Sue's Travels: Danube Trip - 7 September 2011 (Bucharest, Romania)

Today we head for Bucharest. Luggage had to be out by 7:00am so that the ship’s personnel could carry them to the bus. We had to be on the bus by 8:00 am. The bus actually left a few minutes early. Our local guide was on the bus and she spoke about Romania, which is located in southeast Europe, is the size of Texas and is the only Latin country in a sea of Slavic countries. Romania is part of the European Union, but does not use the Euro. She was extremely negative about Ceauşescu’s reign.

The principal crops are wheat, grapes and sun flowers, which are grown for the oil. I saw a lot of corn growing. The land that was seized under the communists has been returned to the heirs of the original owners. Unfortunately not all the people who received the land are farming it.

Currently the death rate exceeds the birth rate. In addition, people are immigrating to countries that offer greater opportunity. 87% of the population is Romanian Orthodox. There is a small Moslem minority in the south. They are called Turks although I sincerely doubt that they are of Turkish descent.

We arrived in Bucharest which has been inhabited since Neolithic times. It was established in 1459 by order of Prince Vlad Tepes, Vlad the impaler.

A lot of the beautiful old buildings were destroyed during Ceauşescu’s reign. The Parliament building is the second largest building in the world. Only the pentagon in Washington DC is larger. At one time Bucharest was known as “Little Paris”. There are a lot of wide tree lined boulevards and buildings such as the Arc de Triomphe which show the strong French influence. We were taken to an old church that was slated for destruction under Ceauşescu, but during a presidential visit President Nixon expressed admiration for it and Ceauşescu did not knock it down.

Initially I was quite upset by Bucharest. The side that we entered from showed the strong soviet influence with the dilapidated ugly buildings, but as we drove into the part of Bucharest that had been left along, things looked up.

After the tour Bette, Massoud, Betsy and I were loaded into a comfortable van and were drive to Brasov. The higher up the Carpathian Mountains we went the nicer the structures and the terrain. I tried to take some pictures from the van, but most did not come out that good.

We are staying at the Hotel Aro Palace, which is a very nice hotel. It has internet access in the rooms. I had trouble getting it to work, but they sent the bell hop up to help and he got it working for me. It looks like Romania has an under employment problem as well as an unemployment problem.