Romania's capital Bucharest is real, raw and terrific
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 มิ.ย. 2024
- Bucharest is maybe the most misunderstood city in Europe. Travel writers and vloggers are all over the map about it, with some praising it for its eclectic vibe and others going so far as to suggest that travelers skip it entirely.
Best ignore the latter. For anyone wanting to understand Romania, Bucharest is essential. As I show in the video, Bucharest feels alive and real, not dependent on the artificiality of a “tourist attraction” or two for its chops.
This is Romania at its source: for politics, the economy and culture.
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#bucharest #romania #travel
I enjoyed that tour Ron, thanks for sharing. I first visited the city in the summer of 1990 as a backpacker and it was a very different place to what it is now. For me, the friendliness of the latin locals and their dark sense of humour won me over. Time passed and I decided to relocate from London to Bucharest around 12 years ago and have been very happy ever since.
I can confirm that squirrels DO actually live in Herastrau / King Michael I park but they are VERY shy (unlike the ones I'm used to in the parks in London!). They are reds and are much smaller than the grey ones found in England and in the States.
By chance, I met my now wife (a Romanian) while jogging/running around the lake in that very park. For me, my Romanian experience has been awesome and Bucharest is an extremely safe city to live in - as is Romania in general. I wouldn't hesitate in recommending the city and the country to anyone curious about visiting. My wife is actually from Transylvania rather than Bucharest and so, thanks to her, we spend the summers in rural Romania where the rolling hills and country life are the perfect tonic to city life.
Thanks again, all the best!
Good to hear from you Clive. Thanks for expanding on the growing number comments about the squirrels. Glad you enjoyed the video and that you're able to check out the other videos from Romania if you haven't already. I share your enthusiasm for Bucharest and the rest of beautiful Romania. Cheers!
Eloquent presentation. You actually tell a story compared to most of the travel bloggers eating donuts and telling how good they are. This almost "journalistic" ways of presenting things make a difference. Thank you!
Thanks A.C. That's very kind of you. My approach to what I do has a lot to do with my background as a journalist. If you haven't discovered it already, there's more about that background at my website, outboundwithron.com. I hope you continue to watch and enjoy the videos!
@@OUTBOUNDWITHRON your background now explains a lot. Congrats, I've subscribed.
@@a.c.5509 Welcome aboard A.C. Thank you.
Thanks for sharing your travels with us. I loved Bucharest as well as the rest of Romania. I found it full of contradictions which only made it more interesting for me. For the people who say there is nothing to see or do, they're not trying very hard or are simply looking for other things. The place is full of interesting corners, alleys, squares, etc. Great job!
Very cool Ron. I spent a year working in Romania in 2004-5. It was a lovely place to work. I really enjoyed it.
Peter, thanks for sharing. I can see why your year in Romania could be such an awesome experience!
@@OUTBOUNDWITHRON Hi Ron, I lived at Strada Academiei 23 bis, București 010012. You can look it up. This is right next to University Station. My customer was Orange Romania at Piatia Victorei. My employer was down past Unirii. So I could walk up or down down Calaea Victorei to go to work or catch the train. It also meant that I was right in the center of town and got to see all the old town sights. So your video brought back lots of lovely memories, thank you!!
Best presentation of the city I've ever seen on youtube.
Thank you Alina! I'm glad you enjoyed the video. I certainly enjoyed Bucharest.
It appears that Bucharest has a lot of charm and history... Great job showing us around!
👍🏻Absolutely!
@@OUTBOUNDWITHRON It was not revolution in 1989 and our president Ceausescu was not a dictator. You do not write our history. The west countries & Hungary & Russia & Yugoslavia were involved in the events. They planned a civil war to assassinate Ceausescu and to split the country. Hungary wanted to get North ARDEALUL which the communist got back after war.
Love this city ❤
❤👍🏻
Hello from Bucharest Romania 🇹🇩
Hello!
Good presentation ❤ Few mentions.. Vlad the Impaler is a national hero in Romania, as he was cruel with the bad guys and the invaders, but was just and fair with the good guys. He built at least a monastic complex at Comana and moved the capital of Wallachia from Curtea de Arges to Bucharest.. Then about the royal family of Romania, in Dec ''47 was expelled to Switzerland, fooled by the communists that if he abdicates will have free way to load everything they want in a train and leave in dignity. Well, when they reached the border they removed from the 3rd to last wagon, so the royal family crossed the border only with the residential wagons and left almost all the stuff behind. In Switzerland king Michael and his wife queen Anna had to grow and sell chicken and vegetables to make a living, then they even moved to the US for a while, where he worked as a salesman in New York, under the name of Michael King, exchanging his name from the Romanian passport Michael Rege (King). This was the guy who arrested Hitler's best partner, Marshal Antonescu and kicked the Germans out of Romania in August '44, giving free way to Soviets into Romania and Bucharest. Then employed 560k Romanians in the west offensive, helping free from the Nazis Transylvania, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, many battles independently from the Soviets.. Well, have fun in Romania. Cheers!
Fals ! Abdicarea Regelui Mihai n-are nici o legatura cu vagoanele alea despre care vorbesti ! Numai la vagoane nu le statea gandul in momentele alea ! Regele Mihai a fost şantajat să semneze actul de abdicare din 30 decembrie 1947 de catre Petru Groza şi şeful partidului comunist, Gheorghe Gheorghiu Dej, viitorul dictator al Romaniei,care l-au ameninţat pe rege că dacă nu abdică,o mie de tineri dintre cei deja arestaţi vor fi ucişi si ca va urma si uciderea altora ! Informati-va inainte de a scrie prostii !
I like your style and knowledgeable narrative👍👍
Thanks Drifter! I'm glad you enjoy the videos.
bucharest is amazing :)
I lived 25 years in Bucharest than married to a german and since 1970 I have a new life around Frankfurt/M‼️
Make me happy to see the old KNOWN districts in Bucharest the areas where I worked for Romanian Bank for foreigners trade ‼️thanks for yr good presentation ‼️👍🥰👏🙏🤗👻🙋
I'm glad you enjoyed the video Lulu! It was a delight being in Bucharest.
@@OUTBOUNDWITHRON Very kind of you ‼️👍😂🌹👏🙋
Very good presentation! I've been to Bucharest a few times, I've always loved the city. It's not a very touristic city, a lot of Romanians themselves will tell you not to go there or actively avoid it themselves (my father), but personally I've always liked its charm. It's a gritty city, not very organized and not as beautiful externally as other European capitals. But I like the grit, the density, the people are laid back, the fact that people mind their own business (there was a CIA blacksite in the center of the city for God's sake and nobody ever cared enough to notice), the endless options you have for everything, and the rapid growth since the fall of the Iron Curtain. It's a city full of life and a place you'll never be bored!
Thanks for the excellent observations! I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
If i may to add some information to your nice video :
The fountain of Bucharest are the longest music 🎵 fountain in the world, every weekend are perfect place to enjoy !
❤
Yeah, we have squirrels, but they are not that easy to be seen :).
I saw squirrels in the botanical garden in Cluj, also in Sinaia and in Vatra Dornei.
amazing TRUE video, I subscribed you, awesome explenations.
Great
Good presentation. I think when it comes to a singular identifiable tourist attraction, that can be People's Palace. It's more and more associated with Bucharest. Even among promotional leaflets and marketing campaigns. Personally I'm conflicted about it because it is a big piece of ego but... but.... it is part of our history and it does have it's own unique charm in a vacuum. It's also a reminder for tourists what authoritarian regimes can lead to. But it is an imposing attraction you'll not see anywhere else. So while I do agree, initially Bucharest wasn't known for a specific thing like Eiffel Tower or Colosseum, I feel like in the last decade People's Palace has been that one building more and more foreigners are getting familiar with.
The perfect title about Bucharest doesn't exi-
Evrika! It seems we have a jurnalist/ historian gentleman here. Super presentation, sir! Chapeau! 🎉❤
Loved this series! I look forward to Bulgaria! ❤
Glad you enjoyed it RN and hope you keep watching.
One thing I want to mention, U did this in Alexandria Library as well, u kept your voice low out of respect, here it was not the case, cos it was pretty loud, but you did it anyway, shows your character and your emancipation 💯
Amazing stuff Ron, anyone else told you u kinda emanate Morgan Freeman vibes? your narration is impeccable.
Thanks so much Eternal! That's high praise. I'm so glad you enjoy the videos.
Beautiful beautiful ❤😊
Thank you! I'm happy that you enjoyed the video.
Just to help with one misunderstandings foreigners make (beside not eating a meal at the restaurants all the ingredients together like a morsel of cabbage roil with mamaliga and bite of hot pepper) , so Roman Atehneum is not Roman as in Rome Italy , Roman in this case has a circumflex accent on top of the A meaning Romanian Atheneum !
Thank you! I was born în Bucharest în 1968 and I love my town! You are s-o nice to us! Thank you!
So glad you enjoyed the video! Hope you have the chance to see the others from Romania and elsewhere.
And history !
I like your style, Ron! You speak like someone who used to work in radio or television and your voice is soothing.
Let me make one correction, for the sake of accuracy. At 5:35 you talk about the Art Deco glory of Bucharest in the 1800s. But u probably made a confusion: Art Deco is a modernist style of architecture and it started to get popularity after WW1 (1920 - 1940). Bucharest has a lot of Art Deco buildings, but the ones shown in your video in the Old Center are not Art Deco. The prevalent styles in the 1800s were Neoclassicism (the Atheneum and the History Museum on Calea Victoriei, across the street from CEC Bank building), Eclecticism (the National Bank of Romania, just right behind you on your right at 5:35, finished in 1880 and the CEC Bank building on Calea Victoriei) and also Beaux Arts.
The Art Deco buildings are not that obvious, but there are everywhere. There are architects organizing walking tours which center on visiting the most representative Art Deco buildings (but they are mainly low residential buildings, with a few exceptions, like The Palace of the Telephone on Calea Victoriei).
Thank you so much. I'm glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks, too, for the architecture notes. Please forgive my less-than-stellar attempt to describe Bucharest's beautiful Old Town.
Ur presentation is impressive
Keep us giving such informative videos
Thanks
RK Dua New Delhi India
Very good presentation, Thank you!
About King Michael Park, you picked one of 2 almost untouched and ugliest parks in the city. This one and Cismigiu park are historic monuments and if you want to paint a bench for example, you have to do a lot of studies and papers in order to change something. So this one is mostly preserved (almost abandoned) as in communist era. There are a lot of parks much spectacular and beautiful in Bucharest: Titan Park, Drumul Taberei Park, Tineretului, Oraselul Copiilor (Children's Town), Circus Park etc. Also Don't forget Vacaresti Delta, a natural reservation for rare bird species with lush swamps, appeared spontaneously in a big old water reservoir.
Thanks for the fine observations. I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
Beautiful...
Good presentation! Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
Wow that was VERY interesting and now I want to go there. I have never had any particular plan to go to Romania, but all the Romanian people I've met were so nice that I think I need to visit some day.
Glad you enjoyed the video of Bucharest. If you haven't done so already I'm sure you will enjoy the other videos from the Romania series on the channel. Yes, by all means, I would encourage anyone to not miss out on traveling to Romania!
I didnt know Mircea Geoana started a yt channel 😮
5:36 The Old Town is not "the height of Art Deco glory", since Art Deco emerged in the 1900s. Instead, it's a prime example of Bucharest's Beaux Arts period, when Romanian architects were trained in prestigious French universities and adopted the French style. Examples of Art Deco architecture in Bucharest are scattered throughout the city, so there is no single district that can be defined by it. However, established Art Deco landmarks of Bucharest include:
The Telephony Palace (Victoriei Avenue)
Lido Hotel (Gen. Gheorghe Magheru Blvd.)
Magheru One (Gen. Gheorghe Magheru Blvd.)
Ambassador Hotel (Gen. Gheorghe Magheru Blvd.)
Union Business Center (Academiei St.)
You are absolutely correct. Please forgive my error. I've apologized for this once before already on this message board. Thanks for calling out my mistake.
Unfortunately, Romania doesn`t have squirrels, foxes or badgers in big cities, maybe in small towns and villages, they keep to themselves in the woods. The same goes for singing birds like robins for example, the way the buildings were constructed by cutting all the trees and then building deterred any wild animals :(
Thanks for answering my curiosity!
The parks have squirrels
@@OUTBOUNDWITHRONThere are squirrels in Bucharest's parks. I happen to live in the nearby of "Michael the first' park and I saw them from time to time in the park and sometimes even in the trees of my garden, which is at a relatively considerable distance from the park. So yes, there are squirrels... but they are pretty shy I guess... As for foxes and badgers, nobody expects to see them in the cities and most of all in Bucharest, but I can tell you I saw many foxes in the surroundings of Bucharest and once even a badger. You are doing a great job Ron, keep it up! ❤✌👍
@@rowena6053 Thanks for the squirrel update, Rowena. And I'm glad you enjoy the channel.
👍👍👍
Nowhere in historical reports Vlad the Impaler was called "Dracula". This nickname has only a fictional and later commercial origin.
His name was Vlad Dracul, their family known as Draculesti and has something to do with the Dragon's Knights Order. Draculesti is in Romanian as you would say in English, for instance, the Smiths.
Thanks so much. I had no idea that Draculesti is a common surname in Romania.
@@OUTBOUNDWITHRON it s not common at all
Visit Brașov the most beautiful city of Romania !!! ♥️💛💙
I did. You can watch the video of Brazov on my TH-cam channel.
Love this video so much. The car industry really has taken over the city and the country for that matter, but there is a large fight against it, and the current government is very pro good urbanist choices, both for the city and the entire country. I love how big and dense and beautiful but edgy bucharest is, it is very much like paris, but very much its own thing and therefore very different, same goes for its similarity to berlin. Im glad you spoke on the parking in the revolution square area. It is truly saddeing to see how much car parking and cars in general have taken over, but people are fighting back. Know what I do? Every car parked on the sidewalk gets a BIG scratch on the side of their car. Oops, shouldnt have been on the sidewalk i guess 😅
Rick I'm so glad you enjoyed the video...and I share your enthusiasm for Bucharest!
☝️👏❤️✊😊
Would you advise flying into Bucharest, spending a few days, then renting a car to visit Transylvania? I guess I'm asking if driving the highways of Romania is safe? Thanks
Hi bigskyguy. Unfortunately I'm not really qualified to talk about driving in Romania since I haven't done it. All my transport has been by train or bus between cities. I will say based on what I've observed the highways (including major routes) appear to consist of a lot of two-lane roads that are often jammed with traffic including heavy trucks and buses. That said, if you fly to Bucharest you can easily take a train (or bus) to Brasov (about an hour and a half) where you will be at the lower end of Transylvania and from which you can travel anywhere else in the region by train or bus. However, neither system is fast and for long distances the connections can sometimes be a bit frustrating. If you can be patient and go with the flow there's nothing wrong with the transportation itself.
Thank you for your candid response. Just discovered your travel channel. Excellent work.
It depends what your term of comparison is. Romania has a worse record of road safety than other EU countries, but the difference isn't exactly huge compared to at least some of these countries. For example, if you feel safe driving in Portugal or Greece, it's not a huge difference compared to Romania, even though Romania does still fare worse than those two countries. If, on the other hand, your "gold standard" for road safety is Sweden, the difference is a bit sharp. Statistically, driving in Romania seems to be a bit safer than driving in the United States, though not by a large margin.
what do you mean if is safe? geez man, some people are so ignorant...
@@axcn4733 What's the question?
0:44 Selly ?
I speak for the squirrels 🐿️. Most of us emigrate to the west, and the rest are shy.
Count in me in with you as pro-squirrel!
If you come to Bucharest and you don't visit Aleea Livezilor, you wasted your time and money.
Will note that for the future. :-)
@@OUTBOUNDWITHRON no man, he's joking with you. Aleea Livezilor is the worst, poorest and used to be the most dangerous street in Bucharest. Stay away! :))
what are you talking about man?we have no effeilt tower or buchingam castle?we have better then that,40 years of terror for comunism?you know nothing,romania is very safe compare where you come from,people are smart and food is amazing.
it was not 4 decades of communist misery ... it was 4 decades of simple life and independence
Old timer!!We romaniand give a s...h on your opinon about Romania!Our ancestors the dacians are the only enemies for the Roman Empire who celebrated By the Rome!Traian Column is the prouve!!!!!!!!!!!Not your ancestor the picts,not gouls ,not germans but only dacians!!!
Okay, you come vizited, enjoyed the food and drinks and somthing else GOOD FOR YOU - THEN NOW GO HOME .
*people's palace = 9 billion lbs (4 million tons) as opposed to 9 billion tons :)
Thanks for flagging the error Eddie. You are correct. I should have said 9 billion pounds, not tons.