Bucharest Life » Bucharest

Bucharest’s finest, now fighting crime on horseback

Craig Turp — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 14:15:39 +0000

Spaga now payable in straw and sugar cubes?

Brasov: Capital of Romania

Craig Turp — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 12:48:02 +0000

Brasov: Capital of Romania

OTV, don’t you just love it?

Populist and popular (though its audience is shrinking) OTV is the most honest television station in Romania. Honest because it fully admits that it serves up complete rubbish and never tries to hide the fact. Compare with Pro TV or Antena 1, whose programmes are just as pathetic and sensationalist (especially the news), and yet who claim to be serious television stations.

No, OTV is what it is: crap for the masses, and never claims to be anything but. Good luck to it.

Anyway, OTV – for those who do not know – was one of few television stations that backed Traian Basescu in last year’s presidential election (which Basescu won by a pipsqueak). Over the course of the first half of this year, however, OTV became increasingly critical of Basescu’s government, (the channel is popular with pensioners, whose incomes Basescu is desperate to cut) and to all intents and purposes changed sides.

Just as it did so, OTV’s founder, brains and main presenter (the inexhaustible Dan Diaconescu) was arrested on charges of bribery. Kept in prison for a few days while prosecutors tried to find evidence against him, on his release Diaconescu announced that he was giving up television for politics, forming his own party, the Party of the People (Partidul Poporului; PP. It even has a song.).

Now, as you would expect, the PP’s policies are by and large made up of populist nonsense, the kind of pledges that only parties who will never take power can make. (Despite currently polling at around 13 per cent – the same as the ruling PD-L, we predict that the PP will not take even a single seat in parliament come the next election).

But there is one PP policy we like: make Brasov the capital of Romania.

If ever a city needed its wings clipped, it’s Bucharest. With very little going for it beyond its size – it is more than four times as big as any other city in Romania – and status as Romania’s capital, it gets to punch well above the weight of its merits. Move the capital elsewhere and suddenly Bucharest becomes just a big city in southern Romania.

Brasov on the other hand could do with the leg-up that being Romania’s capital would give it. If accompanied by a prolonged series of government-led investment in infrastructure, in new public buildings, in new homes and – most importantly – an airport, the city would suck-in tens, even hundreds of thousands of people from the surrounding countryside, at a stroke dragging them out of their subsistence-farming existence.

Countries have moved their capitals before: Brazil (Rio to Brasilia), Germany (Bonn to Berlin) and Kazakhstan (Almaty to Astana) being just three examples, while other countries have two or more capitals (The Netherlands, Bolivia, South Africa). For anyone remotely interested, this generally sceptical academic paper discusses the ins and outs of moving a capital, focusing on the Kazak decision to move the capital from Almaty to Astana. During World War I, Romania moved its capital to Iasi.

In all probability, Romania is about as likely to move its capital to Brasov as Bucharest Life is to become Romania’s next president. It is not going to happen. (Alas).

But it’s a decent subject for dinner-party/pub discussion, and here’s to the all-conquering Partidul Poporului for raising it.

Bucharest In Your Pocket 66

Craig Turp — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 15:47:24 +0000

Bucharest In Your Pocket 66

Though there was a time last week when we thought we would never finish, the new issue of Bucharest In Your Pocket (BIYP; issue 66) is done and dusted and should be winging its way to our many distribution points very soon. If you can’t wait any longer, or simply can’t be bothered to head out in the sweltering temperatures we’re suffering right now in Bucharest, you can download a PDF version here.

You can also now download just the Old Town/Lipscani pages if that’s all you’re interested in (and judging by the way the rest of the city is empty while Old Town is full, it would appear that Lipscani is all anyone is interested in, at least during the summer).

We might also as well mention – while we are at it – that besides the print edition and the PDF you can also read BIYP in ipaper at Scribd.com (as indeed you can all In Your Pocket guides).

It also goes almost without saying that the entire content of our guides (and much more besides) is online at inyourpocket.com.

New in BIYP 66 are at least ten venues to have opened in the two months since our last issue (or places we simply, for one reason or another, have never included until now). Our favourites include the wonderful Gradina OAR, and Le Drakkar, a creperie in Old Town on Strada Franceza that is the first place in the city to serve genuine gallettes (French pizza, basically). We also like the look of Freddo, a huge new terrace on Strada Smardan that looks as though it will be as fitze as hell, but in fact isn’t.

Top marks though this issue to Divan, another place on Strada Franceza. It’s been around a while but is now better than ever. It’s about time the Golden Falcon had real competition.

We should also mention that one of the best restaurants in Bucharest for a number of years, Thai Moods, is currently enjoying its last summer. We suggest getting there immediately to remind yourself how good it is before it is gone for good.

Finally, a word on our old friends at the Tourist Information Centre. We finally found them in, and open to the public. (The opening hours by the way are 9am-5pm Monday Friday, 10am-1pm Saturday. Sunday is a day off).

Best news is that they have agreed to stock Bucharest In Your Pocket. You will be able to pick up a copy there very soon.

(And we will no longer be saying a word against them…)

At last: Bucharest opens a Tourist Information Centre (closed at weekends)

Craig Turp — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 11:43:57 +0000

Amazing. After waiting 12 years in vain for a Tourist Information Centre (TIC) to open in Bucharest you take a week’s holiday and whack, a big new TIC opens its doors in the perfect location: the pedestrian underpass underneath Piata Universitatii.

As such, the first thing we did on our return was to head excitedly to this new wonder of the modern age.

Is it any good?

Not really.

For a start, unless you were using the underpass or going to Piata Universitatii metro station, you would never know it was there. We saw no signs at street level pointing quizzical tourists to its existence.

Secondly, we found it to be closed. This at 2pm on a Saturday afternoon. Perhaps understandable; after all, who visits cities at the weekend?

Peeking inside the windows we saw that we were not missing out on very much.

There was a big bench (of the type found in Bucharest’s better parks) and little else. A few flyers and leaflets from museums, but nothing that had us bursting to break down the door in order to get inside. Who knows, maybe they keep the good stuff under the counter. We will go back during the week to find out (assuming it is open during the week).

Credit where it is due, however: though the TIC was closed, the authorities have kitted-out the Piata Universitatii underpass with four impressive touch screens, packed with information for the visitor to Bucharest.

Unfortunately, however, on Saturday afternoon just one of the four screens was working.

We tried it out, however, and we were immediately impressed.

To avoid confusing foreign visitors by presenting them with a choice of information in the three of four most common international languages, the Bucharest authorities have kept things refreshingly simple by offering information in Romanian only.

What’s more, to avoid presenting visitors with a dilemma about which of the many events going on in the capital to go to, the screens offer no information about any events at all when the ‘Evenimente’ option is selected.

In fact, the touch screens are refreshingly simple. They offer a map of the city, a map of Bucharest’s public transport networks, a couple of suggested tourist routes… and that’s about it.

—

Speaking of quizzical tourists, we were on the Bucharest metro the other day with a friend who was making his first visit to the Romanian capital.

He was looking at the metro map, and was most puzzled by it.

Not by its general uselessness and innacuracy (a road we have been down before, here) but by the fact that the two end stations of the M3 line (Industriilor and Anghel Saligny) have a sign next to them that denotes an interchange with… a motorway.

‘Is there a park and ride scheme?’ he asked.

‘No,’ we replied.

‘So why would you put a sign for a motorway on a metro map?’ he fired back at us.

Answers on a postcard please.

Elena’s capital ambitions are just the beginning

Craig Turp — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 10:49:01 +0000

Our favourite Romanian politician, the incomparable Elena Udrea (Minister of Tourism and Regional Development), has often been accused – not least by some who write and comment on these pages – of not being up to the job.

This week, however, Udrea knocked such accusations for six with a devastating display of political acumen, nous and guile that left many political commentators speechless in admiration.

(At least we think it was admiration).

Writing on her blog shortly after returning from a visit to the Hungarian capital Budapest, Udrea identified a number of differences between Budapest and Bucharest, as well as highlighting many of the problems Bucharest faces when trying to attract visitors.

‘Budapest,’ Udrea wrote, ‘has lots of nice old buildings and is full of tourists.’

Who knew!

‘Bucharest,’ she also wrote, ‘is blighted by stray dogs and its streets are not very clean.’

Well I never! Make the woman president now. Few in Romania have the depth of reasoning to reach such revolutionary conclusions.

In fact, it would appear that Udrea’s ambitions currently fall someway short of the Romanian presidency. (For the time being at least).

Recently made the leader of her party (the ruling PD-L) in Bucharest, Udrea’s renewed interest in the capital points to a desire – as yet unannounced – to become the next mayor of the capital.

The incumbent Sorin Oprescu – an independent – is deeply unpopular and should he decide to run for a second term in 2012 – when elections are due – it is highly unlikely he would even make the second round.

The route from Bucharest’s mayoralty to the Romanian presidency is a well worn one: current Romanian President Traian Basescu took it in 2004.

We therefore predict Udrea running for mayor (and winning) in 2012 before using the capital as a power base for an assault on the presidency in 2014.

You read it here first.