Bucharest – Part I

I’m in Bucharest this week through Wednesday for work and decided to come early so I could explore the city over the weekend.

Upon my arrival, I headed for the taxi line and looked for an official airport taxi – apparently there’s only one official provider and I had been told to stick with it. Though I’ve taken countless “gypsy” cabs in NYC, I figured I’d go with the real thing given the unfamiliar environment.

The driver of the first taxi in the queue wasn’t very excited about this since he was one of the “entrepreneurial” taxi drivers. “What do you think…that this is Albania?” he said sternly. “You’re going to have to wait a long time for an airport taxis and they’re the same as mine,” he warned. Regardless, I replied that I was happy to wait and magically the second taxi in the queue (which was an official one) pulled right up to me and I was all set.

During the ride from the airport to the hotel, I definitely could see the former communist-era influence on the city around me. There were many wide avenues and large, plain buildings that likely housed some governmental department at a point in time. I also had the opportunity to get my first exposure to the Romanian language as the cab driver talked on the phone the whole time. It sounded familiar as a Romance language (perhaps closest to Italian), but I couldn’t understand one bit.

At one point we passed the “Arc de Triumphe”...

Unfortunately, my plan to explore the city today didn’t ultimately work out since I ended up working all day. It was my first weekend work in quite a long time and reminded me how nice it is to be free from the shackles of my former professional life. Nonetheless, I was able to learn something very important about the city from my hotel room – apparently its name is pronounced BOO-char-est and not BYOU-char-est.