BUCHAREST

25th -27th Mar 2016

The People's Palace. A 'Des Res' in Bucharest

The train from Brasov to Bucharest was a straightforward 2½ hour journey (although for the first time so far my train was delayed...30 minutes). The scenery approaching Bucharest was of the  Soviet industro-wasteland variety. Even the views from London to Folkestone were pleasant in comparison. The first sight arriving at Bucharest North station was of, almost inevitably, a MacDonalds (left).

A fast and cheap Metro underground journey took me to my hotel, The Athenée, just off Piata Revolutiei in the centre of the city.

It was from the balcony of the Central Committe of the Communist Party building here, on 21st December 1989 (Sahagun Day for those in the know), that the late President Nicolae Ceausescu gave his last speech. It did not go down very well. He was rescued by helicopter from the roof after the crowd revolted and the Securitate police started shooting at them from the Athenée hotel (yes, my hotel). As you probably know, Nick and his wife Elena were summarily executed the following Christmas Day.


Right: The 'Rebirth Memorial' in Piata Revolutiei, which has a sort of birds nest around the top with what looks like blood dripping from it. The building and balcony from which Ceausescu gave his final much unappreciated address, now the Interior Ministry, is in the background.

Left: Piata Revolutei looking towards the Hotel Athenée (in the background) from which the Securitate fired at the crowd. It's only about 100yds, but looks further here. Several dead.

There are lots of grandiose buildings dotted around the city centre which is not an unpleasant place at all. Decent modern shops abound.

Right: The Regal Palace.

Left: The Circul Militar National. (Palace of the National Military Circle). This was built in 1911 and is now used for 'protocol' events, whatever they are. It also has a restaurant open to the public.  

Right:.........and the opera house

These buildings are all dotted along Victoriei Street, a grand central artery of the city, which eventually leads down to the area on which is built the Mother Of Them All, the Palace of Parliament, or People's Palace (see photo at top of the front view). This is the second largest building in the world. 

It was Ceausescu's plan to build this monster to house all the Government institutions as well as being his Presidential Palace. 50,000 homes in the area had to be demolished to accommodate it, with most of those dispossessed given paltry compensation. 

Left: A side view and the 'tourist' entrance.

What you don't see of this 12 storey monolith are the 9 storeys below ground. Down below it has, or had, a vast nuclear bomb-proof shelter, and lots of other facilities including several escape tunnels which lead to safe areas way out in the countryside. There may  also be an indoor Polo ground and several full sized football pitches for all I know. Ceausescu sadly met his demise before the place was ready for  his occupation. It would have been some house-warming party.

It now houses the Romanian Parliament and Senate. It also offers almost unlimited space for conferences, weddings, film sets, banquets and anything else you can think of. Perhaps the ideal place for an intimate, and original, 'Dîner a Deux'. Book now to avoid disappointment.

Guided tours are on offer; you can't wander around the place at will. Anyway, if you did you would probably get lost in there for weeks. The tours are organised in groups according to language. There is a pretty chaotic and crowded entrance hall to buy tickets and to assemble involving, in my case, a long wait. Surprisingly, and disappointingly, there is no café. Perhaps they didn't have room.

I was amused by the 'General Rules' displayed in several languages in the foyer (right). I think I managed 'to stay clean'.

My little party was guided by a very charming, and amusing, university graduate. The hour long 'regular' tour does not include any underground bits and, as we were told later, takes in a mere 5% of the rooms and passageways. I can't remember how many rooms are contained in this place, but it is certainly many thousands.

The overall impression is of vast empty marbled spaces, vast carpeted marble corridors, vast marble staircases, vast pillars, vast everything in fact. We were told how many thousand tons of marble had been used (I forget), and it and all the other building materials were sourced in Romania. There must be a very big hole in the ground somewhere.

Right: This was originally intended as a theatre, but now used as a conference room.

Left: The chandelier hanging over the centre weighs 5 tons and contains 3000 light bulbs which, incidentally, were recently changed to the 'eco-friendly energy-efficient' variety. As you can imagine the electricity and heating used in this place could power a small town. Ironically, this place was used as a venue for a 'World Resource Management' conference.

I don't envy the chap tasked with changing a light bulb.

Other than the scale of the place, the other over-riding impression was of very tacky furnishings and decoration which seemed completely out of scale with their surroundings. It gave the feeling of dolls' house furniture placed in the rooms.

Great expense was involved in obtaining the best materials for enormous carpets, wall coverings and sometimes 100ft long silk curtains, but the overall effect was......naff! 

It was mentioned that one '100ft' curtain had collapsed onto someone standing underneath and crushed him/her to death. Dangerous things curtains.

Right: The Presidential Reception Room........

......which is possibly one of several to meet visiting dignitaries. There were microphones on the table and even plywood booths at the back of the room to house reporters, television crews and interpreters.

Right: One of the conference rooms with a rotating camera mounted in the centre of the table. Possibly to record those who had fallen asleep. Note the old-fashioned cinema screen on the right onto which was, no doubt, projected Tom and Jerry cartoons.










Left: Another conference room containing 1002 neatly lined up chairs. The '2' were separated at the back for whatever reason.

This room led out onto the enormous balcony (right), looking down the main processional drag; Bulevardul Unirii. It was the platform from which Nick Ceausescu had planned to address his adoring masses but, unfortunately for him, never got the chance. 

In fact the only person to address the masses from here, and this was in 1992 before the building had been completed, was Michael Jackson (the late and very weird pop singer). To the assembled throng his memorable first words were "Hello people of Budapest". It is surprising that he didn't have to be evacuated by helicopter after that. His little gaffe was put down to tiredness (and possibly the drugs he was on).

Several other rooms in this incredible edifice visited, many of which contained serried ranks of plastic chairs, cheap tables and all rather uninteresting. In one hall area a fashion parade was taking place with flashing lights, several temporary stages, bars and lots of electric cables over which we had to pick our way. Curiously, I never saw a single loo in the place. Probably have outside ones.

During the course of this tour our guide was obsessed with making sure nobody had got left behind or wandered off in an unapproved direction. I'm not sure if this was for our benefit, or his.

On the way back up Victoriei St, I passed the Natural History Museum. I don't know what's inside it but on the steps outside is this very odd statue (left). I'm told it is much mocked but is nevertheless the most photographed statue in Bucharest. You can possibly understand why.

It is supposedly of Emperor Trajan holding a Dacian wolf (whatever they are when at home). Apart from the fact that Mr Trajan is somewhat informally attired, what on earth is that long trunk-like protuberance on the left side? Both his arms are holding the gormless looking wolf. I couldn't work it out. Any suggestions?

The part of Bucharest which is undergoing a revival as 'hip, old-fashioned and traditional' is the 'old town' Lipscani area. Indeed there are some attractive and trendy looking bars and restaurants there. I had supper in such a place, the touristy 'Caru cu Bere'. It is a very jolly venue with modestly priced good food and good service. Despite the bad photo (right) it is impressive inside with old wooden minstrels' galleries and glorious stained-glass windows. It also provides traditional musical entertainment and gets packed out later in the evenings...booking a table is essential then.

So that's what I managed to do in half a day and evening in Bucharest. Not a bad place at all as far as I could see and, as I have met so far across Eastern Europe, very helpful and polite locals and staff.

Next off on what might be a slightly more laborious journey south across Bulgaria. We shall see.

BRASOV - TRANSYLVANIA

23rd - 25th Mar 2016

Bran Castle

Customs formalities on the train out of Hungary and into Romania were fairly cursory. I expect they are a bit more thorough dealing with passengers travelling the other way nowadays. I nearly made a cock-up at this point because I had forgotten that the time zone goes forward an hour in Romania. Nobody mentioned it but something must have triggered my memory at the last moment before turning in...otherwise I would have set my alarm clock a bit late. As it happened, I woke up at 7am (local time) and anyway the carriage steward banged on my cabin door with a cheery greeting 30 mins before arrival (0920) at Brasov. My first peek out at the Romanian countryside was a bit of a revelation. I thought we had time-warped back to the middle ages. Tiny wooden, wattle or white plaster walled single storey houses, some in a state of considerable delapidation, with postage-stamp sized fields, often rather scruffy, were the norm. Old horse-drawn carts and piles of logs were scattered around them. Very rustic and poor looking. Not much sign of life either; so quite a change of scenery from Budapest and the West. OK, approaching Brasov a few roads and cars and garages etc. appeared to herald the arrival of the 20th century.  

Brasov, in southern Transylvania on the edge of the Carpathian mountains, is an ancient fortified Roman town with inner surrounding walls still in existence. It has an old, cobbled and very picturesque centre with outskirts fashioned in the grey, cheap, functional and gloomy Soviet style. Surrounded by wooded hills with one big one, Mt Tampa, prominent, it is in a most attractive setting. 

The railway station (left) is nothing to write home about but was clean and serviceable.

I couldn't help thinking that 'Brasov' suggests a most apt location for a Nudist Gathering, even if a bit chilly at this time of year.

My hotel, the Kronwell, was located only 50 yards from the station which, in turn, is about a mile from the town centre (a 10 Lei, £1.60p, taxi ride), and conveniently near to the bus station. The hotel was a revelation. I hadn't paid that much for it but it boasted amazing facilities; really hi-tech and comfortable. Considering the standard of the surrounding countryside, I was now well and truly back at the forfront of the 21st century. The bedroom had all mod-cons including a complimentary i-pad, a device that could connect my laptop to the large flat-sdreen HD TV (which I didn't understand), Western TV channels, extraordinary lighting and even a heated bathroom floor! Plus a really comfortable bed. Strangely, it had a clear glass-walled bathroom (just visible above) which, although I'm sure very trendy, resulted in me inadvertently and painfully smacking nose first into it on a couple of occasions.  The room lighting system was very sophisticated and I never really mastered it. However there were slightly luminescent light switches next to the bed. This is a very sensible idea as most hotels don't have them, so you wake up in the middle of the night, in a strange room, desperate for a pee and end up thrashing around knocking things off tables and generally trashing the place trying to switch a light on. I really can't think why this is not a more common feature. However it didn't stop me from piling into the clear glass bathroom walls. The hotel also boasted a very upmarket and popular spa, fitness centre and swimming pool which I investigated and merely mention. Great breakfast, bar and delightful Romanian staff, which made me feel quite at home. They haven't all gone to UK. Yet.  I was truly impressed.

Downtown by taxi and had a wander. It was a pretty place with cobbly streets and some smart shops. The main square housed a big church. There were several churches dotted around. I think the Romanians are keen church-goers. I was trying to recall what else Romanians are noted for, and I could only think of wrestlers and weight-lifters. 

Right: There was a very long queue lined up at the door of another church on the side of the square. When I returned after a long lunch it had vastly increased and now almost lapped the square. It had also started to drizzle so these queuers were pretty damned keen to get in for whatever reason, and it can't have been just to get out of the rain. I asked a young lady, about centre queue, what was going on. She told me, in reasonable English, that they were waiting to pay homage to a belt (or something), which had been worn by the Virgin Mary (a chastity belt?) and was on loan for a few days from some religious establishment in Greece. Unbelievable, I thought. I asked how long she reckoned she would queue for, "probably about 3 hours", she said. Well, whatever turns you on I suppose. I expect someone was making a bit of money out of it.



Left: A rustic Romanian snack wagon dispensing rustic Romanian snacks, and wine.

Right: ....and of course there had to be the ubiquitous 'Oirish Bear'. This one, Deane's Bar, on the main shopping street......

......which is quite homely inside and did actually have Guiness on tap, so I forced myself to have a pint of the stuff. Jolly music was being played and in the snug at the back were little cubicles in which student types were busy on their computers.

Right: The Oxford Street' of Brasov. Some high quality shops and, of course, unavoidably, a MacDonalds.   

There were several decent looking restaurants and I picked one for lunch recommended by my Lonely Planet guidebook, the 'Casa Romaneasca', which was in the south of the town. Yes, it was excellent ; of typical Romanian style with  very good nosh and service. I recommend it too if you happen to be passing by. The views from the town were most attractive. This one (left) taken from outside my lunchtime location.

A popular area for hiking, I was told.

 

One of the tourist draws to the area is the Gothic style Bran Castle (right). This is alleged, without any evidence, to be the inspiration for Bram Stoker's book Dracula. Bram Stoker never visited Transylvania and it is thought he got his inspiration from Whitby Castle, where he was living at the time, or Slains Castle in Aberdeenshire. They also make a big play on the fact that Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler), or Vladislow Dracul to give him his real name, was active in this area when he was busy impaling people in the 15th Century. More recently, in the 19th Century, Queen Marie of Romania lived here. It is now owned by her great grandson, Dominic Habsburg, who lives in New York. It is a privately owned museum and of course makes great play on, and profit from, the Dracula story.

It was a 40 minute bus ride north-west to Bran. It was gently sleeting when I got there. On the approach to the castle there is a large bazaar selling 'Dracula' style tat and other clothing and nic-nacs. There were few visitors and the stall-holders spent much of there efforts just keeping their wares dry. I expect business improves with better weather.

Within the castle labyrinthine passageways led from room to room, some of them quite small, and nothing of enormous interest on display as far as I could see.

Left: Two security guards.

I think a lot of the stuff on display was left over from when Queen Marie was in residence including , inexplicably, some Dinky toys and a Monopoly board game (right). There were no explanations..........

.....and this eclectic collection of junk and toys (left) carefully laid out but with  no obvious provinence or purpose. Not very Dracula like, certainly.

Right: The occasional tunnel-like stairway led to a succession of other fairly nondescript rooms.......

















.........such as this sparsely furnished drawing room (left) and others with framed and rather obscure family trees hanging on the walls..........

....and this one (right) contained inexplicably  odd items which might have been torture instruments, or conceptual art perhaps. It was not made clear. Lots of other rooms with things of little interest in, so I won't bother printing them.

Goodness knows who designed the layout of the castle interior, but it was very higgledy-piggeldy and, I would have thought, not very resident friendly.

Left: There is a pretty little central courtyard and, on your way out, a castle shop selling mostly Dracula trinkets and T-shirts, but also Chateau Bran wine. I might have bought some as a souvenir but at £20 equivalent a bottle it was rather expensive, and  would probably have broken in my suitcase at some point, so I didn't.

Interesting...ish.

Back outside the castle, amongst all the stalls, their is a 'Haunted House' to walk through. I decided to give it a try; why not. Quite amusing I suppose with lots of skeletons and corpses leaping out at you, dark little passageways with cobwebs to tickle your face, rattling chains and banging door sound effects and, inevitably, the bit you step on which blows a jet of cold air up your trouser leg. I felt I was being followed, and indeed I was by some little chap wearing a Dracula mask and a monk's outfit. He rather spoilt the effect when I turned around to face him and he took his mask of and asked "where you from?".

On exit the sleet had turned to a mere fine drizzle and I went for something to eat in the nearby cafe and tucked into some Dracula soup accompanied by Dracula beer. I can't help feeling they are overdoing the Dracula bit slightly.

Back on the bus (they run evert 30 mins back to Brasov). Nothing to mention there except, perhaps, the ceiling of the bus which was festooned with no-smoking signs (right). It was interesting to note that the driver was smoking. Talking of which, I have noticed that in both Hungary and Romania, as members of the EU and therefore obliged to conform to EU rules and regulations to receive our taxpayers' money, they punctiliously display all the correct 'elf and safety warning signs. Actually to obey them is quite another matter. I also noted that the wearing of seat belts in cars (my taxis for example) and helmets on motor bikes, is a matter of personal choice. For some reason the anarchist within me rather approves of this 'finger' to authority.

At some point I was introduced to the local drink, Tuica, a plum brandy. This stuff fair takes your breath away as, being 60% proof, it has every right to do. It doesn't taste too bad, but is served and drunk from a 'traditional' vessel (left). This rather reminded me of something you normally only see when you go for your medicals and therefore somewhat off-putting.

Back to the hotel and that, basically, was all I did in Brasov. I rather enjoyed myself and was most impressed by the friendliness of the locals. 

Off, by train, for more Romanian hospitality in Bucharest tomorrow. Pip pip. 

BUDAPEST - BRIEFLY

21st - 22nd Mar 2016

Hungarian Parliament Building. Budapest

Departed Munich at 1120 on a 'Railjet' train bound for Budapest. Not quite up to ICE standard, but not bad. The 7 hour journey passed through Salzburg, Linz, Vienna and subsequently a few Hungarian places with unpronounceable names before arriving at Budapest Keleti railway station in the East of the city (Pest). 

One useful feature on the train, displayed throughout all the carriages, was this screen (left) showing updated times of arrival at the various stations en-route and where you are in between them. I expect it is quite beyond the wit of any British rail company to do likewise.

A quick and efficient (10 minute) Underground/Metro ride from the station took me close to my hotel, The Art'Otel, on the West bank of the river (Buda side). I mention these hotel names because, so far, they have been excellent and maybe someone intending to visit the cities might like the reference.

As you may know, the city is divided East - West by the River Danube. The West side being Buda, and East side Pest. The East side, Pest, is flat and contains most of the commercial and smart shopping areas plus Government buildings (think London West-End). The West side (Buda) is hilly and contains the ancient castle complex, the Presidential Palace and more historic buildings.

I only had a day to wander around town, and I wasn't going to rush. I started with a touristy one hour open-topped 'hop-on hop-off' guided bus trip, which is a good way to get one's bearings. For the most part I was the only person on the bus (the tourist season has not got underway yet) and was regaled, in good English, with much detail by a most enthusiastic lady on the microphone.  She never stopped talking to draw breath the whole way.  Being the only member of her audience I thought she might just as well have sat down next to me and talked quietly. I expect she was practicing her technique for the season to come.

I learnt (or bits I have remembered anyway) a few quite interesting facts and figures from her deluge of information. For example, the Parliament building (pictured above and most impressive it is too) was completed in 1904, has 691 rooms and there are 199 MPs. The Budapest Metro was the first in the world to have electric underground trains (1896). The Hungarian language is not a Romanse language and is unlike any other in Europe, but eminates from the Magyar nation who migrated west from Siberia and then split in two. One lot going North West to Finland, and the rest to what is now Hungary ie. Finns and Hungarians speak similar tongues...although my guide told me that over the centuries the dialects have changed a bit and she wouldn't easily understand a Finn. Similar to me in Glasgow perhaps. Although Hungarian/Magyar is written in Roman script the pronounciation is baffling. I wanted to get to Battyanny Metro station. I kept asking the way to 'Batty Anny' but nobody understood. It is pronounced 'Buthyenny', or something similar.

We passed many impressive buildings, shops, hotels, restaurants, coffee houses etc. and both sides of the river look smart and prosperous. This building (right) is the main synagogue and, I think she said, the second largest synagogue in the world, after one in New York. There is a large Jewish community in Budapest who were given a very rough time by the Germans in WW2.

Lots of info concerning the history of the city and particularly the short 'Revolution' in 1956, to which there are several monuments and the 23rd October, when it began, is a national holiday. Hungary is famous (apparently) not only for it's wine, but honey and spicey sausages. Lots on sale around town.

Left. On the Pest bank, the old HQ of the once  notorious State Security Police (the AVH). Now put to some less controversial use. Probably the Inland Revenue offices or something similar.

Right: On the Buda bank, Budapest Technological University. The oldest functioning technological university in the world. Inaugurated 1782.

Statues are in abundance. I liked this one (left). It might have been entitled 'After a Good Night in the Mess', but I think it is something to do with the 1st World War.

Several of these 'Segway' type vehicles were in evidence. They are popular in many cities worldwide, and I think can be really useful with no danger to anyone. They are prohibited in public areas and streets in UK because as they don't fall into a convenient catagory of transport it is just easier to ban them.

There is a short funicular (left) to take you up the hill to the old castle complex, Buda side. Quite expensive at 1200 Florins (about £3) for 2 minute ride. I went anyway and the little cabin cars are rather quaint.

On top of the hill, majestically positioned to overlook the city,  is the Castle containing museums and galleries.

Right: The Castle, from the opposite side of the river. The Presidential Palace is on the right.












...and the front door of the Presidential Palace (left) guarded by sentries........

.....who did a bit of drill to amuse the somewhat scant crowd. Lots of twirling rifles which they exchanged between one another at the end. I wonder if they have to sign back in the one they signed out? Both wore large dark glasses which made them look a bit dodgy in my opinion. Suspect they have picked up that habit from the US servicemen who do the elaborate drill at Arlington Cemetery, Washington DC. Very naff.

Good views from the top. Left: Looking North up the river over the Széchenyl Bridge towards Margrit Island in the distance.












.....and to the South, over the Eszébit (Elizabeth) Bridge.

...and a statue on the hilltop of a lady waving her knickers at passing sailors.

Right: Another amusing statue up at the Castle of a hunting scene complete with a hole in the rock into which whatever the hounds are chasing has disappeared. The guy on the left is about to dig it out.

Left: A view down the funicular railway. I was slightly miffed to discover that the ticket I bought to get up was only one way. I had to pay again to get down. I suppose I was lucky that they didn't charge 10 times the price to go back. OK, I could have walked.

Next up was a riverboat trip up and around Margit Island. This was covered in the cost of the bus tour, but I had inadvertently lost/thrown away my bus tour ticket and had to pay again (8 Euros). Quite a full load of passengers. A one hour trip with a bar/cafe on board. 

There are lots of very pleasant cafes and bars along both sides of the river. I dropped into this one, the Piano Cafe, for a bite to eat. Delicious Hungarian Goulash. It did indeed have a piano in it. Played at nights, I was told.

The service you get in these places is exemplary. Very polite and helpful staff and they all seem to speak perfect English. I suppose you have to if nobody else in the world, other than a passing Finn, speaks Hungarian.

Right:......and on the landing downstairs outside the Gents loo was this dummy in Hussars uniform. You might be aware that King George ? so admired the Hungarian Hussars and their smart uniforms that he instigated Hussars Regiments in the British army. They still exist. Actually, come to think of it, Hussars wear a 'busby', a sort of smaller, shorter version of the Foot Guards bearskin, This guy is improperly dressed, or maybe he's not a Hussar after all.

Left: On my way back to the hotel I encountered this chap playing intricate classical music with sticks on water filled wine glasses. Incredibly impressive and very jolly. Such talent you find in the oddest of places.

So, without breaking into a sweat, that is what I did in 7 hours touristing around Budapest. I was impressed. A lovely city, what I saw of it. Very civilised.

Back to Keleti station for the night sleeper, departing 1910, to Brasov, Romania. Although still '2nd Class', I had a cabin to myself (right). The bed was comfortable and it had a little bathroom attached with loo, basin and even a shower. There were very few other passengers. I was alone having supper in the dining car. The food was not great, but cheap and edible. Maybe other passengers brought their own grub with them.

To be continued in Romania.....