My article in Romania-Insider yesterday got over 3,000 clicks. It will be the theme of my book on Bucharest.
I never felt Bucharest was uncivilised. I could see in 1998, when I came here, that is was in plenty of ways a more civilised place than England. As an Englishman, I always considered France the acme of sophistication and civilisation. Romania, though a very much less sophisticated place than France, was Latin enough to make me feel slightly clean-cut and, well, American. In the fifteen years I have lived here Western Europe has become increasingly unfree, authoritarian and drifting from its traditions and Romania seems more and more a redoubt of civilisation.
I never felt Bucharest was uncivilised. I could see in 1998, when I came here, that is was in plenty of ways a more civilised place than England. As an Englishman, I always considered France the acme of sophistication and civilisation. Romania, though a very much less sophisticated place than France, was Latin enough to make me feel slightly clean-cut and, well, American. In the fifteen years I have lived here Western Europe has become increasingly unfree, authoritarian and drifting from its traditions and Romania seems more and more a redoubt of civilisation.
Thank you for your article about Bucharest. A few years ago I discoveres an area hidden in the back the blocks of Stefan cel Mare Blvd. that was inhabited before WWII by the Muscali(the ancient horse cab drivers of Bucharest) with very old architecture (Episcop Radu street, for instance...)
ReplyDeleteThank you! :)
ReplyDeleteMy great pleasure!
ReplyDeleteJust as in our personal lives, we all like and miss what we lack. Once we have it, it's possible we won't like it anymore and want to go back or change or want something else. You say Romania is still free from the constraints of western civilization and democracy, but it's those constraints that we aspire to :) However, I'm sure you'll be able to enjoy those potholes in Bucharest asphalt for many years to come. For me it's nice to read good things about this city - town as you call it - as almost all Romanians dis it relentlessly, praising the wonders of the west. As we live here, I think we must learn to like and love it.
ReplyDeleteCristina, The grass is always greener and all that... The wonders of the west are becoming quite under appreciated in the west, with continuous efforts to change. Most of the time lost things cannot be found again. I'm not a sentimentalist but I am a nostalgalist (my computer says that's not a word, but what does a computer really know?)
ReplyDeleteArticle is very nice. You post great pictures too.
ReplyDeleteit might be 4 U for me it s a plain disaster monsterous city. Gabriel Vlad
ReplyDeleteP.V.E., You do post great pics, but I'm waiting for some pics, photos, of that "blowsy" charm.
ReplyDeleteThe photos could really be from a movie.
ReplyDeleteManimala Das
Your text about Bucharest made me really cry! That city is my HOME, and even if i been visit many countries (now i live in Italy), i never felt what i feel when i'm in Bucharest! There i feel free! There i feel in the present! Keep writing about this country, make others come there and feel happy like you and me felt!
ReplyDeleteEmsky, thank you very much! Your post made me very happy. This is the theme of what I mean to write.
ReplyDeleteI love this article. I can see your effort to be objective in your own way and by your own standards. it helps a lot, I think, because it brings clarity to the foreign reader. Sometimes when you describe your love for Bucharest, and for its decay, you shock Romanians and confuse foreigners. But here, i think, you have brought some clarity as in why someone should or could appreciate derelicness, as a travel through time and cultures. Looking forward to more articles.
ReplyDeleteI was happy to read this, while Bucuresti isnt my true love - Cluj and Romania in general is mine - nice to know there are others like me who have fallen in love with romania - the place which I call my home - an expat in Cluj
ReplyDeleteI was happy to read this, while Buc isnt my true love - Cluj and Romania are mine - nice to know there are others like me who have fallen in love with romania - the place which I call my home.
ReplyDeleteI am very impressed by your article. I am from Bucharest and after 8 years of living in Switzerland, Paris and Lisbon I came back to work and live here. Most people say I am crazy because I didn't remain in predictable, boring Switzerland to get rich but life is really nice here for me and my Portuguese expat boyfriend that felt in love with Vama Veche at first glance. As for the hidden places you talk about, I am also discovering lots of them together with my 3rd year architecture university students group...most of these in the ex-Jewish headquarters. As a friend and colleague architect says: Bucharest is an original combination of the over-imposing of Turkish, French and communist influences that make it unique !
ReplyDeletegreat article!
ReplyDeleteyet smoking in public doesn't make this country free - as it infringes the freedom to breathe clean air; there are countless people who risked their jobs and lives so that warnings could be placed on packs of cigarettes - but you'll never understand those until you'll be in the hospital
I think people who own restaurants should be free to decide. Freedom to breathe clean air may keep you free from lung cancer but nevertheless the word freedom in the phrase 'freedom from cancer' is a different meaning of the word freedom. I do not see why I am entitled to breathe clean air on someone else's property but if it it decided that for health reasons I am so entitled then this, even if a good thing, is clearly a restriction of freedom in the usual sense of the word.
Delete