The Nutcracker (no porn)

Van 0907-Bucharest-July2009

whoops, it was so funny when I received that email about The Nutcracker (a ballet with music by Tsjaikovski) and the sender was so afraid of hatemail that he had to mention explicitely that it was not pornographic :) we live in weird times :-)

And weird times we had today too! We wanted to visit Palatul Parlamentului (Parliament Palace, also commonly known as Casa Poporului). Up we went, first a bus then the underground, then a nice stroll, and we were standing in front of this huge monumental building. Huge is an understatement, really, it's incredibly big.

It was built during the darkest days of the Ceausescu regime. Standing 84 m. above ground level on 12 floors, the building housed all the dark and torturous organs of the communist state. 

My tourist guide (http://bucharest.inyourpocket.com) told me that the entrance for the public tour was at the left hand of the building, if you're looking at it front-on. Left we went. Entrance after entrance was not open for the public, the guards told us that we needed the right hand side. So we walked all around the compound (an hour stroll, I guess) to reach the correct entrance. In we went.

- Hi, we would like to visit the palace, can we buy tickets here?

- The ticket bureau is over there.

- Yes we noticed, but it's closed, there's no-one inside (friendly smile) :-)

- Wait, my colleague will arrive in a minute.

We waited patiently. Half an hour later a lady announced that the English tour was going to commence.

- Hello, we would like to buy tickets and join the English tour but the ticket bureau is still closed.

- Wait, my colleague will arrive in a minute.

- Yes you told us that half an hour ago.

- Do you have reservations?

- No, would we be waiting here otherwise?

- You'll have to wait.

- OK, I guess we'll miss this tour, when will be the next tour?

- You'll have to ask my colleague in the ticket bureau.

- The one that will arrive in a minute?

- Yes.

Convinced by the discouraging effect of such a customer-unfriendly burocracy, though feeling a bit nut-cracked, we quickly decided to cancel the tour, and spend our money on shopping :-) We had a wonderful time in the free commercial world where customers are treated like valued guests :-) 

Nutcracking hugs,

PB

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