Eclectic Bucharest
Photo by The Fab Squad (thefabsquad.com) Wearing the Etno Dress by Romanian designer Lana Dumitru (lanadumitru.com)
Bucharest Stories: Monica Suma Eclectic. Effervescent. Hidden. Bohemian. Words I associate with Bucharest, and all the reasons I came back. For all the expectations that people have upon first visiting the city, usually in the realm of grey desolation following the devastation of communism, discovering the changing face of Bucharest is eye-opening. As a newfound local after more than a decade abroad, I’ve had to do the same. All the things I thought I knew about my city no longer existed. The city had changed that much, I’ve been in reverse culture shock ever since. A canvas of contrasting architectural styles on which new players are cementing their piece of the puzzle, Bucharest became unique exactly because of it, the living proof of its multicultural, dramatic history. It’s also safer, cheaper and more entertaining than other, better-known destinations. Wifi is amongst the fastest in Europe and most people speak English. “Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” Terry Pratchett
Eclectic Bucharest AFTER 12 YEARS AWAY, TRAVEL WRITER MONICA SUMA ON WHAT SHE LOVES ABOUT THE ROMANIAN CAPITAL
Moving back to Bucharest was never a goal of mine. I’ve always been content with living in other countries, travelling and exploring foreign cultures. If anything, the more time passed, the less I thought it possible after building a life elsewhere. But with time, more frequent trips and researching stories, I found myself being pulled back in. Just as I had changed, Bucharest had changed as well. I noticed many pros the city had to offer that other cities didn’t. For someone who has spent a decade in New York City, I never thought Bucharest would satisfy my need for entertainment as much as it has. The potential is evident. Because now there are rooftops and specialty coffee shops. Because food and design go hand in hand, always edgy and fresh. Because I can dine late like a Spaniard, and brunch like a New Yorker. Because once blasé, inspiring young entrepreneurs celebrating Romanian culture are forming new tribes, changing the face of the city. And so, I’ve been playing hide and seek with 19thcentury architectural gems, spruced back to life. Peeking behind Belle Époque mansions, I’ve basked in serendipitous garden bars, which I’ve missed dearly while living abroad. Unexpected and opportune, I’ve found my Bucharest ripe with reinvention. Like a Sherlock Holmes on a constant treasure hunt, I’ve been peeling the city layer by layer. If anything can be said about Bucharest for certain, is that it’s a rebel amongst European capitals. It’s grand and rough at the same time. Like any post-communist, in transition city, its scars are still healing. Slower to come of age than its western neighbors, Bucharest is fighting to find its identity, or rather to preserve it, along with its historic patrimony. This one is a ceaseless brawl amidst unruly urbanism, lack of parking and incessant power struggle. But for all the havoc, much progress is to be seen through initiatives aplenty of urban renewal and art facebook.com/bucharestinyourpocket
MONICA SUMA After nine years in New York, three in France and farflung travels around the world, freelance travel writer Monica Suma is back in her native Bucharest. You can find her stories in Lonely Planet, BBC Travel and The Telegraph, as well as on her blog monicasuma.com. For hip, hidden haunts in Bucharest and beyond, follow her on Instagram and Twitter: @monicasuma. interventions in formerly disused public spaces. With every problem, opportunity follows. In an ironic twist of fate, a fellow New York blogger I met in Stockholm some two years ago first told me of a Beautiful Decay tour she took in Bucharest, which fascinated her, a journey into Bucharest’s past, granting access to monuments you couldn’t enter on your own. One year later, I was following in her footsteps with Interesting Times Bureau (interestingtimes.ro) who run the tour, equally in awe of secret, monumental finds. Indeed, Bucharest is a paradise for urban explorers. Its hidden beauty in decay can be a plus, not a minus. This is a city for the curious explorer - if you let it - a boomtown in the making. Because Bucharest reminds me of Paris. And Berlin. And Havana at times, all on the same street in the historical city center: a Belle Époque palace dating from its interwar glory days, next to an alternative hipster hub, followed by a decaying villa as untouched as Cuba’s forlorn edifices. This is exactly what makes it different. “Are you an architect?” someone asked me recently, as I was walking looking up admiring architecture. I laughed in denial, but as the daughter of a civil engineer and granddaughter to an award-winning personality in Romanian civil engineering, the love for architecture and structures has certainly rubbed off. I never bore of exploring my own neighborhood, Icoanei, which preserves the look and feel of interwar Bucharest. Peeping through ivy-covered houses hiding large courtyards is a constant source of inspiration. Aside from the inescapable communist legacy, Bucharest’s architectural diversity is staggering, with Neo-Romanian, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and modernist houses. So if it’s your first time in Bucharest and you’re at a loss of how to best tackle the urban chaos, this is for you. Get away from the Old Town and take side streets instead around Batiştei area. Head to Bellu Cemetery or Cotroceni district. Stroll through the Jewish or the Armenian quarter. Take in the architecture of Mântuleasa, home to the real 19th century Bucharest, or Strada Plantelor where national poet Mihai Eminescu gave his last breath. Head to a peasant market. Most importantly, get lost. Peek your nose through covert patios. You never know what idyllic teahouse you might find behind yet another grand palace. Walk the streets of Bucharest and chances are, countless untold stories will reveal themselves. That’s what I’m here for. How long are you staying for, people keep asking. ‘Indefinitely,’ I surprise myself replying. February - March 2018
23
Bucharest Stories: Monica Suma Eclectic. Effervescent. Hidden. Bohemian. Words I associate with Bucharest, and all the reasons I came back. For all the expectations that people have upon first visiting the city, usually in the realm of grey desolation following the devastation of communism, discovering the changing face of Bucharest is eye-opening. As a newfound local after more than a decade abroad, I’ve had to do the same. All the things I thought I knew about my city no longer existed. The city had changed that much, I’ve been in reverse culture shock ever since. A canvas of contrasting architectural styles on which new players are cementing their piece of the puzzle, Bucharest became unique exactly because of it, the living proof of its multicultural, dramatic history. It’s also safer, cheaper and more entertaining than other, better-known destinations. Wifi is amongst the fastest in Europe and most people speak English. “Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.” Terry Pratchett
Eclectic Bucharest AFTER 12 YEARS AWAY, TRAVEL WRITER MONICA SUMA ON WHAT SHE LOVES ABOUT THE ROMANIAN CAPITAL
Moving back to Bucharest was never a goal of mine. I’ve always been content with living in other countries, travelling and exploring foreign cultures. If anything, the more time passed, the less I thought it possible after building a life elsewhere. But with time, more frequent trips and researching stories, I found myself being pulled back in. Just as I had changed, Bucharest had changed as well. I noticed many pros the city had to offer that other cities didn’t. For someone who has spent a decade in New York City, I never thought Bucharest would satisfy my need for entertainment as much as it has. The potential is evident. Because now there are rooftops and specialty coffee shops. Because food and design go hand in hand, always edgy and fresh. Because I can dine late like a Spaniard, and brunch like a New Yorker. Because once blasé, inspiring young entrepreneurs celebrating Romanian culture are forming new tribes, changing the face of the city. And so, I’ve been playing hide and seek with 19thcentury architectural gems, spruced back to life. Peeking behind Belle Époque mansions, I’ve basked in serendipitous garden bars, which I’ve missed dearly while living abroad. Unexpected and opportune, I’ve found my Bucharest ripe with reinvention. Like a Sherlock Holmes on a constant treasure hunt, I’ve been peeling the city layer by layer. If anything can be said about Bucharest for certain, is that it’s a rebel amongst European capitals. It’s grand and rough at the same time. Like any post-communist, in transition city, its scars are still healing. Slower to come of age than its western neighbors, Bucharest is fighting to find its identity, or rather to preserve it, along with its historic patrimony. This one is a ceaseless brawl amidst unruly urbanism, lack of parking and incessant power struggle. But for all the havoc, much progress is to be seen through initiatives aplenty of urban renewal and art facebook.com/bucharestinyourpocket
MONICA SUMA After nine years in New York, three in France and farflung travels around the world, freelance travel writer Monica Suma is back in her native Bucharest. You can find her stories in Lonely Planet, BBC Travel and The Telegraph, as well as on her blog monicasuma.com. For hip, hidden haunts in Bucharest and beyond, follow her on Instagram and Twitter: @monicasuma. interventions in formerly disused public spaces. With every problem, opportunity follows. In an ironic twist of fate, a fellow New York blogger I met in Stockholm some two years ago first told me of a Beautiful Decay tour she took in Bucharest, which fascinated her, a journey into Bucharest’s past, granting access to monuments you couldn’t enter on your own. One year later, I was following in her footsteps with Interesting Times Bureau (interestingtimes.ro) who run the tour, equally in awe of secret, monumental finds. Indeed, Bucharest is a paradise for urban explorers. Its hidden beauty in decay can be a plus, not a minus. This is a city for the curious explorer - if you let it - a boomtown in the making. Because Bucharest reminds me of Paris. And Berlin. And Havana at times, all on the same street in the historical city center: a Belle Époque palace dating from its interwar glory days, next to an alternative hipster hub, followed by a decaying villa as untouched as Cuba’s forlorn edifices. This is exactly what makes it different. “Are you an architect?” someone asked me recently, as I was walking looking up admiring architecture. I laughed in denial, but as the daughter of a civil engineer and granddaughter to an award-winning personality in Romanian civil engineering, the love for architecture and structures has certainly rubbed off. I never bore of exploring my own neighborhood, Icoanei, which preserves the look and feel of interwar Bucharest. Peeping through ivy-covered houses hiding large courtyards is a constant source of inspiration. Aside from the inescapable communist legacy, Bucharest’s architectural diversity is staggering, with Neo-Romanian, Art Nouveau, Art Deco and modernist houses. So if it’s your first time in Bucharest and you’re at a loss of how to best tackle the urban chaos, this is for you. Get away from the Old Town and take side streets instead around Batiştei area. Head to Bellu Cemetery or Cotroceni district. Stroll through the Jewish or the Armenian quarter. Take in the architecture of Mântuleasa, home to the real 19th century Bucharest, or Strada Plantelor where national poet Mihai Eminescu gave his last breath. Head to a peasant market. Most importantly, get lost. Peek your nose through covert patios. You never know what idyllic teahouse you might find behind yet another grand palace. Walk the streets of Bucharest and chances are, countless untold stories will reveal themselves. That’s what I’m here for. How long are you staying for, people keep asking. ‘Indefinitely,’ I surprise myself replying. February - March 2018
23
