Dâmboviţa River

All great cities have their rivers, and Bucharest slips in its quest for greatness thanks to the way it's treated the miserly Dâmboviţa River. Centuries ago, when Bucharest first took its steps, the river rushed through woods on this relatively hilly part of the plain. Mosquitoes loved the river though, and brought malaria to a growing population; sewage seemed drawn to it too, and the flood-prone river grew more and more contaminated.

The natural twists and turns of the river were canalised between 1880 and 1883 and was later enhanced with concrete.

In the 1970s, Ceauşescu's destructive gaze fell on the river - perhaps the USSR's canal-building history steered it - and he displaced villages west of the centre to build the Dâmboviţa Lake (aka Lake Morii), a concrete-floored lake that accumulates a healthy collection of trash on its eastern rim (though some locals dare to swim in or wind-board on it).

All in all, it's not pretty. In fact, it's trashy and murky and stinky. But - don't slag it - the Dâmboviţa just won't quit.