We spend two days in Bucharest visiting with family and friends and also doing some sightseeing on the side. This time we stay at a AirBnB in the central area of Bucharest and hope this will give us the impetus to visit it a bit as previously we barely visited it. But first it is time for breakfast from the snack stand in our building, a benefit of staying centrally.
The buildings itself while nice inside doesn’t have the most beautiful facade and the interior courtyard is quite bleak also. We can see a few windows from which pigeons appear so it seems like not all apartments are lived in, pigeons excluded.
The view from the AirBnB small balcony is also an exercise in contrasts. In front is the Military Circle, beautifully restored but to the side is a high rise that seems to have gone through a few wars really.
On one day we visit one of the boulevards that start near the AirBnB and goes to Cismigiu Park, one of the famous downtown parks. The buildings here are not that well renovated, quite a contrast to Cluj or Sibiu really.
The buildings are quite impressive though, you can see they are quite detailed and would look quite beautiful if fully restored.
Cismigiu Park has changed quite a bit since we last visited it. It looks less like a premier park, there is no water in any of the water features and in general it looks left behind by any type of maintenance.
There are still some birds in the park, pigeons of course but also a wood pigeon and other birds. The flowers are still maintained at least in some areas but the park is a shadow of its former self or at least how we remember it.
We exit from the park near the Palace Hall, parking is quite difficult in the downtown area which makes the sidewalks a haven for cars that want to park semi-legally. This makes walking challenging sometimes and there are multiple ways the city has tried to stop this from happening, unfortunately one isn’t to create more parking spaces.
We return towards our AirBnB on Victory Way which is the street on which it actually is located. It is also one of the major streets in Bucharest with some beautiful buildings on both sides.
It also has a famous confectionary, Capsa, where many artists, writers and other intellectuals were eating historically and we enter to explore the choices. As we already have our eating program planned, being with relatives, we don’t buy anything but still put this on our mental list to try next time.
Our relatives stay in the suburbs and of course we are visiting them during the day. Here there are lots and lots of highrises, quite similar to each other so every one that is more colorful attracts our attention, they can be quite cool even though mostly they are painted in advertising.
In the evening it is time to meet with our friends near our AirBnB. We walk the pedestrian area of the city for a while entering bookstores and searching for a restaurant to spend the night.
We find one which is quite loud and huge but has reasonably good food and we sit for some time exchanging stories and memories before returning home.
We start the second day by throwing out the thrash, in this case it is in a weird place and you have to go round the whole building near a flower shop to find a secret entrance to the thrash cans…really complex.
In the morning we explore again the downtown area near the AirBnB where we went the previous night. There is less traffic in the morning but we wanted to explore a few shops and the bookstores again and maybe buy some souvenirs.
The buildings in this area are relatively well maintained and quite imposing. When not shopping we are always with the heads up looking for some interesting detail on the buildings we pass.
The Romanian National Bank is a building I remember from previous wanderings in the area, it is as imposing as I remember it from years past when I was exploring the area.
This was the major financial district, and is still anchored by the Central Bank and you can see this by the number of old bank buildings in the area. And between all the banks is a small but beautiful church probably where all the bankers prayed for their investments success….
Probably the most impressive bank building is the Palace of the Deposits and Consignments (CEC). Even during communist times CEC continued to exist and offer CDs or the chance to win a car. We know quite a few people that got their first car this way.
One of the things we haven’t investigated prior while in Bucharest are the passages. There are a surprisingly large number of them and some of them are quite interesting to explore. Lots of stores and lots of restaurants are hidden here but most are not open yet this morning unfortunately. So we make our way to the National Art Museum located in the former Royal Palace, a visit described here.
After the visit we exit a bit dazed after many hours in the museum and walk around a bit more to recover before spending the evening with relatives. And then it is time to back and in the morning we leave for Phoenix. Luckily no issues ensue this time and we arrive safely home after a very eventful and beautiful trip.
