Bucharest

June 13,2014

Today is our last day in Romania. Naviana took us on an orientation walk of the old part of Bucharest. There are some beautiful buildings from the 18th century. They belonged to rich people. When the communists came, they forced the rich out of the homes, but didn't maintain them. After the fall of communism the original owners didn't return to their homes. Recently the government has begun selling them to investors to renovate them and renew the city.

We also saw the statue of King Carol I, the first king of Romania. When the tore down King Carol's statue and erected one of Stalin. After the fall of communism, the Romanians wanted to put the statue back, but it was destroyed. They created a new statue modeled on the old except they changed the tail. The story is that when Carol said he wanted to be king of Romania, others told him he didn't have the "cojones". He said "I might not, but my horse does."

We also went to the parliament building.  It's a huge building built by Ceausescu to be his palace. He never got to use it. When it was about finished, the people were coming after him. He and his wife fled to the roof where a helicopter was waiting, but the pilot wasn't supportive of him and dropped them off in the forest. They were found a few days later and he was executed by firing squad. The guide told many stories that were not at all flattering to Ceausescu. The building is quite cool. It has high ceiling, marble everywhere and ventilation in the ceiling. There is no AC because Ceausescu was afraid someone would try to poison him.