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BUCHAREST (Bucuresti), with a population of over two million, may be the largest city between Berlin and Athens, but it's by no means the most beautiful. At first sight the city is a chaotic jumble of traffic-choked streets, ugly concrete apartment blocks and grandiose but unfinished Communist developments. Lying 64km from the Danube, Romania's southern border, but 600km from its northern frontier, it's also far removed from the country's more obvious attractions. And yet, it's Romania's centre of government and commerce and site of its main airport, so most visitors to the country will find themselves passing through Bucharest at some point. Founded by the princes of Wallachia and dominated by their Turkish overlords, Bucharest only came into its own with Romanian independence in the late nineteenth century, when it was remodelled by French and French-trained architects. The city was dubbed the "Paris of the East", as much for its hectic and cosmopolitan social scene as for its architecture. The Romanian aristocracy was among the richest and most extravagant in Europe, but this lifestyle depended on the exploitation of the poor, and in Bucharest the two coexisted in what Ferdinand Lasalle described as "a savage hotchpotch", with beggars waiting outside the best restaurants and appalling slums within a few steps of the elegant boulevards. Under Communism these extremes were reduced, but Capitalism has brought back conspicuous consumption and a new poor. Despite the signs of Westernization and a new prosperity, with glossy shops full of designer clothes and a rapidly expanding restaurant scene, few Bucharestians can afford to indulge in them. The architecture of the old city, with its cosmopolitan air, was notoriously scarred by Ceausescu's redevelopment project, which demolished an immense swathe of the historic centre and replaced it with a concrete jungle, the Centru Civic , including a huge new palace for the Communist leader, now known as the Palace of Parliament . The palace has become one of the city's prime tourist sites and is best viewed along the approach from Piata Unirii. The other site that can on its own justify a visit to the city lies to the north of the centre: the Village Museum , a wonderful collection of vernacular buildings collected from all regions of Romania. Between these two poles, in the centre of the city, the National History Museum lays out the story of Romania's development from prehistoric times to the 1920s. It's in much the same style as every other county museum, but this is the biggest and best in the country. More than most European capitals, Bucharest is an insider's city. Behind the congested arteries lies a tangle of backstreets where concrete is softened by abundant greenery and the inhabitants manage to rise above the bureaucratic obstructions and inadequacies of the city's infrastructure. The people are a cosmopolitan mixture: Romanians, Gypsies, Turks, Arabs, Africans and Pakistanis, now joined by thousands of Chinese who add yet another layer to the thriving underworld of traficanti , prostitutes and beggars. Accommodation is more expensive in Bucharest than elsewhere, and you're more likely to be hassled, hustled and overcharged. Though power and water cuts are now rare, many hotels are overheated in summer and freezing in winter, when snowdrifts grip the city and the temperature plunges to -20°F (-4°C). Unless Bucharest is your only destination, it's as well to head for Transylvania or the coast as soon as possible. There are good train and road connections to the rest of the country, but local services to the towns and villages in the immediate vicinity are often limited or tortuous. However, there are some monasteries and mansions, notably at Snagov and Mogosoaia, which can be visited as day-trips.
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