Bucharest, Romania

Prologue

We visited seven different countries during this trip to Eastern Europe as we travelled the Danube River from the Black Sea to Budapest plus a visit to Prague. We saw a lot of commonality in their history and the deep differences that each country has experienced, explaining somewhat why this has been such a turbulent region.

First the commonalities:

• Each country started as some sort of kingdom typically founded in the middle ages
• Each country is either strongly Eastern Orthodox or Roman Catholic
• Each country spent one to five hundred years as part of either the Ottoman or Hapsburg empires Resentment against the Turks is strong in many countries that were under the Ottomans
•  Most became a nation again either in the late 19^th century or as a result of World War I
• Each was significantly affected by the Nazi’s in World War II
• All were part of the Communist block after World War II
• In 1989-90, each had a revolution away from Communism
• Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia have split into smaller nations
•  Each country faced the shut-down of many factories that couldn’t compete in a capitalist system, resulting in unemployment that is still 18-28% today
• Each country considers being part of the European Union as part of the long-term solution for economic betterment.

But, pay attention to the differences as you read this. Particularly, how long they were part of an empire versus an independent nation, the treatment of the Jews in World War II, their experience under communism, the transition out of Communism, their progress in the European Union.

For those of you who would like to see a video of the trip, rather than read all these posting, a narrated 20 minutes video is available on youtube.

Bucharest

This morning we started out with the city tour of Bucharest.  About 10% of the population of Romania lives here. Through history the city has been severely affected by fires (most of the building and even the roads were made of timber in earlier times) and earthquakes. Today most buildings are made of stone and five stories or less since there is little bedrock, mostly sandy soil.

The most interesting part of the morning was hearing about the revolution to overthrow Communism in December, 1989, the last of the former Eastern European countries to end communism and the only one that had a violent conclusion. It began in the nearby city of Timișoara, but ended here in Bucharest. Nicolae Ceauşescu, the communist dictator, decided to encourage a demonstration in Revolution Square on December 21st. Edmund, who was 15 years old at the time was in attendance. He was very anti-communist because his grandfather had been imprisoned by the Russians after World War II because he was an entrepreneur. He also blamed the Communist health system for the death of his mother from breast cancer - the medicines to help her were not available. When Ceausescu addressed the crowd, he soon found the crowd against him. So the tanks were called in to trap the people in the square and the secret police began shooting into the square. A total of 1600 people were killed during the next several days. Edmund's best friend was shot by a dum-dum bullet to the head. Over two million shell casings were found in the square. By the next day, the army changed sides, and by Christmas Ceausescu had been executed by the army.

Edmund showing bullets from Revolution Square

Romania itself was formed in the 2nd century AD as a Roman Province. Over 87% of the country is Christian Orthodox, the country was 'born Christian' since churches have been found dating from the third century. In the fifth century, the Slavs, Huns, and other tribes took over the region. During the middle ages, it became part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1859, Moldavia and Wallachia joined to become Romania and after World War I, the area of Transylvania was added to the country.

We stopped outside the Military Academy to see Romania's history depicted as a mural. The mural was created during the Communist era and conveniently forgets to depict anything to do with the former Royal family. In the 1960's, Ceausescu decided to demolish the historic center of the city and completely rebuild the government and major commercial area in five years using military and "volunteer" labor. Part of this became the Parliament Building, which is the second largest office building in the world (the Pentagon is the largest). The entire area is huge (the size of the city of Venice) and filled with classical buildings. In this area, we stopped and enjoyed a filling lunch at Hanu Berarilor. Before leaving Bucharest, we visited a nearby Gypsy village. Here the most successful gypsies have built their homes - each trying to outdo his neighbor. These are large homes, but the extended family tend to live in only 2-3 rooms with the rest furnished just for show.

Romania's Parliament Building

In the afternoon, we headed toward Sinaia in Transylvania. After traversing large crop areas, the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains began. The Carpathians define the county into it 3 major regions. Moldavia is east of the mountains, Wallachia in the south, and Transylvania in the midst of the mountains. The Hungarians and Saxons (from Bavaria) were invited into Transylvania influencing the Romanians here. By the time, we reached Sinaia at 2500 feet, it began to snow. There are having the coldest early October in 80 years - most of the trees haven't lost their leaves and the heavy snow has bent and broken many of them. We ended our day with some pork schnitzel at the hotel restaurant