I think General might be the right thread for this. I hope the link is allowed. I took a stroll through Bucharest last month, aiming to create a "then and now" album with photographs from 1930-1945 and today. Took me like a month, but it's finally finished. I expected it to be easier ). I posted the article on my website, so here's the link: Then and Now: A stroll through Bucharest - WW2 HistoryBook Hope you like it!
Drat! cant find my English Romanian Dictionary, the guys down the road speak English anyway. We often chat as I walk past them fixing cars in the road when I walk my dog. Nice guys, two from Bucharest one from Brasov. I recognise several of your photos of Buchurest having worked there in 1974/75. I stayed in the Hotel Lido, dined with Americans in the Intercontinetal Hotel, spent Wednesday evenings in the British ex pats club in the Embassy where the BAC Engineers working at the airport went to relax and on occasions visited the American Marine House on Fridays where the Boeing Engineers hung out.. Other nights we (myself and two German Engineers) walked from the Lido to the Atheenne Palace where that Romanian Tennis player Ili Nastase hung out with his mates. These were the Ceaușescu days so you had to be careful where you walked at night there was one side of the road which if you used it a policeman would appear and beat you with the aerial of his walkie talkie to make you go away. A Brit rolled up one night at the Embassy Club in a Range Rover parking it in a street nearby. When he went back to it the windscreen wipers, aerial and anything removable had gone. He didnt have much of a sense of humour. Everyone used to put that stuff in the boot or take it with them. My first night in the city was spent in the LIdo outdoor restaurant where they took pride in running their wave machine. No one was allowed in the water so we sat at the tables while some local musicians played traditional violin music. I dont know how long I was there as after a strenuous flight on a Tarom flight which had an emergency landing at Amsterdam, I lost count of how many bottles they put into my glass. They began putting the chairs away but my legs wouldnt work. They just smiled and wished me goodnight. I eventually got to my room from the lift. The attendant was smiling a lot. I found out when I got into bed and dozed off. After a while I needed the loo so put the light on to find the curtains were a different colour than before. The smiling attendant had let me out on the wrong floor and all the keys for rooms one above the other were the same.
Such great stories mate! That wave machine with nobody being allowed to go into the water is so telling for the communist era. It took us 20 years after the fall of communism to be allowed to sit on the grass in parks, the indoctrination and psychological after effects were that bad after 40 years of that shit! )
Some bits round University Square look familiar from when I went for the football a few years ago - I wish I'd spent a bit longer in my visit (and that we'd won)
Bucharest is ok but you need to go north through the Carpathian Mountains to Brasov a popular ski resort. You are in Transylvania country Vlad the Impaler had his castle there. They say he was the original Dracula. After two nights in the Hotel Carpati I went north with my escort by steam train in heavy snow up to Miercurea Ciuc and on to Vlahita a steel producing town. It was winter 40 below with bears walking in the streets and huge cockroaches on the walls of the hotel at night. Pulled the flush in the ensuite bathroom and it came off the wall. Got back to Bucharest asap. On the way up I handed out JPS cigarettes, a rarity in Romania at that time. I also opened my Duty Free Glen Fiddich. A big quiet guy in the Compartment told me he was in the Luftwaffe in WW2 and bombed London, so I hit him with the truth that my boss was in the RAF and Bombed Ploiesti. That broke the ice!
))) Gotta say that in your image is not Dracul Castle from Transylvania, it's the Peles Castle in Sinaia, built by the Royal Family in the late 1800s. Dracul Castle is Castle Bran, which is not actually Vlad the Impaler's castle, but this became the legend so everybody rides with it . He may have been there a few times (or not) in passing, but there's no other connection. Brasov is nice, you're right, I'm skiing there every winter. The accomodations are also better now .
Just a short trip to see Steaua v Motherwell in the 2009 Champions League (preliminary) - it doesn't seem that long ago
Re:#7 I always knew that interpreter was full of bullshit! Its in a photo album they gave me when I came home but to be fair there is no caption to it, so perhaps 45 years have left their mark. I thought it was Castle Bran but that might be a trick of my mind. Best get back to WW2 now as thats what we are here for.
