Adventures with Julia

September 23, 2017

We are in Romania now, but I left off in Budapest, which I should have mentioned is pronounced Buda Pesht.  Yesterday afternoon we departed Budapest in sunshine and flew to Bucharest in time to catch more overcast and rain. Our driver guide, Aurelia, met us and took us to our hotel in the down town.  He was up for some sightseeing, but we were not.  So he walked us to a Romanian restaurant nearby and left us after ordering saute’d mushrooms, Rumanian cabbage rolls with polenta and beef and pork sausages with Rumanian French fries.  The food came and we ate most of it, but it left much to be desired.   It did not take us long to get back to the hotel and into bed.

This morning the sun out and we enjoyed a warm sunny day.  Aurelia took us on a long walking tour of the city and we looked at and visited many buildings including:

the 1722 Byzantine Cretulesco Church in the Romanian Orthodox style,

the Communist Central Committee Building on the balcony of which Ceausecu gave his last speech before being captured and executed, an interesting sculpture of a seating man being reassembled after the Communist Period, and the National Library founded by Charles I in 1895.

 

 

 

We walked into the 1888 Romanian Atheneum (Philharmonic House of Bucharest) and

learned that the Mahler Chamber Orchestra was rehearsing for a performance later in the day.  The Hall was built after the Berlin, Paris and Vienna Halls were finished and the Rumanians took advantage of the knowledge that the sound is improved when there is a lower level that is open to the hall.

 

 

The sound was indeed spectacular everywhere in the building.  We were drawn up and into the Hall itself and stayed for part of the rehearsal.  Not only is the sound spectacular, the building is gorgeous too.

Realizing that there were other concerts happening, we got tickets for the 11am performance of the Schubert Ensemble of London playing  Mahler and George Enescu concertos in the Royal Palace Music Hall nearby.

I was glad to hear the Enescu concerto as he is Rumania’s greatest composer.  The music festival is going on for several days.  Sure  glad we got a tiny taste of it, at least.

Continuing our walk, Auralia took us to the Old City where we saw the 1500’s Annunciation Church, Manuc’s Inn dating from 1806 and built of entirely of wood, including the street pavers.  The interior courtyard was used for stabling animals, while patrons stayed upstairs.  Today the courtyard is an outdoor café.

 

Aurelia told us that Budapest had the first gas lights in Europe.

We walked through Rumania’s first covered shopping mall,  a huge public beer hall and streets full of side walk café’s.  Then he took us to Stavropoleos, an orthodox Nunnery with beautiful paintings and the only UNESCO sight in Romania.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once in the car, we drove past the new Parliament building that Ceausecu had built as an edifice to his egomania.  It occupies 83 acres of prime residential land that had been occupied by middle and upper-class homes for centuries.  Not only did he bankrupt the country to build this edifice, he died before finishing it.  Finally finished, the parliament now occupies the building.

 

We got a very late start, not leaving Bucharest until 2pm, but we were glad to have seen some of the city.  The drive to Transylvania took 5 hours, not including stops. Aurelia kept us entertained with his rendition of the history of Rumania.

 

It was very interesting, long and complicated.  The good news is the country is currently in a good place with 5% economic growth expected this year.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made one really nice stop at a lovely old Monastery called Cozia from 1386.

The monks were singing in Gregorian Chant while we were there and that made the intimate church come alive.

 

 

 

 

 

It was 7pm when we reached our hotel, the Levoslav, in Sibiu.  We grabbed a bite to eat near our hotel and walked into the main square, where a harvest festival, similar to our August Fair, was in full swing.

Way too loud and crowded for us, we walked around it once and headed back to the hotel.  Did not take long to get to sleep, even with the noise in the square.