Bucharest

July 29, 2015

37C today!

Today was a full-day tour of Bucharest.  We had an excellent guide Ruxandra who really went out of her way re the perume and the gluten free. We had given all the rest of our Romanian $ to Kalin as a tip, but we got out lots more so we could tip Ruxandra.  Now we have way too much.

Our first stop was the Village Museum. The Village Museum (Muzeul Satului) is an outdoor museum located in Herastrau Park (Parcul Herastrau). It is a 15 hectare exhibition of Romanian folk architecture and life including cottages, windmills, farmsteads, and wildlife. There are more than 300 structures imported from all over the Romanian countryside, several of which date from the 1700's to 1800's. Museum workers dress as traditional peasants and take care of their respective buildings. Many of the houses are fully furnished inside with period pieces. The earth houses of Straja are dug into the ground and topped with thatched roofs.

The Palace of Parliament is the largest building in Europe, and the 2nd largest administrative building in the world (after the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.). It has 1100 rooms totalling 3,700,000 square feet. It was built by the communists in the 1980s, with dictator Nicolae Ceausescu demanding that only materials native to Romania be used. In order to make room for this building, over a sixth of the ancient city of Bucharest was demolished. This included many baroque palaces, medieval churches and monasteries, and four historic synagogues.  A French newspaper called it cultural genocide.  The building, called “The House of the People”, still stirs up controversy, with some lauding it as an architectural achievement while others see it as a lasting reminder of government corruption.  Ruxandra called it megalomania.  It cost 3.3 billion euros to build.

We actually had to surrender our passports and go through security.  We spent an hour and covered 7% of the building.  There was a magnificent hall, and only one wedding has been allowed to occur there, that of Nadia Comaneci.

We had lunch at a local restaurant with an included folkloric performance.  In Romania, you can pay for your meal with a credit card, but the tip has to be paid in cash.

After lunch, we were transferred to our ship on the Danube River.  We were supposed to leave from the port of Giurgiu, a one hour bus ride from Bucharest, but the river levels are too low, so we had to travel 2 and a half hours to the port of Turno Magurele. There are lots of huge fields of sunflowers.

Here is a map of our cruise:

Image credit http://rivers.affordabletours.com/search/itsd/cruises/7232150728/

We are in a room with a balcony at the back of the ship, and Mike and Carol are next to us which is nice.  There was a briefing after dinner and the cruise director said that for excursions we would be with different people every day, unless we travelled with someone and would like to request to be with them every time.  Our pre-excursion group made a mad dash to the table so we could all be together.

Graffiti of the day: