Columnist Eleonore af Schaumburg-Lippe writes in her weekly column about life as an expat in Romania. This week she writes about how she celebrated the Romanian National Day on December 1st.

One Monday morning as I was walking to work on Calea Victoriei, I saw military planes flying above me up in the sky: first three jets, then three more, then a huge helicopter and a military plane. It puzzled me a bit and different thoughts crossed my mind, as this was definitely not a usual sight, especially not on a Monday morning. I think: NATO forces, humanitarian aid planes or something like that.

When suddenly two really huge military planes passed over Calea Victoriei, just above the apartment blocks, casting shadows that darkened the street. I started to think something was really wrong. Is this war? But who on earth is threatening Romania, and, well who would want to bomb Calea Victoriei? I must admit I began to shake a little, but no one in the street seemed to pay attention to the planes, which confused me, I even started wondering where to hide. I had almost reached the office, so I ran upstairs and stopped the first colleague I saw and, with a little shiver in my voice, I asked, "what is happening, what are all these planes doing?" My colleague smiled and laughed a bit, and told me it was a rehearsal for the military parade on Saturday the 1st of December. I began to laugh and answered: somebody should have told the expats, because I had just gotten a little shock.

So this was how I found out that there was going to be a military parade on the Romanian National Day.

On December 1, I was very interested to see how the Romanians celebrate the national day in Bucharest. I had been told the parade would take place near Arc de Triomphe, so I decided to head there and see what was going on. On my way, I saw four trucks, some sort of garbage or chemical trucks, they were all clean and covered in the Romanian flag, honking their horns while people from the shops were waving. I found the choice of garbage trucks a bit funny, but on the other hand, why not? As I walked towards Piata Victoriei, I stopped at a shop to buy some water, there was a TV in the shop showing live pictures from the military parade. Lots of people and a long caravan of cars and machinery.

I was rather excited and just couldn’t wait to get to the parade. As I arrived at Piata Victoriei, I could see that the Parliament  Government was  covered in what was easily the biggest Romanian flag I've ever seen, and there were lots of people on the Piata. Then I looked at Soseaua Kiseleff, where the whole street was full of Romanian flags suspended between the trees above thousands of people.

As I walked down Kiseleff, I saw four military trucks, they were not moving, kids were playing on them having their pictures taken with the soldiers. I searched for my camera, only to realize that sadly my camera was not working. I looked at the military vehicles, gazed at missile carriers complete with huge rockets and kids climbing all over them. On another vehicle, there was a big rubber boat, where soldiers with huge guns and commando masks covering most of their faces were letting the kids into the boat so the families could take pictures. The scenario was almost a little too much, big eyed kids with happy smiles next to masked soldiers with huge guns.

As I walked further down the road, I suddenly realized that I was the only one going towards Arc de Triomphe; everybody else was leaving. Probably, I thought, they had been at the parade all day were now going to have a break or something to eat, before coming back after lunch. Finally I got to the Arc, but there was no parade to be seen anywhere and people were all going home. I asked a policemen and he told me that the parade had finished.

No! No parade! I was truly disappointed and began to walk back again, my mood lifted a bit because of all the smiling military personnel and the atmosphere was full of happy smiling families. But still no parade.

A friend of mine called me and asked where I was, I replied at the ex-parade. She told me we could meet at the Museum Taranului look at the arts and crafts market, get something to eat, go to the botanical gardens, and then at five o clock there would be a parade again at Calea Victoriei. That sounded like a great plan, and I was happy that I would be able to see a parade after all.

So we met, and I bought a few traditional Xmas presents including a huge wooden spoon, but we didn’t have time to eat before the botanical garden exhibition closed, so we rushed for a taxi.

We walked around the Botanical gardens, which I recommend, especially now in the autumn when the colors and the light are just amazing. By now I was getting really hungry and I realized I hadn't eaten anything all day. When I started seriously considering trying to catch fish with my big wooden spoon, I decided it was definitely time to eat. So off we went to Hanul Manuc to grab some food before the parade. I was happy and looking forward to finally seeing a parade, but as we got to the crossing of Elisabeta and Calea Victoriei, there were no people and no parade at all. Maybe there wasn’t any parade there after all.

So status of my national day: two parades missed, but we all laughed about it, said 'thank you!' for the fun day, and promised that next year, we would for sure go and see the parade.

By Eleonore af Schaumburg-Lippe, columnist

Eleonore is Danish, she holds a BA in Organization and Management and specializes in Corporate Communication & Strategic Development. She is also a Market Economist and a Multimedia Designer. She is currently working in Bucharest as the Executive Director of UAPR the Romanian Advertising Association. As a Danish Viking in Romania, with a great passion for ’covrigi’, she has a burning desire to find out more about Romania especially Bucharest, and enlighten the small differences in the culture between Denmark and Romania.. Her weekly columns will give you insights into an expats life in Bucharest written with humor and a big Danish smile.

(photo source: Ministry of Defense, photo by Petrica Mihalache)