Bucharest and Multi-choose Mesc: Yes, Thank You!
Downtime. Presently you are in the Chair Zone. The further you advance to the East, you will find more people sitting on the ground. Ready, ass? Start blogging...
I'm staying here and it's not like I'm going to ignore the free Internet in my private room or make excuses for using it. This is not a trip to "get away from it all" - in fact, the opposite. I'm bringing it all here.
"Here" is a room in a 3-bedroom apartment on the ninth floor of a residential area Tower Block, like those ones on the lower Lower East Side, rented out by a guy and his elderly mom. Very nice people, one of them is always in the apartment. They provide me with water and shrug when I decline coffee or tea.
It's been two days in Bucharest enjoying the "sights" (Romania/Moldova Lonely Planet guide writer Leif Pettersen calls its a "hellhole" so who am I to disagree?) and tomorrow I start the volunteer program in Brasov. To recap, I've seen:
Romanian Peasant museum. Learned a good deal of peasant wisdom about fire. For example, if you don't cover up the oven then the neighbors will gossip. And, if you kindle the fire with wild rose twigs, the cow's tits will burst. Right!
Jewish History museum. Same sad tale through all of European history. Jews tried to assimilate in every possible way (without giving up the whole being a Jew thing), fought and held leadership positions in 19th century independence wars, but when push came to shove and local economic troubles were not solved by flipping the Hitler-Stalin coin, gossip about the Jews was uncovered and their neighbors put them in ovens.
Tour of the Palace of the Parliament. 2nd largest building in the world in square footage after the Pentagon. Construction started in 1984 and was 90% complete at the time of Ceauşescu's 1989 overthrow/execution. I felt Chris Gage's presence in its walls, for he no doubt would have turned to me and said, "man, that's a lot of fuckin' Communism." The tour lasted 40 mins with an inexplicable 10 min bathroom break in the middle. We apparently saw 3% of the place. Excerpt video below. Just wait until I make the full trip documentary with a Sewer Trout soundtrack. You will love it.
Also, I hung out in Herăstrău Park, walked all over the historic quarter, up and down Calea Victoriei, Sos Kiseleff, B-dul Unirii and followed an endless crowd of young people up to a 5th floor drinking terrace, Cafe Deko, in the national theatre building. Afterwards there was free opera/music outside. Good times. But be careful when using the back of a bulldozer as an emergency bathroom. Stray dogs lurk in the shadows.
I'm staying here and it's not like I'm going to ignore the free Internet in my private room or make excuses for using it. This is not a trip to "get away from it all" - in fact, the opposite. I'm bringing it all here.
"Here" is a room in a 3-bedroom apartment on the ninth floor of a residential area Tower Block, like those ones on the lower Lower East Side, rented out by a guy and his elderly mom. Very nice people, one of them is always in the apartment. They provide me with water and shrug when I decline coffee or tea.
It's been two days in Bucharest enjoying the "sights" (Romania/Moldova Lonely Planet guide writer Leif Pettersen calls its a "hellhole" so who am I to disagree?) and tomorrow I start the volunteer program in Brasov. To recap, I've seen:
