Bucharest, Romania-2024

 

 

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              I flew from Krakow, Poland to Bucharest, Romania on Wizz Air, one of the many discount airlines in Europe. In Bucharest (pop 1.7M) everyone and his brother has a car. More cars than roads. Such gridlock, it’s faster to walk. After eight hours of walking and biking tours over two days, here is what I gleaned of their history.

              Romania is the only Latin-based language surrounded by Slavik countries because the Romans converted their Slavik language during their brutal rule. Next ruler was the Ottomans (Turks) until their independence in 1878. Pork is abundant more than any other meat today since it was the one meat the Turks did not take from them while they were in power.  

              At the beginning of WWII, their King was age18. The ranking general convinced the king to side with the German Nazis. In 1944, the Romania’s turn against Germany and join the Allies. Russia freely enters Romania where they stay until 1954. Their royal family was banished to Switzerland three years after Russia entered. Under Russian communism, banks decreased from 150 to two banks. Russia also took Moldavia and Ukraine. The Russian army stayed 14 brutal years but communism lasted 44 years until the second attempt at revolution was successful. Their rigged “elections” had Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu in power 1965 – 1989.  Even though most of eastern Europe was under Communist control, the oppression in Romania was far more brutal.

              Collectivization meant the government took the land from owners and re-distributed small parcels to peasants. A million citizens were arrested during this period. Any protestor was arrested and subject to years of torture or death. Torture could include forced eating of feces. It was not safe to speak negatively about the government. Even priests became snitches via oppression. My bicycle tour guide grew up in this era. After weaned from breast feeding, she was sent to the country to live with her grandparents (until starting school at age seven) where it was a bit easier to find food. She remembers the years of feeling abandoned since it would only be once a month that her parents could visit.

              In the 1980’s the communists banned abortion since they wanted to increase the population (more soldiers) even though there was not enough food for the existing population. In secret, women resorted to coat hangers and knitting needles. They also banned the use of birth control, enforced with random searches and imposed urine tests to learn if a woman was pregnant.

              Those in the communist party lived quite well. Ceaușescu wanted to build the largest, most lavish, parliament building in the world and do so in two years using 24x7 working shifts and 700 architects. It ended up taking 13 years, finished in 1997, after his death. Of the 20,000 workers, 3,000 died due to unsafe conditions. Today it is the second largest government building in the world, with our Pentagon being the largest. It is only 30% utilized. After Ceaușescu’s death, Romania tried to sell it. Rupert Murdoch put in a bid of $1 billion which was rejected as too low. Trump tried to buy it and turn it into a casino but, to no avail. President Ceaușescu wanted it to speak to his people from the highest government balcony. That never happened. The second revolution was successful. Ceaușescu, and his wife Elena, escaped by helicopter after ordering the random shooting of protesters by the military. Two thousand citizens died. By then, he was so unpopular the rest of the communist party turned against him. On Christmas Eve, 1989, both him and his wife were shot by a firing squad with the event shown on TV. Today, they have democratic elections.

              On a side note, Ceaușescu never got to deliver a speech from the high parliament balcony. Guess who first appeared on that new balcony. Michael Jackson. He warmed the crowd, telling them how happy he was to be in Budapest. Duh, he was in Bucharest.

              From Bucharest, I went to Sofia, Bulgaria by bus. A car could make the trip in five hours if there was no border delay. My goal was to find a bus or train that would be direct, traveling during the day for seven hours or less. After multiple searches over a few days, I finally found one bus to fit my requirements. It was a bus originating in Ukraine, traveling through Romania with a destination of Sofia. Quite unusual but the price was right at $20. Even more unusual when at 11:00 a.m. I received a WhatsApp text that the bus was departing at 12:30 instead of 2:00. I hadn’t packed or showered so I rushed then called an Uber to go the 15 minutes to the “bus station”. The address on the text and the ticket is a point on a 4-lane street parked in front of abandoned buildings. But there was an unmarked bus sitting there. I asked my Uber driver to wait while I talk to the two people smoking outside the bus. No English but, they did understand the word “Sofia” and pointed to the bus. That’s my bus! A few more people show up and away we go. There are only a few women and children on the Ukrainian bus. Men cannot depart the country if they are capable of fighting in the war.

              I was mesmerized by the gigantic, flat fields for agriculture. So flat! No fencing. Used for massive farming. It must be like the fields of Ukraine, known as the breadbasket country. Due to a prolonged border crossing and a wreck in Bulgaria, the ride ended up taking seven hours, but it was the most pleasant experience with the best Wi-Fi of any bus I’ve ridden. And oh my, the border crossing. For a couple of miles, I did not understand why there was a solid line of trucks parked on the highway. Only trucks. I thought it odd so many truck drivers were taking a rest at the same time, on the highway. Then I realized, its prolonged searches at the border. Thankfully, buses and cars drove right on by in the other lane. At the crossing, the bus driver takes all our passports to give to a border agent, which is quite typical. Later, the border agent comes on board, calls out a few names, with mine being the first name. Then hand back all the passports to the bus driver and away we go. What an adventure!