Bucharest

Yesterday we were in “Little Vienna” and today set out to explore Bucharest or “Paris of the East” as it was once known. Definitely noticed more of a classic European feel in all aspects of the culture as soon as we crossed the border. First stop was the Romanian Athenaeum. Home to the George Enescu Philharmonic. Unfortunately tickets to see the inside are quite challenging to acquire so we missed out this time.

Revolution square. Formerly known as Palace Square before the communists renamed it in 1989.

Statue of King Carol 1. I only learnt later in the day that he was the first elected king of Romania after Alexander Cuza was overthrown by a coup d’ etat in 1866. This statue only dates from 2007 as the original was destroyed in 1948 by the communists.

Some dude.

Vintage toy collection in the National History Museum.

Gio was pleased to have spotted a “real auto-mobile”

Heavy is the head.

I’ve seen the real Trajan column in Rome twice now but somehow seeing the replica here broken down into segments gave me much better appreciation of the size and details.

I had read about the restaurant Caru’ cu bere online as it has over 40k google reviews. We weren’t going to stop in as it was fairly pricey of course. However as we lingered outside in the street the maitre de ushered us in so seriously we didn’t feel we could resist just a coffee! Then we saw that a pot of beer was the same price as an espresso so figured, why not. Definitely the most stunning restaurant I’ve stepped foot inside. Gio said it looked like a church.

My ragamuffins really dressed for the occasion too.

Church of the Stavreopolos. Originally 17th century. Has had some restoration due to an earthquake since.

“Mum! Get a picture of me with this great big whoppin’ ice cream!”

Church of St. Anton

Manuc’s Inn, Oldest Hotel in the City.

After this we had an awesome Romanian feast for lunch. Pork knuckle, cabbage rolls, polenta, the whole works. The portion sizes were more generous than we have experienced up until now though so it ended up serving as dinner as well as lunch! Luckily we had a 40 minute walk to our next stop, the Palace of Parliament. Unfortunately my photos are rubbish as I couldn’t actually make the building fit in the shots. It’s still in use and difficult to secure tickets for a tour A few facts I do know about the Palace of Parliament.

– completed in 1997 at a cost of 4 billion euros

– approx 700 architects designed it

– It’s visible from space

– consists of 1100 rooms

– heaviest building in the world at 4.10 million tonnes

– approx 3000 people died on site during its construction. Likely due to shocking working conditions under communist rule.