Megalomaniacs, Banksy and Tripe Soup (Bucharest ~ Romania)

October 2019

Bucharest is a bit of an odd city as it still has the feel of communism about it - especially in the architecture. Having said that there is still some beautiful old buildings from the pre communism days such as the Athenaeum. Strictly speaking only open to the public when a performance is on but the doorman will quite happily let you have a bit if a nosy for a few Lei.

Now most cities have memorial statues that are beautiful and moving. In Bucharest the Rebirth Memorial (and the names of those who died in the days leading up to the execution of Ceausescu) is lovingly known as the "Potato on a Stick" - for obvious reasons.

The memorial is located in front of the former Central Committee of the Comminist Party buildings where Ceausescu gave his last speech from a balcony and tried to wrest power back before escaping and being choppered off the roof to Targovista for his own safety (where ironically he was tried and executed).

We stayed in Bucharest for a couple of days as there were a couple of major sites we wanted to see. They were the Ceausescu's Apartments (pretty much untouched since the day he fled the city) and the Palace of Parliament started by him (the second largest administrative building in the world but never finished.

From the outside the Ceausescu's Apartments look like any other building owned by a well to do person. It's not until you are shown around do you see the overwhelming opulence, gifts from foreign dignitaries and what someone with a huge amount of money and no taste can do in terms of interior decoration.

When anaglypta wallpaper isn't enough.

Glass from Murano in Venice

Gold plated taps

Ming Vase from Chairman Mao and Silk Prayer Mat from the Shah of Iran.

Matching dictatorial jim-jams

The conservatory 

Walk in wardrobe

Hydrotherapy for a weary dictator 

As some one who really likes mosaics I found myself grinding my teeth when looking at these.

Descendants of the peacocks that lived here when the Ceausescu's were alive

Purely by chance we spotted signs advertising an exhibition of work by Banksy at the Arcul de Triumph so as both us like his work we headed out that way. On the way there we walked through the Herastrau Park which was full of busts of notable people like Shakespeare, Beethoven, Victor Hugo and so on). It was also, for reasons unknown, home to a memorial to Micheal Jackson.

The Arcul de Triumph and the Banksy exhibition was great with the Arcul being smaller than the one in Paris but the traffic around it being as bad.

Our plans to visit the Palace of the Parliament were quashed as it was closed for some conferences but still managed to get past the gate to take a few photos.

The historic quarter of Bucharest is quite pleasent to wander around in as it is closed to traffic and most of the buildings have been repaired and renovated (usually into a restaurant).

One building in particular is the Carturesti Carusel Bookshop. Built 1903 by Greek Bankers, confiscated by Communists in 1950s and the abandoned. It was returned to the grandson of the Greek Banker (after 24 years of legal wrangling) and in 2007 started renovations. It is now light, airy and elegant with artwork, a cafe on the fourth floor and boardgames and vinyl records in the basement.

On the edge of the old quarter are two sights recommend by Atlas Obscura. The first is a statue of the Roman Emperor Trajan holding a Dacian wolf. An odd statue as the Emperor is naked and the wolf seems to hover above his arms. Sadly it is under repair but here's what it looked like and hopefully will do again in the future.

The other is kept in the Relics of Zlatari Church and was the arm of a 3rd century sorcerer called St Cyprian the Mage - patron saint of necromancer,  witches and sorcerers.

Having found out so much about Ceausescu we decided to track down his grave - currently in Bucharest. Definitely not resting in peace as was originally buried elsewhere, exhumed and moved here, exhumed again for DNA tests in 2009 to verify they were actually dead. Seems like there are still people with fond memories of them as fresh flowers were present.

On the way to dinner that night we passed the main square which houses the largest set of fountains we have seen. The primary fountain fill the middle of a traffic roundabout (which ain't small as it caters for three lanes of traffic) and surrounding the roundabout are more fountains.

From one end to the other is about 300 metres. As luck would have it we were there on a Friday night which is when a full blown light and music spectacle with dancing fountains occurs.

Dinner that night was at  Caru'cu Bere which was very touristy but lots of fun with waiters scurrying around dancers.

Seeing as this was our last night in Romania I decided to try the national dish of Tripe Soup. A nice slightly sour soup though the texture (or lack thereof) of the trip left a bit to be desired - very, very soft. 

If you are interested I have included the recipe below.

Tripe Soup

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg beef tripe
• 2.5 litres water
• 1 piece beef bone
• 2 carrots
• 8 cloves garlic minced
• 1 celery root
• 1 onion
• 5000 ml sour cream
• 85 ml vinegar
• 3 eggs
• 1 parsnip
• salt and pepper to taste
• parsley
• 15 ml olive oil

Steps

1. First thing you have to do is wash the tripe really well, when it's clean it should be white.
2. In a big pot add the tripe, bone, carrots, celery root, onion, parsnip and boil for 2 to 3 hours. Leave the vegetables whole.
3. Take out the tripe and the bone and strain the rest of the vegetables, leaving the broth nice and clear. Cut the tripe into really small pieces, about 1 cm wide by 2 cm long. Add it back to the broth.
4. Shred the boiled carrots and in a small pan add a tbsp olive and saute the carrots for 2 to 3 minutes.
5. In a small bowl mix the sour cream and the eggs together really well and add to the soup. Add sauteed carrots, the minced garlic and the vinegar to the soup as well. Add salt and pepper to taste and let it come to a boil again. Make sure you taste it and if you require more vinegar feel free to add more.
6. Garnish with parsley and serve hot. Serve with additional sour cream or vinegar if preferred.