Usually I travel, I go places. My normality is split between staying home, with post travel depression and traveling. Traveling is not always fun. Sometimes it is really boring but, depends on points of view. What might look boring might be fun too.
Romania, a country I have had no feeling at all. It was just too far somewhere, there on the map. The first time I went in Romania, I remember it being exciting. The idea of vising a country so far away from Albania, almost in Russia, next to Moldova, was intriguing me. I was not thinking the same after the first 10 hours of bus to Romania. The road condition was terrible, just rude, hard, one lane Balkan road where driving more than 50 – 60 km per hour is not possible. So, wait and wait until you reach the border and once you reach it, the show starts!
- It’s border time!!! ; You have to cross three borders to reach Romania from Albania. Each border is multiplied by two, so 6 stamps on your passport and an overall waiting time of 3 to 4 hours. You sum up this to the driving time and you will have a total of 20 hours on the road. It’s always a good idea to sleep in Bulgaria on the way to Romania… Bulgaria…this is another story. The entrance border in Romania is called “Giurgiu”, a gray dull industrial town by the Danube shores. Once the traveler stops in Giurgiu, soon realizes that there is nothing to do there except working and sleeping. A town full of workers and all wearing blue. The bar where is seat is very dirty and the music playing is horrible. Coffee is not good and cups smell as well. Soon you understand everything needed is to leave Giurgiu. No one will ever spend the honey moon in Giurgiu.
Things change soon. The road condition starts to be more enjoyable. Now, you are driving in a 4 lane super road, thanks to the EU funds, cutting through sunflower fields. Impressive, fields of yellow giant sunflowers. The time to start flying with the fantasy and you have to stop because already inside the urban area of Bucharest, a city of around 2.5 million of inhabitants. Yet, not a very reliable statistic. The city looks like has much more. Mobility is a chaos in this capital. Either the Tram system or the Metro system cannot help. The citizens of Bucharest suffer from the Balkan “car disorder”. Everyone must drive a car. They even produce their own car, named Dacia , a cooperation with Renault. Driving to the center it feels like swimming in a sea full of sharks. Drivers of Bucharest are the worst I have ever seen. There is no right and left, green or red, just survival.
http://driveeuropenews.com
Surfing through the traffic you reach the center of Bucharest, a huge square, with many fountains. The square itself is just an aperitif because the main attraction is the enormous palace at the end of the boulevard connected to the square. Driving along the baroque style boulevard, approaching this massive building feels like traveling in time. Communist architecture in this city is remarkable. Through the boulevard you feel observed by the many windows facing on it. The buildings are cold, uniform and very elegant. The square where the palace or aka Casa Popului is located, looks like a naked half circle. In the middle of it, rises on a small hill, the most impressive administrative building I have ever seen. Locals claim proudly that is the second largets governamental building in the world. The first one is the Pentagon, USA. It looks like the giant court judging if you dressed well or not, if your hair is too long or if you look like an imperialistic rock star. Columns, balconies, windows everywhere. Definitely a building that belongs to time. Centuries later, people will still visit and talk about it.
Source: wikipedia
After the first contact with Bucharest, wondering around is very nice and easy. You cannot get lost unless you want it. If you get lost it’s always a good idea to hire a cab. Maybe the best way of moving around in here. Around 25 cents per kilometer makes it very economic.
In the old bohemian part, the old town, bars, clubs, restaurants and many other attraction will seduce you. The only thing is that English is not quite common but, this is not a problem because anyhow you will understand the Romanians. Their language is a Latin rooted language so while speaking, Romanians, like the Italians, use hands. It’s incredible the amount of gestures that you can understand from them. So, asking and getting gesticulated answers I found a restaurant, big and crowded, noisy and with revolving doors, The place is named Caru cu bere and it’s one of the oldest restaurant in Bucharest. Food is delicious and its a good place for a first contact with locals.
After dinner, walking around half drunk, you will feel not alone. You can easily spend the night in this place. All you need is a strong stomach. Drinking for the next hours, without interruption, from one bar to another club, will be the main attraction in here together with some high quality turbo folk and dance music made in Romania.
I am sure that there is much more to see and to do in this European capital but i want to conclude this small introduction with a quote from Emil Cioran, a philosopher of this smiley and positive place:
It is not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.