Bucharest, Romania

[LowPolygon]

these are from a trip i took there last year. Bucharest is a huge city, and one of the poorest and least gentrified cities in Europe.

Parts of it are in really rough shape, and many beautiful buildings are basically ruined. On the other hand, there are incredibly over the top public structures, and lots of Stalinist vistas, courtesy of the madman Ceauşescu...

its pretty grim in many ways, but has a strange charm. Maybe the situation will start to improve now that they are joining the EU.

 

[JasonParis]

Wow, thoroughly interesting pictures. Thanks for posting!

 

[Conrad Black]

these are from a trip i took there last year. Bucharest is a huge city, and one of the poorest and least gentrified cities in Europe.

Parts of it are in really rough shape, and many beautiful buildings are basically ruined. On the other hand, there are incredibly over the top public structures, and lots of Stalinist vistas, courtesy of the madman Ceauşescu...

its pretty grim in many ways, but has a strange charm. Maybe the situation will start to improve now that they are joining the EU.

Not all of it is in rough shape.

 

[LowPolygon]

Not all of it is in rough shape.

that side of Bucharest is a whole other story

 

[Mustapha]

that side of Bucharest is a whole other story

She's beautiful in a fallen angel sort of way. I like the public toilets.

Hey, does anyone know if there are any at Yonge Dundas square? Toilets, not fallen angels.

I remember the lack of toilets in many Manhattans McDonalds back in the 70s when I honeymooned there. Awful. Hope they've rectified it. It was a cheap honeymoon.

 

[cfish]

In reality, Bucharest is far from being "one of the poorest cities in Europe", though I must admit some parts of it look as if it was

But this is Bucharest too:

 

[LowPolygon]

In reality, Bucharest is far from being "one of the poorest cities in Europe"

in the context of Europe, Bucharest is very poor...that doesn't mean its like Abidjan. Yes, there is a very small upper class there--and the odd new office building! WOW--there is also a massive underclass. of course, are many smaller cities in southeastern Europe that are poorer--but Bucharest is easily one of the poorest Capital cities on the continent....

“Romania, with its 986 Euro, has a higher average income than Bulgaria (967 Euro) Russia, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, Albania, Ukraine and Moldova, but less than a third of the average income of Hungary (3213 Euro), Czech Republic (3020 Euro) or Poland (3019 Euro)â€.

AVERAGE INCOMES IN EUROS:

Switzerland 25.603
Luxembourg 24.623
Norway 19.071
Denmark 18.556
Iceland 17.812
Great Britain 16.451
Germany 16.171
Austria 15.756
France 15.619
Sweden 15.324
Belgium 15.171
Holland 14.411
Finland 13.952
Ireland 13.576
Italy 13.066
Spain 9.782
Greece 8.325
Portugal 7.466
Slovenia 6.436
Hungary 3.213
Czech Republic 3.020
Poland 3.019
Croatia 2.766
Slovakia 2.120
Estonia 1.994
Turkey 1.521
Latvia 1.485
Lithuania 1.461
Macedonia 1.031

ROMANIA 986

Bulgaria 967
Russia 949
Belarus 943
Bosnia-Herze. 779
Yugoslavia 730
Albania 563
Ukraine 379
Moldova 223

 

[Filip]

Your source is really old... Yugoslavia doesn't exist since 2002...

Serbia is now right behind Bulgaria and Romania in terms of GDP Per Capita and higher than both in wages earned.

 

[cfish]

in the context of Europe, Bucharest is very poor...that doesn't mean its like Abidjan. Yes, there is a very small upper class there--and the odd new office building! WOW--there is also a massive underclass.

There is also a growing middle class.

of course, are many smaller cities in southeastern Europe that are poorer--but Bucharest is easily one of the poorest Capital cities on the continent....

“Romania, with its 986 Euro, has a higher average income than Bulgaria (967 Euro) Russia, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Yugoslavia, Albania, Ukraine and Moldova, but less than a third of the average income of Hungary (3213 Euro), Czech Republic (3020 Euro) or Poland (3019 Euro)â€.

Isn't that data from this site ? Those statistics were made in 2001 (The information was taken from the recent GfK survey "Eastern Europe - market data 2001" and from "Market data Europe 2001", a survey carried out in 1500 regions of 38 European states.) - a lot has changed since then.

And modern buildings aren't so rare in Bucharest as you seem to suggest; to get a better idea (and if you have some time to waste) you could check these discussions about new buildings in Bucharest (with photos and maps) :
I, II, III, IV, V.

 

[LowPolygon]

thanks for the links.

i liked this building when i was there. its the head office of the Romanian Architects' Association. i'm sure you know it...

 

[cabbagetowner]

great pics. didn't realize communist architecture could look so nice!