Capital living in Bucharest, Romania
Locals will know about these (but then again we more or less count as locals these days and we never knew they existed), foreigners may not: Romanian webcams, hundreds of them.
Hosted by the website of newspaper Jurnalul National, you will find not just Bucharest webcams, but also live live streams from around the country, including the Romanian ski resorts.
Make a list of good public services in Bucharest.
Finished?
Thought so.
There are not that many public services in Bucharest which approach anything that could even be said to resemble ‘good.’ But there are a few…
Rubbish collection is one, at least in our sector (Sector 3). We get our rubbish collected twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays: rain and snow do not stop the rubbish boys. When we tell people in the UK that we have our rubbish collected twice a week they go green with envy. (In the UK, the ‘let’s uphold moral-rectitude’ brigade are pushing for fewer and fewer rubbish collections, in order to make people consume less. They are as misguided as they are wrong. See here).
Schools are another decent public service, and we’ve discussed just why we think so before.
Public transport in Bucharest is also worthy of note. Cheap and reliable if woefully underfunded, we again discovered this morning that the city would be lost without it.
On mornings such as today, when Bucharest goes a bit Doctor Zhivago, the city is kept moving by RATB: the local public transport operator.
We took number one son to school this morning by tram. A tram that runs in all weathers. Even in February when the snow was thigh-high, when schools were closed and the city froze, RATB’s buses and trams kept running. They kept the city moving.
Yes, RATB is probably overstaffed, too many people don’t pay for their tickets, and buses and trams can be very crowded (because there are not enough of them): but by and large it works, and works well.
So it was disconcerting to read yesterday that Bucharest’s mayor, Sorin Oprescu, thinks that RATB is a drain on the city’s budget.
He insinuated that more could be spent on improving Bucharest’s roads if less money was spent on public transport.
It’s nice to know his priorities.
Or maybe he has a point?
Maybe he should do away with public transport altogether (after all, it’s only the little people like us who use it). People should either buy a car and use it in all conditions, or stay at home. Why should they expect the city council to provide public transport for them?
Imagine: no buses or trams to get in the way of all those cars.
Think how wonderful it would be to drive around Bucharest then.
Ahead of the next issue of Brasov In Your Pocket, due out April 1 (ish), we have been busy doing our usual thorough research of the city, checking that cafes who claim to have free wifi really do have free wifi, and so on.
We have also been busy plotting everything worth seeing and doing in Brasov on an online map.
This map, to be precise:
In the current issue of Bucharest In Your Pocket we publish a feature on Bucharest’s earthquake of 1977, which took place 33 years ago today.
Below is a short film (in Romanian) about the quake: the first 30 seconds or so is a recording of the earthquake made by Radio Romania, which was recording a concert when the quake struck. It is genuinely terrifying.
We also, a while ago, wondered aloud if Bucharest would be better prepared for the next major quake, if and when it strikes.
Despite the protestations of some, we remain unconvinced.
Phone rings.
Bucharest Life answers.
Familia Turp?
Da.
De la P*****s Bank sunt. In legatura cu vecinul vostru de la 89.
The lovely lady from P*****s Bank then told me that she wanted some help trying to contact one of our neighbours, let’s call him Ion Ionescu, from apartment 89, who they simply can’t get hold of.
Would we mind going to tell him to get in touch? Or at the very least leave a note in his mailbox telling him to phone the bank?
No, we are not debt collectors.
When we asked how they had our number?
‘From the phone book.’
I never knew we were in it.
