Wok N Roll with us...Bob and Teri Along with Atlas and Kalani: Bucharest, Romania August 30, 2023

We are finishing our Viking cruise in the capital city of Romania, Bucharest. We began our tour driving around the city. Sadly around 70 per cent of the city’s 1.95 million people live in utilitarian multi-story apartments, most having been built during Communism. While in Hungary our tour guide would refer to this ‘architectural style’ of the Communists as ‘the uglies’. Simply put, the style, or I should say lack of style, put emphasis only on being functional and quick. We saw the remnants of this sort of housing throughout the countries we visited that have escaped communist rule but the further south we went in our travels the more prevalent these remnants seemed to become.

Old Town Bucharest was a bit of an exception, however, with many of its buildings taking us back to the 16th Century. Walking around Old Town Bucharest we first came upon the Stavropoleos Church. Surrounded by much taller buildings, this 18th Century was originally part of Stavropoleos Monastery. Stavropoleos was originally an Eastern Orthodox monastery for nuns. “The name Stavropoleos comes from the Greek word Stavropolis, meaning city of the cross. The monastery is known for Byzantine music, expressed through its renowned choir, and the largest collection of Byzantine music books in Romania.” Byzantine music is the medieval sacred chant of Christian Churches following the Orthodox rite.

Another Romanian Orthodox church we visited in Old Town Bucharest is the the Old Court Church (Curtea Veche). It is the oldest church in Bucharest and served for two centuries as a place of coronation of the lords of Wallachia.

The CEC Palace, another impressive building, was built between 1897 and 1900. The palace was built as a new headquarters for Romania's oldest bank, the public savings institution Casa de Depuneri, Consemnațiuni și Economie, later known as C.E.C. It can be seen from various parts of the city. Unfortunately, the building is not open to the public, we all only get to enjoy its beautiful architecture from the outside.

I am including a picture of the Palace of the Parliament building, although we did not visit it and only saw it from afar, it is worth mentioning, after all, it is the second largest administrative building in the world. The building is valued at 4 billion Euros and was built by the communists at a time when people were being relocated into the simplified apartments shown below. The array of statistics about this building and its contents are overwhelming and for decades this enormous building was a very visual reminder of the country’s political elite. As people were struggling during communism rule, Romania's state-owned factories were being put to use providing for the glitz of this building that was found both inside and out. Simply put it was a momument to the opression of the people.

Are last tour location in Bucharest. Are last tour location in Bucharest was the National Village Museum. The Village consists of 123 complexes, offering a panorama of Romania's various villages, gathered from all the regions of the country. Each building is original and was dismantled and then reassembled at this outdoor museum. Time did not allow us to visit each of the various buildings. We did, however, gain insight into the diversity of construction found throughout the country of Romania. This was our final day of a wonderful trip. Sadly, we were at the airport at 3 AM the next morning to head home. And wow was the airport ever crowded for 3 AM!