Work, football and the law

My first full working week in Bucharest is coming to an end so here’s a brief look at how things have gone and the journey to work.

The week commenced with me trying to get hold of football tickets on Monday only to find that they’d sold out. This was the proverbial blessing in disguise as the fixture notation here is “American” style, i.e. Dinamo v Lazio is actually Dinamo AT Lazio. So another two weeks to get the tickets for the game in Bucharest.

My travel to and from the office is by a mixture of getting a lift from a colleague and walking. The journey is a 25 minute stroll that is very pleasant in the morning although currently a little warm on some evenings.

From home it’s down past the local markets (the fruit is very good, but I’ve not tried anything else yet as that might mean testing the cooking facilities at the apartment!).
Piata Dorobantilor is on a main road to the city centre so a little busy but a pleasant little “green” area.






Strada Paris is a fascinating area with a great mix of architectural styles in the buildings.

There is a mix of restaurants, embassy buildings and private villas.

An already familiar port of call is Angel’s which is a popular meeting place – Stella and a pasta dish tend to be the order of the day here.

Strada Paris leads into Piata Victoriei which is a vast square unfortunately spoiled by the sheer volume of traffic.

This is the view across the square to Strada Buzesti which is home to the Aviva office.

Nearby is the Peasant Museum and on the square the Natural History Museum.

The rest of the square is dominated by offices and the rather grand government building the Palatul Victoriei which houses the Government.

Unfortunately photographing here led to my first encounter with the law as a representative of the Jandarmeria informed me that it is not permitted to stand outside a government building taking photographs! I have learned subsequently that the Jandarmeria are the military branch of the police and in evidence on my route to work due to the number of embassies and government buildings in the area.

DISCLAIMER: none of these images have been taken using any secret or subversive camera techniques and any breach of local laws is entirely accidental and unintended.

Wednesday saw a return to the Dubliner with some colleagues to catch the end of Liverpool’s Champions League game, followed by a curry later in the evening. The dinner was very good but rather lacking in the spice department.
With the week drawing to a close my attention has shifted to finding a Post Office to get the first lot of postcards home and figuring out the local train timetables for a trip out of Bucharest at the weekend.

Come back soon – I’ll be here a while!