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Bucharest,
Romania
Next Diary
Home Diaries Best Pictures Road Trip
Bucharest,
Romania
Tuesday, April 18, 2000
Dear Friends and Family,
"Have you ever been to Bucharest?"
A couple weeks ago we asked that question of all our friends and co-workers. No one ever answered "yes". But the answer was important to Marianne and me since we were taking a handful of Middle School kids to a cultural seminar in the Romanian capitol. I know, "cultural" and "Middle School kids" don't normally appear in the same sentence but we're different over here. In any event, no one had an idea so we headed off without expectations.
We had to leave the Kyiv school at 5:00 am on Wednesday to make the first leg of our journey, the flight to Amsterdam. We would then catch a flight to Bucharest. Almost six hours of flying plus an hour layover. Like flying from San Jose to Washington. If you get out a map and look at the relative locations of Kyiv and Bucharest you will notice that the trip is more like the one hour flight from San Jose to Reno. We got all the extra flying time because travel in this part of the world just isn't as convenient as "back home".
Besides, what could be more fun than a family of seven travelling from dawn to dusk? First, the Kyiv bus driver overslept so we had to hurry to even make our first plane. Then the connection in Amsterdam was not all that long when you need to "arrange" all the kids. One couldn't pass a shop without buying something and none of them could pass up a fast food restaurant or snack bar. By the time we were flying into Bucharest, we were all ready to get on the ground. The weather did not cooperate however. We arrived at the airport at the same time a storm front did and during our first attempt to land, the plane was moving a lot of different directions - most of them uncomfortable. We had one petrified kid, a few uneasy ones and two adults who were anything but comfortable. We also had a pilot who didn't like the landing so he aborted the approach and powered back into the air. This gave us an extra 30 minutes of petrified, scared and anything-but-comfortable. I don't want to do that again.
From then on things went well. Clearing Customs and Immigration was a breeze. A driver and bus from the host school met us and drove us into town. The Bucharest Anglo-American school is in an old "palace" in the center of town. It is a pretty nice place but this is just one of three campus locations. In fact, the school is growing so fast that they are building a new facility which should open in a year or so. Maybe Bucharest is moving ahead faster than little old Kyiv.
For us chaperones, school arrival meant the end of our work day as the kids all went off to host families while Marianne and I got to go to a regular hotel. We tried to find an authentic Romanian dinner but the only restaurant we ran across was Mexican so we settled for nachos and salad. Good but not very local.
The next day we met again at school and combined our kids with a dozen from Moscow - plus two more chaperones. After a mandatory McDonald's stop, we headed across the plains surrounding Bucharest to the Carpathian Mountains and the palaces of Romanian kings. The flat lands were unremarkable. Oil refineries and Soviet-style apartment blocks not unlike our Kyiv home. Maybe a bit more industrial activity but equally plain.
After about 90 minutes, we arrived at Sinaia. This is an old picturesque mountain town, originally founded by monks from Mt. Sinai in Egypt. After the monks, the town had served as the summer retreat of the rich and powerful from Bucharest. It was also a stop on the Orient Express. We visited the old hotel which served as a Casino and overnight stop for the Express back in it's heyday. The hotel had been restored and showed the elegance it once represented.
The highlight however was a pair of palaces built by the Romanian royalty around the turn of the century. The opulence was unbelievable. The smaller palace was impressive enough, with 30 or 40 rooms. Each was decorated in the styles that were modern around the turn of the century. Marianne wanted to pack several pieces of furniture with us. I wanted the rugs.
The larger palace (170 rooms) was not our style but only because we're not royalty I suppose. There was an outdoor courtyard and an equally large courtyard that had been transformed into a "hall of glory". It was covered with elaborate carvings of precious wood and alabaster. The ceiling was built in the late 1800's of stained glass panels and for over 100 years has opened with electric motors. This was long before the Astrodome. The royal summer home was reported to also be the first palace in Europe with central heating so the fireplaces were all just decorative. Even the middle-schoolers were kept interested in all the gadgets, art work, furnishings and stories.
After leaving palaces, the rest of the day was all downhill. (That's a joke. You know, leaving mountains, heading into the plains, ... ) Two hours on the bus, drop off kids at school and then retreat to our hotel. This time we did have a very nice meal - even if it was at the nearby Hilton Hotel!
Friday was the next installment of culture. The kids had now been joined by children from Prague and Vienna so we were divided into two groups. I went with one group and Marianne with the other. I won't describe much of what I saw - because it was kind of like all those school trips to museums that you wanted to forget as a kid. At the outdoor museum, I got one picture I like. I also got 20 or 30 I don't like. The "Folk and Peasant's Museum" needed an acquired taste that I wasn't quite up to. An hour of glass icons, hand embroidery and primitive art is a bit too much for me -- or for our kids. Then we had another palace. Nice but not as good as those at Sinaia.
Meanwhile, Marianne and her group got to tour the second largest building in the world, smaller only than the Pentagon. Ceausescu's "People's Palace" sounds unbelievably large and ornate (a ballroom the size of a football field, 15 stories underground, etc.) but I'll have to go back to get my own tour. Maybe.
The day ended with another drop-the-kids-off-at-school and then we headed to the School Director's house for a dinner and chat with the local and visiting staff. A dozen educators and me. It's only fair after the number of dinners where it's been all engineers - and Marianne.
Early Saturday, Marianne and I went out to get some photos of the grand houses that were all around us in the hotel/school neighborhood. Most were a bit run down but some had been restored. Restored or not, the buildings showed that there had been enormous wealth here at one time.
But the real purpose behind the trip was to give the kids their choice of various craft and art seminars. There was photography, website animation, chamber music, paper cutting and Eastern European Glass Painting. We took pictures of this last class and their product. All the art work was really quite good and it is encouraging to see kids really get into art. They almost forget it's school.
By mid-afternoon, we were dismissed from our duties. The kids still had hours left of socializing, eating and partying but the chaperones were ordered off campus. As if anyone had to suggest twice!. Marianne and I did another wander tour though our neighborhood. We bought a small glass lamp shade because we had a need back in Kyiv. Bucharest is famous for glass work but our piece was old and "probably" French. Apparently Romania is a major source of new "French" and "German" glass pieces. Only the last decoration is applied outside Romania but it's enough to qualify for considerably higher prices.
Sunday morning we were up at 4:30am and at school at 5:00am. Way too early but the Buchrest-Amsterdam-Kyiv routing required an early departure. The return was completely uneventful. Even immigration and customs in Kyiv were relatively easy and quick. We zipped through in about 30 minutes - compared to the two hours or more it can sometimes take. After the airport, we had our little bus ride to school and we delivered our 5 charges into the arms of eager parents. Marianne had no parting regrets but I have to admit that, for a limited time, having five kids was fun.
But now, if someone asks "Have you ever been to Bucharest", we can say "Yes, of course."
In the next Diary, we'll show the school trip to Chornobyl. A sobering Earth Day visit.
Take care and stay in touch.
John and Marianne
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Original email sent on April 12, 2000. Reformatted for web May 20, 2001.
This page created on a Macintosh using PhotoPage by John A. Vink.