My Images of SEE – 20:57, Tuesday 16th August

We arrived at the hotel, and then freshened up. We went to the bar and had a beer while reading. It was quiet in the hotel, only us and the reception staff. Later on a couple went to the restaurant are and ate, joined by another two tables later still. An English man bar then a Romanian joined him. The Romanian asked what he was doing here. He replied “Business”. The Romanian then asked if he was bringing a woman back to his room. He said no. The Romanian then persistently badgered him about it. The English guy did well, but why do people have to be brash about it. We left after an hour and slept. And gosh did we sleep. From 22:00 until 09:15 the next day – like logs.

We awoke fresh, yet dozey. We decided upon an Ibis breakfast – so we went downstairs and asked to put it on our invoice. We filled up for the day in the shadow of the Parliament building.

I asked reception for our check out time. 12:00 she said. Excellent. We went back up, and read for a while, then slowly got showered, changed and packed. We went downstairs for 11:45, paid, then left our luggage there for later.

We walked up to Izvor park, and its Metro station. We caught the train to Piata Unirii, changed, then onwards to Piata Victoriei. 

The Metro system is small, yet dazzingly modern in a not so modern city. Both comfort and uneasiness came with an armed guard on each train. They were similar to the German U-Bahn ones that have no connected parts, but are hollow from front to back like a fleshed out snake. We arrived at Piata Victoriei, and reached ground level. It was a massive expanse of concrete with confusing traffic measures, a car park seemingly in the middle, and surrounded ¾ in the way by past Soviet buildings. 

We were here though for another purpose. That was, to the north, the Museum of the Romanian Peasant. We located it within 300 yards of the Piata, in a building seemingly constructed for its purpose. Its surroundings were leafy and suburban. We went in and viewed the exhibition in 4 parts.

The first part was mostly wood cross carvings and religious iconography on wood. However, there was an original village church hut that they moved here. No more than a shack, but it held the village together via faith. The second part was an extension of the collective prayer theme previous. There they had a massive boat-like construction that was another prayer room. The third was more ethnographical and to my taste. Upstairs it had male and female clothes, pottery, and kitchenware – and again, a massive construction. It was an actual village house. It had a dark, aged wood as its material of construction, obviously weathered through time. It had an ‘allsorts’ part for tools and labouring. It had a kitchen, and then a bedroom. The attic was used for storage and, quaintly, Christmas decorations. The final part was a look at Soviet propaganda in the village, but basically contained busts of Lenin and portraits of past Romanian leaders. 

We got some bits from the gift shop then left. We went back on the Metro to the university then walked to the Romanian History Museum. However, it was closed. So we went for a coffee on the Strad Lipscani. This was the quarter that had a load of cafes and bars, and was in receipt of EU funding. 

We had a coffee, but a disturbed man was kicking off, first with people, then with dogs, some 50 yards away. So I said we should leave and we did. We went to the shopping area and killed time by having a look around. We then walked back to Lipscani. The temperature and sun was unbearable at this point, so we found an Irish Pub, went in a supped two ‘pints’ slowly. This ws the first time we found an internet connection, so we caught up on e-mails. We then walked around the corner to an Italian and sat outside.

The street was becoming busier now. We had a lovely and fulfilling meal then walked through Piata Unirii one last time, up the boulevard to the Parliament. The sun was nearing dusk now. We walked around the Parliament back to the hotel. We picked up our luggage then walked around Izvor park to the Metro, catching it to Gara de Nord. We entered Gara de Nord, which was bustling with activity, and noticed Beograd on the departures – ‘Lina 2’. So we got some snacks from the kiosk and waited on the platform. 

At 20:30 our train arrived, fresh and ready for the journey. We showed our ticket to the carriage guard and he nodded us on. The cabin was luxurious. A 3 seater in the day, it was now a two person bunk. A sink, complimentary water and morning bag/pack. It was lovely. We settled in before it departed into the night. Our attendant came to check the tickets, and took ours until Belgrade.

My Images of SEE – 19:53, Monday 15th August

So by 21:30 last night, we cracked open the beer and tested out the collapsible cups. Liam’s small one worked, however, my large one began to leak after a while, so we gave up. The younger lad wanted to go to sleep, so we all retired then. Surprisingly, aside from the heat, getting to sleep was OK.

We awoke at sometime in the morning for a ticket inspection by the Bulgarian officers. I then drifted back to sleep. At 02:00 or 03:00 we woke again at customs who checked out passports. We were fine, but our co-travellers didn’t have proper papers. We found out that they were Turkish actually, of Greek descent. We then slowly went to sleep again. We then had another tap at the door later for the Romanian customs. Again, we were fine, but problems with our colleagues. They had a visa, but a transit one, not a visiting one. I think the elder one settled it by saying he had a hotel reservation.

We then slept, by 6am my alarm went off, but still no where near. We got woken up by our Russian carriage hostess. This was at 08:45. We packed up our bedding and handed it in before getting our belongings and waiting to disembark. Once we did, the station we entered looked worn, but western. We made for the exit, and to follow my maps to the hotel. About 5 minutes into our journey a guy stopped us. Liam was weary. He said not to go any further down the road, it was ‘Gypsy Town’. We looked perplexed. He said that with the backpacks, we would look like tourists and will be …(he then motioned a fist into the palm of his hand to indicate ‘roughed up’) We turned around and went back to the train station. Luckily I had spare Euro’s, so I changed enough for a taxi (as the ATM was broke), but when we left the station I noticed the Metro. We took this to Izvor, then walked around the park to the back of the Parliament.

It was 09:30 and hot already. We went in to dump our bags, but our room was ready. This was a very, very welcome surprise. We showered, then slept right through to 13:50. I was apprehensive about leaving the hotel since the ‘Gypsy Town’ remark. Actually, more about the fist action. However, we walked up to the river, following it east towards Piata Unirii. To the west was the Parliament building. It was massive, kind of out of place, but elegant all the same. It certainly fit into its surroundings, including the boulevard we were on. 

After pictures, we then went to a shopping mall. I guiltily had our 3^rd McDonalds since being here. However, we hadn’t eaten properly since lunchtime in Sofia. We then walked up one boulevard, past the university, grabbing an ice cream. The then turned left to where the university library was, onto Piata Revolutiei. There was the Royal Palace that looked very grand in this well kept quarter. Turning south, we then saw the now Senate building, but was where Ceausescu made his ill-fated speech, 4 days before being executed. I expected the square to be bigger to be honest.

We then walked down to a small arcade of café’s, all supplying shisha. It was very aromatic. 2 minutes away we located a Turkish restaurant, which we attended. The food, cocktails and baklava were excellent, but our dearest meal to date, that being £40 total max. 

We then continued south to the end of the boulevard, then over the river and right to the corner of the Parliament. That square was the most recent/modern of all we had seen. Even the 1980’s reconstruction now looked worn. However, everywhere there were facades of buildings from the time it was dubbed ‘the Paris of the East’, but they fell into disrepair.

We walked to the front of the awesome parliament, and gazed down the never-ending boulevard. The Piata in front of us was certainly grand, but doesn’t to my mind serve any purpose in being that big. We then followed the perimeter to our hotel.