Drunk Irish tourist breaks into Romania's giant parliament building!
Bucharest, Romania – An Irishman walks into a Romanian bar. Hours later, he gets arrested after drunkenly breaking into the country's parliament building, looking for his hotel room. No, it's not a joke – yes, this really happened.
Romania's Palace of the Parliament is famously the world's third-largest government building, behind only the Pentagon and Thailand's seat of government. The Communist-built behemoth, also called the People's House, has over 1,000 rooms and took 700 architects over 13 years to build.
But for one Irish tourist who had several drinks too many, this landmark looked pretty much just like the hotel he was staying at. So much so, in fact, that he smashed his way in, determined to get back to his room and sleep off the mother of all benders.
According to the Romanian network Digi24, the man scaled the parliament walls, broke a window, and climbed in on Monday morning, around 4 AM local time. He then staggered around the building, trying different office doors, until his luck finally ran out as baffled police officers discovered him.
The intoxicated intruder was arrested and charged for damaging a public building, as well as for trespassing – both felonies.
It's safe to say those in charge of security for the People's House are going through a particularly rough patch.
Just six days before this bizarre incident, Romania experienced its own miniature storming of the Capitol, as protesters at a rally against Covid restrictions forced their way into the building.
The Irish tourist's adventure will now be included in the investigations into security failings that were already underway.
Cover photo: IMAGO / agefotostock