Day 4 Bucharest

 

Day 4 Bucharest: Take Tauck tour of the Ceausescu "house", share a giant pig knuckle for lunch, tour a beautiful Orthodox church and an odd synagogue,  and enjoy another lovely weather day.

another pic of the building across the street from  the hotel, THB seems to take this pic every day

same-same except this time the guide explains that this is bullet (not a potato) commemorating the revolution and memoralizing the people shot in the plaza (and not a copy of the  pic of the bullet that hit DJT in the ear) 

a pic of the  outside of the Ceausescu "house" where mom, dad and their three kids lived. The guide kept repeating (saying over and over) that only 5 of them lived there. Only 5. Relatively unimpressive. Only 5....

lots of toilets inside, these are reserved for the tour visitors (no peeing in the house, no peeing in the house)

no mention of the re-paving of the driveway 

on  way back to hotel, the bus is caught at a light for an eternity; turns out there is police officer directing traffic 

A few tour members stay on the bus to get to old town; slow arrival as police and fire vehicles are occupying half the street just a block before we get off the bus

our lunch spot

view from our table

Caru Du Bere makes their own beer...exceellent

and their own bread, also very gooe

the waiter carves up a giant pig knuckle, THB has already eaten his first portion of crackling skin; shared knuckle, 1 brewski, 1 bottle of water, 1 loaf of bread, $80 with a modest tip

there is a small Eastern Orthodox church from 1794 (this is OLD town): beautiful!!

THB does not take pics inside, these are the exterior

copper roof (not pic of the old church)

red dot: beware of earthquakes

a rebuilt synagogue, a guy gives a brief history of what happened to the Jews  before and during WWII; it is brief because he talks at 1.5x speed. Costs $10p, we don't ask for change so we've made a $4 contribution to the congregation

Back to the hotel: time to rest, and DB organizes our stuff and packs our 5 bags as tomorrow (Wednesday) we move from the Athene Palace to the riverboat. 

Dinner: two scoops each of gelato, $13

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