Romania 1: Bucharest to Moldavia

For some reason, the mental image I had for Romania for a long time was the scene of natives in traditional costumes frolicking in lush green meadows. Then came a nearly surreal photograph of the executed body of the longtime dictator Ceausescu, shown all around the world, the date of which I remember precisely - Christmas Day shortly after Gea was born, i.e., 1989. Within 24 hours of arriving in Romania, I would have occasions to recall both of these images.

It would have been prudent to get some rest and fight off the jet leg from the SF to Boston to Bucharest transit, but our schedule called for a dinner show which we gladly obliged. While its quality was what you expect for any production aimed at mass tourism, it was a worthwhile first-evening activity. In between the dance pieces, a panpipe master played some of the melodies I recognized from Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 by the renowned composer George Enescu, whose former residence and museum we had passed earlier during a whirlwind driving tour on the way from the airport.  This dinner also served as an introduction to some of the typical dishes such as Sarmale (stuffed cabbage), mamaliga (corn-meal mush) and papanasi (fried donut stuffed with cheese and jam/cream on top).



Dinner show at a Bucharest restaurant

The top tourist site in Bucharest is Palace of Parliament, considered the second largest building in the world after Pentagon. This was a grandiose project Ceausescu conceived but did not get to see completed. Instead, the first person who got to speak from the balcony was reportedly Michael Jackson although he made a major faux pas by declaring "I love Budapest!" (There are few greater insults to Romanians than confusing Bucharest with the Hungarian capital, which reflects age-old animosity toward the country that had occupied parts of Romania including Transylvania.) The interior was closed at the time of our visit unfortunately, but we got to watch a half-marathon with the finish line near the Palace.

 

A road race finishes near Palace of Parliament, a monster of a building (only a façade shown)

 

A communist-era stone mural in front of National Defense University depicts the Romanian history but this elderly uses it for tennis practice

 

After a leisurely stroll through the Village Museum, which is an open-air museum that a number of European capitals have, we headed up Moldavia in the northeastern corner of Romania. It is a long drive and I was glad someone else was at the wheel. The overnight stop is at a somewhat non-descript but difficult-to-pronounce town of Piatra Neampt. Good thing that there is plenty of daylight and we had time to hop on the cablecar to the top of a hill overlooking the city.

At the open-air museum in Bucharest, the staff to building ratio is high.



A stop on the way to Moldavia to pick acacia flowers, our guide's favorite snack

 

 

A horse cart is a common scene on the road



Piatra Neampt, Moldavia: a view from the top

Moldavia is simply an Anglicized version of Moldova, which is also the name of the independent country lying to the east. The gist of the complex history of this region called Moldova is that its eastern half, which had been part of the Soviet Union, became independent as Republic of Moldova upon collapse of Communism, and the western half has remained part of Romania. I have this down, or at least I am going to pretend.

A shower stall, at our hotel may be a disguised space capsule or time machine ready to catapult us to the age-old Bucovina monasteries the following day