Bucharest surprised me. It was bigger, dirtier, and more chaotic than I expected, and that made it a fun and interesting place to be. The city had a unique feel to it and I wish I could have stayed longer, but here are some photos from the two days I did spend there.
The train ride from Brasov to Budapest took a few hours and went through the southern Carpathians. This photo was taken near the town of Buşteni. The mountain on the left is Caraiman Peak. Looks like good climbing.
Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest. This is the world’s largest civilian administrative building, the most expensive administrative building in the world, and the heaviest building in the world. Construction was started on Ceauşescu’s orders (he was the communist dictator of Romania for 24 years from 1965 until he was executed on Christmas day in 1989) in 1983 and it wasn’t completed until 1997. A big chunk of Bucharest’s historical district was leveled (apparently one-sixth of the entire city) and some 50,000 people were displaced in order to build the building. I took a whirlwind hour-long tour of the building and saw only 5% of it. The Romanian parliament meets here, but most of the building is unused most of the time. Because there’s so much marble inside, it kind of feels like a very fancy bathroom in there. This is arguably the most famous building in Romania and was the main thing I wanted to see in Bucharest.
One of the largest chandeliers in the world is inside the parliament building.
Inside one of the larger rooms in the parliament building.
Looking down Bucharest’s version of the Champs Elysees, the Bulevardul Unirii, from a balcony of the parliament building. According to Wikipedia, “the road is lined with socialist-realist apartment blocks of North Korean inspiration.”
Yummy stuffed peppers at a restaurant in Bucharest. I had a lot of really tasty food in Romania.
Socialist architecture meets capitalist advertising on Bulevardul Unirii.
Fountains and malls in the center of Bucharest.
A pretty church in Bucharest
An older building in the historical district
The Romanian Athenaeum, a city landmark and the main concert hall.
The Rebirth Memorial in Revolution Square, built to commemorate the Romanian revolution of December 1989. Some of the main events of the revolution happened in this square. The thing that looks like a potato (indeed, apparently the locals call the monument the Potato of the Revolution or Olive on a Stick) represents communism.
Arcul de Triumf, a victory arch built in 1936 to commemorate Romanian independence and remember the Romanians killed in World War I.