Romania, in brief

Hi. Currently enjoying Berlin, but I kind of wanted to do a photo/info dump before I got too much further ahead in my travels. These photos are fairly unremarkable; that's what happens when you've got no one to pose with/for--lots of photos of buildings!

Looking through my photos, I kind of wish I took a few more in Bucharest. Truth be told, I was kind of frightened of the place and didn't want to draw extra attention to myself by pulling out my camera. Of course, perhaps I am being too quick to judge and frankly all the locals I spoke to (with the exception of one crotchety old man and some younger hoodlummy-types) were all beyond friendly and helpful. It's definitely a place I think would be fun to explore with a local, but as a single, female, Asian traveller, it was kind of like... uh, yeah. Plus, the stray dogs there definitely did not come from the same strain of friendly strays found in much of South America. In fact, was chased down by one--

And so, the only real photos I have of Bucharest involve the Palace of Parliament: Ceauşescu's vision come to reality--almost (still only 90% complete!). Apparently he had the idea to bulldoze what was historic Bucharest and replace it with this monstrosity after a visit to PyongPyang. Dictators are all the same, huh?

So some trivia about the PoP: it is the second largest building in the world based on square footage (Pentagon is the largest). It's got chandeliers, marble, and handwoven carpets up the wazoo!!!!! Construction began in 1983 and is made almost entirely of Romanian materials. Ceauşescu never actually got to use it before he was executed for all his shit in 1989. And lastly, walking around the perimetre of the PoP property at a reasonable pace took 40 (FORTY!!!) freaking minutes in the barely tolerable heat & sun & no trees. Yeah, it's pretty damn big.


Near the Palace of Parliament there were tons of tires on the street. Odd.


Wall surrounding the Palace of Parliament.


Here she be! It may not look that big, but once you're inside--holy crap. Like every room we visited had a square footage over 3,000sq. ft. That's like every room is bigger than my entire freaking house.


A view of more parliementary buildings from the balcony of the Palace of Parliament. I am not sure why they didn't centre this; I mean, putting some flag posts in the middle would have been fairly simple, I feel. (And yes, I was standing in the middle of the balcony).


Outside of Bucharest, Romania is entirely different--though still kind of obviously home to that tacky Eastern European taste (oops! No offense! heh heh). For example, Braşov and nearby Raşnov both have Hollywood-esque signs for their town names. Here is a photo I took standing behind the Braşov one.

The Transylvania region of Romania is definitely worth seeing, and as I mentioned previously, it would be great to rent a car there and drive through it because: there are tons of small towns off the beaten track; everyone out there is exceedingly friendly and hospitable; there are also a lot of great mountains for trekkers and nature lovers; and the architecture is unique with its Saxon influences; oh, and the pizza is surprisingly tasty.


Peleş Castle near Braşov is off the chain! Ok, I've never actually used that expression before and never intend to again. But yah... no photos of the interior b/c you had to pay to photograph (as is typical in Romania, it seems). If you can only visit one castle in the area, skip the "Dracula Castle" (Bran Castle) and visit this one! Bran Castle isn't even Dracula's real castle, anyway. It's all just a tourist trap.

All right. That's enough of my informative update. Good night from Berlin (where I almost met James Franco--HOT--but that's another story.)