We had a journalist (a real one, from a newspaper) in the office on Friday, asking, amongst other things, for our opinion on the new Tourist Information Centre at Gara de Nord (more on this soon). He also wanted to know what we thought were the five best and worst things about Bucharest.
The worst five was easy:
1. Stray dogs
2. Sunflower seeds/litter in general
3. Drivers/Traffic/Roads
4. Cables
5. Total absence of civic pride
Easy enough. We could have listed 50 things.
But what about the best things? What are the best things about Bucharest?
We said…
1. It’s incredibly safe and free of violent crime (which brought surprised gasps from said journo)
2. Good primary schools (if you can get into the right one – we find out next Monday if this is correct)
3. Great parks (Titan and Tineretului)
4. It’s small and compact and easy to navigate
5… erm… that’s it. We couldn’t think of a fifth. At a push we went for the metro, which is now rather good.
Now, as you might expect, our list betrays the fact that we are parents… It would have probably looked much different 10 years ago, when ‘the very reasonable price and wide availability of hairdressers’ would have almost certainly featured high in the list.
So, did we get it right? What are the best things about Bucharest?
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Good value for money can be found anywhere as long as you are willing to spend time searching for it. If there’ a will there’s a way.
Taxis, internet, tv/cable etc.. I found all quite good value. Clothes and such were even more expensive in some cases than in Dublin.
Beers and drinks are good value, unless you go to pretentious places and let’s be honest, Bucharest has a hell of a lot of these. Being able to go into most food places and get a beer is cool, or those little kiosks anytime you want.
Clubs stay open late, more freedom to do what you want to do when it comes to lifestyle.
my top 5 for and against
pros
1. weather (most of the year, 8-9 months the weather is fine)
2. women are gorgeous and intelligent (my g/f didn’t force me to say this
3. parks, activities ; just seems to be more to do (in Ireland people go to pub or cinema, boring…)
4. subway is handy, taxis are cheap,
5. its safe, no heroin addicts asking for money for a hostel every time you turn the corner,
cons
1. dilapidated buildings, although in saying this Bucharest is great for urban exploration, you never know what you’ll find on a walk down some unknown street.
2. taxi men even trying to rip off locals as well as foreigners, wtf?
3. rude comments from men towards women, I have to beat some manners into some people, I mean really!
4. bribes (my biggest pet hate) – it this a Turkish or Russian influence? get rid of it.
5. litter and people lack of pride for their city in general, next to no recycling either!
@thedrb: welcome, do feel like at home on this blog!
I like your characterization of Bucharest, even I feel sometimes that the city is just thrilling (and I’ve been living here for 25 years). I think night is the best time to enjoy the city, whether you’re walking or driving.
One of the things which I don’t like is that you can’t actually find a decent restaurant to be open during nighttime; sometimes if I get hungry at night I have to go to the casino and add some extra taste of roulette to my meal because otherwise there’s not much to eat…
Craig,
Actually it was a party in honor of a young Slovenian woman who worked at her embassy here and was going back to Slovenia. It was organized by a prominent Romanian young artist who is opening up an event space and store at the location. So indeed he had legal access. In any event, this sort of thing is exactly what I have been looking for. You can see video of it on my Facebook profile page under videos.
I’m in my infancy as an expat (5 months under my belt) and my initial lust/love for the city is slowly being chipped away piece by piece. The wide eyed excitement of my first month as I nervously explored the city has been washed away, the rose coloured specs have fallen into the mudded swamp that is the never-ending road repairs outside my flat…And yet as the construction noise and barking dog chorus wake me each morning I can’t help feel that the city wants to excite me each day.
I don’t think Bucharest is cheap, but good value for money can be found. I do think a large slice of Bucharest is ugly and yet this seems to only highten the appeal of the prettier areas. I’m not wholly convinced that the Bucharest workforce I meet everyday in shops are the friendliest they could be, but of course the Romanians I am lucky to call friends are just brilliant, forward thinking rays of sunshine that this city is lucky to have.
So to end this rather tedious and cliched summary, the best thing about Bucharest is the roller-coaster, see-saw, ying-yang sheer and utter madness.
(um, not sure this qualifies as an answer!!!)
The best things about Bucharest?
-The women.
-Bucharest is in the midst of change. The city is rising anew to regain the glory of its pre-Communist past and to witness and participate in this is electrifying.
-Underground cultural/ arts scene. One example: http://nordichigh.wordpress.com/2009/09/06/bucharests-underground-part-scene-part-i/
This is unbelievable, how can you find these events?!
I keep hearing about such underground events that took place usually a few days before the news gets to me and I always ask myself “how in the world did anyone find out about it?! It wasn’t written in any newspaper, it wasn’t announced anywhere…”
I suppose you have to be part of some kind of a group of initiated people who know what’s going on far from the eyes of the big public…
About the pre-Communist past… I don’t think there was even asphalt on the streets back then. Yes, it is endeed rising to re-live those times of chaos resembling the Babylon Tower…
I just saw a documentary about Hitler’s bunkers in Berlin which were built before or during the early 40′s, I don’t think there was enough concrete in the whole Bucharest at that time to build even the Reichstag and the Templehof airport. Bucharest was defined as a city during the times of Ceausescu, before that is was no more than a small town, even a village if you considered the suburbs.
Am I wrong? I thought 1930s Bucharest was pretty cool à la Paris?
Parmalat, don’t make fun of me. Come on, the event I note was pretty cool. It’s not like it was super underground, but it did take place in a courtyard that from the street you would have no idea existed and that there was a part going on.
But I’m not making fun of you.
Yes, your observation is very correct – many underground-type events are organized in Bucharest and it’s very nice to attend them, unfortunately – for people like me who inform themselves from general sources like tv and newspapers – finding out about such events before they happen (so I can actually participate) is nearly impossible. I was just expressing my frustration that such events are not better advertised. But then, if they were, they wouldn’t be underground anymore so their spirit would probably be lost…
Parmalat,
I really thought you were joking with me. But ok then! This event was indeed underground, you had to be a friend (or Facebook Friend) of the guy to know where to show up at midnight.
Where was it? Did they have legal access to the building? And why are two men wearing nothing except their underpants and a loudspeaker? Looks a bit like young rich kids playing at being Bohemian.
I disagree with Parmalat on a lot of things but I’ve got t say he’s right here. What sort of glory do you really think there was pre-Communism? What evidence do you have for this view?
Geronimo,
I meant regarding the many beautiful buildings that have seen better days and the stories I hear about the decadent upper class here pre-WWII. As I walk around it’s as if I can see how it must have once been. I only drink water now, so no more off the wall comments from me.
Oh, I was wondering what was the main ingredient resposible for your change of mood! Now I am making fun of you
)
About the pre-WW II Bucharest: yes, if you consider the center of the city (pretty much the same area as it is considered today: Lipscani, Armeneasca, Batistei, etc…) it did maintain a French atmosphere.
But let’s consider something else: I’ve seen once a map of Bucharest around 1910 or so (a map displaying zones of criminality and of disease spreading) and the surface of the city was pretty much the same as it is today. The problem is that if you went out of the central area you would find yourself in a village and this state of things persisted until Ceausescu came to power.
For example the Berceni area where I currently live was no more than a village-area with poor houses that had their toilets in the backyard, had no sewage system and no asphalt on the streets.
When Ceausescu came, major improvements have been made: all houses were cleared (very few remained though, if you walk through Berceni – between Nitu Vasile and Alexandru Obregia boulevards you can find a small area that used to have pre-WW II cottages before people started building villas), blocks of flats were built, sewage was installed and asphalt was laid so that people could live under decent conditions.
In the Communist propaganda the process was called Systematization and it was probably the only planned construction work that ever took place in the history of Romania.
That’s another reason for which I’m saying that Ceausescu was “a man with a plan”: before him it was chaos and after him it’s chaos, everybody does what he dreams of at night.
http://bit.ly/7wIDH
Look
I hope Google can translate the page. This law appeared on November the 1st 1974, exactly 10 years before I was born
No wonder I like to organize things and put order in various stuff, I was born in the day of the Systematization 
They spend a lot of money trying to inuslate themselves from day to day life.
More taxis, more restaurants, a more central living location, more drinking, more servants, private schools, more bribes than they ever would use/have in the west.
Add to that the fact they all go native at some point and decide to buy a flash car to show off/get a mistress/buy all of their clothes at one of those ridiculously expensive shopping malls and it all becomes a bit expensive.
The price of cascaval in Obor is fairly irrelevant.
Yes, good question! Where’s the difference between the monthly spendings made by Western people and the monthly spendings made by Bucharestians?!
I don’t suppose that Westerners eat with 3 mouths…
And Westerners live off 500 Euro / month?! Because in Bucharest people do live for a month with that kind of money…
I don’t think it’s that way, what do Westerners spend their money on if Bucharest is not cheap?! They earn a lot more than 500 Euro / month…
I do not think the cost of living in Bucharest is that cheap anymore… certain things rmeian cheap, perhaps. Taxis, public transport in general, cable tv and internet etc. is very cheap. But food and utilities all now much the same as anywhere else.
5. It’s cheap, it’s definetly a cheap city compared to its Western counterparts!
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