We made it to Bukarest in the late morning. A quick lunch had to do, as we were scheduled for a guided tour through the Palace of Parliament at 13:15.

The building – often referred to as the second largest on the planet (after the Pentagon) – goes back to the 1980s and greatly depicts the megalomania of Romania’s dictator Ceausescu. In the building process a whole city quarter had been torn down, several churches and other buildings were moved to new locations. Originally only Romanian materials and products were used in the creation of the building … today this still holds true to a big extend, however some non-Romanian products got added (e.g. air conditioning units).

Today the building houses the Romanian parliament and the senate, as well as other administration. The building also serves as conference center and many of the big halls can (as our guide pointed out multiple times) actually be rented for any sort of function.