Bucharest In Your Pocket is 10!

“When we researched the first issue of Bucharest In Your Pocket we had a feeling that the city was too big to be put in a pocket. Ten years and 59 issues later we have proven that we can actually put the essence of this city in our handy guide.”

Matthias Luefkens, Founder

What can only be described as Eclipse Fever was gripping the nation when the first Bucharest In Your Pocket was published, at the end of May, 1999. Bucharest was, you see, being heralded as the best place in the world to view one of nature’s rarities: a total eclipse of the sun scheduled for August 11th, and which would darken the sky for three minutes and make stars visible at midday.

Bizarre as it may seem now but many people in Romania were counting on the eclipse kick-starting the country’s tourist industry. Official projections of visitor numbers went into the millions, with Interior Minister Dudu Ionescu telling Reuters in April 1999 that he expected crowds to “overwhelm the capital.” He needn’t have worried. For as it turned out of course nobody - and we mean nobody - came, and the eclipse passed over head without event. Indeed, cloud cover and light drizzle meant that most people in the capital - the majority of whom had assembled on rooftops and balconies wearing ridiculous sunglasses emblazoned with Coca-Cola logos – saw nothing.

Yet it was not just the Romanian authorities who were in optimistic mood back in 1999. Even Bucharest In Your Pocket, today of course a gnarled, bitten and pessimistic publication with an enormous chip on its shoulder, was back then all too often quick to give Bucharest the benefit of the doubt. In issue one we stated with barely disguised pride that ‘drivers should know that the speed limit of 50km is strictly enforced by the Romanian police.’ Strictly enforced? Has anyone ever seen the Romanian police strictly enforce anything?

Not that we were blind to all realities. We printed the national average wage (1,172,000 lei, then US$82) and noted how pensioners were expected to ‘scratch out a living on US$35.’ We also – a publishing first in Romania, I believe – stated the price charged by the high-class hookers that frequented the city’s five-star hotels (US$200), as well as that charged by the less classy ladies at the bottom end of Calea Victoriei (US$50). It was that piece of information above all others that won us our first friends.

For a view of how much has changed in Bucharest since our first issue, and how far the city has come, it is enough just to look at the listings we had then, and those we have now.

In Where to Stay we presented all of Bucharest’s hotels, 30 of them. In this issue we feature more than double that, and there are some we have had to ditch for a lack of space. The Nightlife section of issue one ran to just two pages, while in the Getting Around chapter we listed all of Bucharest’s petrol stations (there were 18).

The biggest section back then – as it remains today – was of course Restaurants. In BIYP1 we featured 41 places to eat, and that included just about everywhere in and around the city centre. In this issue we have more than 150 restaurants included, and tens more in our database (and online right here) that we simply do not have room for in print.

In the ten years we have been publishing our reviews, not all of which are of course complimentary, we have had too many threats of legal action to remember. Only twice, however, have we actually been brought before a court on libel charges. And I am happy to report that on both occasions we won.

The first case, in 2002, was brought against us by the Becker Brau Brewery on Calea Rahova, after we dared to criticize the service. The second case, in 2004, was brought by the Marele Zid Chinese restaurant in Brasov, after we told the readers of a special Brasov supplement to ‘run, run away’ before they were tempted to go inside and eat. In both cases the two judges dismissed claims of libel, invoking our right to criticize.

We have also had to deal regularly with copyright theft. Back in 2000 the entire contents of an early issue were translated into French and used in Petit Fute’s Romania guide. Our legal team had it removed from sale - and we are talking every copy, worldwide - at no small cost to Petit Fute. Local copycats have been two to a penny, with almost every other visitor’s guide to Bucharest that has appeared (and in many cases promptly disappeared) using our content at one stage or another. Insider’s Guide to Bucharest and Bucharest Guide being just two of the (now defunct) charlatans who have felt the wrath of our legal team.

Over the years though, no subject has been more controversial than the shaggy dog story that is Bucharest’s stray dog situation. We have gained a certain reputation for being outspoken on the subject, going all the way back to issue one, when we wrote ‘In this town, you can’t swing a cat without hitting a stray dog.’ 

What had happened was that the writer of issue one, Leeore Schnairson, had been bitten by a stray in the city centre and was subjected to some nasty rabies shots, turning opinion in the office against the mutts, and the misguided fools who feed, protect and defend them. Lazy television journalists picked up the topic and broadcast nonsense, with Pro TV being the only station that bothered to come and interview us on the subject, running the full story on the evening news. Our comments in subsequent issues (including one which suggested ‘all strays should be exterminated and perhaps served as a national dish’) got us angry faxes from a French animal rights association, comparing us unfavourably with the Ceausescu regime. One advertiser pulled an ad for our stance.

Support came from the British ambassador, who raised spirits with a letter of support, while Tim Johnson – who would later became an In Your Pocket ad sales guru - wrote about the commotion in the weekly English-language (as it was then) newspaper BBW, with a charming picture of editor Jeroen van Marle feeding a copy of our guide to a stray dog (who had been enticed to do so with the promise of meat). Happy days, may there be many more to come. Woof!