Day.
We walked the few hundred metres to the Ateneul Roman, a beautiful neoclassical theatre and then back to the Piata Romana to catch the bus back to the campsite.
Photos: Just occasionally I get reminders of a previous life – Holcim was the company that bought Foster Yeoman, my previous employer; Ceausescu's 'House of the People' – even with a wide-angle lens, it was difficult to fit it all in the frame!; The planning permission only specified that they must keep the historic front of the old building, it didn't specify the height or style of the rest of the building!; The Ateneul Roman – note the living grand piano and pianist in the front.
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