Wet and windy Bucharest 20th and 21st October

Work, football, work, beer, work and depression.
Just about sums this weekend up, I did go to the Dubliner in the vain hope of watching a Bluebirds victory on Sky to lift my mood - should have known better really.
So I bought myself a cake to celebrate Trafalgar Day, and that didn't really help either - still home for at least a short break in a couple of weeks.
Hopefully we will get some reasonable weekend weather so I can do some more travelling before then.

Bucharest – Saturday 13th October

Rain forecast again for this weekend so a day in the city with football and rugby in the evening.
This morning’s trip was to the Sutu Palace on Piata Universitate that houses the Bucharest Municipal Museum. The foyer and one of the upstairs rooms currently house a modern “art” exhibition, all the works were the sort of things that would brighten any room (even in complete darkness) but add nothing positive to the atmosphere and quickly leave you with a headache. The museum proper is quite small and houses some interesting artifacts found in the Bucharest area from the Stone Age onwards. There are some very well preserved axe heads. Also of particular interest are the early “charters” of the city, including one for Vlad Tepes. There is also an interesting collection of early photographs of the City.
From here I took a long walk via Piata Unirii to the Bucharest Mall. This is a large converted communist era “warehouse” and is really quite difficult to navigate as it sprawls over a large area. There was a lot of retracing of steps to get round the whole thing although interestingly the stores did include a Debenhams and a M&S – so I was able to buy some new socks!
I just managed to beat the rain home for a very late lunch before watching some football before heading out in the evening to watch the Saes beat the French and make it to the Rugby World Cup Final - at least I now know I won't be neutral next weekend!

Bucharest - Sunday 7th October

Well a month today is the official "return" date, so time to start checking on the details at work.

Today started with the Grand Prix, and a disappointing result for Lewis Hamilton but at least that means an interesting finish to the season.

Outside it was another gloomy looking day and I set off for a further tour of Herastrau Park with fingers crossed and "Plan B" being to head for the Metro if it started raining.

It was a little cool but the park was still fairly busy and I had my first sighting of the Red Squirrel. Probably not much smaller in length terms than the Grey that is so familiar in my garden back home but decidedly slighter in build, and with fantastic "tufty" ears!

I exited the park at the North end of the Herastrau Lake next to the "Free Press Palace", which not surprisingly is home to most of the newspapers and also used to house the state television service. From here I had a walk around the outside of the RomExpo site and back towards home via the athletics stadium and the national rugby stadium. Both "stadiums" are very small and easily missed from the main road.

Home for tea and to prepare for a trip to an Ursus hostelry for the rugby/football in the evening.

Four more weekends to plan, four and a bit weeks to complete at least six months of work!

Bored and depressed in Bucharest - Saturday 6th October

Maybe I'm exaggerating slightly but it just about rhymes. I have hit the missing home "wall", especially the entertainment system and the cat. Things aren't being helped by the dodgy TV at the apartment and difficulties at work.

Adding to the glum atmosphere this week was the weather forecast that said rain everywhere.
Things improved slightly after breakfast as I stumbled across the qualifying session for the Chinese Grand Prix and was able to see Lewis Hamilton edge a little closer to a record making Championship victory with another pole position. So with a day planned for wandering Bucharest I set off for the Unirea Shopping Centre for a look round (very boring) and then on to find the Radu Voda Monastery. The Monastery dates from 1601 and was moved in 1985 leaving it damaged. Currently it is covered in scaffolding and today it was closed with the restoration work that is scheduled to go on to the end of next year.
At least it wasn't raining although the heavy cloud was in a marked contrast to the rest of the week's bright sunshine.
After some lunch I made for the Maps Museum on Strada London. Really fascinating collection here of original maps from 17th Century onwards although no photography allowed. I got the impression I was the only visitor today as I got a full run down on the maps in reverse Romglish and the changes in the borders through the course of the ebb and flow of the Austro-Hungrian Empire, the Ottoman Empire and Tsarist Russia. Very strange to see on many of the maps reference to "Romania" south of Bulgaria, while modern day Romania was still recorded as Wallachia, Transylvania, Moldavia, etc. So I can see some internet research coming on this evening between the football, rugby and Ursus.
More tomorrow - let's hope the rain holds off and the Grand Prix is good.

The House of the People – Sunday 30th September

With Nev and Anthony along we took a trip on the Metro and I made my return to the Casa Poporului.
Having established that the City Guide has the entrance on the wrong side of the building we eventually found our way to the tour entrance (no signs even in Romanian!).
Slightly confusingly the ticket office was closed with a sign saying that the English tour is at every hour – given it was 11:15 this was a little disappointing. Fortunately my mastery of Romglish enabled me to overhear someone saying that the next English tour was at 11:30 – so presumably very hour rather than at every hour!
The ticket office opened at 11:25 and following the scramble for tickets it was time for the security check that took us to 11:45 before the tour party set off.
The scale of the rooms is such that the camera flash is nowhere near adequate to provide a decent picture – making the “camera tax” seem all the more excessive!
Most of the rooms in the “public” areas are now set up to host conferences and business events and the scale is very impressive, particularly with those rooms with high skylighted ceilings.
The tour provides a break half-way round to recover from the stair climbing and eventually gets to the lower level balcony for a view down towards Piata Unirii.
Despite one and a half hours of wandering the building we had probably seen no more than 10% of the inside.
After lunch on Piata Unirii we made our way back on the Metro to pick up the bags so I could drive Nev and Anthony to the airport and get my dose of stress for the day.

The good news is that now I know some postcards have at least got out of Romania, and as long as Nev remembers to post them they should be arriving on the family doormats soon!