The party begins..

By early evening the first firecrackers are already shattering the peace. Leaving the hotel I walk briskly so as to reach the main square in time for the big event. A trickle of like minded people grows until I am being swept along in a tidal wave of families bearing EU and Romanian flags. Bucharest has come to life. Only a few hours ago there was hardly a soul on the street (I was beginning to wonder what had happened, now there must have been a few hundred thousand gathered around the stage erected next to the Intercontinental Hotel. The noise is deafening. The first fireworks trace the sky followed by the lazy beams of the spotlights. Speeches give way to music and then more speeches from some Italian EU dignitary – it’s all the same to the Romanians. They don’t much care who opens the door for them so his speech ends to rapturous shouts of “Danke!” Midnight stamps itself in and the world explodes around me as boxes of fireworks go off. Within minutes the first ambulance siren strikes up. Above our heads the balance of next years Romanian GDP lights the sky in starbursts of reds, whites and greens and then as quickly as it has happened it is all over. The crowds turn tail and return from whence they came.