And yet another!

...sunny weekend, that is. This time it was colder, but the same preposterously blue sky.

The mountain was teeming with people, everyone breathlessly enjoying their favourite activities: climbing, paragliding, trekking, photographing... as if we knew it couldn't last.

And it didn't. As I'm writing this, the first snow of the year is already melting outside, thus welcoming the season of slush, cold and darkness.

But at least, for the next 3-4-5 months, I will have this to think of and remember: the prettiest village in the world, the loveliest November sky, the craziest begging dog.
He managed to get half of my sandwich, with his exercised cuteness and athletic skills.
May the winter be merciful with you! :)

Of high mountains, pain, goats and other social events

As usual, things happen quicker than I can record them here. So, without much ado, here is what you've been missing out on (ne ne ne ne neeee) in the past month.

Starting with the most recent, Retezat, or "the weekend of pain". Setting off bright and early on a crisp Sunday morning, we proceeded to blindly follow this man, the bringer of pain, the uphill-speeder, the always-way-ahead-of-us bright eyed and bushy-tailed spirit of "come on people, chop chop, look how late it is, that cloud is getting near, you can gossip on the summit etc etc".

After an 8 hour high-altitude stroll and only 8 hours' sleep for the whole weekend, 5 zombies turned up for work on Monday morning (only because the other 2 weren't working). Aside from that, which was quite fun in itself, the scenery was otherworldly. Lookie here:

We walked through forests and meadows,
and over miles of blooming rock,
and over miles of barren rock,
and over snow,
We saw chamois goats,
and acted like them
"What do your elven eyes see?"
Pit stop:
Top o' the mountain to ya!
View from the peak, with Lake Bucura:
The way back:
The way ahead:
Me, tired? Naah..
On the way down. Game: how many people and how many goats can you spot in this photo?

Can you imagine, I forgot to take a pic of my shoes from the top of the mountain. So this one will have to do ;) I had repetitive dreams of that blue-triangle track marking the next night, hehe.

* * *
Other events of note for the past month would be...

... my 10-year highschool reunion, which was a lot of fun. The picture is silly, cheerful and disorderly, just like we were as a group:
...the small-scale miracle of my brother's graduation,
... two new ear piercings and a very good master's thesis (not pictured in this post).

Till fjälls igen

Told you the roaming would resume! So sit back and prepare for another picture-intensive post. I had a lovely weekend. What do normal people do after an emotional wedding, followed by a fun party, followed by only 4 hours' sleep? Blob around the house with lots of coffee? Noo, they go mountain climbing!

To the fortress of Coltesti, to be more precise. Which, seen from the village, looks like this:

I can't even begin to tell you what a beautiful place that area is. A wide valley, guarded by Szekelykö (a rock you have seen in this post) on one side, and by palpable history on the other. In the middle, nothing but Transylvanian tidiness.
And what a lovely weather we had. This little dragon thought so too. He even had no problem posing for us in all kinds of angles. This is probably the biggest lizard I've ever seen, it was about 25cm.

Finally, on the peak!... can you tell I like fortresses?
Exploring the newer tower and making assumptions related to the original architecture.
Pretty windows, of course :>
Exploration must be done with the utmost dedication and throughness, inside and out!
Spring wind:
Thorugh a window through a window. (don't know how I managed to get this pose, but this pic is fit for a Swedish knitwear catalogue, hihi)
A nobleman's view:
A flower's view:
A climber's view:
A photographer's view:
Customary foot picture (I might have to get a new pair of hiking boots, u must be getting bored of the same shoes in such pics!)
On the way down. Doesn't spring just warm your heart?

After a quick feed by the stream, it was time to explore the area across the road. Yes, this is "across the road" in the Transylvanian countryside (this looks like it could be our local Machu Picchu :>)
I think if I could take a photo of the contents of my heart, it would look like this:
Or like this:

Flowers indulging in the sunset:
View of my head admiring the view of the valley:
On the way down again (we always have such cool discussion on such ascents and descents. The more breathless you are, the more stimulating the conversation tends to become). Fortress in the background:

Nothing says "home" to me better than these shapes. They might make for an interesting looking quilt, too:

And finally, a view of my mighty nose, with an even mightier cliff in the background: