“Things are a lot better here now than five years ago,” said our tour guide Thomas Grossman of European Motorhome Tours. Thomas took a tour group to Bucharest, Romania in 2019 and found the city in poor condition overall.

Bucharest under communism was a city marked by stark contrasts. The grand boulevards and imposing government buildings stood in stark contrast to the crumbling infrastructure and widespread poverty. The general population was stifled by censorship, and the atmosphere was heavy with surveillance and fear.

Today, with help from the European Union, Bucharest is a bustling metropolis with some modern improvements among the old decaying communist era buildings.