Thinking Bucharest
Coincidences are almost as good as caramel machiattos, which is why I love to indulce in them as often as possible. The latest one is being tagged by Gorgeoux just as I was packed my bags for the big city of Bucharest. Here I am in Bucharest again and here is what the mind of a former inhabitant can cook up on the subject:
3 places I like in Bucharest:
1. The Lipscani area at night. The best ideas of my early adulthood were cooked up on those streets. They also played host to memorable moments of debatable decency.
2. A window seat in any bus or trolley in late spring.
3. The apartment I used to live on Virtutii in the not-so-glam Militari neighborhood. One needs a shelter in this town and that was mine.
3 places/moments (I added the latter) I hate in Bucharest:
1. The first time after a few months of being away from Bucharest when you take public transportation from the train station (Gara de Nord) to your house. The city never looks so frightening and uninviting as it does then
2. The right side strench of the boulevard as you navigate from Unirea to Universitatii.
3. The 41 tram line on days that Steaua plays Rapid. This tram practically links the Ghencea Stadium to the Giulesti Stadium.
3 venues in Bucharest where I like going out with friends:
1. Fire–no matter how uncool, overcrowded and mainstream you call Fire today, I like to think I grew up there. And on those hardcore Tuesday nights of 2001, I probably did.
2. La Motoare–hard to beat for experience sake.
3. All places that keep us there for longer than one beer.
3 things a Westerner would not understand about Bucharest:
1. That “Bucharest is” is a more complete sentence than whatever you can come up with by adding words to it.
2. Why local authorities take so little care of the old town.
3. How thousands of people can squeeze into concrete boxes that strech for miles and miles.
Most snobbish neighbourhood: Any that’s not mine.
Ugliest neighbourhood: All the ones that are not fortunate enough to have me there.
October 9th, 2006 at 7:04 pm
The window seat melted my heart. I practically grew up on those, with all the implied drama. I wrote novels on that seat, for God’s sake! Thank you 🙂
October 11th, 2006 at 9:42 am
ahh, those sweet “punk night” tuesdays, the unforgettable taste of the 14k/glass gin and tonic, the always-filled cloakroom, the regular police raids and the next day at work, stinking of smoke and cheap booze… sweet memories.