General Facts

The first impression when in Bucharest comes from the great extent of space that it covers. This is mainly because there are so many houses standing in their separate gardens. Owing to this, Calea Victoriei, the main street of the city, is as long as Oxford Street and Regent Street put together.

Bucharest, then, is a town which is spread out. So are the hours kept by its inhabitants; only you would not think so, for they pass so quickly. It is a question of temperament, and climate. In the summer it is as hot as India. No business can be done between midday and five o’clock. It is at that hour, or later, that the shops open for the afternoon and they do not close their shutters till nine or ten.

You dine, therefore, at ten or eleven, and no one would think of going to bed till three or four. This again explains the great number of restaurants and cafes and, in its turn, accounts for the popular music which is incomparable and haunts the mind. The autumn, which is the most beautiful season of all, is followed by a winter of deep snow and sledges.

I had been advised by many persons, when going to Romania, to see the country first and the capital last. Bucharest, according to their opinions was no more than a bad copy of Paris. Actually, in Bucharest, there is nothing whatever of Paris, except the one or two inevitable dress shops. The character of Bucharest is in its personality, not its monuments.