Tag Archives: Ceaușescu
The Fountains of Bucharest
In 1989 we moved to Monrovia, Liberia where we lived for 10 months or so. We planned to stay longer, but a civil war broke out and we eventually had to leave. Touring downtown Bucharest in the summer of 2014 reminded me in some ways of our arrival in Monrovia 25 years before. We were […]
Parliamentary Palace III – Deja Vu
Before July I had never visited Bucharest, or anywhere else in Romania. However, when we arrived at the Palace of the Parliament, I had the definite sense that this was a place I had been before. Yes, I had read a bit about it before the trip; I knew it was in the Guinness Book […]
Parliamentary Palace II – Michael Jackson Was Here
There was a movie (which I have never seen) that was very popular in 1969 titled “If It’s Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium.” That I think is a pretty common feeling for anyone traveling through a number of countries in a short period of time: you can feel a little disoriented when you wake up […]
Parliamentary Palace I – Massive Excess in Bucharest
It’s huge. No, actually it is gigantic. Or colossal – you choose the adjective. The Palace of the Parliament in Bucharest, Romania, is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s second largest office building, after the Pentagon in Washington, and also as the heaviest building. More than 700,000 tonnes of steel […]
The Lessons of History
It was obvious when we were there this summer that there is a certain longing for the past in Romania, at least among those who aren’t old enough to remember the bad old days. Communist dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu was overthrown in 1989. For all intents and purposes that means that anyone under 30 really has […]
random thoughts from lorne 
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