Bucharest
Ghencea Military Cemetery
We save the capital city for the end of the trip. We aim right out of the airport into the great beyond, wherever that is. Then, we are not rushed on our way back; or, if we are, it is easier to come back to a major city if we can. City traffic upon first landing is not a good introduction to any country. Get out of it.
Bucharest is a cosmopolitan city, see http://www.escapeartist.com/efam/63/Travel_To_Romania.
1. Propellers as markers. Romania honors its war dead in unique ways.
For the air force, those who served are buried with a propeller instead of a headstone.
Ghencea Military Cemetery, Propeller Grave Markers, Bucharest, RomaniaThe custom of propellers marking graves of pilots is found elsewhere in Romania. For locating well-known graves, go online. Visit Find A Grave, at http://www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=country&FScountryid=6
2. Others who died in the political realm are not so revered, at least in public. See Lenin statue, toppled, Mogosoaia Palace, near Bucharest. Lenin's statue is discarded behind the kitchens at Mogosoaia Palace outside Bucharest.
At the Communist Exhibition at the Museum of the Romanian Peasant in Bucharest, however, there is a lower level, creep down in search of the Ladies, and find reverential exhibits, complete with altars, for Lenin and the Ceaucescu, and others.
3. Nicolai Ceaucescu is buried here, but at the civil side of the cemetery.
Grave, Nicolai Ceaucescu, Ghencea Civil Cemetery, Bucharest, RomaniaThe Ceaucescus are buried separately at the Ghencea Civil Cemetery in Bucharest, but are some aisles apart.
We looked for a long time before finding either grave, and were carefully watched by guards.
I believe the concern was simple vandalism, and we were not hindered in any way as we looked. Nonetheless, we were watched, watched. Guns ready.
We are not used to that. All we wanted was a look, and a picture. Got them. Got out.
There are tributes on the graves. Candles, objects, even a beer bottle.
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