Bucharest

Free pens, Pravda and a free lunch: Electioneering in Bucharest’s Sector 3

For a couple of months now we have regularly been finding pens in our post box, courtesy of Robert Negoita, the (soon to be Romania’s new ruling party) USL‘s candidate for mayor in the sector of Bucharest in which we live, Sector 3. The pens are usually accompanied by a Pravda-esque newspaper, which tells tales [...]

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Five Years of Bucharest Life

by Craig Turp April 27, 2012 Bucharest

How time flies. It was five years ago today that we first posted on these pages, with a short piece about the opening of a few kilometres of motorway. We then, by the looks of it, blogged at the rate of once per month for a while, before not writing anything at all for about [...]

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Lipscani? That’s where I used to buy my light bulbs

by Craig Turp April 21, 2012 Bucharest

We had a pint or two with an old friend in a Lipscani pub last week: a friend who had left Romania in 2002. Though he had been back on occassion since then, he had not explored the new-look Old Town area until now. ‘I used to buy my light bulbs around here,’ he said, [...]

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Hospices of Hope, Bagpuss & the London Marathon

by Craig Turp April 20, 2012 Bucharest

This Sunday, Bucharest’s Quizmaster-in-chief, Marc Jenner, will run the London Marathon dressed as Bagpuss. As some of you may know, Jenner is head of fundraising at Hospices of Hope/Casa Sperantei, a charity dedicated to improving the lives of the terminally ill in Romania and surrounding countries by increasing access to hospice care and training. You [...]

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A closer look at Nicusor Dan

by Craig Turp April 17, 2012 Bucharest

Of all the candidates who have so far declared their intention to run for mayor of Bucharest in the local elections scheduled for June 10th, the biggest buzz currently surrounds an outsider, Nicusor Dan, of the Asociatia Salvati Bucuresti, even though he has little chance of winning. Having read his programme this weekend, it is [...]

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Let’s build something awe-inspiring

by Craig Turp April 16, 2012 Bucharest

It would appear that Romania’s continuing status as a country in which a large majority of the population are Orthodox Christians is, for some, a problem. Last year we wrote at length about the fuss which was caused by the Romanian government handing a modest amount of cash to the Romanian Orthodox Church for [...]

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