Romania - Eastern Europe - page 507

Taking a Breather in the Big City
Bucharest has a number of lovely parks offering a few simple distractions from
the mayhem of city life. Slap bang in the center are the Ci@migiu Gardens
(between B-dul Regina Elisabeta, Calea Victoriei, Str. Stirbei Vodâ and B-dul
Schitu Mâgureanu), developed in the mid-1800s when indigenous Romanian
flora was collected along with exotic varieties from Vienna. Hire a boat and
row yourself around the miniature lake, or grab a table under one of the
Heineken-sponsored umbrellas at Ristorante Debarcader Ci@migiu ( & 021/25-
8479 ), where the food is expensive, but the views are free.
Palatul Parlamentului (Parliamentary Palace) No matter how much you pre-
pare yourself for it, your first glimpse of this square concrete bulk with its classical facade
and escutcheoned gateways is a jaw-dropper. Ceau @ escu infamously had a sixth of
Bucharest flattened to make space for this project, and it kept 20,000 workers and 700
architects busy round-the-clock for 5 years during the main period of construction—
visiting the “House of the People,” as it's known locally, is effectively to gaze at the
physical manifestation of Ceau @ escu's unyielding attempt to monumentalize his
regime. Visitors buy a ticket from the tiny souvenir shop at the entrance; be prepared
to wait for an English guide to appear and initiate a thoroughly long-winded security
check. The tour is fascinating: You'll wander through redundantly spacious Soviet-
style halls, passageways, and ballrooms, eyeing as you go an eye-popping collection of
hand-woven carpets, miles of silk drapery, and patterned walls, floors, and ceilings
fashioned from a million cubic meters of marble and tons of oak and cherrywood; all
testament to massive squandering of the national coffers. Curiously, there is no air-
conditioning (apparently Ceau @ escu had a phobia in this regard), and the building is
still only 90% complete; hysterically, Ceau @ escu had a serious size complex; he had
one of the stairways replaced several times because he found the steps too big for his
little feet. By the way, don't believe all your guide tells you; one popular anecdote is
that the balcony that looks toward Pia $ a Unirii is where Michael Jackson greeted fans
with the words “Hello Budapest”; Jackson actually performed at the National Stadium.
Calea 13 Septembrie 1. & 021/311-3611 or 021/402-1426. Admission L20 ($7.20/£2.50) adults, L10 ($3.60/£1.25)
children/students; photography L30 ($11/£5.75). Daily 10am-4pm. May close unexpectedly due to state functions.
NORTHERN CITY SIGHTS
Muzeul Na$ional al Satului Showcasing Romanian rural architecture since 1936,
the open-air National Village Museum is frequently referred to as one of the country's
best; if you're not visiting any rural regions, it may well provide some insight into the
simple, unencumbered lives led by those living in Romania's bucolic communities.
Visitors roam through a selection of 85 different houses, huts, windmills, churches,
and outhouses that have been collected from around the country to showcase the
depth of variety and architectural beauty of ordinary homesteads and dwelling; most
of the constructions are thatch-roofed and built of wood, clay, or mud. Divided by
region, the museum's overgrown lawn-fringed concrete pathways take you from Tran-
sylvania to Dobrogea to Oltenia and Moldavia in a relatively short space of time. The
audioguide is a useful tool for making sense of the different architectural styles, even
if the voice recording is rushed. Be warned that although the museum opens at 9am,