Bucharest is the captial and largest city of Romania. It is the 8th largest city of the EU and was founded by Vlad the Impaler, aka Dracula in the 15th century. Bucuresti, that is the name in Romanian, means "city of joy". The river Dambovita flows through the city. Bucharest has mixed variety of architecture styles; art deco, modernism, renaissance, gothic, orthodox. It is one of the cities with the largest number of art deco buildings in the world, many of them are similar looking and built in the 1920-30s.
Bucharest is called "the Paris of the East", and is filled with avenues and boulevards that are very trafficated and filled with trees. It also has its own Arch of Triumph, just like Paris. And it is divided into 6 sectors, just like Paris is divided into arrondissements. The roads are in a very good condition, but many buildings exteriors are neglect. Bucharest is very large and very spread out, you will need to take a metro to see everything. Bucharest was like the rest of Romaina ruled under the communist disctatorship of Ceausescu, but today it is a modern city.
The Old Town (Centru Vechi) is the coziest and most walkable part of the city. It is situated in the center and is filled with beautiful historical buildings in different styles, some neglect and some in a very good condition. Lipscani is the famous main pedestrian street in the Old Town. There are a lot of outdoor restaurants and churches in the Old Town, and Macca-Vilacrosse Passage, a cozy indoor arcade, that reminds of Paris. Here you also find grandiose bank palaces like Palatul CEC at the busy street Calea Victoriei, the beautiful Stavropoleos Monastery, the orthodox church, the Curtea Veche (Old Court, where Vlad the Impaler once lived) and the very small Museum of Communism and Bucharest's oldest hotel, Manuc's Inn, that has a popular restaurant courtyard.
Near the Old town is the center of Bucharest, where you find the heavily trafficated University Square (Piata Universitate) with the University of Bucharest, the postmodern National Theater (Teatrul National Ion Luca Caragiale), an impressive sculpture of Ion Luca Caragiale (a famous Romanian writer, surrounded by his characters), Museum of Bucharest, and the Grand Hotel Bucharest (formerly InterContinental), the 22-storey 5-star hotel where we stayed. It was the first modern hotel in Bucharest, opened in 1971. Bulevardul Ion Constantin Bratianu goes to the south of the University Square.
In the South part of the city center you find the Unirii Square (Piata Unirii), with grandiose fountains that are lit after dark. The wide Bulevardul Unirii leads to Piata Constitutei, where you find the world's second largest administrative building: the Romanian Parliament Palace (Palatul Parlamentului), that was built by the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in 1984 and was left unfinished, until it was decided the 1,200 rooms should be used for the parliament. In 1997 it was completed, it is 270m wide. You can take a tour there and see the very large rooms. Next to the palace the neo-byzantine national cathedral, People's Salvation Cathedral (Catedrala Mantuirii Neamului) is under construction, it will be the largest Eastern orthodox church in the world, is white and features golden cupolas. It is already the 2nd tallest building in Romania. Unirea is a neglect and partly abandoned shopping center next to Plaza Unirii, but it is a place where you find what you are looking for.
North of the Dambovita River, there are many sights, like the Cismigiu Park, the neo-classicistic theater Ateneul Roman, the Royal Palace (Palatul Regal) at the Revolution Square (Piata Revolutiei), where you also find the the National Museum of Art, the legendary Athenee Palace Hotel and the beautiful twin neo-classicist buildings of the University and with the statue of King Carol 1 in front.
Further to the North you find other trafficated traffic circles in Paris style; Piata Romana, where the beautiful Bulevardul Lascar Catargiu leads to Victory Square (Piata Victoriei), that reminds of Beijing, China. Here you find the National Museum of Natural History, skyscrapers and the neo-classicist government building Victoria Palace. Further to the North is Piata Charles de Gaulle that leads to the Arch of Triumph (Arcul de Triumf) and the large Herastrau Park, that has a large lake, Lacul Floreasca, with views of the skyline. In the park you also find the open air Village Museum (Muzeul National al Satului "Dimitrie Gusti"), with traditional Romanian buildings. Bulevardul Primaverii with its green trees leads to the UN House, the Embassy of Kuwait and the Casa Ceausescu, where the dictator used to live with his wife. The residence can be visited, it is a wealthy area. Casa Presei Libere (House of the Free Press) at Piata Presei Libre in the Northern outskirts is one of the few remaining communist palace buildings and was the city's tallest building 1957-2007.
In the outskirts there are very modern buildings in glass and steel; In the North you find the very modern Floreasca City Center with the modern Promenada Mall and the 37-storey circular Sky Tower, that is Romania's tallest building (137m), built in 2012. Here you also find other skyscrapers and modern residential highrises under construction. In the outskirts there are many large and very modern shopping malls, like AFI Cotroceni, Mega Mall, ParkLake Shopping Center, Bucharesti Mall, Baneasa Shopping City, Sun Plaza, Veranda Mall, Plaza Romania, Militari Shopping, Orhideea, Titan, Prosper Plaza and many more.
Transportation:
Bucharest has an efficient metro system, the cars are modern but the stations are dull. There are also trams, buses and trolley buses. The buses are green, white or blue. There area also a lot of small yellow taxis all over the city.
Bucharest has a large airport in the Northern suburb Otopeni; Bucharest Henri Coanda International Airport.From there you can take a train or a bus to the city center. Gara de Nord (Northern Station) is the main railway station of Bucharest. The exterior is in beautiful art deco style but it is quite rundown and oldfashioned, but from there you can take the train to other cities.
We made daytrips to Brasov, Sinaii and Bran in Transylvania and to Constanta at the Black Sea.
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