Goodbye boat, Hello Bucharest!

We said goodbye to our floating hotel and then everyone boarded buses with zero leg room to the capital, Bucharest or București (pronounced būecharest, not boocharest). Located on the River Dâmboviț, it was first mentioned in 1459 in a document written by Vlad the Impaler (commonly called Dracula). There are 1.7 million inhabitants in the city (more includinf adjacent suburbs); it's the largest city in Romania, and 9th largest in the EU. The name of the city theoretically came from a shepherd named Bucar who settled here.

The Romanian tour guide, when speaking about the country's history, kept referring to Moldova as a region of Romania. It's not. It became an independent country after the Soviet Union crumbled. They do speak primarily Romanian there and are one of the poorest countries in Europe.

Since we were on a bus and it was raining (1st day of the entire trip) the pictures aren't so great so I did download some. Now for the history lesson:
- The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, ranks as the largest administrative building for civilian use in the world and the heaviest building globally. It is the second-largest administrative building overall (after the Pentagon). 
- As usual, it was easy to distinguish between the Communist-era apartments and the new ones. Any nicer pre-Communist buildings still need a lot of love.
- Nicolae Ceaușescu’s rule in Romania (1965–1989) is remembered for extreme repression, a bizarre cult of personality, and severe economic mismanagement that caused widespread hunger and poverty. Key issues included exporting food to pay foreign debt, and using the Securitate secret police to terrorize citizens.
- Ceaușescu was killed in 1989; he isn't as poorly thought of as before, but who knows.
- Victory of Socialism Boulevard from 1985 (now renamed Union Boulevard), which leads to the parliament, was designed to be longer and wider than Champs-Élysées (there's very little comparison).
- We passed a mini-Arc de Triumph, smaller than the real one in Paris, called the Arcul de Triumf originally erected of wood after WWI. Medallions of Ceaușescu and his wife were of course replaced.
- The 1989 Revolution started at the university in Bucharest; people were promised money if they didn't revolt but no one believed him, and well, he ended up dead and Romania ended up free from Communists (though the replacement party is very popular).

Lunch was at a giant old restaurant, Hanu Lui Manuc, that Viking arranged for us after a brief, rainy bus tour through Bucharest. The inn’s story starts in 1806 when it was built on Bucur’s land, on the riverside of Dambovita. Some good Romanian food and entertainment and then some of us went and walked in the rain around Old Town.

Finally we got to our hotel, the 5 star JW Marriott Grand Bucharest. Wow, we could get used to this. Viking had us checked in already and bags in our rooms - nice! We walked around some and ordered pizza and I took a bath. On our own tomorrow so I've arranged a Get-Your-Guide.Read more