I buzzed through Bulgaria in a few days en route to Romania, pausing long enough to meet some of my uncle Rudy's relatives in Sofia (sedate capital) and Plovdiv (quieter small town). The last stop was delightful Veliko Târnovo, a medieval former capital set on a hillside above a river, shadowed by a huge citadel.Romania's capital, Bucharest, has an incredible array of architecture -- from the massive civic Palace of Parliament and its fountain-lined boulevard to art deco to 18th century brick churches to modern glass hotels. Some of the buildings look like they belong in Paris, including a copy of the Arc de Triomphe!
When you get to the mountains of Transylvania and the towns of Sinaia, Braşov, and Sighişoara, medieval castles and fortresses dominate. Romania seems to have more in common with Western Europe than Bulgaria. The castles and cable cars remind me of Switzerland, and the language sounds closer to Italian or French (whereas Bulgaria feels more "post-Communist" and they are still using the Russian Cyrillic alphabet).
Tonight I'm off to Budapest, Hungary to celebrate Rosh Hashana at Europe's largest synagogue.
1 comment:
It's not surprising; Bulgarian is a Slavic language (Russian, Serbian, Croatian, etc.). Romanian is a language that has many Latin (French, Italian) components in it. Now, Hungarian sounds like nothing you've heard (except some say Finnish, others say Turkish).
The Levy's
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