May 2009

Bucharest/Budapest/Abroad still confusing Brits

by Craig Turp May 31, 2009 Travel

 This story didn’t surprise me: confusing Bucharest with Budapest is apparently one of the most common mistakes made by Brits when booking travel ‘abroad.’ After all, Britain (England especially) remains a place where vast swathes of the population think the world consists of just two countries: England and Abroad. A member of my extended family [...]

1 comment Read the full article →

Train from Gara de Nord to Otopeni dies quick death

by Craig Turp May 27, 2009 Bucharest

 It looks like the train from Gara de Nord to a field near Otopeni airport, opened with so much fanfare not so long ago, is about to be consigned to the history books. It is attracting few passengers and losing money (but then so is the whole of Romanian railways). Four trains will be cancelled [...]

6 comments Read the full article →

Bucharest In Your Pocket: 10 Years On

by Craig Turp May 27, 2009 Bucharest

 What can only be described as Eclipse Fever was gripping the nation when the first Bucharest In Your Pocket was published, at the end of May, 1999. Bucharest was, you see, being heralded as the best place in the world to view one of nature’s rarities: a total eclipse of the sun scheduled for August [...]

6 comments Read the full article →

Let’s make life in the countryside worth living. Then we can worry about preserving it

by Craig Turp May 22, 2009 Romania

 If you follow us on Twitter (and you really ought to) then you would have noticed we had a thing or two to say earlier today about Prince Charles, currently visiting Romania to launch a programme dedicated to ‘preserving Romania’s rural traditions and village culture.’ According to this Associated Press report the Prince views Romania’s [...]

9 comments Read the full article →

Surprisingly, Bucharest’s problems go beyond the need to change a few kerbstones

by Craig Turp May 22, 2009 Bucharest

 And they’re off. The great Borduriada 2009 is under way in at least two of Bucharest’s six sectors, with local mayors eager change the kerbstones on as many streets as possible, because, well, because it’s cheap and relatively easy. To the casual observer (and there is no observer more casual than Bucharest Life), the urgent [...]

0 comments Read the full article →

Timeshare salesmen hit Bucharest

by Craig Turp May 20, 2009 Bucharest

 UPDATE (22.5.09) Tomorrow, Saturday, at 22.05 Antena 3 will – in a rare case of a television news station actually doing a bit of real journalism – broadcast a programme exposing the shysters we refer to below. — A sign of Romania’s growing affluence? The timeshare scam, one of the most notorious cons of modern [...]

5 comments Read the full article →

Opening of the Bucharest Metro, 1979

by Craig Turp May 20, 2009 Bucharest

 As we explained a couple of weeks ago, our six year old is currently obsessed by metro trains, and in his quest for knowledge now spends the two hours he is allowed each day on the computer scouring You Tube for videos about metros. Yesterday he came up with a gem. An original report on [...]

4 comments Read the full article →

← Previous Entries