Day 3: Bucharest

 

What Was THB Thinking? When you look at the map of E. Europe, starting with Bucharest and moving the cursor slightly north and east, what do you see? Crimea...formerly Ukrainian and now part of Russia. Move the cursor up to the north and slightly east, Kyiv. What do Romanians see? 

Eastern Europe

THB  is thinking different now. The Romanians' view of history depends what era they focus on: pre-the Great War, between WWI and WWII, post-WWII and USSR, the Ceausescu years, the fall  of the Wall (the  "Revolution")  and the firing squad deaths of the Ceausescu's in 1989, or/and democracy and a market economy.

Department of Amplification: our Street Art guide said we were her first Americans in  over 2 years. Extrapolating, maybe it is the war in Ukraine, maybe the impact of DJT's destabilizing the entire planet, or some combination of the two? Maybe Covid?

Today is a food and city walking tour.  Another long day, much cooler at 9:30, warming up significantly by 3pm. Why did we pay to take this tour instead of taking one of Taucck's free tours? The free ones included 4-6 hours of bus time. 

tour starts at the National Theater steps

Juliann is the leader, one couple from Ireland, one couple from the UK (Americans), and DB &THB, 20 to 30 years older than everyone else

Bucharest is a mix of tear-downs and new-ish buildings

First food stop: warm pretzels from a bakery in a tear-down

see the white dot? look up from the rear of the blue car. A red dot indicates the building is not earthquake safe: the owner is trying to sell the building and has painted the red dot white. After many a year it is a no-sale, the building is still unsold and unoccupied

twisted tree trunk

Julian is pointing to a church that was moved on rollers to a new location because the commies wanted to widen the boulevard. Think Robert Moses gave them the idea?

Second food stop: lunch #1 soup...THB has potato with smoked pork, very good (included in tour)

DB has bean and smoked pork

Third food stop: lunch #2, at a famous kebabery;

the line is long and Julian uses his secret power and gets our order quickly because he is worried that lunch #1 has already worn off

Skol brewski (THB and DB share one)

kebabs are excellent, strawberries, tomatoes and feta are from food stalls next door (this is half the tour's order!)

Fourth food stop: fried donuts covered in powdered sugar

Aside to Julian: please, no more stops!!!!

Tour uses tram to/from food stalls 

THB and DB return to the hotel and then make another brief foray; tempted by Alta-like pastries...still stuffed, no sale

Shouldn't the sign read something like: we are not responsible if falling plaster hits you and a) kills you, b) wounds you, c) injures you in any way, d) maybe doesn't hurt you but your clothes need to go the drycleaners...

DB thinks this picture is worth a 1,000 words THB thinks if you divide 1,000 by all the times he is caught in this position, it is  worthless

Dinner: DB and THB skip dinner

Book Review

Travel As A Political Act, a Radical Guide to Meaningful Travel, Rick Steves (read by by the author, 3rd edition pub’d 20203): redundant, pedantic, and surely not meaningful (if two prior editions didn't work, this one doesn't move the dial either). Not Recommended

Day 2: Bucharest - Street Art tour, Opening tour Dinner

Street Art Tour: DB found this tour, and somehow nobody else did, so we had our guide to ourselves. It was perfect! A greegrees day, sunny and cool to start, warming up during our three hours, well  paced (slow), and a way to learn a bit about what before and after the 1989 fall of the wall meant for Romanians (though our guide was born in 1994). THB, as always, is going to annotate through pics and brief captions. 

 THB opts for cereal and yogurt - no bowls or berries 

one bowl is found, then much later the staff has found more

it is marathon day and car-free day

Elon is fanous the world-round

some work is commissioned, some not

some street artists make stickers to spread around town

this "angel" is made on paper and then pasted on with flour and water mixture

this pig has been done over 600 times

our second one

THB thought this was #1 today, real contemporary art

indication of cable TV

forget-me-not is in bloom

THB's #2

real street art!

artichoke design

role reversal, not culling the bears is creating new problems

Count Dracula and Bram Stoker share a meal

THB's #3: context is what happens when the church decides to censor the street artists

Tour opening dinner: nothing special, violin/piano duo plays between main course and dessert and THB sits next to an orthopedic hand specialist from Chicago and gets an analysis of his ails and woes. Next time he will sit on other side of Dr D and get his left palm read.

massive communist structure across street from dinner spot; streets are jammed with pedestrians near hotel

DB reminds THB we are not on the tour for the food

THB has finished his main course

Book Review

Writers & Lovers**Lily King (read by Stacey Glenmoski, pub’d 2020): THB has gotten used to first person novels about writers...it is a real thing for authors to write about their frustrations of the profession, for publishers to see themselves in the books, and reviewers to know the "real people" in the novels. This might be the poster child for the genre. Recommended