Bucharest: Other impressions

Fashioned for victims

For the wrap on my visit to Bucharest. A few of the things I observed or noticed that might not mean anything significant.

The first few shop windows I passed by on my walks did not have price tags on the wares displayed, it got me wondering if there was a haggling activity in these shops. Again, in such seemingly nice shops, the by word might be, you can't afford if you have to ask the price.

Then as I strolled down the avenue with non-operational fountains from the Palace of the Parliament on Bulevardul Unirii, to the right was a shop called Fashion Victim.

A strange name to call a high-fashion shop, until I noticed the price tags and realised, if you paid that much for this fashion, you probably will feel a victim as you stepped out of the shop. I later saw shops with reasonable price tags.

The novelty of plastic currency notes, with transparent windows shaped in the form of instruments of vocation or of professions of people depicted on the notes. No women, but musical instruments, paintbrushes, birds for ornithology and nature and books featured on the Romanian Leu or Lei in the plural (RON).

The cross they bore

Much as I never really expected an old communist state to have very religious people, the many churches on Calea Victoriei gave another impression besides the fact that I did see people going in as worshippers.

However, what struck me was the number of people who crossed themselves as they passed by the front of the church and were not going in. At least from my Anglican traditions, I thought you only crossed yourself in church and usually facing the altar.

Sitting alone

At Cismigiu Gardens, it was the park benches that caught my eye. Usually the bench could sit four, though on a fine day, people could easily take up the whole bench, however, single-seater park benches were a new one on me.

It was like introducing a sense of private space in a public recreation area, the deck chair mentality applied to the park bench. Whether this is the case in the many parks around Bucharest, I cannot say.

For an audience apart

Most of the historic buildings, monuments or parks have signs with English translations. In fact, I could not help but notice that a building was put on sale with just an English sign, as if it was intended for non-Romanian prospectors – one can only wonder.

However, these signs always attracted my curiosity and I took pictures of some of them that described the history, the architecture and some other fine detail. There are quite a few modern-day buildings on the sites of what used to be monasteries, I wonder why.

Architecture of compulsion

However, at Piața Unirii (Union Square), I thought they had gone too far, whilst now it is the centre of town with gardens and fountains that will work in the summertime, this place used to be the site of a hospital. Yet, sometimes, it is not clear what is in the mind of town planners, especially in the Nicolae Ceaușescu years. This was first conceived in 1986.

Suffice it to say, according to the Wikipedia piece about Anca Petrescu, the chief architect of the Palace of the Parliament - She was involved in many of the 1970s and 1980s so-called era of "systematization" redevelopment projects for Bucharest, which included the relocation of residents for the demolishing of old and poor neighbourhoods, and replacing them with modern buildings with all the necessities under one roof. [Museum of Conflict]

Now, did I not see an aspect of what we might call Totalitarian Architecture somewhere else? Yes, Welthauptstadt Germania. Anca Petrescu was the Albert Speer of Romania.

I guess that is it.

Bucharest: Bearing left

To the left for what’s left

On my last evening in Bucharest, I stepped out of the hotel and walked up the road to the left on Calea Victoriei.

Hardly 100 metres from the hotel was the Tourist Office, but it was closed. This in my view was information the hotel concierge could have given me to make my visit more eventful. I was quite irked to discover this.

After passing one of the many Orthodox Christian churches on this street I got to a square of significant historical importance.

There are many divides between Western European Christianity and Eastern European Christianity. Our churches are churches are built to different designs and our feasts are on different days. Their celebration of Easter is a week later than ours.

I will not go into church split along doctrinal, theological, linguistic, political, andgeographical lines that caused what is called the East-West Schism in the 11^th Century. Romania in the summer time is three hours ahead too.

Respect and revolution

The Revolution Square named for the December 1989 revolution that toppled the Ceaușescu regime where thousands were slaughtered for rising against the dictatorship, the monument could well have been desecrated today.

I got chatting to another tourist from Denmark as I lamented the fact the skateboarders had taken over the place with no sense of history or occasion that warranted the memorial.

The revolution probably predates their births, it was then that one of their number came to compliment my dressing, and then asked to be photographed with me holding a skateboard. I obliged and returning to our conversation wondered if they could ever appreciate the need to view memorials with some respect.

Another mile down of walking and I past the old royal palace, now the National Museum of Art of Romania, a few more orthodox churches, and probably the finest piece of architecture in Budapest, I am told. The Romanian Athenaeum houses the "George Enescu" Philharmonic.

Bucharest: Bearing right

Decision Time

This Easter, my holiday would already have been planned for me if the young man who so pressed me towards the end of last year to be the uncle of the day at his nuptials had kept in contact after he got another job.

I would have jetted over the Atlantic to Toronto, Canada and that will have been some adventure.

Much as I am a creature of habit, some good, others unmentionable, I felt more like going somewhere new and the choices were Krakow in Poland, Bucharest in Romania or Sofia in Bulgaria.

The limitations of flight connections within my SkyTeam Alliance partners’ preference of KLM and Air France online meant Bucharest won out.

Flights and hotels were easy to book and I determined the hotel had an airport shuttle service which I availed myself of.

Bearing right out of the hotel

I did not get to do as much as I would have liked on a first visit, but my hotel could not have been more central than it was. Calea Victoriei is an artery for a tourist's walk rather than for vehicular traffic than you walked from monument to museum to church to whatever else that seemed to have a road branching off leading to it.

On my way to the Old Town, I walked past the bust of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern day Turkey, at a time in its history, Romania was part of the Ottoman Empire. In the Old Town, Old Court Museum with active excavation work ongoing was at one time the site of the court of Vlad the Impaler, his patronymic name was Dracula.

One legend I read, which I will not care to verify, because it makes such horrific reading was he arranged a banquet in his own honour and invited beggars, peasants and the destitute to it. Once they sat at the table, he had them surrounded and set fire to the building. This was his way of ridding his city of 'undesirables'.

In the evening, I went to Cismigiu Gardens, which had a lake, a grand house and for all the talk and the menace of stray dogs, now reduced to a tenth of the some 40,000 high had Bark Park, just like a children's play area, you could take your dog there to bark its vocal cords raw.

Grandiose beyond belief

Without much of a guide and the apparent unhelpfulness of the hotel concierge, I could not appreciate the sights as well as one should. The tour buses I was informed do not operate in the low season which extends to the end of April and I was not keen on a private taxicab tour.

Surveying the map at dinner I realised the Palace of the Parliament was a 15-minute walk away. It was one of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s grandest projects. It is second only to the Pentagon in size as the largest single building.

The chief architect, Anca Petrescu, was only 28 when she led the team of architects who designed this monstrosity that you can visit if you come along with you passport for a fee. However, this weekend there was a motorbike event in the grounds and I didn't really think it was worth the bother asking if I could go inside.

Another great Romanian lady

That will be the quest of another visit if and when I return to Bucharest. However, there was a lady, Ana Pauker, who was de-facto leader of Romania long before Ceaușescu, she was for while the Foreign Minister from 1947 to 1952 and she made the cover of the Times magazine as the most powerful woman in the world.

Sadly as the Politburo system of socialist and Communist governments work, keeping in favour is an inscrutable craft of power plays and Machiavellian politics, rivals got her labelled and discredited, having once survived breast cancer she was just allowed to become a translator at the end of her career. A relapse a few years on killed her.

Incredible India: To Temples and Tombs

The importance of the Taj Mahal

The few times I have channel-hopped to CNN to catch their slant of developing news, I have been regaled with the adverts of Incredible India.

On one of those days, without having ways or means, I promised myself that I would soon visit India and the Taj Mahal is one place I would visit.

When opportunity came to plan the trip to India just about 6 weeks ago, my European disposition was to go to the coast and that was Goa, but after reviewing all my options, I knew the Taj Mahal was to India as the Pyramids of Giza were to Egypt or the more recent Eiffel Tower to Paris.

It had to be done and that meant changing to New Delhi with its constant fog and smog, pollution hanging in the air that any 10 minutes spent near traffic with result with throat to oesophageal irritation.

Headless planning

As soon as I could I booked myself on the next Taj Mahal trip organised by Koenig Solutions for the trainees. I believe I did persuade a few people to consider making that trip – a trip of a lifetime.

We were to receive an email with regards to the plans for the visit, but that did not arrive, albeit, I was up at 4:30AM on Sunday thinking the bus will arrive at 5:00AM. I even consulted the inn staff because I was worried the whole deal might fall through.

Eventually at 6:47AM the van arrived to pick me up; I was last of 10. I say van rather than bus because the vehicle is quite suitable for city driving but for journeys that could last 4 hours or more, the backs of the seats should have been higher to give neck support for those who fall asleep during the journey.

Every morning we drive past a statue of the monkey god (10m) and I thought that was huge until I saw another that dwarfed it by storeys; that requires a specific visit.

The organised chaotic driving

Soon we were in traffic redolent of India, driving that made you want to cover your eyes and the honking hardly ever stopped. We passed through a number of toll gates and at one stopover we saw performing monkeys and even a snake being handled; the handlers aggressively demanded cash of tourists that made the mistake of taking pictures especially at a state border post where we had to stop to pay taxes.

The roads were essentially two-lane dual-carriageways that had road users ply them as if we had many more and that did not account for those who drove against the traffic on out left – India drives on the left. Yes, trucks and tractors drove against the traffic not only with impunity but as if they had right-of-way in some cases, the vehicles laden until the tyres belched; some with sand, others with hay but when it came to people – if you could grab a hold, you were on it.

I cannot say the road to Agra passed through rural countryside, whilst there were farms and factories, villages and towns, they were all bustling with life and with my co-passengers there was never a dull moment.

People from Afghanistan, Angola, Nigeria, France, Rwanda and Mauritius (they were polyglots). {I learnt Hindi and Urdu were literally the same spoken language but written differently, the former is in Sanskrit and the latter using Arabic script.}

[I am better advised on the matter of Hindi and Urdu by my trainer – Hindi is based on Devanagari from which Sanskrit is derived and Urdu derives from Persian and Arabic script.]

Temples and tombs

Well into our journey, I noticed a road to the left which was sign-posted for 4 great temples within the next 10 kilometres, it was then that we caught a glimpse through the haze, a huge statue of Durga – the size of it did have an effect on me; I guess I am yet to see real statues of Hindu gods up close.

So, we were driving through Sikandra, where lies the tomb of Akbar the Great, the grandfather of Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal. Agra was the seat of the Mughal Empire and there are historical monuments of antiquity that surround the city including the amazingly huge Agra Fort which is also listed as a world heritage site.

As we entered the city of Agra, we caught a glimpse of our intended destination, I could not help but notice that the path as it were to the Taj Mahal was not necessarily a straight road, one should really consider doing this trip by express train from New Delhi – it is done within 90 minutes and there is more time to explore other notable sites.