Happy Birthday, Trudi!

I still love you, even if you NEVER answer my emails and you NEVER come online to talk to me. My gift for you... a guilt trip!
Hihi, no, seriously. Happy birthday, friend, hope you have a wonderful spring day! :)

Probably the best Sunday ever

Well, at least for a long long time. Everyone was in such good spirits, the weather was perfect, the trees were so beautiful one felt like hugging them (which we did, actually, but don't tell anyone), the forest was full of berries... what more could you wish for? Maybe a good rock climbing spot, but we'll get to that too.

It started on a crisp and early morning, which I spent being awfully car sick, going up mountains on winding roads. But the view...

It continued with a somewhat-directionally-challenged walk through the forest. It took a while to find the way; but the view...

Once the way was found, a further delay was added to the schedule, occasioned by the discovery of blueberries. Lots of blueberries. Everywhere. Enough to turn even the grumpiest cynic into a frolicking, little stained child. But the view...

Upon finally reaching our destination, we climbed enthusiastically, continually and merrily until total exhaustion and complete filth. The view... was mostly of butts.

The lichens were all over meee!
P.S. The good photos are obviously not mine :>

Honey

These pics aren't mine, and they are from a trip I haven't even been on. But the autumn is at its most beautiful, so I thought I'd share :>

Ode to anachronism

You're already familiar with Rimetea. However, one thing I have not yet talked about in relation to it are the roads you have to drive on to get to it. Absolutely terrible. Pothole after pothole stretching your car's patience to maximum and making you wish you hadn't had such a hearty breakfast as you jump and wobble like Ace Ventura in his safari car.

These terrible roads are in the process of being repaired: wider lanes, good markings, you know, all the stuff you need for a comfortable drive. Isn't that great?

Nope. As a matter of fact, it sucks.

You know why? Because bad roads doeth a nice place make. Only people who know and care, (and who don't turn pale at the thought of having to walk) seek and enjoy such places. And this keeps them free from orange villas strewn randomly across bald hills, bad music, bad manners, bad smells and bad people. And noise. And garbage. And commercial enterprises. And everything else that goes along with "civilisation".

Because my friend Eisenburg is as "uncivilized" as they come. Banks and shops and everything else one needs for a modern living are so discretely placed you don't even notice them. The only things that seem out of place are the cars parked outside the houses. Ignore them, and you are back in the 19th century. But now, with its peace and quiet easily accesible, who knows what it will turn into.

Leaving, yesterday evening, I had the odd feeling I would not see it the same again. Even writing this feels like some sort of an obituary: in loving memory of the many-named one - Rimetea, Torocko, Eisenburg - the prettiest, tidiest, most loved village in Transylvania. You will be sorely missed.

I really hope I'm wrong.
Fountain in the central square:
One of the two pubs. I can't help always imagining it full of merry hobbits:
Just a pretty gate:
And what used to be a gate in the 1800's:

The old inn building, now largely deserted, with the exception of a few rooms housing an ethnographic museum:

Just a window:

View from an old inn balcony. I wouldn't mind having my breakfast in front of this view every day!

The silhouette of a gypsy:
Oh, yes. We did some climbing too.
And a little buburuza for you. Just because.

September sun

Autumn began just as it should be, just as I remember it from those times

Of neglected treasures and grazed knees

This is a big brand of mineral water, of which my family consumes an average of 5l a day.
And this is the place it comes from.

Once a popular and well reputed mountain resort, famous for its multitude of healing springs, it is now a ruined ghost-town. On the one hand, it's so sad to see such resources go to waste, but on the other hand, it seems to be even more beautiful in its neglected beauty. It leaves room for my eerily-inclined imagination; it's not hard to imagine elegant ghost-ladies roaming the decrepit rooms of their once opulent villas. Or stray sprites taking over the towers and attics. The fact that a place close by is called "The faeries' meadow" only fed my fantasy :>

To add to the beauty of the place is white marble. Whole mountains of white marble, several quarries of white marble, the roads leading to them white from all the chips of marble.

But mineral water or ghosts (mineral ghosts?) were not what we were there for. It was rock-climbing, of course.
Being that my climbing skills are still rather humble, I spent more time on the ground than on the wall, together with the non-climbers, watching the pro's...
...and exploring. And look what we found!
A narrow, looong and very damp cave. Lucky some people are always prepared for anything and had their flashlights with them.
This outing with friends did me a lot of good, I was beginning to feel like I hadn't seen a mountain in 10 years (my sore muscles were actually from laughing so much, not from climbing!).
Great weekend. Nice bruise on my knee :>

...is it morning already?

Dear friends,
Please excuse my prolongued absence from this blog. It is due partly to a lack of new events to record, and partly to a new job.

Yes, one of them activities that imply going to the same place at the same time every day and smiling to offensive customers. And not so much time off.

So, in order to keep you mildly interested in this blog for a bit longer, I'll show you some month-old pictures ;)

Some pretty Transylvanian hills (that might one day become a quilt),
and me posing as Pocahontas:

Time to go to work now, yay!