Yesterday was a crappy day here in Bucharest. The temperature was in the 40's, I believe, and it was windy and raining. But that didn't stop me yesterday morning, although I was out the night before, I woke up around 10:00, and went to take a tour of the Parliament building (I visited yesterday, but didn't have my passport so I couldn't enter). The building is the world's largest civillan building with an administrative function, and is the second largest government building in the world, after the pentagon.
The building looks like it has 1-200 years old, but actually, the first section was completed in 1984 (parts of it are still being completed). Nicolae Ceausescu, the former dictator, visited palaces in communists regimes such as China and North Korea, and wanted something as grande or bigger, so this is what he built. From what the guide was saying, 20% of the buildings in Bucharest we're destroyed so the building and accompanying streets (such as a wide boulevard leading up to the building) could be completed. (That includes a neighborhood from the 19th century, and musuems, theatres, and the like).
The tour visited approximately 15 rooms (I think, out of 1100 total). The rooms, quite frankly, appeared as you would imagine in a royal palace, with high ceilings, elaborate glass chandeliers, and ornate art work. We saw conference rooms, an auditorium, and the largest room in the palace, a giant ballroom that is rented out for private parties.
The tour was interesting-for the rest of the afternoon-I didn't do much. The cold, wind and rain has a way of dampening the spirit-(plus the things I enjoy are walking around cities-not visiting museums inside), so I had lunch at Subway, and another pumpkin spice latte at Starbucks, where I continued reading my book.
In the evening, I ate at a Romanian restaurant (after Subway and Starbucks I had enough Americana), and had a good soup and trout. Then I went back to the hostel and read my book.
