Greetings from Bucharest. We arrived here yesterday afternoon after a rather uneventful journey (except for the fact that this tale almost ended before it started. We got stuck on the airplane in Chicago because the airplane door wouldn’t open! For like 20 minutes! Luckily, we had snacks and didn’t have to slide down the emergency slide.) Since people always ask, we travelled from Kansas City to Chicago, had a 9 hour flight from Chicago to Vienna, and then an hour and a half flight to Bucharest. So, there you have it.

Your fair heroines are currently sitting al fresco, waiting on their orders of Moldovan Stew with polenta. Not sure what we ordered, but it sounds authentic. And, our mother loves polenta– at least she claims to every time she drags us to The Dinner Theater. Of course, despite the promising polenta, my mother would turn up her nose at this place– can you believe that they serve Pepsi instead of Coca Cola? Arggggg, such a tragedy!! It is quite cool– lower 60’s, cloudy, and breezy– which explains the patio heaters and blankets on the chairs. (Yes, we are currently shivering under a blanket that someone else has used. The GERMS! Ha ha! Don’t tell my aunts.) To top it off, since we are sitting outside in the fresh air, they brought us a clean ash tray. (We actually saw quite a few ceramic ash trays in the souvenir shops.)

This morning we had a city tour. By bus. That means taking pictures out of moving bus windows with very few stops for selfies. What can I tell you about Bucharest architecture? Some buildings are 500 years old. Some areas were destroyed by bombs in WWII, so they were replaced with Soviet style communist buildings. Bucharest is also prone to earthquakes. There was a 7.2 earthquake in 1977 that decimated the city. The dictator took advantage of the devastation to clear a massive area and build an administrative area, with a huge palace to house the government, intellectual buildings, and a boulevard to rival the Champs Eleysées. He only had to relocate 60,000 people to realize his architectural dreams. The palace– Piața Constituției– is the second largest administrative building in the world, after the Pentagon. However, it is the heaviest in the world, but only the third largest by volume. It weighs 4 million tons, largely due to the 5 ton crystal chandelier. Construction on this grandiosity began in 1984– to put that in perspective, that is the same year I was rocking out to Madonna and singing Material Girl at the top of my lungs. It took 13 years to build, which is lightning fast for this type of monstrosity. They had crews working 24 hours a day– think of the overtime! The building could probably have been finished more quickly, but they took a break after toppling the communist dictatorship on Christmas Day 1989.

Woo doggies. That is a lot of factoids on the Palace of the Parliament. It is built in a hodgepodge of architectural styles, but mostly French neo classical because that is what the dictator liked. So, it looks like an old building, but really, my Madonna Like A Virgin cassette tape is much older than this palace! The dictator had visions of standing on the balcony and waving to his adoring public just like Queen Elizabeth. Alas, he faced the firing squad before ever realizing his dreams. Only one person has ever stood on the balcony and waved, and that was the King of Pop– Michael Jackson! Of course, MJ thought he was in Budapest rather than Bucharest.

It is hard to top palaces on a city bus tour. Our afternoon is at leisure, which is why we are now chowing down on massive amounts of polenta– it is truly yummy!

What to do with an unscheduled afternoon in Bucharest? Thetwinsontour did not hesitate– their is a special Banksy exhibit at the Triumph Arch! Woohoo! Thetwinsontour love to see special art exhibits that will never, ever come to Kansas. Especially when they are by the most famous, influential, elusive street artist in the world!! It was a great exhibit– and it was housed within the Arcul de Triumf itself. That makes doubly cool. Plus, we took the subway to get there. thetwinsontour really love subways. And this one only cost 5 lei for 2 tickets, so about $1.12 toubd trip– super affordable.

We also managed to sneak in a visit to the Bucharest municipal museum. This was completely unintentional. But, we were walking to the subway station when we spied posters talking about Diego Velazquez and Las Meninas! Now, our Spanish teachers taught us right– we love all things Velazquez. But Las Meninas is the pinnacle of Velazquez’s painting superiority– not even Bob Ross or Banksy can rival this masterpiece. Then in the courtyard, there was a Menina, in Romanian garb. It was like a moth to a flame, it just drew me in like a blue light special. I tried to read the informational posters, but my Romanian is just not up to snuff, especially since I have only been exposed to it for the last 2 days. So, into the municipal museum we went. It cost 10 lei per person (about $2.50) But, if you want to take pictures, that is an extra 15 lei! Not really sure what I was supposed to get from this museum– their was a room of jade clocks– the signs were in English– but they were talking about dreams and the fluidity of time going backwards. Then there were displays about communism in Bucharest and famous Bucharesti people. Really, I just walked through there as quickly as I could. Do you know what was not inside that museum? Not one single mention of Velazquez! That Menina was just there to taunt me.

Of course, thetwinsontour don’t move too fast, so that filled up our day until it was time to go see the fountains at 8pm. Remember earlier how I mentioned the boulevard that is bigger than the Champs d’ Elyesée? Well, there are 41 fountains running down the middle of representing the 40 regions of Romania plus Bucharest. And, of course, if you have 41 fountains, that is just begging for a laser light spectacular set to music! It was a brisk 12 degrees Celsius and the spray from the fountains was drenching us, but it was all so fantastic that we didn’t really care! There were people all around us, just singing and dancing to the rhythm of the fountains while thetwinsontour just clicked away, examining every angle of the fountains. It was highly enjoyable, so we don’t regret being loose on the town eating pizza and drinking a cider (even the waiter thought that was weird. We ordered it, and he’s like, that’s beer, it has alcohol. And we were like, yes we know. But it was pear lychee cider and strawberry lime cider. How do you not try that? Even if it is nearly $4.) way past our bedtime. So much for getting to bed early!

Love,

thetwinsontour