BUCHAREST

I was here: October 2017.
Number of days: 1. There were two, but the second day the temperature dropped 14ºC with heavy rain and wind, so we just left the apartment for lunch.
Recommended number of days: 2.
My rating: 2/5.

Bucharest reminded me the communist cousin of Vienna. In a clear attempt to be no less than its neighbors and rivals Vienna or Budapest in the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the reforms of the city were made taking Paris as a model, but personally it still reminds me the capital of Austria.

Hundreds of monumental and historic buildings, some restored and in excellent condition, give an imposing aspect to the historic center. A pity that there are almost the same number peeled, with their metallic rusted and discolored roofs. Then there is the communist heritage: thousands of buildings of similar appearance, rough and unattractive, the vast majority of them are unrestored. Invariably of whatever kind, almost all of them are filled with graffiti as far as the vandals can reach, which confers a dirty look to the city. Neither does the large number of people who live on the street help its image, although some will say that there are also many in Vancouver and is considered one of the cities with best quality of living in the world… But let’s focus on the good:

The Parliament, one of the largest government buildings that exist, supposedly only surpassed by the Pentagon. It is not very nice, but it is so big that it truly impresses. Next to it is being built the new orthodox cathedral.
The historic center is where most monumental buildings are, and most are restored.
It has two nice parks.
Many museums for museum lovers.
And if there is enough time, on a day trip you can see a lot of Transylvania.

You’ll wonder how Bucharest would have been if Romania had not embraced communism and then had been forced to remain in it until the 1990s. The good news is that now that the country is improving, there are still many beautiful buildings to be restored, though the massifs there is no one to take them away, so it will hardly in the near future recover the beauty that it had, nor to reach that of the cities it intended to resemble, but in a few years is likely to be a city worthy of going specifically to visit.