I have recently returned to Amsterdam after one week spent in Romania, my other home. I was in Bucharest for most of the time, but also in the countryside for a couple of days.
Being there has been as confusing as always because, somehow, I always find myself in the situation of trying to define and re-define what Romania means to me. And this is not easy, considering the multitude of contradictions this country is made of.
Bucharest looked rather grey on this particular occasion, mostly because of the weather (unfortunately, I left exactly when the snowing began). The heavy mixture of good and bad, beautiful and ugly, rich and poor etc. has always been difficult for me to digest and it didn`t feel any different this time. I would like to call it variety, but I actually see it as a separation, a big gap between components which should normally combine harmoniously.
However, I really need to stop trying to find a label for Bucharest. Perhaps it is in its nature to be simply undefinable and we should embrace it as it is. I will now let the images speak for themselves and they are quite a few!
The view from my window before and after the snow:
Home:
Streets & people:
The eclectic architecture of Bucharest:
Details:
The snow that started to cover the city as I was leaving:
Now, how would you define Bucharest? 🙂
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2 Comments
I really love Bucharest! I´ve only spent one year there as a language student at the State University in ´99-00 but I kept coming back for more ever since. I feel our entire country is a strange amalgam of contradictory traits, but that´s the beauty of it, too, in a way. And that´s what I miss when I´m here, where things are so much aligned and so regular. At the same time I get the same feeling you describe- every time I go back I find Bucharest grey and noisy and its people bland and constantly in a hurry. And I hate all the banks and the pharmacies!;-) I´m going home for a week at the end of February, too, I need my half-yearly fix!;-) And some apple strudel!
Ah, this reminds me I forgot to eat merdenele! :)) I planned to, yet I forgot. Next time, I guess! I know what you mean with the big difference between the Romanian chaos & unpredictability versus the Western uniformity. When you have one, you miss the other. It`s impossible to be happy with only one in the absence of the other. 🙂 Enjoy home!
[…] brought me back to Romania, to see my family and friends. My hometown Bucharest, in spite of not looking just as good as Amsterdam on a cold and snowless winter, still managed to […]