București

My how time flies. It seems like just yesterday I was publishing about arriving in Ploiesti and the upcoming weekend trip to Bucharest for touring, and here it is (if I wasn’t such a slackard, I would publish stories more timely)!


I spent Wednesday evening looking through some Romanian Tourism Websites where I found a good map and some highlighted areas to explore. Using the map, I then aligned our day to follow a basic walking path. Thursday I reviewed with our local Administrative Associate for suggestions, and she scheduled our driver and other logistics.

Friday, I reviewed with Bill, Devid, and Antonio (other American here) to show them what I had planned. I told them in typical Mercer fashion, that the whole day would be a “very relaxed, non binding, whatever we want to do and whatever we want to see day.” So naturally, I had it planned out to 4th decimal point!

Our driver would drive us to the north edge of town to the Arc de Triumph (yes, Romania has one of those, too) where we could take photos for a few minutes. Then drive us down to the Piata Victorei and dump us out. After that we would be on our own until 07:00 PM where he would pick us up on the south side of town. The whole distance appeared to be maybe 4 miles according to a questionable map scale. In between our dropoff and pickup, we targeted to see the Cercul Miltar National (Miltary Club), Kretzulescu Church, The Old Town Lipscani Disctrict, Lunch wherever, The Palatul si Biserica Curtea Veche (Old Princley Court and Church), the Palatul Parlentului (Parliament Palace or The Peoples Palace as is often called) and dinner at the Carul cu Bere (The Beer cart Restaurant). Devid and I joked that we might need to find us some Homeless Waif to be our tour guide.

Saturday morning, I prepared breakfast of eggs, bacon (American style), toast, juice, fruit, and tea. I made enough bacon for everybody, but Bill ate all of Antonio’s so he didn’t get any. (side note: Bill is starting to like Foreign food. He is even eating cheese!). The day felt like a Football Saturday as the air was clear and crisp and the temperature was around 60 with a projected high of about 75.

Our driver picked us up and we headed out. It is about a 50 minute drive.

The Arch de Triumph is as you would expect. Unfortunately, the stairs leading to the top where you can see a panoramic view of the city is open only on special holidays, and Saturday was not one of them (it seems we missed out on this little detail). So we had to view and take our pictures from the ground.

Our driver then drove maybe a mile and dropped us off at the Piata Victoriei (Victory Plaza) which is just a huge traffic intersection of 6 streets and the Metro station. From here we just walk.

As we walked along Calea Victoriei, a major road through town, I couldn’t help but notice how narrow the streets were and the fact that as the road has been enlarged over time, the sidewalks got smaller and smaller. In some places, I think it was more of walking on the curb vs and actual sidewalk (street - curb - building). This was really interesting to Bill because Chinese streets have sidewalks large enough to park a car.

We came across the George Enescu Museum (famous Romanian Composer). We went inside to see what it had to offer. This was his residence. The inside was your basic museum, but it was interesting to note that he built a giant concert room inside his house. What was really interesting was the architecture and frescos on the walls and ceilings. I brought out my camera and asked the attendant if I can take pictures without the flash. Of course, without the flash she says, but I have to pay a 30 Lei “Photo Tax”! I thought I’m not paying a fee to take pictures, but by the time I got to the big concert hall room, I realized I had to. So back to the front, fork over 30 Lei ($8.50 USD), get my receipt to show the attendant, and I took pictures anyway.

After looking around George’s house for awhile, we continued down Victory Avenues and discovered a small Roman Orthodox Church. We don’t know what the Church name was, but it was very small. I probably could have taken pictures inside, but I was uncomfortable in doing that (somehow it seems wrong to treat a church like a tourist place; yet I was walking around inside as a tourist. So despite that hypocrisy, I still decided no photos). The inside was small and dark and the pews were along the walls so that you looked left (or right) to see the front alter. The pictures of Jesus, Mary, and the Saints were all hand forged silver (pewter?) three dimensional shapes (like shields) but with cutouts for the faces and each face is painted behind. Bill was very intrigued because he had no idea what he was looking at (other than he knew it was a special place). So we chatted about who everybody was and how to discern the difference between a human and an angel. He appreciated the artwork craftsmanship even if he didn’t understand the religion.

Further down the street we came up the Casa Preseri Libere (House of the Free Press).  An interesting name for a former communist country.  But we couldn’t go inside because some group had it closed and they seemed to be filming something. But it was pretty on the outside.

At this point, Devid is getting hungry and having been in China for over a year, he was dying for a Hard Rock Café Hamburger. I have no idea where that is. Naturally, it’s time for a homeless waif to help us. He identified one sitting alone on the grass eating her lunch and we struck up a conversation. Her English, of course, is excellent. She sneered at the thought of a Hard Rock burger and told us we should go to the Carul cu Bere (Beer Cart Restaurant).  Now, if the locals tell you to go somewhere, you do so, and having seen it on the web, I knew my original hunch to go there was correct. She drew us a more detailed map of how to get there along with landmark s ("walk past the Pizza Hut; you dont want to stop there, and then left at the crosswalk ...". We talked with her a while, and Devid tried so very hard to convince her to be our tour guide, but she had other plans to meet some friend. So we left her behind and trudged on with Bill and Antonio in tow.

 

We continued seeing many wonderful things and buildings. We didn’t go inside the Military Museum (Devid was too hungry) and found our way to the restaurant.

The restaurant is on a side street (an alley, really), which we missed, but only by one block. Backtracking, we located it and were immediately seated outside on the corner of the entrance. A perfect spot for people watching. Our waiter loved having Americans there, so service was good. This place was awesome. It was built in 1879 as ths restaurant so it has a long and popular history in Bucharest (or at least as the sign indicated).  The building entrance was a revolving wooden door and once inside it was huge with a 2nd floor, huge wooden carvings and a circular stair to the 2nd floor (see more pics at the end). Unbelievable! Lunch was sausage and potatoes and cheese and beef. Bill had this pork knuckle that was so big it would have served 4 people (in fact, he ate it for dinner and again for lunch on Sunday). They also make their own house beer. We pigged. And watched people.

We could see this alley headed towards another side road that had many people passing by, so we decided to detour our path and go check out “whatever was over there.” As we headed that direction, we ran into our homeless waif with her friend. They had been shopping and were headed to the Beer Cart for their lunch.

We chatted briefly and then wandered on and discovered we were in the Old Town “Lipscani” district (which really was part of our tour path, after all, we just came into it from a different direction). This area is many very small winding streets tucked between two universities so it is full of college kids. There are cafes/bars everywhere you look. We saw two Mimes, some wedding groups, an Opium store, a massage parlor, and just about everything you can think of in between. We wandered through the Open Market, but it was really just old junk and I didn’t buy anything, but the atmosphere was fantastic (Marty, smaller than Chengdu, but cleaner and nobody yelling "Cheaper for you" at the foreigners). We got a little lost in the winding jumble of streets but since I can use the Sun as a compass (thank you, BSA) we kept working our way South and somehow managed to come out near the Piata Unirii (Union Plaza). This is a huge plaza full of water fountains. It must have been 5 city blocks long. Very pretty, but no chlorination, so the water was a bit stinky (ok, a lota bit stinky).

At this point, I sorta maybe knew where I was based on the map, so we figured we would need another homeless waif to point us towards the Parliament building. We popped into a McDonalds (Bill and Antonio needed a sit down break; I needed a coke) and I check my phone GPS. Sure enough, we are in the right place, but street signage is pretty much nonexistent, so I don’t know which big street to walk down. I asked this lady sitting nearby and she simply said “Go down this street and you will see it”, but when we walked outside, “the street” she was pointing to was actually two streets, so we still weren't sure the correct street. Therefore, I made a decision. We will try Street #1 for two blocks, if we don’t see the Parliament Building, we’ll go back and try street #2.  Fortunately, I guessed right because after one block, we could see the building. Its huge! One rumor is that the Parliament building is the 2nd largest single structure in the world (the Pentagon being #1), however, I cannot confirm that to be true; though it sounds fun, so I’ll just go with that.

We walked up the street in and around more water fountains parks to arrive at the Parliament building only to discover that there is a Leonard Cohen concert that night, so the building is closed to non concert ticket holding tourists! And all the surrounding streets are closed off. So after all that effort to get there, we only managed external photographs. Bummer.

It didn’t matter in the end, because by this time Antonio and Bill have had all the walking they can handle for the day, so we walk back down the street through the water fountain area and call our driver to come get us. Of course, he doesn’t know the exact street corner we are on and since there are no street signs, it is difficult for me to tell him ("I think we are on the corner of Unirii Boulevard and Libertatii Boulevard, next to a bus stop and a Bank"  Not very definitive). It’s a homeless waif moment. Devid befriends these two ladies sitting on a bench and they talk to our driver and describe for him exactly where we are and after a 40 minute wait (during which we had a quick beer from a nearby store while sitting on the bench), he pulls up. We hop in. And back to Ploiesti we head.

I know Bill went to sleep in the van on the drive (he snores), and I think Antonio did too. Devid listened to his iPod and entertained us with his singing (he is so Chinese, now) and I just reflected on all that we had seen and done for a day.

I’ll have to go back again to actually go inside the Parliament building and some of the other ones we missed and I still want to see the big Kretzuulescu Church, but that will be a trip for another day or most likely a full weekend.  Elise would love to see the art museums, so add this to my bucket list for her to visit with me.


Here are more pictures for you ...




George Enescu's Concert Hall Inside His House



George's Stairwell



I failed to write down this building's name (oops)



Yes, That is a modern building added on TOP of the really old building!



More church's per capita than Rome I think



Inside the Carul cu Bere (Beer Cart Restuarant)

More Carul cu Bere



Even More Carul cu Bere



Front Door Carul cu Bere



Old Church #12,853



But #12,853 had the BEST tile work of all of them



Street Mime Messin' with Some Kid



Street Scene



We did NOT go inside



Military Building



Lots of Fountains!



Bill, Antonio, and Devid.
Waiting on the Driver.
All very tired!!