Herastrau Park

I'm having a little adventure - at the end of this week I am taking part in a conference, so I took advantage of the extra bank holiday to come a couple of days early, and here I am in Bucharest, Romania! I am shattered - had to wake up at 3am to get to the airport, parked in the wrong car park so had a bit of a fraught time getting to the right one then hoping I was still in time to check in, but got here in the end :) It is the first time I have been back here since 2007, when I did my PhD fieldwork here and in Moldova, and I am really pleased that people have understood my Romanian and not laughed at me, so I don't seem to have lost it all.

This picture is taken in Herastrau Park, which is in the north of the city. I'm not a big fan of Bucharest (I did my research in Sibiu which is much nicer, you really must go there!) but I do love this park, and this is my favourite view, looking out over Herastrau Lake towards Casa Presei Liber (House of the Free Press - I guess it's Romania's equivalent of Fleet Street, lots of national papers and magazines are based there. It's the building with the pointy bit on top). It is lovely when the sky is blue or if there's a nice sunset - not quite so impressive today as it is cloudy and really muggy (I am very very thankful for air conditioning back in the hotel, I must say - we really could do with a good old storm to clear the air, luckily (ha!) torrential rain is forecast for tomorrow). The temperature is mid-late 20s, but with the humidity it feels much hotter. I'm not a big ice-cream fan, but did have an ice-cream in the park this evening as I was so hot!

Tomorrow I am going to spend a bit of time working on my conference paper, then I am going to a bookshop to pick up a book I ordered and then doing something touristy I have wanted to do for years but never got round to before. I'm going to finish off the day with a meal at a lovely restaurant Pete and I discovered when I was here last time - I booked a place, though on a weekday I probably didn't need to. It's hot and clammy tonight so I'll just eat at the hotel today and collapse into an early night - the 3am start is really catching up with me now!