Parliament Palace (Palatul Parlamentului) – Bucharest Romania

Romania’s most famous landmark is Paltul Parlamentului, or more commonly known as Casa Poporului.  It was built during the darkest days of the regime of Nicolae Ceausescu.  It is 12 storeys high and comprises some 5,000 rooms.  The building is shrouded in rumours and mysteries, however today it is home to the Romanian parliament.

One of our travel companions told the story of how he was a little short of the amount of Lei needed for the entrance fee and asked for the shortfall to be paid in Euros.  The attendance flatly said No, inspite of protestation by the visitors that they had come all the way from Canada to visit, and the answer was still No!  Luckily for them a very kind gentlemen came to their rescue and offered to give them the few Leis required.  You would have thought that they would train their workers that the building could do with some funding to recoup for past loses.  The story reminds us of another incident in Sinaia where some ladies were very keen to buy souvenir vases that the country is famous for.  The tourist shop would only accept Euros and no USD was accepted.  You could easily go to the money changer next to the tourist shop to get your currency exchanged and yet the tourist shop did not feel that this was a service that could generate more sales for them.  Maybe, it is me who’s missing the point!  This country does not believe in sales targets for its workers.  Aren’t we all always complaining about the increasing sales targets on practically everything at work?  Mmme…

Helen