History and Revolution

The anti-austerity (really anti-corruption) protests continue here in Bucharest on this last day of our visit, and will probably continue long after we have left for home (where the protests and problems are remarkably similar). We saw the people assembling again in University Square as we began our city tour, flags and signs ready.

Thanks to Tibi, our marvelous guide, we learned quite a lot today, not only about the city of Bucharest, but also about Romanian history in general and the 1989 revolution in particular. He lived through it, was present for it, and told the story so we could try to understand. The protests here are representative of a revolutionary spirit -- they have started and continued in the same places, and are asking for much of the same thing: humanity, dignity, respect (and not corruption and theft and deception).

It is worth remembering here that the most important thing the Romanian people got from the overthrow of the Communist regime was a freedom we should all treasure: the freedom to speak. Tibi said so more than once, and it's important. He remembers when he did not have that freedom. We're all diminished by the loss of that freedom.

On our tour of the city, we saw more churches, the palace of the Patriarch of the Romanian Othodox Church, Vlad Tepes' original princely court (or its ruins, at least) and the small remainder of the old city, the graceful lingering memory of the Paris of the East. We also had lunch at a restaurant that proudly claims for itself that it is probably the best food in town.

It was pretty good.