Transylvanian Tour

Last weekend my folk's were over for their second visit to Romania. Last time we didn't venture outside Bucharest, so this time I thought i'd show them the real Romania, so we left for a three day drive round Transylvania, taking in the towns of sibiu, Sighisoara, Brasov, Sinaia and all points in between.

First up, Sibiu:




Next stop, Sighisoara.

Letters

One by one they are leaving, along with a city's soul. The sterile masking the ornate, the logical plotting the eccentric... the familiar are breeding... my springs need replacing.

Drumul Taberei

I spent this weekend in Drumul Taberei, a high density urban area in the south-west of Bucharest. It is typical communist block land. The apartments are called "cutii de chibrituri" which translates literally as "matchboxes" and the buildings repeat themselves as far as the eye can see. To its credit, the streets are tree-lined, it has a park with a lake and a swimming pool at its heart and, as it is a highly concentrated residential area, shopping facilities are good due to the abudance of hyper-markets.

The pictures above are from a factory i passed called monplast. Its produce proudly displayed in it's factory shop.

The Primrose Hill of Bucharest

I have been accused of painting Bucharest in a bad light, which is not hard to do as compared to many other capital cities in Europe it is a bit of a dump. However in an attempt to balance the output of this blog I went for a walk in one of its more upmarket areas. Cotroceni is a residential area of Bucharest, situated just west of the centre on one of the only hills in the city. Because of this it could be refered to as the Primrose Hill of Bucharest, a desirable area populated by the well to do. You won't find Liam Gallagher or Kate Moss wandering the streets but you will find some great and varied architecture, from the late 19th to the early 20th century. Classical, art deco and modernist buildings sit side by side. The Romanian Modernist movement is my favourite style in this city. Horia Creanga, one of Romania's modernist pioneers said 'our modern architecture springs from the general needs of the time and not from the pleasure of imitation'.

I was appalled however to see that some of this beautiful architecture has been abused by it present occupants who have replaced the original windows with Termoplan (PVC double glazing). Un-fucking-believable! The Romanians are obsessed with this ugly substitute and you see it on many buildings from Communist blocks to grand villas. As if this isn't bad enough when the windows arrive they have plastic tape over the PVC which is usually left on. To finish of the aesthetic attack, insulating foam is often seen oozing out betwwen the window and ajoining wall. Oh oh, here I am slagging off the locals again so I better stop and show some photos.