Sunday 2nd February 2020, 11.30am (day 3,083)
Nicolae Ceausescu, who ruled Romania from 1965 until he spectacularly lost control in late December 1989, was one of the most unilateral dictators of any that have ever seized power, running the country like his own personal fiefdom. Towards the end of his reign he commissioned this monstrosity, the Palace of the Parliament, as a monument to his own ambition. Apparently it is the largest parliamentary building anywhere in the world, and also the world’s heaviest building at some four billion kilos (thank you Wikipedia). It was something to look at on my final morning as I prepared to leave Bucharest; the mare’s-tails in the sky suggesting that the very mild weather I have enjoyed there is coming to an end…
Being 42 