Checking out Bucharest.....

Bucharest turns out to be a very modern city of around 2 million people.....with a lot of great buildings from prior to Communist rule!

Our morning outing....... visiting the now Parliament building (with FBI and CIA bureaus supposedly also within the building!). This was what got Ceausescu into trouble..finally.  Too big, too much marble, too much silk etc etc........while the ordinary person had nothing!

It is huge! Lots of exceptionally large conference rooms and amazing corridors....

And tons of marble  used!

View from the balcony.....

It was incredible that this one man could build something like this while his country was starving. It has 11 floors, a few floors before reaching the actual ground floor. 40,000 people were displaced so that he could clear the area for his 'folly'!! 

A fountain boulevard leads to it......with communist elite apartments flanking both sides...now privately owned!

The city had many interesting buildings.....

An Arc de Triomphe!

Their department store modeled on the Galleries Lafayette in Paris......

This old building had a fire so they kept the facade and built a glass hotel behind it!

This started life as a stables for King Carol's horses........now a concert hall...

The Royal Palace.....now has two Art museums.....

A lot of early religious art......

This I thought was very nice....

Lunch at Caru'cu Bere was interesting...it looked as though an old church had been converted....however it was built as a restaurant in the 18 hundreds.......

We also visited a very unusual dinner venue, the Great Hill. wine bar........the focus is on wine, which was great! They have turned their private residence into a marketing place for select wines from a specific area of Romania.

Interesting art .....also for sale!

Into Romania........

 From Varna we were supposed to be going inland directly to Bucharest. This was changed at the last minute.....taking us to Constanta.....on the Black Sea and closer to Ukraine! Only 150kms from the frontier and about 450kms from Odessa! A little too close maybe!

Constanta has a very large port which is now being used to transport Ukraine grain.  It is presumably conceivable that the Russians know this and it might become a target....although there is also a NATO base there! There seemed to be a lot of barriers around the port which made it difficult to take photos! But I did try!

This city also had an Archaeological museum with lots of gold actually found there and in the port area........

.....and great sculptures in amazing condition...found almost totally undamaged! 

There was also a burial vault.....

Amazing detail.......

.....and a very long mosaic floor was also found on site..

The main square was sort of OK and had a few outdoor restaurants.

There was one building worth seeing, the House with Lions... but now it is decaying a little! A shame!

The drive to Bucharest was quite long...but it was essentially motorway all the way!

It is a large city so driving to the hotel we were able to see quite a few Communist era buildings... apparently the actual apartments inside are very small.

Just before we got to the hotel we saw amazing fountains.....the tall square block building at the back was built by Ceausescu,,,,,,,,,,,, we would be visiting it later!

Again moving East in Bulgaria.....to the Black Sea

 Going east from Plovdiv is via motorway...... so, easy... but long!

We stopped in Nessabar... it was very interesting.......entry to the old town is via a causeway with a windmill.... it used to be an island!

... again immediate evidence of Roman occupation......

Church of Archangels Michael and Gabriel.....

with the original Nazi symbols!

Then the St John the Baptist church.....

Next church....... the Santa Sophia...... from the 5th C .... the island had been full of churches!

.....then onto the Black Sea.....

,,, and on to Varna... to a dinner at a Wine Club......the wine was actually good! Learned that they use the Mourvedre grape... called there the Mavrud grape....they had even made a white wine from the red grape! It was excellent!

Next day we visited the Archaeological Museum which has a lot of gold...... found locally.....

Amazing! Later I went to check out the Roman baths......no gold there!

I need here to plug our hotel in Varna ,,,,,,,the Graffit Gallery Hotel......think Ian Schraeger!

my room number!
Definitely recommend!!