Even though I signed up for this trip up the Danube at considerable expense, I had only a vague sense of where Romania is located.  The country is located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southwest Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east (hence the proximity of drones), Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, and Moldova to the east. The Black Sea is to the southeast. It has what is called here a continental climate and is an area of 238,397 km². That is the 6^th highest in Europe. It has a population of 19 million people, making it the 12^th largest in Europe.

The modern state of Romania was formed in 1859 with the unification of Moldavia, and Wallachia and became a kingdom in1881 under a brand-new monarch Carol I. They pronounce his name as Karl a member of the Hohenzollern family of Germany. When he came he could only speak one phrase in Romanian—“I promise to serve.”  Which he was required to swear to become the monarch.

White we were waiting for the bus, we admired this lovely church. It is called, Kretzulescu Church and is found just outside of Revolution Square. This is a small church but still magnificent. Small is beautiful as a wise German philosopher once said. During the Communist occupation, this church which was built in the 1720’s, was scheduled to be demolished by the Communist regime, but thankfully that never happened. Think of the wooden-headedness of non-religious people wanting to destroy such a beautiful church.

Yet, we learned over and over again on this trip, this is exactly what happened repeatedly in Europe.  The conquerors brought with them their religions and disposed of the old religions as quickly and efficiently as possible. Frequently, that was accomplished with bloody swords.

Of course, historically such vandalism happened frequently by all sides without shame, sense or mercy.

Today, we went on a stroll with friends from Winnipeg who were on the trip with us, with the goal of taking a hop-on hop-off bus. I have enjoyed such rides in the past. This one not so much.

There is a lot to see in Romania. Sadly, my friends did not catch on to how a hop on and hop off  bus works. You should hop on and off. But our friends, with whom Christiane sided when I dissented, wanted to go all around to first pick out the best sites to hop off. But as I suspected, after being on the bus for about 90 minutes everyone, including me, had enough. So, we never hopped off once. As a result, all these photos are taken from the bus rather than on the ground.

The second problem on with the Hop-on Hop-off bus, for which I cannot blame my misguided friends, is that the operators could not speak English and provided no commentary whatsoever. As a result, we drove around the city without knowing what we were seeing. There is very little point in that. That is why I have called it the worst ever Hop on Hop Off bus ride ever.

There was one building on our city tour I could recognize without guidance from an interpreter.  It was called originally the People’s Palace, even though no people ever called for its construction other than Nicolae Ceaușescu who was the was the second and last communist leader of Romania after serving terms as the general secretary of the Romanian Communist party from 1965 until he was overthrown and promptly executed in 1989 as the Soviet Empire collapsed. He was executed together with his wife Elena. This was part of what is now called the Romanian Revolution.

During the 1980s Ceaușescu he became obsessed, as demagogic leaders so often do, with conducting his business in a palace.  He wanted a substantial office fitting a substantial man.  So he thought. And it had to be big, gaudy, and ornate. In fact, the neighbourhood had also to be grandiose. So together with a huge building, he wanted the neighbourhood properly renovated too. After all, it had to be suitable for a king, even if he was not called a king.  The building was called The People’s Palace.

In order to build this monstrosity of a palace that no people had ever asked for, it was necessary to demolish 8 square kilometres of the historic centre of Bucharest. This included 14,000 homes, 22 monasteries and churches, and other structures, including a sports stadium. It is now called a Palace of Parliament and even though it started in 1984 it is not finished yet. It is testament to megalomania in stone.  A monument to power and Communist inefficiency.

As a result, it is the 2^nd biggest administrative building in the world (after the Pentagon) and the heaviest building in the world.

JP and I went on top while the women stayed on the first level. Up to there was a man making a video of a woman in striking black pants.  She was making some kind of commentary that was not in Enlish. I think she was some kind of an influencer or podcaster.  Interestingly, though he was perfectly groomed, every time he lifted his hand off his video camera he had to pat down his perfect hair. They were a perfect couple. Ready to influence the world.

I have included a couple of photos of buildings I thought were interesting, but frankly, because no one was commenting on them during our Hop On Hop Off Bus we had no idea what they were. Too bad; so sad.

Another building we did understand was the Triumphal Arch which was rathe reunification 1992 of the reign of King Ferdinand Queen Marie in 1918. There was lot of traffic and naturally, driving by on our bus I was not able to photograph   it without vehicles.  It probably is impossible during the day to achieve that even had I been on the ground.

Well, we did arrive in Bucharest, the capital city of Romania,  world weary in body and soul.

Driving in to the city from the airport we were given a brief introduction to Romania by a local guide Dan. He started with a Romanian joke:  “Originally,” he said, “Romania was supposed to be the place where we would get English humour, French food, and German precision. Sadly, we got instead, English food, French precision and German humour.”

Atheneum Concert Hall, Bucharest Romania

On the way to and very near to our hotel Dan pointed out the Atheneum concert Hall. Apparently during World 11 it was nest of spies.  But we did not spot any. No suspicious men in trench coats wearing deep black sunglasses. This has been the most prestigious concert hall ever since it opened in the city in 1888.  It is considered a landmark of the city and is the home of the George Enescu Philharmonic orchestra and named after Romania’s most famous musician.  It was advertising its annual musical festival which were told attracts the top musicians in Europe. It has been inscribed with label of European heritage site in order to catch the attention of tourists, like us.

As we drove through town, I was struck by the fact that most of the signs were in English. We saw the sign of the Big M, KFC, and Ted’s coffee. Clearly, Bucharest was ready for tourists. Tourism is one of their main industries so that is probably smart. Apparently KFC is big in Europe. The only thing wrong with that is that it part of an inexorable process of eliminating differences between cultures. Cultural homogenization.

Frankly we did not do much today, our first in the Romania. We were too tried to do anything but eat. I was totally exhausted. So exhausted that I was partly delirious. I went to sleep very early at 8 p.m. and woke up at 2 a.m. completely refreshed. I was instantly in the love with this city and its people. Youseff, the bell boy insisted on carrying our luggage even though I explained I had no cash for a tip. Later our waiter also did not want a tip nor did Bohdan the maitre’de.

On the way in from the airport, we saw the neoclassical Romanian Athenaeum, which is much loved by locals, and for good reason. It was opened in 1888 and stands at the heart of Romania’s classical-music tradition. Classical music is immensely popular in Europe, and musicians are rock stars, but of course, rock stars are musicians. It works both ways. This building might be the finest landmark in the city, though I must admit, we just got in and was one of the first buildings of note that we saw. It is home to the most famous Romania’s musician, George Enescu, and the orchestra is named after him.  He gave his debut performance with this orchestra and became the most celebrated Romanian composer in history.

The building has pink-hued Doric columns and four monumental spiral staircases that lead up to a huge hall where there is lead up the Big Hall, where a large 70m (229ft) fresco depicting 25 scenes from Romanian history keep watch from the ceiling.  We did not go in. After I saw a photograph of the building from the inside I realized I made a mistake by not going in. My bad!

Every two years, during most of September, Bucharest welcomes some of the world’s major orchestras and soloists to give tribute to George Enescu. The annual festival is named after him and is considered a feast for lovers of classical music. That festival is a month-long musical extravaganza. During this time the city is filled with music lovers from around Europe and the world.

In the evening we went for a fine repast at a nearby restaurant.  A good time was had by all.

We returned to our hotel room quite early to get a good night’s sleep.  We had been awake for about 30 hours.  It was a divine sleep until I woke up at about 2:00 a.m. I doubt that I have ever felt more refreshed than I did after that sleep.

My refreshment filled me with joy. I felt like it was the happiest day of my life and Romanians the nicest people in the world, comparable only to Newfoundlanders and that Romania was the best place ever. Even though we had only been here for a few hours. From exhaustion to refreshment of the spirit after one solid sleep. And this was not only the delirium felt by cheap Mennonites when they don’t have to tip. After waking up, I went back to sleep and continued with my deep repose, totally exhilarated. Delirious or not, this was spiritual rejuvenation.

What a day. What a night.

Just a couple of days before we ventured out on our 3 flights that ended in Romania, we were watching PBS News and listened to a story about Russian drones bound to kill Ukrainians got a bit off course and flew over Romania. Holy shit, I thought, will we be that close to Russian drone attacks? I never thought I would be that close to danger. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a chickenshit. How could this happen? Apparently, they flew over Romania for 12 minutes and could inadvertently have set off World III in the Balkans just as World War I had been set off in the Balkans. After all, Romania is a member of NATO.  And you don’t mess with NATO.

Partly, the war was avoided because Romania just does not have the cash or resources to defend itself against drones. It has an air force that could repel a few traditional forces, but could do nothing about drones over its it’s sovereign territories.  In this case at least, that was a good thing. It was also good that Romania did not call the other NATO countries to defend it. Reminds me a bit about George Bernard Shaw’s play, Arms and the Man, in which a soldier from the Balkans, Serbia I believed, had an ammunition bag filled with chocolates rather than bullets.

It turns out there is a lot more to worry about in the Balkans than I ever realized.

For the past two months I have been worried about the Air Canada strike.  We were scheduled to fly by Air Canada. My sister and her husband had booked a tour of Scotland and needed to fly Air Canada to get there. Then the Air Canada strike started and their flight to Toronto was cancelled.  Air Canada refunded the money for the flight but paid nothing for the consequential damages such as the coach tour that would follow. It was not cancelled so the tour operator refused to pay back the prepaid air fare. That was a major loss. Needless to say, we wanted to avoid that, but it was beyond our contol.

Then the union representatives advised their members to accept the Air Canada offer, but 91% of those members turned it down. This was 3 days before we were hoping to say bon voyage. Now I was seriously worried.  I was already considering booking a new flight, but then, I found out the union and Air Canada had agreed to send the outstanding issues to arbitration. As a result, the union workers remained on the job. And I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Whew!

I have decided after a personal request or two, to send my travel reports as we travel.  That flies in the face of advice I have been given and have been following on previous trips not to post about them until we are back, so as not to tip off any burglars that our house is open for them to ply their nefarious trades. But now I want to let those miscreants know that our house will be occupied by our son from Edmonton Alberta and he is tough. So beware, burglars will be inviting disaster to befall them if they attempt larceny while we are gone. That worry is gone. But still worries and travel go together like love and marriage.

I made the mistake of telling a few people I was going on a journey through the Balkans of Europe.  They impressed upon me the importance of blogging while on the journey. That sounds great in theory, but puts pressure on the blogger.  These trips are often filled with events and stuff, leaving little room for blogging. But I thought it would be worth a try.

Sitting in Steinbach waiting for our trip to the Balkans we noticed that some of the countries we are going to visit, like so many of our provinces in Canada, have serious wild fires spreading to communities. Are we hopping from the frying pan into the fire? Are flying into an inferno? Is the world becoming enveloped in flames? Is this the apocalypse? Now?

Not pleasant thoughts for the beginning of a travel adventure. Actually, I don’t want any adventures other than adventures of the mind. That is the only kind of adventure travel I enjoy and look forward to.

I never had a burning desire to see Romania, or Bulgaria, or Serbia, or Croatia or Hungary. But these were the countries we signed up to see. So here we go. Why?  Well, after returning from our jaunt last year across half the country and back again, to Nova Scotia and back, we were tired in body and soul. It was a bit much for old timers. And we are old. There is no denying this unpalatable truth.

Then friends were going on a trip to Europe to join a cruise up the Danube River from Bucharest Romania through all of those countries, and there happened to be 3 rooms open. That woke us up from our doldrums. And with very little thought, we plunged. We signed up without analyzing carefully what was involved. We liked the idea of letting someone else transport us after a long car trip. Being with friends might be fun, though we usually favored trips by ourselves or with close family members.  Specifically, we never asked ourselves why would we go to these countries? After all, I wanted to go to Scotland. The land of the Scottish Enlightenment. The home of David Hume. Secondly, we never looked very closely at the price.  The health insurance alone was astronomical. We never added it all up. How was the possible?

After we committed ourselves, we were frankly shocked at the total cost. As an example, our health insurance for 2 weeks through relatively average countries with average health systems, would cost us more than a 3 month stay in the USA where they have the most expensive health care system in the world! How does that make sense? But we were committed. Stupid and committed. Not a good combination.

Then I decided to do some research into these places and I was very pleasantly surprised. They were interesting. Maybe we were not so stupid after all. The trip looked fantastic. The countries looked fascinating. We were travelling with congenial friends.  Who would not want to sail through the “powder keg of Europe?” The Balkans. The place where the Great War began? Well, when I put it that way. I don’t know. Who would want to see that?

So off we go.