from Dublin to........Mirissa, Sri Lanka: The Dogs of Bucharest

The dogs of Sighisoara were nothing compared to the packs of dogs that roam the streets of Bucharest. I'd heard that each year a pack will attack a few homeless men and kill them for food. Not what you want your city to be known for. So the first thing I see at 8pm after having arrived at the train station in the dark....a pack of dogs. Just great. They didn't look too hungry.

My 20 minute walk along the dark, dilapidated streets was not a particularly comfortable one. Poor lighting, broken footpaths, crumbling buildings, holes in the footpath that you could lose a small car in....what was this shithole. I'd been pre-warned that no Romanians outside of the city actually likes it. Not a good first impression. I lost count how many stray dogs I saw on the 2km walk, dozens.

The hostel was located in a ritzy enclave in the north, near embassies and in a "guarded" locale. The mansion, come hostel now, cost EUR1.5m, quite a sum in Romania. I had a day and a half to myself before Gore arrived to play tour guide....a tough task in this town. Down to the old town in the morning, about a 20 minute walk away. Gore had been preaching about how beautiful the women were in Bucharest, better than Prague, Budapest.....I was sceptical....they had to be exceptional. Saw some mutton dressed up as lamb, quite a bit in fact and the odd stunner.

The old town doesn't have the appeal of Prague. Over-run with modern cafes and bars and special massage venues (sounds all right huh), however above the (ground level) surface, it was still very run down. Abandoned buildings, vacant upper floors that haven't been attended to for decades. IT was a mix of new and old that didn't work for me. I didn't like the old town for the most part. There were a few more traditional restaurant / bars that I didn't get to try (unfortunately) that looked great, but the overwhelming majority are European style bars, and Irish bars with no cider. Do I have to explain to every Irish bar what it means to be an Irish bar? I watched the F1 race in one such Irish bar, explaining the race to an inattentive English bloke.

Saw a couple of the nearby sights - not impressed at all. A function of pre- and post-communism. There really isn't that much to see in Bucharest.

* The Palace of Parliament, originally named The House of the People, and following the revolution in 1989, House of Ceausecu (what a top bloke for renaming the building after himself), was extraordinarily large and imposing....1,000 rooms in total and the largest building by area behind the Pentagon. Massive. The tour only shows you 3-5% of it, each room quickly blurring into the last as you discover that the whole building seems to be decorated in dreary and dated decor. Such a waste of beautiful timbers and marble. Could do so much more with it. Impressive nonetheless. Stood where the President gives his speeches! The tour is shite but you have no choice if you want to see it. Just a whole bunch of boring stats..."the ceiling is x metres high.... so many metres squared...." Nearly throttled someone for asking the guide for the millionth time (on our tour) "how many rooms are there?". 1,000! Fucking listen!!

* Twenty years ago a new road was built through the centre of the city, demolishing many suburbs and dislocating 1,000s of people, all so Ceausecu could construct a thoroughfare to rival that of the Champs Elysees in Paris, ensuring that it was 6 metres longer! I walked at least a kilometre of it. Debacle of a project. Deserted and poorly designed. Destined to fail as a promenade of central activity for so many reasons. Is nothing like the Champs Elysees and never will be.

* After a discussion a few weeks earlier about animals, Australian in particular, Gore took me to the Natural History Museum a labyrinth of stuffed animals (not the toy variety) depicted in natural scenes. For not having one single living creature, it was quite interesting. I was shocked when they had an Australian exhibit....and almost laughing when I saw the animals up close. The taxidermist should be shot, for all the animals in this exhibit looked anorexic. It was the skinniest grey kangaroo I'd ever seen. The possum I didn't even recognise as it looked more like a rat. I think the kookaburra was actually another species of kingfisher. The dingo resembled a starving dog on the Bucharest streets. Why were these the only animals that didn't look anything like they should (except for the starving polar bears)? Funny stuff.

Didn't do a lot else. Ran around Herastrau Park in the north (very pleasant and peaceful), rode on the oldest, most dodgy and dirty tram I've ever seem and haven't paid for my hostel yet (their own fault mind you - the new guy working there was supposed to be awake then I left at 5:30am. What could I do? He was supposed to order me a taxi too. Was very annoyed at him. You shouldn't get a taxi off the street like I had to. Took me ages too. Thought I was going to miss my train and I couldn't afford to do that. And what if a pack of dogs came along....it was still dark.

In short, I didn't like Bucharest. I wouldn't recommend visiting it either. Sorry Gore. Thanks for the tour anyway. Would definitely recommend the Romanian mountains (Transylvania) though. Brilliant.