Abandoned Casino Building on the Black Sea
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Sunday, September 21, Day 103, In Turkey Now!
It has been a long day. Up at 5:45, Breakfast 6:45, Depart for Airport 7:30, Fly to Istanbul and arrive at 10:55, wait in hotel lobby until 3:00, crash in room for a couple of hours before meeting our guide for tomorrow, then off to eat Turkish pizza, and now back, finishing the blog and getting ready for a long walking tour of old Istanbul tomorrow.
So let's go back to day 101 for a recap.
Friday, September 19, Day 101, Constanta
Tonight will be our last night on the Illumination. Our cruise is coming to an end, but before this can happen, we of course need to see the Black Sea, and dip in our toes if we choose. The day is sunny and pleasant, but the water is cooling with the beginning of fall.
Romania seems to be investing in its infrastructure with nuclear plants, wind farms, and in Constanta which has the potential for high level of tourism, limestone pavers and underground utilities are being installed, and buildings are slowly being rennovated. The town is on the Danube canal and the Black Sea. Both the Greeks and Romans recognized the potential importance of this port city. Artifacts in the very impressive museum date back to 3-4,000 BC with pottery containers. Later artifacts 1-4 centuries AD, found in tombs, are exquisite examples of glass vases, gold jewelry, buttons, sculptures from the Romans.
We visited the Roman ruins of a large transit building for shipped goods. The mosaic floor of this building is now preserved under cover. It is very impressive. Romania has gone through many regimes as have many of the Eastern European countries we have been in. Grand buildings built before communism are going to ruin. Confiscated from private owners by the communist state, they now lay vacant. Some are being claimed, others perhaps never will be, but investors are hesitant lest they invest in remodeling and updating to later have original owners make a claim to them. Apparently in Romania, the vacant buildings are not subject to property tax. If they were taxed and reached a certain unpaid cap, the country could reclaim them and legitimately sell them off if the owners would not or could not pay the tax. But this is not happening, so reconstruction and refurbishing is an entangled and slow process.
One of the buildings under entanglement now is the beautiful pre-communist Casino building right on the shore of the Black Sea. From the seashore, we travel inland to Romania's largest winery and vineyard, Murfatlar, 3,000 square hectacres, appx. 8,000 acres. We tasted wine, had a fine lunch, and were treated to music and Romanian folk dancing.
We spent our last evening on board swapping email addresses and making a few more memories with great people and a wonderful crew.
Saturday, September 20, Day 102 - On to Bucharest
It is depressing to pack our bags and set them outside our door by 7:30 a.m. Everyone is a bit subdued this morning as we take our leave. We will all meet up this evening at the hotel in Bucharest, but some have chosen to take the full-day tour which includes the Parliament, Palace of the People, while others have opted only for the Bucharest City Tour. Tomorrow, about 20 of us will continue on to Istanbul, and the rest will be heading to their homes or other laces first before heading home.
The building is so large and the economy is still recovering, that maintenance is poor. It is a beautiful structure, but a bit of a white elephant until the Romanians move forward a few generations and appreciate the building as a building not as a symbol of the horrible repression it stands for. So in the meantime, little time, effort, or care is put into the completion of some of the details, like the roof and furnishings. The interior is vast and quite beautiful. The chandeliers are magnificent.
Several us enjoyed a leisurely dinner in an outdoor cafe saying goodbyes to those who would not be accompanying us to Turkey.
All is well with the Worrall Travel R's now in Istanbul, Turkey
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