Over the years we have long thought how Bucharest might best be represented in a single image. Not a logo per se – we have actually suggested a logo for Bucharest before – but instead a symbol: a visual representation of what Bucharest means as a very real place, as well as what it stands for as a concept, or as an idea.

Well, we are happy to report that yesterday our search finally came to end. On a quiet side-street close to the kids’ school we stumbled upon an image which we think perfectly summarises all that is great, wonderful and – at the same time – frustrating about this magnificent city.

It is not a unique scene – we have spotted this kind of thing before – but yesterday we were prepared, camera at the ready.

Combining civic responsibility and a desire to help others with real ingenuity and quick thinking, while also paying homage to the Romanian love of a reusable carrier bag (the sacred punga), here is what can only be described as a huge great pothole marked as a warning to others with the branch of a tree complete with carrier bag at the top:

Bucharest, our kind of city.