My first impressions of Romania come from what I saw on the bus ride from the airport. Strangely, the country I want to compare Romania to is China, at least architecturally. The buildings in Bucharest have a strange Chinese feel to them. I attribute this to their shred communist past. The large concrete buildings that are universal to communism seem to be a legacy in every single communist country.
After I arrived at my hostel and had a bit of time to explore the city, I was sad to see that many of the remaining old buildings were in a poor state of repair and nearly falling to the ground. In this case, I was most reminded of the buildings in Havana. Some of the buildings have been repaired (especially in the historic quarter), but most are still very decrepit.
Bucharest’s most famous architectural legacy is the monstrous parliament building that Ceausescu built in the 1980s. This gargantuan building (the second largest in the world, after the Pentagon) resulted in the destruction of 1/6th of Bucharest and a very diminished old town. I had the opportunity to go on a tour of the building, and it is gargantuan on the inside as well, featuring two ton chandeliers, marble everywhere and other stylings of an autocratic mind.
Overall, I’m not too thrilled with Bucharest. It is certainly one of the Europe’s least attractive capitals, While better than Minsk, Bucharest ranks below every single other capital I’ve been to in Europe on the ‘pretty’ scale. I’m looking forward to going to Transylvania to experience some well-preserved medieval cities.
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