Early fall or late summer, I don't know how to better define the current moment when the weather is so beautiful. Summer temperatures during the day and autumn temperatures at night. Their average means some extremely beautiful days and nights that are always inviting to stay outside. Ideally, it would be in the middle of nature.
The ideal only exists in wishes, in reality, we have to adapt. Just like climate change. They are irreversible and the only solution is for us humans to adapt to these changes and survive.
This seems to be the future, but until then we can enjoy what we get. I mean many more beautiful days and, even if we can't spend it in the middle of nature, we, the city dwellers, should spend it in the middle of... the city!
I live on the outskirts of the city where I have everything I need and for this reason, I rarely leave the area. However, every Sunday, my wife and I take a walk in the city center.
The city is Bucharest in Romania. A big city, but not a city of great beauty. An amalgam, a mixture of old and new, beautiful and ugly, an eclectic architecture, influenced more by the French architecture of the nineteenth century. So if you are a visitor to Bucharest you have to choose. In one place to look and admire, in another place to close your eyes and move on.
I keep wondering what the increasing number of (foreign) tourists visiting the city find. Or what are they looking for? Actually, I know, they are looking for what they find... cheap food and drink and willing women... For some, these are reasons enough. Probably cheap trips too.
As for me, I look for and find, on Sundays, part of downtown, especially one avenue, Victoria Avenue, which retains most of the 19th-20th century buildings. Every walk down this avenue helps me travel back in time to an era that I consider the best in the history of the city and the country. With all the subjectivity I have, I only think about the good things of that era and ignore what is bad and ugly.
Sunday, 1 October
The Bucharest City Hall has decided that at the end of the week, this boulevard will be forbidden to cars and will become an exclusively pedestrian area. This would have meant that only those walking on their own two feet would have access, but in Romania, everything is misunderstood or distorted, so cyclists and those with electric scooters are also circulating. Beyond this small inconvenience, everything is fine and pleasant. In the afternoon and evening, at night the boulevard is full of passers-by, parents and children, young and old. It is a pleasure to walk away from cars.
I walked in the morning when I also enjoyed less crowding, meaning very few walkers.
A place on Victory Avenue that I like a lot. On the far right, you can see the building called the Telephone Palace. It was the first skyscraper in Romania, built in 1933 to the designs of American architects. The height of the building, only 53 m, is low because Bucharest is in a seismic zone with large earthquakes. Also on the right, before the Telephone Palace, is the only modern, recently built building. Hotel Novotel, built on the site of the former National Theatre building, was bombed at the end of World War II. The entrance to the hotel is a copy of the theatre building. To the left is the Grand Hotel Continental, built-in 1886.
A TV crew reports the news from the street. So I could see how it's done.
The lack of cars gives a unique view of the place. The joy of cyclists, by the way. In the distance, you can see the building that houses the Art Museum, the former Royal Palace.
Another view of the Telephone Palace, from street level.
Part of the former Royal Palace. The lack of cars... the joy of children!
This is where a square begins. The former Palace Square, now renamed Revolution Square. This picture includes buildings from different eras. The building in the back was built between the two world wars, the Crețulescu church is from 1722, and the blocks in the background on the right were built during Romania's communist period in the 1960s.
A monument erected in memory of those who died during the Romanian Revolution of 1989 - the Monument of National Rebirth.
A controversial monument, made by sculptor Alexandru Ghildus in 2005. It cost a lot of money, and the sculptor was accused by his colleagues of plagiarism. Surely he was inspired by other works because there is evidence... but nothing happened.
The middle of Revolutiei Square is dominated by the Art Museum, the former Royal Palace, on the left and by the Central University Library of Bucharest, on the right.
In the middle is the equestrian statue of King Charles I of Romania, the one who is responsible for the modernization of the country. Both the Royal Palace(1937) and the University Library(1895) were built at the King's wish and command. Except that the king died long before the palace was finished.
In the distance, you can see the Athénée Palace Hotel (part of the Hilton chain). This is the first building in the country where reinforced concrete was used in 1912.
One of the most beautiful buildings in Bucharest. The Romanian Athenaeum. It was built in only two years and finished in 1888. Part of the money needed for the construction was raised by public subscription.
I think the end of this car exemption is coming, this might be the last time this year that I could step onto the pavement in the middle of the street without worry or fear. With summer many things come to an end and the waiting begins for next summer, next trip, and next holiday. The nostalgia of past trips, past holidays, and past times begins!
