Bucharest, Hungary and other matters.
I am back in Hungary. I am a bit worried about the situation in Budapest at the moment and want to return the rental car before tonight's planned protests. Although most the protests are around the Parliament and Government district on the eastern bank of the Danube so I should be able to avoid them as the depot is about 5km away.
On the Hungarians PMs remarks that he won the election by lying about the economy, I actually think it's a step in the right direction. Hungary needs to take drastic measures to reduce it's budget deficit - 10% of GDP. 50% of Government spending is on Welfare Payments and personal subsidies so no guesses where is the first place to start looking.
Anyway, Bucharest is not a place I recommend going to. It's a filthy city with stray dogs everywhere and you keep seeing homeless living around every corner. Everyone considers tourists a source of money (and nothing else) and finding your way round is impossible.
The Parliament complex is huge. I walked around the entire grounds, it took almost an hour to encircle the outer wall. The building is very big as well, probably 100 metres on each side. When I tried to find out about tours, I was told there were none (I think there was something on in the Parliament that day as I remember Jeff Wilson doing a tour of the building when he went on Intrepid Travels).
Leading to the Parliament from the east is a wide boulevard with impressive fountains and government buildings running the length. I think it's a bit of a wasteland as most of the shops are empty and there were more stray dogs than people when I went. However, half way down I found a dress shop called "Ellis" - obviously a store of style and sophisication.
I contented myself with walking around the main sites of the 1989 Revolution as I am mostly musuemed out. All seem to have memorials to those who were killed that have fallen into neglect. Right next to the cross at University Square (where tanks were driven into the protesting crowd) was a campsite for a homeless person. The monument outside the old Communist Party headquarters was populated with people sitting around smoking.
Perhaps the worst thing in Bucharest was the driving. I thought the driving on the highways was bad, but the kamikaze techniques used in Bucharest are unbelievable. Even riding on the bus is scary enough. It seems the local politicians don't bother with it as there are dozens of motorcades speeding throught the city all the time.
I also had to catch a taxi back to the hotel one night after I was too late for the last bus. (It was only 9pm) The taxi driver told me he would charge double (as he had to get also drive back - what a crock) and then pretended not to understand english. He spent to next 20 minutes getting insulted from the back seat about how he was driving taxis at night as he was too ugly to find a women and have a family, with every story ending with "of course, you don't understand english so you don't know what I said."
I also headed out to Snagov to see the church in which Vlad Tepes is (reportedly) buried. It took two hours to find the village, and another hour to find the jetty where you can be rowed over to the island where the church and monastry is. The Romanian who rowed me over was a bit of an entreprenuer, waiting until I was on the island to fix a price and when he saw the contents of the wallet (oops) he demanded 50RON, about 30NZD. Hard to argue when you're on an island with no way back.
The church is in the process of restoration, and has great frescoes of various passages of the bible and of the early saints (The church and monastry are Romanian Orthodox.)
After poking around Bucharest, I went to Brasov - supposedly the new Prague. However, Prague is not famous for it's apartment buildings and dust, which is all Brasov seemed to be. The historic centre was not as nice as I hoped it would be.
Last night I drove back into Hungary. Leaving Romania was easy, but crossing back into Hungary was not. I had to undergo a full inspection of all the luggage as Petrol, Cigarettes and Alcohol all being much cheaper in Romania smuggling seems to be a problem. It took an hour of waiting to cross on the Hungarian side of the border.
Anyway, back to Budapest today, then off to Bratislava tomorrow. Then flying to Dubrovnik on Tuesday.
On the Hungarians PMs remarks that he won the election by lying about the economy, I actually think it's a step in the right direction. Hungary needs to take drastic measures to reduce it's budget deficit - 10% of GDP. 50% of Government spending is on Welfare Payments and personal subsidies so no guesses where is the first place to start looking.
Anyway, Bucharest is not a place I recommend going to. It's a filthy city with stray dogs everywhere and you keep seeing homeless living around every corner. Everyone considers tourists a source of money (and nothing else) and finding your way round is impossible.
The Parliament complex is huge. I walked around the entire grounds, it took almost an hour to encircle the outer wall. The building is very big as well, probably 100 metres on each side. When I tried to find out about tours, I was told there were none (I think there was something on in the Parliament that day as I remember Jeff Wilson doing a tour of the building when he went on Intrepid Travels).
Leading to the Parliament from the east is a wide boulevard with impressive fountains and government buildings running the length. I think it's a bit of a wasteland as most of the shops are empty and there were more stray dogs than people when I went. However, half way down I found a dress shop called "Ellis" - obviously a store of style and sophisication.
I contented myself with walking around the main sites of the 1989 Revolution as I am mostly musuemed out. All seem to have memorials to those who were killed that have fallen into neglect. Right next to the cross at University Square (where tanks were driven into the protesting crowd) was a campsite for a homeless person. The monument outside the old Communist Party headquarters was populated with people sitting around smoking.
Perhaps the worst thing in Bucharest was the driving. I thought the driving on the highways was bad, but the kamikaze techniques used in Bucharest are unbelievable. Even riding on the bus is scary enough. It seems the local politicians don't bother with it as there are dozens of motorcades speeding throught the city all the time.
I also had to catch a taxi back to the hotel one night after I was too late for the last bus. (It was only 9pm) The taxi driver told me he would charge double (as he had to get also drive back - what a crock) and then pretended not to understand english. He spent to next 20 minutes getting insulted from the back seat about how he was driving taxis at night as he was too ugly to find a women and have a family, with every story ending with "of course, you don't understand english so you don't know what I said."
I also headed out to Snagov to see the church in which Vlad Tepes is (reportedly) buried. It took two hours to find the village, and another hour to find the jetty where you can be rowed over to the island where the church and monastry is. The Romanian who rowed me over was a bit of an entreprenuer, waiting until I was on the island to fix a price and when he saw the contents of the wallet (oops) he demanded 50RON, about 30NZD. Hard to argue when you're on an island with no way back.
The church is in the process of restoration, and has great frescoes of various passages of the bible and of the early saints (The church and monastry are Romanian Orthodox.)
After poking around Bucharest, I went to Brasov - supposedly the new Prague. However, Prague is not famous for it's apartment buildings and dust, which is all Brasov seemed to be. The historic centre was not as nice as I hoped it would be.
Last night I drove back into Hungary. Leaving Romania was easy, but crossing back into Hungary was not. I had to undergo a full inspection of all the luggage as Petrol, Cigarettes and Alcohol all being much cheaper in Romania smuggling seems to be a problem. It took an hour of waiting to cross on the Hungarian side of the border.
Anyway, back to Budapest today, then off to Bratislava tomorrow. Then flying to Dubrovnik on Tuesday.
posted by Michael at
6:58 PM
2 Comments:
Sounds like some of these places need to learn to take better care of tourists if they want to keep the tourists coming.
I bet you'll enjoy Dubrovnik and Piran though, I've heard only good things about those places.
By
Chaucey, at 9:16 AM
They do what works for them. In countries where there aren't many jobs tourists are often the best source of income for the down and out. Haranguing tourists does work - when people are tired from travelling and in an unfamiliar place they are very vulnerable to pushy touts. For an excellent insight into these sorts of situations (and the correct way to handle them), read any of Peter Moore's books.
By
Rich, at 4:37 PM
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