Kindle your mind.
20110430
20110428
Bucharest in photos
Beer glasses. Needless to say: I enjoy a pint of nice beer, especially if it's black and Irish. Long live Kilkenny.
Another topic: One friend of mine, blogger, took me an interview last week. The interview is in Romanian and you can read it here, if you're interested about blogging and syndicalist activity.
I lived to see people willing to take me an interview. Nice. Thank you, Ruxus.
Kindle your mind.
20110427
Bucharest in photos
(some) People around me like to be cool lately. I just want to be me and to get as simple as possible.
Kindle your mind.
PS. Concerning the motto, I guess you'll be happy to know my new Kindle DX - with its 9 inch screen - arrived last week and I already read a few books. So far, I'm delighted by it, I take it with me each time I get out (getting out usually means taking the underground) and I tend to believe I made a good choice.
It is for the first time in many years that I do not feel all the time the need to have a computer around, or internet access.
20110426
20110425
Bucharest in photos. The city by night
Kindle your mind.
20110424
Bucharest in photos
Photo taken at the Romanian Patriarchy in Bucharest, yesterday at midnight.
Christ is risen.
Kindle your mind.
20110423
20110422
20110421
20110419
20110418
Romania in photos
Photo taken at the ethnological museum in Râmeţ.
Kindle your mind.
20110417
Bucharest in photos. The city by night
Kindle your mind,
20110416
Romania in photos
A poetry comes to my mind. It is a simple one, a poetry for children actually, written by Grigore Vieru. I guess it could be translated to English, but its charm would be wasted, so I prefer to post the Romanian original text:
Puişorii
- Pui golaşi cum staţi în cuib voi
Fără plăpumioare?!
- Ne-nvelim cu ale mamei
Calde aripioare!
- Dar când mama nu-i acasă
Şi ploiţa cerne?
- Ne-nvelim atunci cu frunza
Ramurii materne.
- Dacă n-o să vină mama
Şi-o să cadă frunza?
- Cum nu o să vină mama?
Cum să cadă frunza?!
I'll go to the theater on Monday. One of my friends is a good actress, she got a part in this play, she invited me and I said I would go. I bought a ticket in the first lines.
I bought my Kindle DX today. It should be in my hands within four days. I am nuts - with accessories and taxes, the whole shebang will be way over 500 $. Cultural investment, huh. Or should I say intellectual?
This is the 400th published post of this blog. Promising more to come, and hopefully better.
Photo of the day : the mist.
Kindle your mind.
20110413
Bucharest in photos. The city by night
The 90-meters-tall Intercontinental Hotel as seen from the Lipscani street.
It was one of the first skyscrapers in Bucharest, the building - with 26 floors - being inaugurated in 1971. Skyscrapers were not compatible with a communist society, such as the Romanian society of the time, and so this was the tallest building in Romania until 2004.
Although a 5* hotel, there is only one reason good enough to convince me to visit this building: the extraordinary views of the central Bucharest it should offer.
I presume, this was the reason behind the location in the first place.
PS. I watch a lot of science-fiction movies lately. It is not that I like the genre particularly (although my favorite movie ever, Solyaris, is a SF movie, I do not like it because of its genre, but because of its message), it is rather the fact that, lately, I feel more the need to think outside the box, than before. This is not about things around me, this is about myself.
PS. I watch a lot of science-fiction movies lately. It is not that I like the genre particularly (although my favorite movie ever, Solyaris, is a SF movie, I do not like it because of its genre, but because of its message), it is rather the fact that, lately, I feel more the need to think outside the box, than before. This is not about things around me, this is about myself.
Kindle your mind.
20110412
20110411
20110410
20110408
Bucharest in photos. The city by night
Back to the city, as promised.
Picture taken this night.
Kindle your mind.
20110407
Romania in photos
This picture was taken at Râmeţ, in the Sibiu county, some 4 hours driving distance from Bucharest, on Sunday afternoon.
Tomorrow we'll be back in Bucharest. The blog starts missing the city it represents.
With love,
Kindle your mind.
20110406
Romania in photos
This is the monument church in Aiud.
It is a monument to those who perished during the Communist period in the Aiud prison. Too bad many Romanians do not know anything about the whole story.
In short: the prison of Aiud was a political prison, used especially in the period from 1947 to 1964 AD. The convicts were members of the Romanian elite, but also normal people fighting the dictatorship. To name but a few victims : Vasile Voiculescu (writer), Mircea Vulcanescu (philosopher), Nichifor Crainic (philosopher), Radu Gyr (poet); well-known members of the clergy, like Dumitru Staniloae, Constantin Galeriu, Arsenie Papacioc or Dimitrie Bejan, but also 240 high rank officers of the Romanian Royal Army.
Many of them were condemned because of their affiliation with a extreme-right movement - but that was a pretext, the real reason was that the new power wanted no competition in ruling Romania.
The monument was raised in 2000 AD. The seven twin-crosses at the base symbolize the unity in suffering of the victims, while the cross on top symbolizes the cross of their nation, Romania, the cross they carried.
Other two political prisons that come to my mind now are those of Sighet and Pitesti - all part of the Romanian GULAG.
In the end, I want to make clear that we, Romanians, are to be blamed because we neglect this part of our history. By ignoring our memory, we rightfully deserve our recent past - and our present.
Kindle your mind.
20110405
Romania in photos
These are some of the pictures I managed to take in one afternoon and one morning, basically, in the city of Cluj Napoca.
It is a city I love, but a city I do not consider my home (unlike Bucharest, Bistrita and Timisoara).
Last time I've been there was June 2007 and it was my birthday. And I was together with the person I loved. Before that, I've been once in 2005, countless times at the beginning of the 90s, and one time in July 1980, when I was only six weeks old and when a doctor had saved my life in this very city.
This time, there were places I had not the time to visit, like the Botanical Garden - which is superb - and others. But I'll go again to Cluj next month, for a week, and I hope I'll have the time to do some more visiting.
The pictures were taken somehow in a hurry, but I guess you can observe that in Cluj there are quite a few statues, some numbers of Romanian flags, nice buildings in Central European style (including cathedrals), the river Somes, and - what you cannot see - a breathable air.
But also a lot of nice pubs with decent service and nice people - unfortunately, this is not yet always the case in Bucharest. I spent my night in the 4 star hotel Napoca, lovely situated on the bank of the river Somes and just refurbished, but I must warn you the price is very high, a double room is charged approximately 350 RON (about 85 euros) per night, besides some small inconveniences, and I guess there must be plenty other more affordable places right in the center. Given the lack of time, I could not take quite a proper look at the people, putting aside the obvious fact that there are a lot of students in Cluj.
I noticed a new stadium is being built. I was angry when I discovered I've forgotten my tripod, so the night pictures might have been better.
In the end, my invitation to you is that, if you have the time and the opportunity, you should pay a visit to this city - but don't do it like me, in a hurry. In my view, a visit is definitely worth it.
Kindle your mind.
20110404
Romania in photos
This photo was taken in Cluj, yesterday.
This is the river Someş, and the rising sun at 8.30 am.
I'll write more about the city in my next post. I enjoyed re-visiting it, after almost four years.
Kindle your mind.
20110401
Bucharest in photos
Over the week-end I'll be off to Transylvania. I'll spend 2 days in Cluj.
I haven't decided yet which city - out of Cluj or Brasov - is the Romanian city with the highest life standings. I guess Cluj wins, but Brasov comes really close. And I love both of them, but, to be honest, none such as Bucharest.
If you'd ask me, the capital of Romania should be moved to either Brasov, Sibiu or Alba Iulia. I find it only natural to have the capital of one country located in its center, in its heart, while Bucharest is situated much in the south of the country.
It is unnatural that Timisoara - an important city located at the western border - is closer to Vienna, the capital of Austria, than Bucharest, the capital city of its own country. It is also unnatural that Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, is closer to the Romanian capital than Cluj, a Romanian city.
The fact of being the capital of a country such as Romania is definitely a burden for Bucharest. Many Romanians live in this city, but do not consider it their home and do not respect it - with all the dramatic consequences following.
Kindle you mind.
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