Beautiful Bucharest the Romanian Phoenix
Written: Jan 14 '09
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Inexpensive, friendly, beautiful, interesting history, Palace of the Parliament, good food
Cons: Traffic, credit cards often not taken, Lei must changed in Romania
The Bottom Line: Bucharest is a wonderful and inexpensive travel destination. Bucharest is a beautiful city with an interesting history and a lot of great tourist attractions.
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| texas-swede's Full Review: Bucharest |
With "Beautiful Bucharest the Romanian Phoenix" I am not comparing Bucharest with Phoenix Arizona. I am referring to the fact that Bucharest has risen above the poverty, oppression and destruction of its communist past and retaken its rightful place as the Paris of the East, the friendly Paris of the East, I may add. I was in Romania in July/August of 2008 with my oldest son and the water polo team that he is part of. My son plays water polo for St. Marks School of Texas in Dallas, and the coach, Mihai, is a Romanian native, a proud Dacian, and a former member of the Romanian Olympic water polo team. He organized this trip for the kids to give them some international water polo experience and also as a pleasure trip. Mihai needed two parent volunteers, one of them being me and the other a friendly and smart fellow with the name "Jim". Mihai, Jim and I had a wonderful time together and so did the kids. Having Mihai as a guide was great, not only because he could translate (not all Romanians speak English well), but even more importantly, he did a great job in making Romania's history and culture come alive. Romania's past is very tumultuous and he was part of it. He was one of the demonstrators against Ceausescu at the Palace Square/Revolution Square and he was shot at by snipers. 2,000 people were killed at this incident, which is often referred to as the Romanian revolution. He also sat in labor camps as a kid, and his father was severely tortured and nearly killed in labor camps. He told us a lot of interesting stories from Romania's troubled communist past and showed us where some of these events had occurred. In summary he gave us all an amazing experience.
What to see and do in Bucharest
The kids played Water Polo against Romanian teams and a team from Qatar. We spent most of our time touring Bucharest, Walachia, and Transylvania. Bucharest is the capital of Romania and Walachia and Transylvania are the two largest provinces. I have to admit that I did not expect that much, but Oh Boy, was I surprised. There are far more interesting things to see and do in Bucharest and in Romania than I expected. Bucharest is a fairly large city (more than two million inhabitants) with a lot of history and elegant architecture. Many buildings in the historic centre of Bucharest were destroyed by war or by Nicolae Ceaušescu's so called program of systematization, however, many buildings survived. Systematization refers to the program of urban planning that was carried out under Nicolae Ceaušescu's communist regime. The systematization consisted of the demolition or reconstruction of existing towns, and cities, with the goal of turning Romania into a "multilaterally developed socialist society" (from Wikipedia). The systematization program is one of the darker chapters in Romania's history. Nicolae Ceaušescu's communist regime also began building a gigantic palace called the "Palace of the Parliament" and in the process he also reconstructed the centre of Bucharest and built apartment complexes for party members and his cronies. In recent years Bucharest has been experiencing an economic and cultural boom. Contrary to popular belief Bucharest's crime rate is low in comparison to other East-European capital cities as well as in comparison with other European and American cities. In 2004 there were 24 murders in Bucharest. Can you find any city with two million plus inhabitants with fewer murders? However, Bucharest does have a problem with pick pockets.
There is a lot of interesting tourist attractions in Bucharest. This is my personal list of selected attractions.
(1) The Palace of the Parliament
The Palace of Parliament is a beautiful and enormous Palace that dwarfs Versailles. Read more about the Palace of Parliament in the next section.
(2) The old City
The old city center of Bucharest has been partially demolished; however, there are still a lot of old historical buildings, picturesque streets and plazas to admire.
(3) The Village Museum
The Village Museum is an ethnographic museum located outside in a park. It is showcasing traditional Romanian village life from the various Romanian regions. The museum contains 272 authentic peasant farms and houses. In addition to farm houses there were interactive attractions, pottery instruction, plays, and music.
(4) The Art Museum
This is a very large and impressive art museum. Jim and I walked around for hours. You will learn a lot about Romanian culture, art and history when you visit this museum.
(5) The Revolution Square
The Revolution Square is where the Romanian Revolution took place in 1989. Thousands of people were killed in the uprising against Nicolae Ceaušescu's communist regime. To the memory of those killed they raised a monument and built a wall which reminded me of the Vietnam memorial in Washington DC. The square also hosts the former Royal Palace and the building of the former Central Committee of the Romanian Communist Party. This is the building from which Nicolae Ceaušescu and his wife fled by helicopter on December 22, 1989.
(6) Romanian Athenaeum
The Romanian Athenaeum is a large concert hall with a beautiful garden, astounding architecture, and a concert hall ceiling and wall paintings depicting Romania's history.
(7) Unirii Avenue
Unirii Avenue is a large avenue adorned by planted trees on each side and long row of fountains in the middle.
(8) Stavropoleos Church,
(9) Romanian Patriarchal Cathedral
(10) The Natural History Museum
This is a large and old natural history museum.
(11) The University of Bucharest
This is a large and beautiful building with interesting statues on the outside.
(12) There are many other beautiful monasteries and churches, even Russian Orthodox churches. I can add that Bucharest also has an "Arc de Triumf" just like Paris. They look very similar. There are also many beautiful parks.
I can add that Bucharest probably also has one of Europe's most exciting night life and many Europeans visit Bucharest for the night life (but we did not really try that). While staying in Bucharest we also visited the Snagov Monastery nearby Bucharest. The Snagov Monastery is where Dracula allegedly is buried. Read more about the Snagov Monastery below. We stayed at a hotel called "Dan" owned by a friend of Mihai, so we got discounted room rates.
The Palace of the Parliament
The Palace of the Parliament is the largest administrative building in the World. The Palace of the Parliament has 1,100 rooms, 12 floors above ground, four completed floors below ground, and four more floors below the ground which are not completed. The palace measures 270 by 240 meters (886 feet by 787 feet) it is 86 meters (282 feet) high and 92 meters (302 feet) below ground. This is considerably larger than any football stadium. However, also remember that the Palace of the Parliament is filled with expensive marble, decorations, art work, crystal and gold. The Palace of the Parliament was constructed entirely of materials of Romanian origin. One million cubic meters of marble (from Transylvania) was used (that is 35 million cubic feet of marble), 3,500 tons of crystal, 700,000 tons of steel, there is 200,000 m² of woolen carpets, and a lot of silver and gold. There are 480 chandeliers, 1,409 ceiling lights, huge mirrors, a lot of paintings, 18 meter tall curtains, and other treasures. In comparison the Palace of Versailles is actually unimpressive.
We took a tour of the Palace of the Parliament and it was a truly breath taking experience. You walked through a hallway and it was "oohs and aahs", then you walked into a huge room with a very tall ceiling adorned by a 30+ feet chandelier and there were more "oohs and aahs", and then you walked up large marble stairs up to another floor and there were still more "oohs and aahs", and so on. At the end of the tour we went out on the balcony and looked out over Bucharest and the impressive Unirii Avenue. Finally you had to let out one more "ooh and aah". The tour was just very impressive. You could choose your language and we took the English tour. The tour guide spoke English very well. I have to admit that I did not even know that such a building existed until I saw it. I can add that since the Romanian people paid heavily for the building of the Palace it is also called the People's Palace (Casa Poporului).
The Snagov Monastery
The Snagov monastery is where Dracula, or Vlad III Tepes, or Vlad the Impaler, or Vlad III Drakul is buried. He was a cruel but effective 15th century ruler of Walachia (he was from Transylvania north of Walachia). The Snagov monastery is located on an island in the Snagov Lake not far from Bucharest. The only way to get there is by a small boat, so we had to take turns. The Snagov Monastery does not get many visitors. When we visited the Snagov Monastery most people on the island were Texans. The monk at the Snagov monastery was a hilarious fellow who did not know a word English. Despite this fact he took us on a tour and succeeded to make him self understood. Once Mihai arrived and started translating it became clear what great humor he had. We had a lot of fun together with this quite entertaining monk. We also drank from the Draculas well and thus become part of this place. The monk assigned my son to be Draculas protector like the Arch Angel Gabriel. I can add that the monk was a great admirer of Dracula. On this trip we did a lot of things "Dracula". We also stayed at the hotel in the building where Dracula was born (in Sighisoara), we ate at Dracula's restaurant in Sighisoara, we visited Dracula's tourist Castle (the tourist ploy) called the Bran Castle, and we visited Dracula's real Castle called the Poenari Castle.
Practical matters
Romania's economy is largely cash based. Credit cards are typically not taken. However, the ATM machines take American ATM cards and it is very easy to change currency inside Romania. However, before you leave you should change your Lei back to dollars. Lei are not traded outside of Romania for what ever reason. Traffic in Bucharest is a challenge. I can add that I also liked the food in Romania. It is not French cooking, but is hearty, and to my liking. There is a lot of pork, but also other meats, corn mush, eggplant salad, and good beer.
Conclusion and final recommendation
Romania and Bucharest is a wonderful and under appreciated tourist destination. It is inexpensive, fun, and there are a lot of things to see in Bucharest and other parts of the country. I highly recommend Romania and especially Bucharest as a travel destination.
Recommended:
Yes
Best Suited For: Families
Best Time to Travel Here: Jun - Aug
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