August 27, 2004
Cleaning the outbox
Ok, so now I have decent bandwidth and time to kill waiting for my connection from Schiphol back to Norwich, I can post some of the snapshots from the last week.
When we went out drinking on Monday night, we went to a pub called "The Ruins". It was a totally open-air bar, which consisted of a gravelled area between two ramshackle buildings. Unbelievably cool in a strange kind of way.
The place we got our kebabs on the first two days was at the bottom of a tower block (the entire main street in Bucharest was made up of tower blocks much like this). On the first day, it was obvious that a window had fallen out of one of the higher flats, as an area of pavement was roped off and glass was everywhere. On the second day, we got to watch this masterpiece of engineering, as two guys hoisted a uPVC window frame up and into the flat. If you look carefully, you can just about see it. What you can't see is that it looks like every other window in the building will submit to gravity's many charms in the not too distant future.
I think I mentioned the other kebab shop was next to one of the two Bucharest football clubs. Here it is, for your delectation and delight. The team lost 3-0 to Manchester United on Wednesday. Unfortunately, I didn't get to watch the match as I was busy authoring slides ...
One of the curious things about Bucharest is how old and new seem to mix together with no sense of planning or design.... like in this picture, where an ornate old building sits between concrete monstrosities.
This church (I think that's what it is) was pretty much surrounded by huge buildings. This was a common site throughout the city: churches were hidden away by the buildings around them. Apparently it was a deliberate ploy by (I think) Ceausescu to lessen the impact of the Romanian church without overtly deprecating it.
Ok, the last picture (until I get the high-res stuff off the digital camera). This is one of the many parks in Bucharest, and has an artificial lake in the centre. We went there last night for a few beers before moving on to a pool hall (!) and then The Ruins, mentioned above. Several things were striking about the place: the crows in the trees above were incredibly loud, and added a curious atmosphere especially in the late evening light. Also, a huge number of bats could be seen swooping and soaring through the sky, and doing extremely close fly-bys of pedestrians. All of a sudden last night I really understood where the whole Dracula legend sprang from. Cool. Speaking of cool - apparently, this lake is artificially frozen every winter to allow skating. Sounds like it would be fun to visit in the winter!
Right, I have a plane to catch. Norwich, here I come.
Posted by savs at August 27, 2004 10:45 AM