Food!

I haven't been on a trip since New Year... I know, tragic. But the weather has been so nasty and gloomy lately that you wouldn't want to kick a dog out of the house. In such circumstances, what is there left to do but resort to the greatest comfort available to mankind... food!

If you know me just a little bit, then you know I would not miss a food exhibition. Especially this one! It was full of revelations of the sort I did not think available in Romania.

Half of it was dedicated to cooking/baking equipment and tools... boring. But the other half, aahh, well, that contained the end result of all those machines and spatulas and spinners and mixers: chocolate, deserts, multi-level cakes, irresistible bread, gingerbread houses and other dreamy sugary and vegetable creations. Here are but a few:

Lady with an Ermine made entirely of spaghetti of various colours, stuck inside some base so that all you see is the ends of the spaghetti:

Floral arrangements made of vegetables:
Radish ducks in a carrot-fenced courtyard:
Sculpted pumpkins:

Traditional Easter table setting, complete with napkin, bible, basket of eggs and candlestick, and made entirely of chocolate:

Chocolate cups, made of chocolate, containing chocolate:
Frilly chocolate cake (as my friend said "I'd totally wear this!")
Easter scene cake with fondant chickens and bunnies and mushrooms and ground hog:
Dough wood and saw, part of a village scene made entirely of dough:
Gingerbread houses (I have such a soft spot for gingerbread...)
(oh yeah, and for bread too!):
Caramel creations:
A sugar prize-winning manuscript:
A sugar prize-winning coat:

And the thing which impressed me the most - miniature sugar tablecloths, "embroidered" with coloured sugar paste, painstakingly, one line at a time:

The tablecloth people also made stained...sugar panels, meant to decorate cakes and completely edible:

Dough shoe:
Sugar gnomes:

Last but not least, my friend's creation, a chocolate spring tree, with each petal modelled and painted by hand. Not to mention bird's nest, snail and Easter bunnies:

If you're still not convinced of her talent, check out her mouthwatering blog here.

That being said, I'll get back to you with some travel pics as soon as we get to see the sun for longer than 2 hours a week. :)

Welcome to 2011!

Happy New Year everyone! Allow me to welcome myself back to my blog. I have slowly and painfully managed to pull myself out of holiday mode. It was particularly hard this time, as I had such a supergreat time over the holidays.

Christmas was normal: food, drinks, friends, movies and handmade gifts which I will brag about on my other blog.

But New Year's was abnormal in oh so many wonderful ways. First of all, it was abnormal of me to want to go somewhere cold with lots of snow. Second of all, it was totally unheard of for me to like it. Yes, dear readers, I liked the snow! Yes, I went out in it and I wasn't cold! (Granted, I had no physical contact with it, as I stayed safe within my polar fleece and Gore-Tex bubble.) Now I finally believe that Norwegian saying, that there is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothing.

As is the way of wise people, very late on the morning of the 31st we decided to climb to the summit called Scaunul Domnului (God's Seat), the very one that's mentioned in Bram Stoker's Dracula.
All bundled up and ready to go:
We knew we had an 8 hour walk ahead of us and we knew we'd end up walking in the dark for at least 2 hours, but we went anyway. And boy was is worth it!

It was special for me, as it was my first (more or less) serious winter hike, and everything, even familiar places, looks so different when covered in snow.

The view from the summit was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. The pink sky made it all look like a painting, and the fir trees seemed more like computer graphics than real life.

It was Mutty-Mutty's first time in the snow too, and he had a great time:

On the way back, slipping, tripping and groping in the dark, we became sure that we'd be too exhausted for any kind of New Year partying. But back at the cabin we were met by the rest of the gang, freshly arrived from the city, who gave us no chance but to stay up. And party we did, until the wee hours of the morning.

The rest of the night contained a lot of this...
...some of this (sneakily)...
...and, for the less fortunate, some of this:

And you know the best part? Nobody was drunk! This is just our collective true self, coming out when we are all crowded together in one small cabin. It was another opportunity for me to realise how blessed I am with such silly friends.

As we all know that practice is very important if you want to become good at something, the hike-food-party-sleep sequence was repeated twice again in the following days.

I hope your holidays were satisfactory and that you'll have a great year. But if first days are anything to go by, then 2011 will be a blast!

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! :)

Another sunny weekend

...sunny being the key word here. Anyone who thinks global warming is a scam, just look at the following pictures.

We went to Scarita-Belioara, a beautiful natural reserve we had been planning to visit for a long time. (that site is in German but it has some good pics). It was hang-head-out-the-car-window-squealing-in-delight beautiful! :D
Now, about global warming. November is generally the beginning of winter here. It's nothing unusual to have the first snow and the first frost in November. The colourful leaves are all gone (with small exceptions) ...
... and the scenery is preparing to start looking rather dull and quiet. That's why it 's highly unusual to spend a weekend in November wearing a singlet!

Not that I'm complaining, I love the sun and the heat, and the sky was the most amazing shade of blue! Only in NZ have I seen such a blue sky before.

And, however barren mountains may be in November, the sun still makes them beautiful:
The muckla seemed to think so too!

The 101st post

Yes, my dear hypothetical readers, I have thus far given you one hundred updates to my hectic, crafty, sunny and tough Transylvanian life! I never thought I would post so regularly, but I have really enjoyed keeping you up to date with my comings and goings. Let's have a virtual drink and toast to the longevity of my travel blog! For he's a jolly good social interaction mediuuuuum....

I'm tired as hell, I don't think I've had one whole hour to myself in the past month. On the upside, it seems that my life is heading into a new and thrilling direction. I'm curious to see how it will go and where it will take me. Don't worry, I'll keep you posted :>

Ok, now I guess it's time for an update to cover my 6 week absence from the world of blogs. The excuse for my absence? A new job (added to my previous 2). Can you guess what it is? Here, I'll give you a clue:
And before I got this new job, I had a month full to the brim with love. I don't know how else to express it better, except that I felt pure joyful love...
...for the people around me
...and the experiences we had together.
For the divine music we listened to...
...and the hungover exhaustion that followed.
For some indescribably beautiful places that are close to my heart...
...and the daydreams they usually bring to life in my overactive imagination.
For the unique beauty you can find on the dark side...
For simple things that never cease to awe me...
...and the liberating, tingling feeling commonly known as "being yourself".

This past period was everything I have ever been known to resonate to. It was fun, it was gothic, it was crazy, it was medieval, it was sunny, it was dark, it was tasty, it was me.

Omg... is it possible that I might actually be happy ?