peoples-palace-bucharest-romaniaWe took the morning train to Bucharest and walked from the station to our hotel.  It was already noon, so we took the metro to the “Champs-Elysées” of Bucharest and to see the People’s Palace – Romania’s Parliment building and also the second largest buidling in the world, after our very own Pentagon.

Bucharest is not my kind of city.  It seems rather soulless and eerily quiet. Perhaps it’s the history.  If I had a week here, I’m sure I’d find all kinds of things to keep me busy and great little places to prove me wrong, but for now I’m quite glad to only be spending 24 hours in the city. I’m itching to get back outside already.

Did I mention that I’m quite taken with the Olympic Games this year?  I’ve been watching the games every chance I get, thankfully they’re playing the Olympics in most little shops and restaurants, and the few channels on TV in my room are tuned to the Olympics, although I have no idea what’s being said. I can hear the announcer in English and then it’s immediately covered by the Romanian translation, so I only catch a few words!  They’re also only airing regional participants, so I’ve seen a lot of Belarus, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Poland and Russia competing.  Bring on the shot put, hammer throwing, weightlifting, and kayaking!