• Bucharest
• Transylvania
BUCHAREST
BUCHAREST (Bucuresti), with a population of over two million, may be
the largest city between Berlin and Athens, but it's by no means the
most beautiful. At first sight the city is a chaotic jumble of traffic-choked
streets, ugly concrete apartment blocks and grandiose but unfinished
Communist developments. Lying 64km from the Danube, Romania's southern
border, but 600km from its northern frontier, it's also far removed from
the country's more obvious attractions. And yet, it's Romania's centre
of government and commerce and site of its main airport, so most
visitors to the country will find themselves passing through Bucharest
at some point.
Founded by the princes of Wallachia and dominated by their Turkish
overlords, Bucharest only came into its own with Romanian independence
in the late nineteenth century, when it was remodelled by French and
French-trained architects. The city was dubbed the "Paris of the East",
as much for its hectic and cosmopolitan social scene as for its
architecture. The Romanian aristocracy was among the richest and most
extravagant in Europe, but this lifestyle depended on the exploitation
of the poor, and in Bucharest the two coexisted in what Ferdinand
Lasalle described as "a savage hotchpotch", with beggars waiting outside
the best restaurants and appalling slums within a few steps of the
elegant boulevards. Under Communism these extremes were reduced, but
Capitalism has brought back conspicuous consumption and a new poor.
Despite the signs of Westernization and a new prosperity, with glossy
shops full of designer clothes and a rapidly expanding restaurant scene,
few Bucharestians can afford to indulge in them.
The architecture of the old city, with its cosmopolitan air, was
notoriously scarred by Ceausescu's redevelopment project, which
demolished an immense swathe of the historic centre and replaced it with
a concrete jungle, the Centru Civic , including a huge new palace for
the Communist leader, now known as the Palace of Parliament . The palace
has become one of the city's prime tourist sites and is best viewed
along the approach from Piata Unirii. The other site that can on its own
justify a visit to the city lies to the north of the centre: the Village
Museum , a wonderful collection of vernacular buildings collected from
all regions of Romania. Between these two poles, in the centre of the
city, the National History Museum lays out the story of Romania's
development from prehistoric times to the 1920s. It's in much the same
style as every other county museum, but this is the biggest and best in
the country.
More than most European capitals, Bucharest is an insider's city. Behind
the congested arteries lies a tangle of backstreets where concrete is
softened by abundant greenery and the inhabitants manage to rise above
the bureaucratic obstructions and inadequacies of the city's
infrastructure. The people are a cosmopolitan mixture: Romanians,
Gypsies, Turks, Arabs, Africans and Pakistanis, now joined by thousands
of Chinese who add yet another layer to the thriving underworld of
traficanti , prostitutes and beggars.
Accommodation is more expensive in Bucharest than elsewhere, and you're
more likely to be hassled, hustled and overcharged. Though power and
water cuts are now rare, many hotels are overheated in summer and
freezing in winter, when snowdrifts grip the city and the temperature
plunges to -20°F (-4°C). Unless Bucharest is your only destination, it's
as well to head for Transylvania or the coast as soon as possible. There
are good train and road connections to the rest of the country, but
local services to the towns and villages in the immediate vicinity are
often limited or tortuous. However, there are some monasteries and
mansions, notably at Snagov and Mogosoaia, which can be visited as day-trips.
The City
The heart of the city is the Piata Revolutiei , site of the old Royal
Palace and the scene of Ceausescu's downfall. It lies halfway along
Bucharest's historic north-south axis, the Calea Victoriei , which is
still the main artery of city life. Buses heading north and south,
however, use the unattractive boulevards east of Calea Victoriei; the
main junction along them is the Piata Universitatii , scene of major
events immediately after the 1989 revolution.
The majority of sights are within walking distance of these two Piatas.
Just to the south lies the historic centre of the city, with the remains
of the original citadel . Beyond this, across the River Dâmbovita, is
the contrasting cityscape of Ceausescu's Centru Civic , with its
centrepiece, the monstrous Palace of Parliament , now the city's main
tourist attraction. Just west of the centre are the Cismigiu Gardens , a
tranquil space and a popular place for assignations. For a taste of the
old atmosphere of the city, you need to wander north and west of the
gardens past the vine-covered facades, to suburbs where life retains a
village-like slowness and intimacy, or head north from Piata Revolutiei
along Calea Victoriei to Herastrau Park , the site of a superb
collection of buildings brought here from all over Romania and assembled
to form an area known as the Village Museum .
TRANSYLVANIA
Thanks to Bram Stoker and Hollywood, Transylvania (Latin for "beyond
the forest") is famed abroad as the homeland of Dracula, a mountainous
place where storms lash medieval hamlets, while wolves - or werewolves -
howl from the surrounding woods. The fictitious image is accurate up to
a point: the scenery is breathtakingly dramatic, especially in the
Prahova valley, the Turda and Bicaz gorges and around the high passes;
there are spooky Gothic citadels, around Brasov and at Sibiu, Sighisoara
and Bran; and there was a Vlad, born in Sighisoara, who earned the grim
nickname "The Impaler" and later became known as Dracula .
But the Dracula image is just one element of Transylvania, whose 99,837
square kilometres take in alpine meadows and peaks, caves, dense forests
sheltering bears and wild boars, and lowland valleys where buffalo cool
off in the rivers. The population is an ethnic jigsaw of Romanians,
Magyars, Germans and Gypsies, among others, formed over centuries of
migration and colonization. Transylvania's history is still often
disputed along nationalist lines, the feelings aroused running high in
both Hungary and Romania and routinely exploited by politicians. Most
Hungarians view Erdély (their name for Transylvania) as a land "stolen"
by the Romanians, where some two million Magyars face continuing
harassment and subjugation by a Romanian population that they claim
arrived long after the Magyars had settled the area. Romanians assert
the opposite: that they appeared first in Transylvania and that, for
centuries, it was the Magyars who discriminated as colonialist overlords
against the majority population.
Since the Trianon Treaty of 1920, which placed Transylvania firmly
within the Romanian state, the balance of power among the ethnic groups
has shifted sharply in favour of the Romanian majority, with many
peasants brought in from Moldavia and Wallachia to form a new industrial
proletariat. The revolution of 1989 has allowed many of Transylvania's
population, Germans in particular, to return to their ancestral homeland,
leaving the Hungarians as the region's main minority group. Meanwhile
Transylvania's Gypsies ( tigani ) still go their own way, eagerly
participating in an economic free-for-all that they never really
abandoned under Communism, and largely unconcerned by growing prejudice
against them. The result is an intoxicating brew of different characters,
customs and places that is best taken slowly. Many towns have Saxon and
Hungarian names which are used alongside the Romanian ones and these are
given in brackets in the text.
Although the same language is spoken on both sides of the Carpathians,
there is a clear cultural divide between the provinces. Many people,
mostly Transylvanians, will tell you that Transylvania is part of
Central Europe, with a long tradition of culture, free enterprise,
political decency and generally civilized behaviour, while the Regat or
"Old Kingdom" of Wallachia and Moldavia is a primitive place, half
Balkan and half Turkish, where everything is subject to corruption,
inertia and maladministration, and nothing worthwhile ever gets done.
There is some limited truth in this, and certainly if you find yourself
suffering from culture shock in Bucharest, the solution is to head for
Transylvania.
Although modernization and population movements have eroded their sharp
distinctions, Transylvania's historic towns still reflect the
characteristics of the ethnic groups that once dominated them. Most
striking of all are the Stuhls , the former seats of Saxon power, with
their medieval streets, defensive towers and fortified churches.
Sighisoara , the most picturesque, is the Saxons' greatest legacy and an
ideal introduction to Transylvania, followed by the citadels and
churches of Brasov and Sibiu , as well as smaller Saxon settlements like
Cisnadioara, Harman, Prejmer and Biertan . The other highlight of this
southeastern corner is the castle at Bran , which looks just how a
vampire count's castle should look: a grim facade, perched high on a
rock bluff, whose turrets and ramparts rise in tiers against a dramatic
mountain background. Travelling west, routes towards the Banat and
Hungary pass through southwestern Transylvania, a region of mountains
and moorland peppered with the citadels of the Dacians, rulers of much
of Romania before the Roman conquest. To the north and east,
Transylvania has a more Hungarian flavour: cities such as Cluj and Târgu
Mures are strongly Magyar, while Miercurea Ciuc and Sfântu Gheorghe are
the cultural centres of the Székely, a closely related ethnic group.
The Carpathian mountains are never far away in Transylvania, and for
anyone fond of walking this is one of the most beautiful, least
exploited regions in Europe. Hikes to stunning places in the Fagaras,
Apuseni and Retezat ranges can last several days, but it's perfectly
feasible to make briefer yet equally dramatic forays into the Piatra
Craiului or Bucegi mountains, or to one of Transylvania's many
spectacular gorges.
When considering your itinerary, bear in mind the festivals which take
place across Transylvania throughout the year. May and June offer the
most choice, but during months with only one or two events there's
usually something happening just over the mountains in Moldavia,
Maramures or the Banat. The really special events are detailed in the
text.
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