Not a great introduction to Romania!

Trip Start Nov 15, 2005
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Trip End Aug 15, 2008


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Sunday, November 27, 2005

That was an interesting border crossing. And by interesting, I mean unpleasant. The journey started off on an irritating note, as our train was three hours late. Matters didn't improve as we had to wait for two hours at Ruse, on the Bulgarian side of the border, as customs officials searched every inch of the train, going so far as to remove ceiling panels in the corridors. When it came to poeple, they seemed less interested. Our conversation went along the lines of:
"that your bag?"
"yes"
"what's in it?"
"clothes, books.."
"drugs?"
"err, no"
and then they left. Very thorough, I'm sure you'll agree.
After we had crossed the border, we had a bit of a run in with the police. They claimed that our seat reservations weren't valid in Romania, and we had to pay more. They wanted UKP50 from each of us. Our tickets had only cost UKP8. When we pointed this out, they tried to claim it was an entry tax. I somehow doubt any of this was exactly legit. After a good 30 mins of argument, Gen and I managed to get them down to UKP10, though I was slightly shaken by the whole experience. Not the ideal first impression of a country.

I'm pleased to say that was my only negative experience of Romania so far. I only spent a couple of days in Bucharest, as everyone I had met who had been through the city had been quite uncomplimentary about it. I personally didn't think it was too bad, and definately prefer it to Sofia. A very interesting place to walk around for a day, as there is such a strange mix of architectural styles. Monolithic soviet buildings (fortunately not common) could be standing side by side with very modern structures and turn of the century buildings. One coffee shop seemed to be a 1920's building with a glass office block growing out of the top.
The Palace of Parliament is quite staggering in scale. 13 stories tall, and made completely from materials sourced in Romania. All the decoration (and it seems every available surface had been worked in some way) was hand carved. A shame to think that Ceausescu destroyed an entire suburb to make way for such a magnificent building.

I don't think I would want to spend more than a couple of days in Bucharest (not being a great fan of big cities), but it was certainly worth visiting.
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