Climate and weather

Bucharest climate and weather

Our next stop on the tour was Bucharest. Although it was nice weather, it was a bit on the cold side. It was always around 10°C. Bucharest is known for its hot, dry summers and cold winters. The temperatures can drop well below the freezing point. Because the city lies on the Romanian Plain it brings chilly winter winds. But overall summer temperatures are usually pleasantly warm with occasional heat waves, and humidity is low. There is an average range of hours of sunshine in Bucharest, in January it’s between 2,2 hours and in July it’s about 10,5 hours a day. The month with the driest weather is September and the wettest month is June.

The rainiest seasons in Bucharest are spring and autumn. So for anyone who wants to go I would advise you to go in the Summer months. Also if you search for any information about when the best time to visit Bucharest is they all say it’s during the months June, July and August. Then temperatures are at a comfortable level between 20 and 30°C. Other great months to visit are April, May, September and October. Temperatures are a bit colder but still pleasant. Anyway although it was a little bit could we did enjoy this city very much. I would very much recommend it to everyone to go and visit Bucharest because there is a lot to see and visit.



sources

http://www.wordtravels.com/Cities/Romania/Bucharest/Climate

http://www.climatetemp.info/romania/bucharest.html

http://www.world-climates.com/city-climate-bucharest-romania-europe/

XX

Stephanie

Hi Bloggers!

This time we went to Bucharest. What a visit! As I always like to know more about the city and its past I’m going to talk about the history of Bucharest.

Bucharest has a long history but the city hasn’t always been the capital of Romania and it hasn’t always been named this way. The area where Bucharest is situated used to be covered with a lot of forests. That is probably the reason why in ancient times it didn’t develop and didn’t become a real city.

It wasn’t until the 14^th century that Bucharest was mentioned. According to the legend the city was founded by the shepherd Bucur. Though in general it is assumed that it was prince Mircea Ciobanu of Wallachië who founded Bucharest in the 14 century after he had conquered the Turks.

In the 17^th century Bucharest was attacked by the Turks once again. The city burned and everything was destroyed. After reconstruction the city started to grow, prosperity increased and so it was in this century that prince Constantin Brâncovaenu made Bucharest the capital of Romania. Though this didn’t mean that the city was to be spared. In the following centuries several severe natural disasters caused many destructions.

Besides natural disasters the city also suffered a lot because of the attacks of the Habsburgs, the Ottomans, Russia and Austria. In the 19^th century the city burned again and this destroyed almost a third of the beautiful buildings.

In the second half of the 19^th century, after the city recovered yet again, the population of Bucharest increased a lot. Because of its extravagant architecture and high standard of life it was nicknamed ‘Paris of the east’.

During the First World War the city was attacked by the Germans and during the Second World War it was bombed by the Allied. After the war Romania became part of the Soviet Union and was ruled by the dictator Nicolae Ceausecu. Because of him a lot of the historical buildings were demolished as he wanted new buildings to take their place. In late 19^th century an earthquake stroke the city which damaged once again many ancient buildings. Despite the war and natural disasters some of the historical quarters were preserved.

After the Soviet Union came to an end this also meant liberation of Romania of communism. After several hard years tide turned for the better. From 2000 on economy and culture started to grow. Nowadays new buildings stand aside the historical ones and that is what makes Bucharest a true metropolitan.

Ilse xxx

Sources: 

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boekarest

http://www.take-a-trip.eu/nl/boekarest/geschiedenis

http://www.vacance-roumanie.com/toerisme_Roemenie/accomodatie_Roemenie.html

Sightseeing Bucharest

Hi everyone!

This week we visited Bucharest, the capital of Romania.

Bucharest has seen a violent history but that is exactly why it is so interesting for tourists. Bucharest has seen a lot of trouble in the past years, so if it’s bullet holes you’re after you have come to the right place!

But don’t be mistaken, all the misery put aside, Bucharest has some beautiful things to offer.

The first monument we saw was the ‘Arcul de Triumf’, Bucharest’s Arc de Triumph. It was raised in 1922 to glorify the bravery of the Romanian soldiers who fought in the First World War. The original Arc was made of wood, but it was replaced by a concrete structure in 1935.

Our next stop was the Village Museum, one of the world's most interesting ethnographical parks in open air. Here you can see 50 complete homesteads, churches, windmills and even sunken houses from rural Romania. Another museum we visited that day was The Peasant Museum. There is a room filled with a collection of communist-era busts, paintings and nostalgic memorabilia. There are a number of paintings of Stalin and Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. Be sure to take a Romanian speaker along to translate the often chilling newspaper articles that are stuck on the walls.

A must see was of course The Revolution Square, on of the city’s most important squares. It is surrounded by symbolic buildings such as: Hilton Hotel, the former Athenee Palace Hotel built in 1883 end the highest building at the time; the Romanian Athaeneum, the headquarters of Romanian Athenaeum Society, which had as purpose spreading cultural and scientific information; The National museum of Art; the Kretzulescu Church, a monument with mesmerizing architecture, the art of the Brancoveanu epoch; the Memorial of Rebirth; the Central University Library and so much more. You can spend an entire day just wandering from building to building. There is just so much history.

On our last day we visited the Palace of Parliament., also called the House of People or the House of Ceausescu. It was built somewhere from 1984 – 1989. It is the largest administrative construction in Europe; it has hundreds of offices, halls for receptions or other events, dozens of conference rooms. It is the second biggest administrative building in the world, after the Pentagon building in Washington. After our visit to the parliament we decided tom make a stop at Ghencea Civil Cemetery. It’s about 3 km west of the Palace of Parliament. It’s rather unimpressive, but it is home to the graves of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu, who were executed by firing squad on Christmas Day 1989 after the communist government was toppled.

We spent most of our evenings in the Historic Centre, where there are a number of clubs, bars, trendy coffee houses and restaurants.

See you next time! 

xoxo

Kimberley 

Sources: 

http://www.inyourpocket.com/romania/bucharest/sightseeing 

http://www.city-discovery.com/bucharest/tour.php?id=5518 

http://www.worldtravelguide.net/bucharest/things-to-see 

Nightlife in Bucharest

Dear followers,

This week we visited Bucharest, one of the last cities we will be visiting. We had a wonderful time here. As we all plan to become event managers in the future we must have a little taste of the nightlife in every city. This city has proved us that there is entertainment for everybody and with everybody I really mean EVERYBODY. From trendy bars to Irish pubs, lounge clubs and jazz clubs and the odd steamy strip show.

In Bucharest there are clubs, pubs, bars, discotheques, night clubs, and casinos everywhere; every night they are taken by storm by masses of young people looking for fun and adventure. These places are mostly open all night and they await you with great music, superb drinks and a friendly and welcoming atmosphere.

 

As we are a group with girls only sometimes you have to be careful. This is not the case with Bucharest. You don’t have to be scared when you wander the streets at night. This is a very safe city.

For many years all that was lacking was a central nightlife strip: an area where you know you will always find lively people and a good atmosphere. Now that Old Town/Lipscani has been revived and is packed with bars and cafes, that problem has been solved.

The first bar I would love to recommend is Green Hours 22 Club. It is a legendary, trendy, atmospheric jazz club, where it’s almost impossible to find a table. Make sure you reserve in advance if you want to sit down. There is live music and other arty stuff like theatre, comedy, book launches and the like - most evenings. Popular with a crowd that encompasses all ages, from 18-80, it’s definitely a place you should visit once before leaving Bucharest.

When you are searching for a place to dance you should go to Barletto Club. This place had a lot of different names but it remains one of the city’s best, most exclusive and of course most expensive clubs featuring some of the sexiest dancers in Romania. Friday and Saturday nights here are wild. The music is supplied by the world's best DJs.

If you want to meet the local people “White Horse” is the place to be. It has been one of the oldest pubs around there. To be one of the oldest this pub is in a surprisingly good shape. It is always packed with the “ordinary people”. You feel really welcome when you go there.

Bucharest is sometimes called "The Little Paris of the east" and they are correct!

Shari

Sources

http://www.worldtravelguide.net/bucharest/nightlife

http://www.inyourpocket.com/romania/bucharest/bars-pubs-clubs-nightlife

http://www.deltatravel.ro/bucharest_nightlife.php

http://www.bucharestlife.com/

Policy of Bucharest

Hello there!

The next stop on our amazing trip Bucharest, the capital of Romania. It’s quite different from all the cities we’ve visited so far. I didn’t knew a lot about the city before we arrived and I was very curious about the way the country worked so I’m going to talk about policy in this blog.

Every big city had its own policy and  each has its own characteristics. The city has six different areas and to give you a look at the working of the city I’m going to highlight each area to you. Each area belongs to a couple of different quarters.

Area 1

This is the biggest area of the six areas and is situated in the Nord-West of the capital of Romania. This area has a surface of 117 km² and has 238.217 inhabitants. This district contains of Bãneasa, Pipera and Floreasca.

Area 2

This is one of the smallest areas and is situated in the East of the capital of Romania. The surface is very little, about 32 km². A thing which I found very strange is that there are more inhabitants in this little distract in spite of the inhabitant amount in the big area. This area counts 362.609 inhabitants, which is a lot for such a little surface. 

Area 3

Area 4 and 5 are just as area 3 one of the smallest districts of the capital city. The only difference is that there are a lot less inhabitants (107.946) in this 2 small areas. Area 4 is situated in the South of Bucharest and Area 5 is located in the South-East of Bucharest.

Area 6

This area is also stationed at the West of Bucharest and is in spite of area 1 the second biggest. This area contains out of Gjulesti, Drumul Taberei, Militari and Crângasi. The mayor of the area is Cristian Poteras who is settled in the National Liberal Party.

The local counsel of area 6 has 27 seats.

Before we went to Bucharest I read an article about the funds that Romania got from EU to make their country more attractive for the tourist. Something I found a bit strange is that they wanted to put €1,8 million in the extension and modernisation of a hotel in Bucharest. I think it must’ve been a very important hotel to lend so much money for it.

I hope I’ve given you some useful information!

See you next week!

Melissa

http://www.euractiv.com/regional-policy/romania-uses-eu-funds-modernise-bucharest-hotel-news-500419 (article)

http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boekarest

Istanbul

Istanbul is a center of attraction because of a number of factors. There’s historical value and natural beauty. Also it has great economic potential. Istanbul has suffered from some economic backlashes and setbacks, but remains a huge and important economic center of Turkey. The city has become the center of international investment and monetary flow. Istanbul turned into a mega city as a result of migration. There’s a lot of diversity in lifestyle and education levels as well as incomes. 

In general Istanbul is a very safe city. Like all large cities, normal precautions are required. The two most common threats to personal safety are all associated with money. First of all there’s purse-snatching. Purse-Snatching tends to occur in tourist areas and is generally done by children just approaching their teens. Secondly there’s the universal taxi driver scam. The taxi drivers will most likely not speak English and will take advantage of tourists. It is said that you’re best of not arguing about it. 

Overall Turkish people are very nice. There’s a lot of hospitality, though it’s sometimes with a twist. So you do have to keep your guard up at all times. It’s also advised for a single woman or even a woman-only group to be a bit more careful regarding to men approaching you or following you. 

I do hope this was helpful for people that want to go to Istanbul. I'm sure you'll have a wonderful time there 

Stephanie

sources: 

http://www.todayszaman.com/columnist-187931-istanbul-and-its-problems.html

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Travel-g293974-s206/Istanbul:Turkey:Health.And.Safety.html

http://iussp2005.princeton.edu/download.aspx?submissionId=50487

Religion in Turkey

Hi everyone!

We visited Istanbul this week! It was a really beautiful city, especially the mosques are impressive. There are some amazing buildings over there.

Religion has always been a touchy subject, it still is! So I decided to post something about the religion in Turkey.

Turkey is a secular state with no official state religion; the Turkish Constitution provides for freedom of religion and conscience. There are three main religions in Turkey: Muslim, Judaism and Christianity.

Acording to latest data 71.1 million people in Turkey are Muslims or 98% of the total population. The majority of the Muslims are Sunni (85–90%) and a large minority is Alevi (10–15%). The highest Islamic religious authority is the Presidency of Religious Affairs, it interprets the Hanafi school of law, and is responsible for regulating the operation of the country's 75,000 registered mosques and employing local and provincial imams.

There are less than 100,000 minorities which follow other religions, mainly Christians, mostly Armenian Apostolic, Assyrian Church of the East and Greek Orthodox and Jews, mainly Sephardi.

It’s always a good idea to check out Turkey’s and Istanbul’s official, public, national, regional and religious holidays before planning a trip or a sightseeing excursion. You don’t want to be stuck in a religious holiday when nothing is open and the traffic is horrific. You have to pay special attention to the religious holidays because they change yearly. I looked up the different holidays for our week but there was no need for panic! We avoided any hectic situations.

Here are this year’s religious holidays:

• ·         Saturday, 18 August: Sugar Feast’s Eve (Ramazan Bayramı Arifesi) – Religious Holiday – ½ day
• 
  
• ·         Sunday, 19 – Tuesday, 21 August: Sugar Feast (Ramazan Bayramı) – Religious Holidays – Three-day festival to celebrate the end of fasting (Ramadan) where plenty of sweets are eaten.
• 
  
• ·         Wednesday, 24 October: Feast of the Sacrifice’s Eve (Kurban Bayramı Arifesi) – Religious Holiday – ½ day
• 
  
• ·         Thursday, 25 – Sunday, 28 October: Feast of the Sacrifice (Kurban Bayramı) – Religious Holidays – Four-day festival where sheep are sacrificed/slaughtered and their meat is distributed to the poor

Lucky for us we weren’t there for any of them. I heard that things can get a little crazy during religious holidays. On the Feast of the Sacrifice, traffic intensifies dramatically. This is because during these holidays Turks visit their relatives all over the country.

This was a very interesting city both in a religious and cultural way.

To end my post i would like to share this video with you of a mosque we visited.

Blue Mosque

See you next time!!

Xoxo

Kimberley

Sources:

http://english.istanbul.com/about-turkey/religion 

http://www.wittistanbul.com/magazine/public-national-and-religious-holidays-in-turkey/ 

Sports in Istanbul

Dear followers,

Our trip has almost come to an end. After Istanbul we will be visiting two more countries and then we will head back home.

Istanbul is an enourmous city with over more than 13 million people. Because of the huge amount of people there are also many recreation areas and sport fields. After all that eating throughout the whole trip we could use a bit of excerice. We searched for different places to sport and learned a lot about popular sports and places in Istanbul. 

The most popular sport is football (soccer) just like here in Belgium. Out of 18, there are 5 Istanbul teams playing in the National Premiere League. Basketball is also very popular in Istanbul, teams are playing in the national league and they participate to European championships. A third popular sport that I didn’t expect is motor sports. In 2005 Istanbul Park Racing Track was built en since then it hosts Formula 1 races and other international motor sports. With a race track circuit that covers over 5 kilometers, Turkish Grand Prix racers can speed up to the total distance of close to 310 kilometers in 58 laps.  The track is 14 meters wide at its narrowest and 21.5 meters wide at its widest.  The track is designed by Hermann Tilke, the famed architect of racetracks.

As soccer is the most popular sport and Ali Sam Yen stadium is one of the biggest stadiums in the world we must visited this. This is part of Turkey’s efforts to clinch the deal to host the 2012 Summer Olympics.  A massive renovation was made costing over 120 million dollars. 

After visiting the stadium we went sporting. We did not one to do a regular sport so we choose to go climbing. As this was all our first time climbing we choose to go indoor. There is a artificial rock wall that you can climb right in the middle of Istanbul. Constructed as a part of Atolye Mountaineering & Climbing equipments shop, the rock climbing wall has 125m2 of climbing area and 1000 holds designed for all levels of climbers. It is open from 9:00 to 23:00. You can rent the necessary climbing equipment at Atolye. The Atolye Mountaineering & Climbing Equipment shop owners enlarged their shop this summer and now, just beside the new shop, they have opened the very first professional climbing wall in Istanbul. They will also be hosting various activities such as slide and video shows, as well as rock climbing and mountaineering lessons at Atolye. It was a very fun experience and we are planning to keep on climbing when we’re back in Belgium.

Shari

http://www.greatistanbul.com/sports.htm

http://www.simplyistanbul.org/ce/sports

http://www.rockclimbing.com/routes/Europe/Turkey/Istanbul/