Comment: Black snow or why you should avoid Bucharest after snowstorms

To all tourists out-there thinking the Romanian capital city might be a treat during winter: don't come after a snowstorm! And in general, avoid the period after any sort of snowfall. If you can, time your trip to catch the first and second days after the snowfall. It will be dreamy, Bucharest covered in white, with slightly impaired transport, which, hopefully, will be less of a bother while on holiday. But from then on, it's not a pretty picture. Make sure to avoid Bucharest two weeks after the snowstorms. Let me explain that a bit (and please hold your thoughts that I, as a Romanian, should promote my country, rather than paint a bleak picture of it). In general, Romanian authorities do an OK job at removing snow from the asphalt, so that car traffic is not completely paralyzed after the snow storms. Sidewalks, well, that's another business. It may be fun once or twice to traverse over the mountains of snow that pile up from the street to the sidewalk, but when daily trips involve acrobatic moves through snow and ice while trying to keep on a very narrow path carved out by fellow dwellers in their daily ventures, the whole experience loses its novelty. And that's not even the worst part of it. Days after it snows, the Bucharest snow turns black. Yes, it's a (not so) rare phenomenon which I like to call 'laziness', or sometimes, 'lack of interest'. Bucharest is a dusty city. Anyone who has parked their car for one day on one of the large Bucharest boulevards will know what I mean. And guess what, it is also dusty in winter, turning the pristine white surfaces to black. If you happen to drive across Bucharest two weeks after a snowstorm (like the snowfall two weeks ago, for example), you will see what I mean: small mountains of snow that were removed from the street, now laying near and on the sidewalk, all covered in a thick layer of dirt. In between these little black hills, there will be parked cars, either covered in snow, or in a thick layer of dirt themselves. It goes like this: snow removal machines throw the snow close to the sidewalk, on the cars parked there. Some people bother to remove the snow and take their cars out (which kind of places dibs on the parking spot, you removed the snow, it is yours; although not everyone thinks that, so beware of parking spot rage). Others, however, prefer to leave their cars there and take public transport, only to find their cars under a thick layer of dust when everything melts. The pretty picture I just painted above is current on display in Bucharest owing to the suddenly warmer weather. I believe authorities knew it would get warm so figured the snow would anyway melt by itself. What they ignored however were the ever growing puddles of dirt all over the city. If you happen to be in Bucharest already, and have not seen the phenomena described above, you need to exit downtown, where things tend to be more organized, and go a bit to the neighborhoods to see what I mean. Or you can do what I'd do, stay indoors until spring arrives. By Corina Chirileasa, corina@romania-insider.com