Welcome, dude! Welcome to Bucharest and feel free to spit out your frustrations all over the place, just like everyone else here. Blame it all on beggars, corruption, bureaucracy, stray dogs, rubbish, that omnipresent inefficiency and, yes, on the Others. Once you're done with that, get loose and let yourself be taken away by the flow, let your senses be challenged by the city beat. Then stop all of a sudden, careful that a car does not put an end to your life, and look around you.

You might very well experience many contrasting and unexpected things: great, tasty (and oily) pastry, Aura Urziceanu's voice, drivers' crazy rush and lack of respect for anything, Maria Tănase, the manele, stray dogs' wandering around, "le Petit Paris", the world's second biggest building (and among world's biggest heaps of shit, respectively shit-heads), the Gypsies, a classical music concert at the Athenaeum's great acoustics hall, the omnipresent tupeu, Stavropoleos Church's Western and Eastern architecture mix, the fițe, the covrigi in Piața Romană, a good book and a sip of tea at the Cărturești, the typical Balkan "dolce far' niente" and that "don't know, can't do, wasn't me" in the air... In the end of the day, hot tar of hell, Bucharest is the only city in Europe to host monkeys living freely in the streets, as well as some live Bruegel art (see the sausage window), not to mention its being the capital city of a country where chaos and incompetence have managed to turn into a brand (and, of course, Bucharest alone, as an intangible entity, is guilty for that, the rest of Romania is a victim, I’ve heard that in nearly all failed countries I have been to).

Maybe an appropriate way of defining Bucharest would be "city of the contrasts". This city cannot be put in the books as a tourist attraction, because its looks and sometimes shaken and stirred nature are proofs enough to show it has not been conceived for tourists or their comfort, but rather for the heterogeneous crowd living here. Furthermore, it is not convenient, as it did not develop in a place where "convenience" has ever had any sense. So, better not expect things to happen in this place, the only thing to expect is that it will generate strong feelings, both to the good and to the bad. There's no "simply crossing Bucharest". Nay.

I love Bucharest for its small, old times' houses or fine, secluded, unadvertised museums and churches (have you ever heard of Casa Melik, Casa Zambaccian, about Antim or Radu Vodă monasteries, not to mention the beautiful Great Synagogue?). I enjoy grabbing some of the fewer local donuts and langoși (i.e. not the 3 in 1 fluffy kind) in town on the way home or having some tripe soup at the Nicorești or some Pleșcoi sausages at the Rossetya.

Then, I hate Bucharest at times for the overwhelming despair in the air, for the ever tougher rush, for the brainless drivers that only respect the one next to them when they fear that by hitting him / her they would scratch their shiny, narcissist metal boxes. I hate the red tape and the lack of self respect, not to mention respect for the others. And then, these issues are nothing when compared to mortals playing gods, mocking at their and others’ impotence or doing things just for the show. But then, one can always look at it from a different perspective: this is an actors’ country, from head to toe.

I appreciate Bucharest generally speaking, because it has a bad reputation and it is not likely to turn into any sort of mass tourism destination, thank Nanak for that. And yes, because this is not a place where one can get bored. Ever. So, why not tune on some of Teleorman's great Liviu Vasilică's songs and relax, eyes wide open on the mad traffic and hands greasy due to those filling mici. Why would one ever come to Bucharest other than for business, the (still) cheap drinks and whores, or for the international airport here? Because it is different. So different that it hurts, thrills, tickles, outrages and excites, all at the same time. One can learn more than that only by joining this crazy, apparently incoherent crowd.

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All pictures and texts by Alexandru Dumitru - unless stated otherwise. Feel free to download pictures, but kindly ask for permission before using them on other websites. Take it as reference to your common sense, and not to any law, applicable or not. Thank you and enjoy.