Romania - Bucharest

I took an express train from Brasov, back down South to my penultimate destination, Romania's capital city of Bucharest. The train was a nice contrast from that which I took a couple of days ago in Transylvania, this one being the fastest and most expensive class. Strangely the design bared more than a passing resemblance to a New York subway car, complete with shiny aluminium exterior - a weird experience.

The site of the secret police's former HQ, put to innovative use

I met an Australian couple on the train and together we walked to the hostel, avoiding the unusually aggressive taxi drivers touting for business outside the station, which are apparently a notorious rip-off. Upon checking in at the hostel, the nice girl in charge became strangely excited upon noticing we shared the same birthday and insisted I come back later in the evening for a big drinking game she was organising, complete with free drinks. Needless to say I made a mental note.

The Palace of the People - one man's grotesquely egotistical creation

In the meantime I headed into the city and straight for the number one tourist attraction - the Palace of the People. It really is a spectacular and imposing sight, being the single largest building in the whole of Europe and second largest in the entire world (beaten only by the Pentagon). Unfortunately, the directions given to me at the hostel were wrong and I ended up walking around the outside of the entire building looking for the entrance, which gave an exhausting but lasting impression of its sheer size.

Inside the palace

Eventually I found my way in and after making my way through the somewhat chaotic entrance hall, managed to join an English-language tour. Built by the command of Nicolae Ceauşescu, the communist dictator of Romania, with much of it designed by his wife, it was supposed to be a symbol of power and wealth. However, it was deeply unpopular, with a staggering one-fifth of the city being demolished to make way for it (needless to say the unfortunate residents had no say in the matter), including many historic churches.

One of 500 extravagantly ornate chandeliers

Built at fantastic cost in one of Europe's poorest countries, the building is sickeningly ornate. The sheer statistics are mind boggling - over 1000 rooms, 12 floors, 1 million cubic metres of marble and 200,000 square metres of luxury carpet. The place was so big that many of the rooms were never used. The worst part of the story is that this enormous monstrosity was never put to good use - still only nearing completion by the time of Ceauşescu's removal from power and subsequent execution, it still hasn't been finished. Upkeep alone costs a fortune and with all the lights on it would rival the entire city for power consumption.

On the palace's balcony, overlooking the impressive main avenue

The rest of Bucharest is testament to Ceauşescu's delusions of grandeur. Much of the historic and older neighbourhoods were razed, with the city rebuilt in French style, earning it the nickname "the Paris of the East". It's hard when wandering around to get a real sense of where in the world you are - there's a full-size copy of the Arc de Triomphe and an enormous main boulevard based on the Champs-Élysées cutting through the centre, sneakily built a handful of metres longer and wider on Ceauşescu's orders. It really doesn't feel like being in deepest Eastern Europe.

Parisian architecture on the streets of Romania

I took a walk around an area marked the 'old quarter', and found nothing particular old. It seems the history of the city was erased and rewritten on the whim of just one man. Having said that, despite the dark history of much of this place, and the loss of the old, it really is an impressive sight and holds its weight amongst many of the great cities of the world. It seems Ceauşescu really did achieve his dream.

Revolution Square

However, no visit to Bucharest would be complete without seeing where his dream ended. Revolution Square is the site where, in 1989, Ceauşescu delivered what would be his his final speech and had to be rescued by helicopter as an angry crowd booed and chanted slogans against him. He didn't escape for long and was eventually caught and executed, bringing Romania's difficult period of communist dictatorship to an end. It is nice to know that there's a happy ending to the story, with the country having joined the European Union at the start of this year, a fitting reward for Romania's journey to democracy.

A memorial to the Romanian Revolution of 1989

After a hard day's sightseeing I made my way back to the hostel, where once again I bumped into the Irish guys I had previously met in Macedonia and then again in Greece. How on earth can you bump into the same group of people three times in locations hundreds of miles apart?! I may have by now established that they are legendary drinkers, and altogether about twenty of us from the hostel took part in without doubt the funniest and craziest drinking game I've ever experienced. The game involved the creation of rules that everybody had to follow - my favourite being that the Irish and English had to 'swap' accents for the rest of the night...

We had so much fun a jealous neighbour kicked us out of the garden

And so with Bucharest done, my trip is nearly over. Twenty one countries down, one to go. Onwards to the end of my epic trip and a well earned rest - Turkey is awaiting!