"One of the most difficult times in my life was when I escaped from Romania in November of 1989." - Nadia Comaneci

I have now been to Romania. Weird.

I spent part of this week in Bucharest, the capital of Romania, for work. It is not a good idea to look up safety information for cities to which you are going the next day. I don’t recommend googling things like “Bucharest crime” after you have purchased your plane ticket. John and I discovered that the main things I needed to look out for were: taxi drivers, stray dogs, and organized crime. As for the dogs, unfortunately I didn’t have time to get my rabies shot before I left but they said you should be okay if you walk in groups and avoid packs. I decided I could probably avoid organized crime for three days, so that left the taxi drivers. The Bucharest office arranged for someone to pick me up at the airport when I arrived. I ended up paying the extra $20 to take the hotel transportation back to the airport, so I also successfully avoided taxi drivers. As John told me last night on the phone, if you get kidnapped by a taxi driver and pay the ransom, they’re probably going to drop you off somewhere random where it will cost more than $20 to get to the airport… plus the ransom and therapy.

Bucharest pretty much looks exactly like you would imagine it to look like. Some people call it “little Paris”, but as a Paris fan myself, I’m not sure I would go that far. It’s like a combination between Paris, Prague, Russia, 1985, communism, Times Square, and Vegas. The buildings don’t really have any sort of coordination, so there will be a Russian looking church next to a hotel with Parisian architecture next to a communist looking apartment block that has been partially burned out with broken windows. 

Notice the contrast of the buildings.

Russia

Vegas

 

 

I saw three of the top five attractions in the city (the other two were museums): the Opera House, the Parliament building, and the Old Town, including Stavropoleous Church. I actually saw the Opera House twice since I didn’t realize I had passed it on my way to work and then went again to see it. I also walked through the Old Town once in the evening and once on Saturday morning. Very different vibe at those two times. Old Town is a pedestrian only zone and pretty much all bars and restaurants. Many of the buildings are remodeled in Vegas style where they look fake, and some clearly haven’t been touched since communism in 1970. My hotel was in the square where the president was killed in 1989. There were bullet holes and big screens and traffic and restaurants. I also went to dinner with some coworkers one night where there was Romanian food and Romanian dancing. Very fun, and very different than Swiss dancing. 

The Opera House - Romanian Athenaeum

The Parliament building

The driver on my way back to the airport said that he did not like living in Romania. He had had hope that things would change, but he said that life has not. He estimates that 60-70% of the population doesn’t work or doesn’t work legally (not like work permit legally, like involved in illegal activities), and of the 30-40% who do work, only 10% pay taxes. That is a difficult ratio to sustain successfully long term.

I’m glad I went, glad I saw it, and glad I made it back home.