Nobody knows Bucharest

There is a joke here that nobody who lives in Bucharest knows anything about Bucharest. Tourists know much more than the average Bucharester, since most people who live here only know their own area. This is a problem. I’ve visited almost all of central Bucharest (Universitate, Victoriei, Kisselef, Unirii, Cotroceni) and I already feel like I know more. In fact, the 2nd day living in Bucharest, someone was lost on the metro and I helped them find their way. The Bucharest metro is the first one I’ve used on a daily basis. Its similar to other metros but I find it to be especially simple. It shuts down at 11pm (realistically 11:30pm) and similarly, most of the city life kind of dies down at 10:58pm. I like the freedom you get to travel around a fairly large city for the small price of a month pass. There is also a bus system, a bus-tranvai system, and a trainvai system. The last 2 are being phased out, and it seems that the ideal will be the RATB bus system (which is clean and fairly easy to use) and the Metrorex. The one thing about the RATB busses is that almost nobody knows how to punch their cards. They use some kind of magnetic machine that beeps once, twice, or three times depending on if your card is charged, checked, or expired. Nobody is really sure however. I just wave my card in front of the machine and hope it worked. Every time I’ve been in a bus I had to help 2-3 people figure out how to use the cards.

The Dâmbovița is a nice highlight of Bucharest but sometimes I wish it was more cared for and the banks were more park-like. Despite this, there is alot of water (rivers, lakes, parks) in Bucharest and I feel like this lightens the mood of a potentially blocky city.

Above is a picture of the Palace of the Parliament.

The Palace is the world’s largest civilian administrative building, most expensive administrative building, and heaviest building.

Also the world’s biggest white elephant. World Pillow Fight day was celebrated in front of the Palace, but since I woke up late and showered, I missed most of it.

There’s also been Earth Hour, which was a concert in Old Bucharest and a few other events.

To everyone who has been bugging me about updating: You’re welcome.

I’ll try to write more. :)