Bucharest - the People's Palace and protests

 This was the view from Emeri and my hotel room when we woke up.

The coffee in Romania is GOOD!!  Strong!  The lady who owns this place (or manages it, not sure) made home-made marble coffee cake and fried eggs however we wanted them.  And there was an array of delicious food too!

Sophia took a video of her dad at the breakfast bar that we had.

After everyone was up, we left the hotel and headed toward the People's Palace, also known as the Palace of Parliament.

I never knew that Bucharest has its own version of the Arch of Triumph.  It was built in 1921-22, commemorating Romania's victory in WW1 and the coronation of King Ferdinand and his wife Marie.

I love the architecture of this city!!!  You will see lots of posts of buildings, because I love that!  I considered becoming an architect at one time.

The traffic is crazy busy.  The streets are narrow!  Cars go every which way!

They also park every which way!  No problem if you park in front of a parked car.  You just leave your phone number on a piece of paper and if they need you to move it, they will call you to do so.

Ruxi drove the van around for some time before finding a place we could park.  We found a place in front of a pharmacy.  Here pharmacy IS spelled with an "F".

We like to joke that Al went to Pharmacy school thinking it was FARM-acy.  He actually would have loved being a farmer.

The People's Palace

This is the seat of Parliament of Romania.  It is the 2nd largest administrative building in the world.  The Pentagon is bigger.  It was ordered built by the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu, the president of Communist Romania.  It was built with forced labour in addition to soldiers, to minimize costs.  Some people died during the construction; one source claims about 3,000 deaths!  It became known as The People's House after the Romanian Revolution of Dec. 1989.  It changed from a palace fit for a dictator into the seat of democractic government.  Ceausescu and his wife were executed by a firing squad on Dec. 25, 1989.

The building has 12 stories and 8 underground levels.  He was afraid of a nuclear war and built an atomic bunker.  We were not allowed below.  I would have loved to see the prison where  Richard Wurmbrand and other Christians were imprisoned and tortured.   Do you know his story?  You can read about him.  There is also a movie called "Sabina" (his wife's name).  In the movie, one of the rooms we visited in this place is featured.

When we arrived there, there were lots of police around the place.  There were protests that were going on.  The police told us we would not be able to take a tour that day.

Ruxi went on in and asked if there were tours going on.  At that time, they were in between demonstrations and they said we could do it as long as the people didn't begin demonstrating again.  

We got our tickets and waited our turn.

One of the crystal chandeleers weighs 5 tons!

Adam had this picture taken

One man in the tour group with us heard us speaking English and asked where we were from.  When I told him, he smiled real big.  He was originally from Brazil, but immigrated to the U.S.  Attended Pitt State (Pittsburg, Kansas where our daughter went!) and now works in Tulsa!  We are neighbors!

We were told that dignitaries/presidents/world leaders 

come through these doors.

This carpet weighs one ton!  It takes 35 people to roll it up.

We would gawk at every ceiling!  All many different designs.

It was all so very ostentatious!

World leaders meet in this room in a circle.  Each person wears headsets that translate what is being said into their language.

On our tour, we saw about 3% of the building.  It took an hour.

As we walked back toward our car, here came the protestors!

These were school teachers, protesting low wages and certain rights.  Not sure about those hats.  Probably they represent the region of Romania they are from.

"You're afraid of good education because you're afraid of an educated nation."

Schools were out for this day.

These teachers are from Galati where we were headed.

A lot of noise and perhaps parliament will pay attention, but perhaps not.  Surely they would hear them as they passed by.  We told Ruxi that in America, protests usually turn ugly and people destroy things.  Their protests here may be loud, but they are peaceful.

On to Bucharest!

 When we first planned an overseas trip for our 2 granddaughters, it was just us and them.  But when travel plans changed to Romania instead of Japan, our son-in-law, Adam came along.  Their church in Wisconsin has a sister church in Galati (pronounced Gah-lahtz).  Adam had been there before and would go along to preach in their church.  Anthoney, a student of Jill's at their Christian school, was born in Romania.  His parents immigrated to Wisconsin when he was one year old.  He asked if he could go so he could see his aunt and uncle and grandmother.  

We left Jill, Hannah and Claire behind.  We hope to do a trip with each grandchild.  Hannah has gone on her trip before and Claire will have her turn!  Next in line is Eli, though.  Next summer hopefully, with Papa and Josh.

Left behind.

    

It was a 3 hour ride in driving rain all the way to Chicago O'Hare International.  A friend of Adam and Jill rode along and took the van back to Jill (rather than park it in the long-term parking).

The international airport in Chicago is a mess right now due to construction.  My hip has been bothering me for some months (arthiritis and scoliosis) and it was hurting as I walked.  So we got a ride!

On Air France

Tight quarters!

We had to watch a video on flight safety.  We were startled to hear "Do not smoke in the bathroom or you will be persecuted." !!! I think they meant to say "prosecuted."

I sat beside a young guy who was a musician.  He was moving to Paris to be with his wife.  They are moving to the country, but first had some gigs in the city known for romance, art, culture and fashion.

The girls were seated a couple rows up from us.

We slept off and on over the ocean.  We arrived in Paris and had to go through customs again before boarding the plane for Bucharest.  We arrived just as they were boarding.  On this next flight, we 3 girls sat together and the guys in front of us.  I'm glad the girls could look out the window!

The alps

Romania

At the airport, we had to go through customs one more time.  We were met by a couple of young ladies, Ruxi and Killyn, who are with Josiah Venture.  Ruxi is Romanian and Killyn is from Wisconsin!  They work alongside the church we were going to.  Ruxi has been in the States and has actually been in Adam and Jill's home.  

They had come with the church van to pick us up.  They drove us to our hotel for the night.

We had a little rest time before going out in the city.

  I took lots of pictures.

Little vehicles because the streets are narrow!

I saw lots of guys with flowers, or girls holding flowers from their fellows.  There are many, many flower shops all over!  Ruxi told me "Of course!  A girl expects flowers!"

They took us to a restaurant.

We left the van in the parking lot of the restaurant and walked around.  We also took the subway.

There are lots of monuments and statues in Bucharest!

Al had to investigate a pharmacy.

Their banks are pretty amazing!  In our family, we have several who work in banks, but they don't look like this!

The architecture was jaw dropping!

As the rest of the group went through this covered area, Killyn took me to a coffee shop as my hip/legs were hurting.

Killyn told me her story and what brought her from Wisconsin to Romania.

When the group came to find us, we called it a day and went back to the hotel to sleep.