Bucharest 1

We flew from Vancouver to Bucharest.  Which is from the Pacific Northwest on the North American continent to the very Southeast corner of Europe.   Which is to say its a long flight! And a long distance both in physical terms and in cultural terms.   We came to Bucharest partially because we wanted to go to the Enescu Music Festival, which is probably Romania's biggest cultural event, a month long blizzard of classical music concerts of all kinds,   It was also Vera's xxth high school reunion.   Vera is from Bucharest, and I had been here once before, in 2002, when it was still in the transition period after the overthrow of the dictator Ceausescu.

Bucharest is a truly fascinating city.   While it's not on anyone's list of must-see touristic destinations, it is filled with interesting things to see.  The city itself has suffered from numerous degradations over the years, mostly from the totalitarian regime of Ceaucescu, whose narcissistic megalomania extended to the field urban planning.   So not only was he torturing and killing his citizens, but trying remake the city in his own vision of the "new socialist man".  But this was not a disciplined and organized process.   Apparently, in some cases, Ceausescu would be driven by a 17th century church, and immediately decree that it be demolished.  Many of Bucharest's historical buildings were thus destroyed, with whole historic neighborhoods being razed to make way for apartment blocks.   It's a wonder then, then, that anything survived.  This on top of bombings in World War 2, and severe earthquakes in 1940 and 1977.   But there are fascinating pockets of history that somehow seemed to have survived; one simply has to get used to the idea that a 17th century church can be nestled next to a decaying 1950's concrete housing block.    Speaking of decay, that is one of the perverse virtues of Bucharest, in that many buildings are in a state of decay, which in some ways is more interesting than in places where everything is pristine.   All of this is gradually changing, though, with Romania's membership in the European Union.  The place looks infinitely more prosperous that it did 15 years ago, and of course now you have all the outlets of contemporary global merchandising and eating.

There are a number of large institutional buildings (state, banks, etc.), mostly built in the late 1800's, built in an extravagant style which looks very Parisian.   There are also numerous orthodox churches, mostly small ones, that have somehow survived, some dating back to the 18th century.   My favorites,  though, are the numerous residential villas, dating from the late 19th century to the 1930's.   Many of these are extravagantly eclectic mashups of French, Transylvanian, Turkish, and who knows what other styles.   Some have been restored and some are in a state of decay.

Here are numerous examples:

In a state of decay:

And while walking around the area of these houses, something line this suddenly pops up, an unfinished relic from who knows when:

The old with the new:

This is the Slovak Embassy; they love blue!:

If you look hard enough, you can even find something interesting in the concrete tower blocks:

Vera has always thought our house in Vancouver was too cluttered with plants in the yard.   She now knows it could be worse:

There is actually a house under there; there was actually someone doing some work on a window from inside.