Garuda Indonesia Colours Magazine March 2014 | Page 150

148

Travel | Bucharest, Mexico City, Atlanta

Bucharest
Romania is home to the
Garuda Indonesia SkyTeam
partner airline TAROM.
Colours sent award-winning
journalist Alex Robertson
Textor to its capital Bucharest to
discover a thriving cultural city.
Words by Alex Robertson Textor
At long last, Bucharest is having its moment.
The art scene is booming. Foreign investment
is flowing. Romania can boast one of the
fastest growing economies in the European
Union thanks to impressive industrial and
agricultural sector growth. Last year, for the
first time since 2007, Romania’s net migration
balance flattened out. For a city that appeared,
20 years ago, to be trapped in the punishing
after-effects of Nicolae Ceaușescu’s brutal
isolationism, Bucharest’s metamorphosis
is quite remarkable.
Though the city has many draws, it is
Bucharest’s progressive application of design
and other creative forms that currently sets
it apart from neighbouring European capital
cities. Bucharest’s twist on contemporary
design is homespun, referencing the
country’s pastoral and industrial legacies
alike; the merging of global trends around
organic reuse with Romania’s recent history
is its most noteworthy characteristic.

Romania’s accession to the European Union
in 2007 was an important development in
its capital city’s transformation. Accession
allowed Romanians to travel across Europe
with fewer hassles, and it became easier for
tourists from across Europe to start to explore
Bucharest. And, once they visited, tourists
found a city and a country at appealing odds
with its neighbours. Romania – along with
diminutive