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During the
early hours, the ship had moored again at Olteniţa.
After breakfast, we got off the ship to start our day out,
only to see another ship beside us: we recognised it as
the ship which we had seen on day 3 in Hungary. It had a
great gash in its side. Elisabeth told us it is "a
great tragedy", and that a barge had tried to moor
but instead had smashed into the ship. Luckily, she told
us, no-one was on board, so there were injuries. As the
day went on, we heard a number of rumours about what had
happened, from scenes of carnage and people being flown
to hospital, to a reinforcement of Elisabeth’s story. I
guess we will never learn the truth. The doctor managed
to get on board and look in a cabin. Apparently it had been
reduced to matchwood, and if anyone had been on board, they
most certainly would have been killed. |
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We got on our coaches and
departed for Bucharest. This road was becoming quite familiar.
As is Cosmic, who was yet again our guide. I managed to
take some poor snaps of some houses through the coach -
Cosmic was still adamant that we should not stop on this
road. |
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We got to Bucharest after
two hours. It used to be known as "the little Paris
of the East" because of its boulevards and elegant
apartment blocks in the Hausmann style. But nowadays it
looks very run-down and much of the old elegant city was
torn down by Ceaucesceau and replaced with ugly modern buildings.
There is an Arc de Triomphe, but about half the size of
the Paris one. |
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The coach stopped outside
the Patriarchal Church - despite being a Romance-speaking
nation, the majority are Eastern Orthodox. The outside was
that curious style that we were now beginning to recognise
as Eastern European: significantly different to the Russian
style or the Romanesque a style; a fusion of the two producing
something unique to the area. Inside was very impressive
with wonderful frescoes. There was a service going on, so
no photographs. Also, in the corner, a priest sat looking
bored with his elbow resting on an altar. But a woman was
kneeling in front of him, with her head actually under his
long black robes – what exactly were they doing? I
gently indicated the scene to Barbara, who clearly comes
to the same conclusion as I, as she smothered a cough and
had to leave the church. |
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We then left the church
and visited "The Peoples’ Palace". It is
apparently the second largest building on earth. It is certainly
one of the ugliest and Ceaucesceau’s great folly.
Still incomplete, it now houses the Romanian Parliament. |
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Cosmic entrances us all with his talk... |
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| Our next stop was lunch by Lake Herastru. It is not bad
and at least quicker than yesterday’s farce. There was
yet more folk music and dance, but it was also rather better
than yesterday’s. There was a good view of the Free
Press Building - clearly a donation from the Soviet Union,
as we had seen identical buildings in most Eastern Bloc cities
we had seen. |
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After lunch, we were taken to
the Open Air Museum. There are are large number of
fascinating buildings taken from the Romanian countryside,
including a beautiful wooden church with a bright
iconostasis inside. |
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Cosmic then
seemed very keen to show us the Central Committee Building
– that from which Ceacesceau attempted to flee the
country. Cosmic tells us with some schadenfreude that there
was a place reserved on a helicopter for his wife and two
closest security guards, but in the event, Ceacesceau took
his wife and his two Labrador dogs, and left his guards
behind. The helicopter landed after 70 kms and he was captured,
tried and executed. And that was all we saw of Bucharest.
There was obviously a lot more to see, but Cosmic seemed
keen to show us lots of the period most Romanians would
probably wish to forget, and we saw little of the faded
charm of the former "Paris of the East". |
We went back to the ship,
which in our absence had moved upstream to Giurgiu, Romania.
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On the way, we passed a large gypsy house, which Cosmic
described as a "gypsy palace", and yet again told
the story of the towers indicated theft. He then added that
this was only a story and probably was not true - indeed he
knew some gypsies who were very hard workers. I think someone
had had a quiet word with him.. |
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Back on the ship, we sailed
to Russe in Bulgaria. It was not far – we merely crossed
to the other side of the river and docked fifteen minutes
later! As we sailed from country to country, we changed
the courtesy flag being flown at the prow of the ship. Today,
for example, in the morning we sailed ... |
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... from Romania ... |
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We had dinner with Barbara, Doug, Bridget and Geoff.
No pretence now of moving around – we have found
those we most enjoy eating with. The meal was Bulgarian,
in honour of the country in which we now were. After dinner
there was a group of Bulgarian singers and dancers who
came aboard to entertain us. The music was very distinctive:
owing little to the Western tradition, but a lot to the
Ottoman years.
The nuns had been aboard during our absence and had started
(but not finished) an icon, which wasn't very good.
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