So this weekend we're flying to Bucharest in Romania but should you come?
Well good morning from Bucharest and we're gonna go on a cheerful
communism tour. So there's no better way to start a Saturday morning than the grim
reality of Romanian communism and Ceausescu and all that nonsense.
Nicolae Ceausescu, when he was only 17 years old, he got arrested for
spreading communism propaganda.
By the 1980s when Ceausescu came back from North Korea he had this huge plan
to build all of this and he was becoming paranoid and he wanted to pay back the
entire Romanian external debt so that he would become independent. He thought that
he was being controlled by the Americans. He basically demolished, there
was no plan so he would simply say tomorrow we demolish this area and
they would go in and tell people you have to pack everything and leave. Leave
to where it was not exactly clear, he wanted to build this new society with a
new block of flats and he promised them that they would they would provide new
apartments, but the apartments weren't built yet.
So people were simply left out onto the street.
The population and the army are very close to civil war for a few days because nobody
knew who was on what side. This is a picture of success you can tell that
they cut out the emblem of the communist flag and the tanks are flying the new
flag, the new freedom flag, This is the square that we are in if you look around
these are the buildings that that we're surrounded by today.
In the 90's this area became much more famous because of hip-hop, this was a
really bad area to live and it was full of for hip-hop bands singing about
criminality about prostitution and so on. We have like about three bands one is
called B.U.G Mafia Bucharest Underground Mafia that's still famous and that's why
this neighborhood became really famous all over Romania . Whenever people ask me.
Where are you living in Bucharest? Pantelimon - then they say, oh wow. Taking one step behind me because it's dangerous .
Now we're in a suburb that used to be really rough and it's been transformed. They're doing
up the flat, this park is like a mini Central Park. It's an area you would
never go to but it's like, really peaceful, really quiet. What do you need in a
park? grass, paths, I know a big statue and a
cannon! You never know just in case.
This is really weird. We are on the staircase going up and I know it's safe but
my brain is telling me I shouldn't be here.
Well I just walked up that tower and I've decided, I don't like heights
that much!
So tell us what you're about to eat, lots of garlic. The quantity that we use of garlic is a
big ones enough to kill vampires. Traditional mashed
beans it's something that our mothers and
grandmothers made.
Potatoes and sausages. So what's this, some Romanian brandy
Served in a conical flask. Straight from the GCSE chemistry lab.
They don't stop, they don't stop and red lights at the best of times and now
we're being led across this. So, it'll be a good YouTube video if I actually get hit
by a bus crossing this. Oh we're off now we're off look!
The dog's made it! This monument has great significant for our history this
commemorates our heroes who lost their lives in battles for building the great
Romania. In fact reuniting the provinces lived by Romanians.
Where are we staying in Bucharest? That place,
the Radisson Blu. It's right in the centre of town and compared to UK prices it is really cheap.
We're staying there tomorrow night, Monday night.
We're paying ninety five pounds so pretty good, especially compared to
Western Europe and UK prices.
Come with us as we explore Bucharest at night.
Will we be abducted by vampires or just end up in a bar or both.
Actually in the legend says that it was settled by a shepherd under the name of
Bucu, what we have to know is that in Romanian, Bucharest comes from the word
of joy. bucurie means joy and Bucharest is the city of joy.
The order was named the order of the Dragon. And they were having the
banner that was looking like a dragon, so the
people of Romania, of Wallachia being mostly from the countryside they made
the connection because Dracul in Romania means Satan or the devil.
Vlad was called Vlad Dracul from the devil but he was a very kind person he
was a very helpful of course he was a Christian he helped a lot in the wars.
But his son inherited the name and he lived up to, the let's say the evilness
of how that was sounding, so what happens in around 1456 he became a ruler in
Wallachia, here and he spoke actually he was the first to mention Bucharest as a
city in an official letter. So he was the first person to ever mention Bucharest.
More than 10,000 Ottomans on spikes left for the Ottoman army to see so they
brought together all the Ottomans they could find in Moldavia and Wallachia and
put them all on spikes and left them there in order for the Ottoman army to see
So that was Bucharest Romania, better than we expected. So the answer to
the original question, should you come? I think you should.