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Iași (pronounced Yash) is the capital of the historic region of Moldavia, now part of Romania. It's a pleasant university town with a few interesting sites.

The Trei Ierarhi Monastery

Piaţa Independenţei

From there we headed south until we reached our old pal, the Danube.

We have so far followed the Danube through Germany, Austria, Slovakia and Hungary, and now we witnessed it ending its journey, emptying into the Black Sea. 

Like most wetlands, the Danube Delta is home to more than 320 bird species during the summer months. Unfortunately we were there for the tail end of the annual migration, but we did get to see some straddlers. 

Clockwise from top right: Mute swans, great white egret, Mr frog, fishing nets, ever present pollution.

Cormorants

Spider webs on the banks of the river.

Our next stop was Bucharest. City of sprawling boulevards...

We began with a visit to the Palace of the Parliament. Despite being prepared, from our first glance we were overwhelmed by the staggeringly huge behemoth.

We then found out that that was only a side view!

The brainchild of megalomaniac dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu, it measures 270m by 240m, 86m high, and 92m underground. It has over 1,100 rooms and is the world's heaviest building.

It was built with a budget of over 3 billion euros, at a time when ordinary Romanians were struggling with government austerity, food rationing and energy shortages. In addition, 30,000 homes were destroyed to make space for the construction.

With 40% of the building likely to never be finished and/or used, it is a tragic reminder of the oppressive decades under communism. Rather than see this as a masterpiece of human construction and design, it is simply a symbol of wasted power. It is interesting though to reflect that of course, from the pyramids in Egypt to the cities of great European Empires, all monumental buildings were constructed on the graves of those less fortunate. Perhaps, one day, Romanians will actually be proud of their People's Palace.

In 1989, inspired by events in other Eastern Bloc countries, Romania saw violent protests against the "re-election" of Ceaușescu. On December 21st, many thousands of demonstrators flooded central Bucharest. In University Square, civilians were beaten, shot and run over with tanks as journalists looked on from the Hotel Intercontinental.

Nicolae Ceaușescu and his wife Elena were killed four days later, with transition to democracy and free market following. Today, many Romanians feel that not enough progress has been made, so much so that 41% of them say they would vote for Ceaușescu today.

Some of the problems are clearly evident when walking through Bucharest, such as the 100,000 stray dogs.

Despite its problems, we found the people friendly, the historic buildings pretty and the bars both cheap and fun.

The Romanian Athenaeum

Stavropoleos Church

You may be wondering why we've given so much detail on Bucharest. That is of course because Josh is an expert in this field. He was even interviewed on the subject by a TV reporter from channel Digi24.

P.S. Thanks to Birgit Winder for photos 12, 13 and 18.