At 12:00, the last of the ISLES workshop meetings is over, and a tour through Bucharest is scheduled. A tour guide accompanies the nine of us in a small bus, driving through various parts of the inner city, explaining the historic significance. At several places, we stop and walk around. The weather is overcast, but pleasant. Sometimes the sun comes through a bit.
Now I finally see why Bucharest had the title "Paris of the East". Buildings, built by French architects, create a grandious fin-de-siecle atmosphere. In addition, there are many buildings in that typical Romanian style that can only be found here. Things are a bit crumbling sometimes, but great effort is made in restoration in many places. The inner city has very pleasant walk ways, along small stores, art galeries, souvenir shops.
The tour is supposed to go for three hours, so we would be back int he hote by 15:00. Our tour guide is Santdiana. She has planned the tour so that we would be at 14:00 at the highlight of the city: the parliament building. But with us nine individuals, it is difficult to keep us all under control. Some want to buy postcards, others want to take pictures. We arrive at the Parliament at about 14:15.
This is the 2nd largest building on earth, after the Pentagon. Its volume is 2% larger than that of the Cheops pyramide in Egypt! The security measures for entering are strict and slow: everyone has to go through a metal detector, and slowly groups are formed, with guides from the Parliament, and are sent into the halls every 10 minutes. We finally begin our tour about 14:40. A gigantomaniac building effort. More than 1000 rooms and conference halls. And the building is still 10% unfinished.
We walk on a route through several huge rooms and halls, and the guide keeps answering questions. As I can see, the tour through this building would take more than one hour. This screws up my time schedule - I had anticipated to be back at the hotel at 15:00, to get a taxi to the airport for my flight at 17:10. But with the current pace I will definitely not be able to make it. So I ask Santdiana if I could take a shortcut and could go back to the hotel alone, to pick up my luggage and catch my taxi there. She immediately agrees, and we separate from the group. Now I get a fully personal private tour through some of the remaining rooms! She shows me the room where the treaty was signed by which Romania entered the NATO. See a gigantic ball room, probably 5 stories high, and the size of a soccer field. Then we go down an inofficial stair case, and then out through the entrance to the bus. The driver brings me back to the hotel, where I pick up my suitcase and jump into the taxi that already was waiting. Heading to the airport is no problem, Saturady afternoon has only light traffic.
So I made it in time. One last little complication: I only had large banknotes, and the taxi driver could not give me change. However, after the 30 minute ride to the airport, he went with me into the terminal building and got change there.
The flight back went smooth. Got an upgrade to business class to Amsterdam. Then the short hop back to Leeds.
And that concludes my short travel to Bucharest. A very memorable experience!
