Bucharest Oddities

Yesterday I and my colleague, Roy Jones, had a day out with our host, Ioan Ianos chasing up some of the perhaps more bizarre developments in Bucharest over recent years. Or perhaps I should coin the term anti-developments because some were conceived by the communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu, who had certain megalomaniac tendencies but failed to complete many projects because of his unceremonious departure from office in 1989. Looking at them today, the only conclusion one can reach is that many were mad and / or  poorly conceived and executed.

The first stop was Văcăreşti “Lake”. By a remarkable chance of fate I had co-written an article for an international journal, Land Use Policy, with my host Ioan, on precisely the planing of this lake, which I had never seen, and yesterday the editor alerted us to the fact that the article had been accepted for publication! So, now I am an acknowledged specialist on the subject. All I can say now, though, is that Ceausescu  approved construction of a water storage dam as part of a huge scheme to supply water to the city and also channel it to avoid flooding. However he departed life on this planet before it was completed and then all hell let loose as planning systems collapsed, land was nominally returned to previous owners, governments ran out of money, bureaucratic control revolved between ministries, ecologists advocated nature reserves and so on. Thus we now have, some 27 years after the project stopped, the environmental mess shown - lots of concrete embankments, regeneration of 'forests' that even contain foxes, marshes where water puddles, homeless people in tents or metal boxes, arguments over who owns what, and a constellation for proposals for the site's use - everything from Bucharest's Disneyland to nature reserve or aesthetic parkland for the adjoining residents and industries surrounding it on all sides.

Some of the surrounding residential apartments embraced by the morning's dense fog.

 A less forested bit, where we saw homeless people and their many dogs.

And so to Bucharest's proposed port. The city is criss-crossed by many rivers, but has no convenient access to the sea so that large vessels can dock and discharge their cargoes close by. Constanta on the Black sea is 200+ km to the east and can handle the freight, but the communist government though that it could construct an artificial port close to the capital and set about the task. It got as far as constructing the wharves shown here and digging the harbour far enough to handle reasonably large vessels. It was then swept away by revolution, work stopped, and the ridiculous scheme was shelved, leaving these fog-bound images. I suppose the dockside has one redeeming feature - as a 'road' for horse and cart:

 After that excursion to the city's edge we found another more congenial experience  - a grand estate of some wealthy industrial magnate, whose humungously long entrance drive was decorated by Roy (left) and Ion (right). The drive led to some large homes like those shown, the first of which - with ts extensive glasshouses - became home to the writer's guild in the communist era.

Down by the adjacent river we make out some of the homes of Bucharest's wealthy residents on the other side, and walk along its foggy banks. It was a pity that the weather was so poor because I imagine that the landscapes portrayed could have been more lively and less lugubrious when drenched by a spot of sunshine.

AS

Bucharest Heritage Park

This Saturday afternoon I had no formal engagements in Bucharest but fortunately my host, Ioan, arranged for me to meet up with a contact, Ines, whom I had met for the first time two months ago in Vladivostok. She arrived at my hotel and off we went by a lengthy bus route to a lovely heritage park. I'm not sure who exactly created this park, but what it seeks to achieve, and does very well, is to bring several centuries of Romanian culture together in one spot. It's a large collection of buildings transported to the capital from all over Romania - and representative of several epochs. There are farm buildings, homes, churches, industrial and farm equipment, haystacks, boats, and so on, in many different styles / construction methods.

Coupled with these, many people roamed the site in various national dresses, and traditional song and dance routines were also performed. In the various compounds people  sold traditional craft products, some of which I was tempted to buy. They, too, often wore several versions of national attire - for Romania is home to people from many different cultural backgrounds. The exhibits seemed well-patronised - including several parties of young kids - Max's age or younger - who seemed to be having a good time. And we spent perhaps two to three hours ambling around the quite well maintained exhibits, not to forget we also had a rather nice snack mid-afternoon.

Have look at some of the buildings and their environments, and let me know what you think. We start with a rather nice song and dance routine from people in a region close to the border with Bulgaria.

The interior of one of the many cottages like the ones shown below,

I wish we had a bird feeder / home this big!

A church with an unusal spire.

Not a bad spot for a wedding ceremony!

Some of the rather crude-looking pieces of farm machinery often powered by water.

The museum lies alongside a lovely lake.

Fancy a barbecue?

Not quite up to Dutch standards!

Anyone recognise this gent?

 AS

A Busy Day

One of the paradoxes of my growing older is that I seem to be working harder and, interestingly, at a higher level. At the moment I am guest of a Romanian colleague Professor Ioan Ianos, who heads up a research centre at the University of Bucharest.

Well, he arranged for me to give lengthy addresses to two major Romanian Institutions one after the other today, but I survived the occasions well. I gave both in English, but I sent the presentations in advance to Ioan's office where his staff translated them into Romanian. Thus anyone in the audience who did not know English could grasp what I saying in their own language!

The first meeting I addressed was the Romanian Academy's Institute of Geography and the second was across town at the National Economic Institute in the huge building occupied by the Romanian Academy. I needn't bore you with the details of my argument, except to add that both presentations focused on the difficulties of economic management in an era of massive technological change. Both were well received by my audiences, which was great ... but very tiring personally!

Alas, I have no pictures of me making my presentations, but I can show you the setting. The Romanian Academy is in the Parliamentary Zone and, like a lot of communist era public buildings, is massive in proportions with heaps of wasted space and, as far as I could see, no lift to whisk people up several floors. Here's the front of the building:

And to the left, the building looks like this ... with a similar wing to the right. It's altogether a massive structure.

And, as I took those pictures, I had this next building behind me. It's the parliament building, which I discussed in a blog post a while ago - the second largest building by floor area in the world after the Pentagon in Washington DC.

Am I becoming a megalomaniac? Oh well! I can't be as bad as Donald Trump!

AS