There is a theory, especially popular in football, that the best players come from places where there is nothing to lose. Argentinians have the villa miseria, Brazilians have the favela, and for several decades Bucharest had Giulești, Rahova, Grivița and an entire network of battered football pitche... Read more
Interwar Bucharest often appears in collective memory through sepia-toned images: gentlemen in tailcoats and ladies wearing elaborate hats, strolling gracefully toward Capșa for a slice of Joffre cake. Beyond the elegant display windows of grand confectioneries and the French-inspired menus of luxur... Read more
Late-19th-century Bucharest was a symphony of absolute chaos. It was a place where mud blended gracefully with European ambitions, and where public order was more of a philosophical idea than a daily reality. On dusty streets or snow-covered avenues, long-distance communication relied entirely on lu... Read more
Bucharest has always been fertile ground for intrigues whispered somewhere between diplomatic protocol and pure paranoia. The city has a strange structure, built in layers of history that overlap like sheets of pastry, where old balconies once hid the perfect vantage point for discreet surveillance... Read more
Old Bucharest, the one from before concrete and glass flattened everything into uniform boredom, was a city of distinctive sounds, a kind of street symphony where every trade had its own identifying call. Among the sellers of bragă, the yogurt vendors carrying shoulder poles, and the shoeshiners wit... Read more