On our final full day in Bucharest, Ursula wanted to head over to the Palatul Parlamentului (Palace of Parliament) for a tour of this monstrous edifice that, arguably, got Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena dates with a firing squad in 1989. Along the way we passed by Biserica Sfântul Dimitrie–Poștă (St. Demetrius–Post Church), which you can see in the photograph above. And in case you’re wondering how “Poștă” got in the name, it derives from this church’s location near the former Post Services Palace.
As we approached the Palace of Parliament from the north, directly across from Parcul Izvor (Izvor Park), I noticed a very large and growing police presence, which is seldom a good sign when approaching a government building. I got more suspicious when Ursula inquired about getting a tour, which is usually not a problem. But today it was. We were told that the tours were already filled for the day. Say what? Filled? In a building some 3,930,000 square feet/365,000 m2? Uh… okay.
Something was afoot, as Holmes would say to Watson. And that was made even more evident as more police began assembling.
Disappointed, I took a few more shots of Izvor Park and its thick layer of snow, then we headed back to the east an old town. As we approached Bulevardul Libertății (Liberty Boulevard) we stumbled upon a fast approaching demonstration in support of far-right, pro-Putin populist presidential candidate Călin Georgescu. In other words, we had happened upon a Romanian MAGA rally of epic proportions. And they were ticked.
Even the Romanian Orthodox Church got in on all the fun, presumably at the behest of this fellow, Archbishop Teodosie Petrescu:
Fortunately, things did not get ugly, but we didn’t spend a whole lot of time here waiting to find out if that would remain the case.
Слава Україні! (Slava Ukraini!)
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