Day 20
Exploring Bucharest
Sunday, September 8, 2024
Bună ziua,
Our objective today was to start exploring Bucharest and in particular we wanted to make our way to the impressive Palace of Parliament. This monolith is the heaviest building in the world, and in terms of square metres of floor space, only The Pentagon is bigger.
But first we had to find it!
It was on the other side of the river, so we had a pleasant walk through a park to get there. Walking through the park we noticed once again how dry and hard the ground was. Even the big trees were wilted. Bucharest has not seen rain in a while, and it needs some.
We crossed the river and then had another park to wander through. The further we walked, the louder became the sound of racing engines and squealing tyres. Then came the arousing waft of burning rubber. A drifting competition!
We had stumbled across the 2024 RoDrift National Championship, being held in Constitutiei Square. What an amazing location. It would be like closing streets in central Wellington and drifting around the Beehive.
We stayed for about 20 minutes, peeking over the fence. Most of the cars appeared to be old BMW 3 series. Of course, it was a drifting competition, so during one round we also heard the unmistakable Wap Wap Wap of a screaming rotary. For once it was refreshing not to have to put up with the mang mang mang of a clapped out Holden.
Palace of Parliament
The Palace of Parliament is not subtle. It is designed in Cold War Soviet style. Very blocky and austere from the outside. Despite the lack of beauty, the immense size of the building dominates your first impressions.
We had tried to book tickets for a tour of the Palace of Parliament online through the office website. But at the time website didn't seem to accept online bookings, it just kept saying, "This page is not available". So we thought the easiest way would be to just go in and buy our tickets in person.
We were in luck. We were able to book tickets to tour the Palace of Parliament for the next morning. It was super easy. We simply walked into the visitor entrance, and the very friendly people booked us in to a guided tour for the next morning.
The rest of the day was slow and relaxing, just wandering around and exploring Bucharest. We found some lunch, then had a siesta. We have tried to make a little pub that sells craft beer our “local”, but Victory Ave was so busy all weekend as a pedestrian mall that we struggled to get a table. Dinner was a lively Tankeria across the road from our apartment building.
After dinner we had one more quiet beer while people watching. Then it was off to bed for a big sleep. We're still trying to catch up on our sleep after that train ride.
Love to you all from Grandma & Koro & Buzzy Bee.
