Morning in Bucharest - I think I got up too early
Tuesday - April, 5. 2005 - Romania
Sketchy sleep last night. I woke up around 8 pm Toronto time and thought
it was time to get up :) hehe. I did fall back asleep though. It is
about 8 a.m. here now in Romania. I think I am going to head out here
shortly and see the city. Breakfast actually sounds good right about
now. I rarely eat breakfast...but I think I will today.
The sun is shining outside and I can hear lots of cars buzzing around. I should be able to take a lot of photographs today of the city.
More later :)
This is one view of Bucharest - looking east I believe
Morning in Bucharest - I think I got up too early
Most of today was spent learning about the history of Romania. It is amazing just how "universal" freedom is. You really can't stop the human spirit from wanting and longing for that which is right. Communism had a grip on this country for about 45 years. That of course ended in 1989 when the Romanian People killed their Communist Leader Ceausescu and his wife. They were shot to death. I remember when the fall of Communism took place. I remember when Romanians took back their country. It was an incredible time to be alive. Although I was young and don't remember everything...I do remember the day they shot Ceausescu and his wife. That entire time period was marked with revolutions! The fall of the Soviet Union will certainly always be remembered as a great time in history.
We were able to see many sites today. I couldn't possibly list them all. :) I will do my best here to list a few and represent them with some photographs.
Palace of the People. This is where Ceausescu wanted to stand and wave
at all of his
supporters. He wanted to be able to stand on the balcony here and wave at
the grounds.
This is the second largest building in the world...space wise. There are
over 3000 rooms
in this space. Unfortunately Ceausescu miscalculated his support. :)
Beau...Norman and Mihai in front of the Peoples Building.
Bucharest, Romania
Norman and Mihai...Cheetah also came along for the ride. She is a bit
concerned about last nights meal which consisted of...ummm bear!
Norman...Mihai...Beau...David standing where freedom
seems to be a theme!
The people of Romania are very proud of their revolution and they are struggling to figure out how to make democracy work. They seem to admire Canada and the United States and the freedoms that we have.
The next stop on our journey was The Metropolitan Church. This church is over 500 years old. It used to be that the Communist Leaders would not allow the tour guides to talk about how important religion was to the Romanian People. The leaders even tried to hide the churches by building great walls around them.
This was one of the paintings as you enter the
building. This one was
directly above your head on the ceiling...outside in the entranceway.
There was a wall on both sides of the entranceway door. To the left was
Heaven and to the right was Hell. This was represented by large
paintings. The entire painting was prob about 40 feet in length and about
25-30 feet high. It was a beautiful tapestry of colors. The colors
were very faded though and the weather has taken its toll on the artwork.
This is a portion of the painting
that represented Hell.
Some more of the painting representing Hell.
One of the many
strain-glass windows in the church.
Metropolitan Church in Bucharest, Romania
Heaven...on the outside wall of the church
Heaven depicted outside of the church on the
front wall. The paintings are not nearly as clear as
they appear in these photos. It is amazing sometimes
what you can see through the camera that can not be
seen when actually there.
Wall of triumph in Bucharest. This
was built after
War World I as a memorial.
Mihai and Norman outside of the Wall of Triumph.
A rare photograph of David :) hehe I
think he is trying
to twist my foot as I attempt to take a photograph of him!
We spent about an hour at a museum "park" that had all sorts of interesting examples of Romanian Houses and Churches. There were dozens of different houses at this site.
A Romanian Windmill
One of the many houses from Romanian. This one was from the
1800s.
Small cross on top of a church that dated
back to the 1700s.
Some of the artwork in the above church...
Child with an Angel...
Cross on top of one of the old churches...
Crosses atop 1700s church...
and just so everyone knows :) it IS Spring in Romania!
FLOWERS IN FULL BLOOM! The trees are
just starting
to bud! Almost like Paducah.
One of the last places we stopped was the Wall of History. This wall is made of stone and has been carved out from left to right. The wall has the basic story of the Romanian struggle for freedom. The wall ends with Communism. They have yet to add on the freedom revolution that took place in 1989. I took a ton of photos...here are a few of them
Wall of history here in Bucharest
Wall of history
Wall of history
Wall of history
This is the whole wall...the left side.
There is also a right side that
would take you up to 1989.
Wall of history...
Right side of the wall of history...leading up to the recent revolution here in
Romania.
So we have had another great day here in this beautiful country. More later :)
Anyhoo back from eating...we had everything from Wild Boar to Pheasants. I had Venison for my main dish. We ate at a nice Romanian Restaurant. They had music and a great atmosphere.
Here are some more pics from today of the artwork at the Metropolitan Church. This is a catholic church. There are no seats inside of the church. The people stand for the service. They sometimes have to stand for as long as three hours. EEK :)
Painting outside of the church...showing
demons in Hell
Painting outside of the church...
Metropolitan Church in Bucharest, Romania.
Inside of the Metropolitan Church.
Metropolitan Church...ceiling inside
Metropolitan Church...ceiling inside
Baby Jesus...Joseph and Mary - Painting on
ceiling
Angels at the birth of Jesus...Painting
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