Oct 10 -- Bus to Bucharest and City Tour

Russians congratulate themselves

This was a pretty quiet day, riding back to Bucharest by the same route we came. After lunch at Caru' cu bere (which means Caru With Drinking according to Google Translate), we headed through the city on a bus for a city tour. The guide was difficult to hear, but we had heard or read about some of it in advance. We went to the Military Academy which featured a statue to the great liberation of the Romanians from Fascism by the Communists. This is seen ironically today.

Parliamentary Palace

Next was the massive Parliamentary Palace begun by Nicolae Ceausescu who also tried to imitate the Champes de Ellisyse where people could celebrate him and his wife -- lots of non-functioning fountains and dead plants now. As big as it is above ground level, it is supposed to be at least as big below. When construction first started, there were 7000 architects working on it. I can only imagine the level of coordination required. It was not finished during his reign.

Sculpture at
Revolutionary Square.
Note the red just
below the black blob.

Edmond showing a souvenir from the
revolution: A Communist era Romanian
flag with the Communist logo cut out.

Edmund showing the flag as a poncho
and some of the bullets collected
from 12/21/89. In a city of 2 million,
an estimated 2 million shots
were fired.

The most interesting stop was Revolutionary Square, right in front of the Communist Party Headquarters, which celebrated the 1989 revolution. What made this interesting was the visit from a person, Edmund, who actively participated in the revolution against Communism and the Ceausescus at age 15, the youngest member of the revolutionary cadre. He spoke to us for about 20 minutes about his experiences, and it was quite moving and educational.

We got to the airport hotel by 4pm, allowing us plenty of time to repack for our flight to Vienna tomorrow. Even though we didn't get our flights through Grand Circle (the river cruise company), we can piggyback on one of their airport buses, saving us at least 20 Euros vs. taking a taxi. The cost is the time we have to get up -- we have to put our luggage out for pickup no later than 3:15 AM and be ON the bus by 4am for an 8am departure. Plus we gain an hour moving to Central Europe time, so we may be toast our first day in Vienna.