26.4.06

People's palace


Too short I have been in Bucharest.

Yesterday morning I joined a tour through the people's palace, Ceaucescu's building which he never saw finished. 700 architects and 20.000 builders worked on this building, which is in terms of surface the second large building of the world. One third of the old city centre of Bucharest was broken down in order to provide sufficient place to build it. Nowadays the government is using the building, and it houses a conferences centre. Together with an American delegation I followed a tour, in which the beautifulness of the building was described. No single word was said what Romanian people think about the building, and which offers they have given for this mass monument on the communist era.

A: American Tourist, B: Bjorn, M: Marcy, T: tourist guide

A: So where are you from?
B: I am from the Netherlands, where are you from?
A: Virginia, USA. So you're traveling Romania?
B: Yes, I'm doing a short tour here, went to Brasov, Sibiu and tonight I unfortunately fly home. What about you?
A: Well, we were going on a Danube tour but apparently there is a flood. So now we're doing this.
B: So where do you go after Romania
A: I don't know, it's a tour, we do different countries in Eastern Europe.
B: So where are you going to next?
A: Marcy, where are we going to next?
M: Well we're doing other countries in Eastern Europe

...

T: So this is a conference room made in German classic style, with the heighest ceiling in the building. The patron in the curtains, which is filled with silk, is the same as the patron on the plates covering the heating. The floors are made of oak wood and in there are different sorts of marmer on the columns.
A: Can to chandelliers come down to be cleaned?
T: No
A: So what did Coucezu use this room for?
T: Ceaucescu never used it, he died before the building was finished.
A: Oh, Ceaucescu, I should say Ceaucescu?

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