The Greek cafe, part of a fast food chain, has after many years come back to its old site in Lipscani, opposite the National Bank and close to me.
I had forgotten all about it. I shall once more have the croissant special with ham and cheese inside. I'm on a diet, but that won't deter me.
I remember when Gregory's first arrived in my manor. I disapproved of it rather strongly as the first sign of gentrification. I told my mother when I took here there in 2002 that Romanians went there because it made them feel for a few moments that they were in the West.
This is a very telling measure of how much has been transformed in Bucharest in the last fifteen years. Long before it closed Gregory's had come to seem old-fashioned and tacky.
I remember, from that visit in 2002 with my mother, a tall bespectacled American walking along Lipscani, then a very shabby street indeed, past the entrance to Gregory's, a yard ahead of his wife who was complaining querulously. I remember him suddenly stopping, turning to her and saying loudly,
I had forgotten all about it. I shall once more have the croissant special with ham and cheese inside. I'm on a diet, but that won't deter me.
I remember when Gregory's first arrived in my manor. I disapproved of it rather strongly as the first sign of gentrification. I told my mother when I took here there in 2002 that Romanians went there because it made them feel for a few moments that they were in the West.
This is a very telling measure of how much has been transformed in Bucharest in the last fifteen years. Long before it closed Gregory's had come to seem old-fashioned and tacky.
I remember, from that visit in 2002 with my mother, a tall bespectacled American walking along Lipscani, then a very shabby street indeed, past the entrance to Gregory's, a yard ahead of his wife who was complaining querulously. I remember him suddenly stopping, turning to her and saying loudly,
'I keep telling you. You're in Romania. You've got to lower your expectations.'
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