This weekend I had the opportunity to see the capital city of my country, Bucharest. Being born and raised in a town with a population of some 120000 I was rather taken aback by the distances of Cluj (the city in which I study at the present time). However, Bucharest was simply BIG. I haven’t visited Bucharest since I was six, and I can state that it really changed from the way I remember it, the way I saw it, with the eyes of a small child, some 14 years ago.
I got to Bucharest and it had this great train station, the biggest I’ve seen. I kept my hands in my pockets at all times, because I heard many stories about the infamous thieves of the capital city. Rumors which do not completely lack a foundation of facts. I finally got to the subway, and for the first time in years I got to take it. There are no subways in any other city in Romania.
The subways was simply disgusting. It had a certain charm, being all covered in graffiti, and SF-like, yet it left me disgusted. And the reason for my utter disgust were the beggars. Imagine:
Subway beggar number one: a man with three gnarled fingers at one hand. I doubt that his deformity was the result of a mutation or an accident. In fact I incline to believe that he chopped his own fingers just to make more money begging.
Subway beggar number two: a woman with an infant in her arms. The infant has burn-marks all over his face, grotesque patches of burnt skin cover more than half his scalp. That will never be a normal child. Now again, a stranger might think his burn-marks might be the result of an accident. I would bet anything his drunken mother or his drunken father burnt him with a blow torch, so the child would be a better income provider. Nobody loves you like your parents, right?
Subway beggar number three: a child of six or seven sitting on his knees and begging. At first I saw nothing wrong with him, until he turned his back to me. The back of his head was burnt entirely and his right ear was chopped off. It turned me sick. How could anyone do this to a child? How will such a mutilated child grow up to be? Why did no one take him away from his abusive parents? The fact that he will grow up to be a vile and abusive man as well is almost axiomatic. Society can sometimes be awfully cruel. Either way, I don’t know if any amount of therapy could ever transform that poor boy into a decent citizen.
Also Bucharest has a very motley population. It seems to me that it is more like an oriental city like Calcutta or Beirut rather than a western metropolis such as London or Paris. You can buy just about anything legal and illegal from the ubiquitous merchants. Also the average person seems to be a bit belligerent and unfriendly. However this is far from being a rule. Bucharest has many good-willed people. I just believe that the average is somewhat lower than the average in a Transylvanian common town, for instance.
Of course, as a young man I could not miss some of the capital’s plenitude of pubs and bars. Of course, I could only visit very few, meaning Club A (nice, though I’m not really into experimental theatre), Mes Amis (absolutely love the music, but I dislike the lack of space and high prices), Philos Pub (good food, good proximity to the dorm in which I slept, bad manele), Laptaria lui Enache (good music, nice bohemian atmosphere, nice girls, yet prices a bit too high) and B52 (ok music, nice people, nice interior design too bad it was too crowded and I had to place to sit).
Also I went to a book fest (the Gaudeamus). Of course, Bucharest’s no 1 remains the Bookarest, but I had to settle with the Gaudeamus, which was not really bad. A bit to crowded by wannabe intellectuals (just can’t lose’em unfortunately). The books weren’t as cheap as they advertised, yet I was tempted to buy one or two. It’s been a while since I read fiction, unfortunately…
Last but not least – the dorms. I was rather concerned by the precarious sanitary conditions in the Cluj dorms (I happen to be an inhabitant of dorm 16, one of the worst in the campus), yet the Bucharest ones (or the one I visited) are simply…. uuuuugh! when it comes to showers and toilets. Still, they started renovating, so I suppose the students of Bucharest will soon have decent conditions.
Still, my trip to Bucharest was fairly exciting. It was an adventure and a trip to remember. Also I felt very nice meeting some of the former high-school classmates who study in the capital. It was really fun, and I hope I’ll be able to revisit Bucharest soon.
