| The Caucasus - My Journal |
Marmite City
15th to 18th July - Bucharest
I spent the next few days in Bucharest, Romania's sprawling capital. When I taught English in Romania, I'd briefly passed through here in order to catch my flights, but I hadn't had a change to explore it until now.
 Bucharest is a very "marmite" city...you either love it or hate it, and it causes a lot of friction between travellers who's opinions differ. My first taste this time was arriving at the compact but bustling main train station. I'd booked my hostel on-line and had been provided with directions to get there. My first challenge was to take the metro to the end of the line but finding the metro was actually quite difficult as there were no signs anywhere! Little did I know at the time, but this was to be a common problem all around the city.
 By walking confidently around the station for about 10 minutes, I eventually found the metro without being hassled by anyone. The underground pedestrian tunnels crisscrossed in a variety of directions, and more by luck than anything else, I found myself on the right platform, armed with a ticket. I started to search for a map of the metro, but the train suddenly arrived, so I jumped on hoping I'd be able to work out where to get off. I knew the name of the station, but couldn't work out how far we had to go. Luckily, as I was going to the end of the line, I took the lead from the other commuters, getting off when the train carriage suddenly emptied.
 I hoped to reach the hostel quickly, but I ended up getting very lost in the maze of communist style apartment blocks that had sprouted in the vicinity of the metro station. I walked in every possible direction from the station and backtracked a lot. Dour faces eating from the street stalls began to state in bewilderment after they'd seen me for the third time. I couldn't work out which road was which, and the fact that the road signs were non-existent or very tiny started to get very irritating. Eventually, I realised that I was getting warmer when a helpful local indicated I should continue in the direction I was walking. To add to the fun, after about 20 minutes or so of wandering in random directions, I was struck by a heavy and sudden downpour. Nevertheless, I eventually found myself in front of tower block 3A, where my hostel, Tina Hostel was located on the 9th floor.
Well, when I say hostel, I use the word loosely...in a manner common for Eastern Europe, a resident had converted his home into a guesthouse with one 4 bed dorm and 1 double room (along with his private room, a kitchen and a bathroom). And I have to say, out of all the places I've stayed in my travels, this is one my favourite places. It's like a home away from home! The friendly owner and his girlfriend run the place as though they are your favourite aunt and uncle. The apartment is spacious and spotless and you always feel really welcome! The free internet and laundry, the endless supply of tea and coffee that he offers and his constant concern that you have a good time in Bucharest all add up to a great atmosphere. I only intended to stay one night, but ended up staying for 4!
 My time in Bucharest passed quickly, even though it was a lazy few days. Basically, there's only enough to keep a traveller occupied for 2 days, but as I needed to pick up a parcel from the Post Office (my parents had posted out a charger that I left at home) and I arrived just before the weekend, when the post offices close, I needed to stay there for a long weekend.
During my time there, I decided I fell in the "Don't Like Bucharest" camp. The city is very sprawling with no real focal point to wander around or spend time in. There are a few central piazzas, but none of them are really important or have any reason to hang around in. Also, the layout of the city means that everything is very far apart, which means lots of walking, but Bucharest is not a pedestrian friendly city. The roads are wide and have priority over the pavements, with many pavements acting as car parks. Also, the road names are tiny or badly placed and there are no signs to the main attractions, making navigation difficult and frustrating.
However, even thought I wasn't that fond of the city, I still had a good time there because of the hostel. I spent a lot time chilling in the room, watching TV, reading and chatting with the other guests and the owner. Hanging out in Tina Hostel is like hanging out at home! You feel very comfortable and at ease and never feel like you have to leave.
 Having said all that about Bucharest, its main attraction, the Palace of the Parliament was actually really impressive and a sight that was definitely worth seeing. Although its construction process was morally and ethically dubious (Ceausescu, the brutal and ruthless Communist leader of Romania in the late 20th century, commissioned the palace as part of his new communist regime and razed a large part of the city, including important historical buildings and churches) it is a breathtaking sight. The sheer scale of the place is incredible, it's the second largest building in the world and the stats listed on the Wikipedia article, here, are almost too huge to comprehend.
Apart from the Palace and a sprinkling of mediocre museums, there is little else in the city. Actually, there are also a few more bizarre sights, such as a mini Arc de Triomphe in a northern corner of the city, and a fairly redundant tree lined boulevard, deliberately built a few metres longer and wider than the Champs-Elysées on which it was based.
My extended stay in Bucharest soon passed, and still unable to find a single map of the metro in any of the stations, I managed to get myself back to the main train station and on a train to Veliko Tarnovo in Bulgaria. Well, that's where the train was meant to go...
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