public transportation

this is the bus stop (actually something like a bus terminal) for old town/city center . the place is called "post's orchard" . between june and october the whole area was a construction site , they re-done the streets , sidewalks , parking , bus stop and a little plaza . a lot of work and a lot of stress for the drivers .
in the top picture you can see (starting from the left) "transylvania university" , a primary school and the "baiulescu house" (part of the brasov county public library) hosting the british , french and hungarian cultural centers . in the second picture you can see a part of the main building of brasov county public library .
the picture was taken a few days ago , now the snow is gone but it's freezing . the night before we had the coldest night so far for this winter (-13 degrees celsius)

bad reception

in case you don't have cable and your tv reception is bad , you should check your roof once in a while . this one looks like another "motel" with the "no vacancy" sign .
a lot of "birdies" recently in my posts ... hahaha ... but i can assure you those are not the one from my head ! mine are safe !

a different hill

a new hotel and residential development on a hilltop . it's gonna look great , the only problem is that they had to cut a lot of trees . although brasov is surrounded by mountains and forests , inside the city there are not enough trees . i really admire places like singapore because is so green with lots of trees and flowers . in the picture you can see an aeronautical supervisor dressed like a pigeon who is checking out the construction site .

i have to apologize to all of you because i couldn't visit any blogs , leave any comments or reply to your comments . it's not about finding time is about the connection . for the past 2 days i can't connect long enough to do anything . i hope i can post this entry , if i'm lucky . i'm sorry and see you soon .

jazz

last weekend the weather was a little better (today at noon we had -3 degrees C) so this guy was able to feel his fingers and lips so he can play his saxophone on republic's street (the comercial pedestrian only street in the old town). street music with a difference , it was jazz . very nice !
by the way , speaking of street music , try to watch a little irish movie called "once" , it's really great ! and the soundtrack is amazing .

saturday night out

on saturday night we went out for dinner . we wanted something different so we went for chinese food at this new place , "lotus express" on "muresenilor street". in brasov there are only 3 places where you can eat chinese and no other restaurant where you can have asian food , although , ocasionaly , you can find a curry on the menu . it's a shame ! i think romanians are too traditional when it comes to food . i love asian food , indian , indonesian , malaysian , but of course i didn't know anything about it before my visit to singapore .

in the picture you can see something that on the menu was called "gung bao pork"(probably what is known as "kung pao") and "ciao ciao pork" with fried rice . i googled for the recipe and it's very different from what we had . i don't know if it's a variation or an improvisation . no chop sticks (i can't use them anyway but still ...) and we had to ask for a spoon for rice (strange) . the food was good but the rice was not . the atttitude also not good , especially for a new restaurant . the price - 6 euro .

this experience is another example of my hate-love relationship with brasov . it's very hard to find something completely nice here , there's always something else that has to be bad .

sunset

yesterday's sunset .
a view from the car , on "bucharest boulevard" at around 4 pm (at 5 is dark already)

rest

a bleak and cold afternoon . even the pigeons feel that the weather conditions are not good enough for flight so they have a stop at the "light balls motel" in central park .
"hey , hey , i'm coming , any room available ? move a little bit , can't you see i'm landing ?"
now they should put the "no vacancy" sign .

getting ready

i'm taking a break from the church series ...(i will post the rest probably next week)
because the christmas tree is here ! and it's a really nice one this year . hopefully the decorations will match the beauty of this natural large tree . as you can see , is very big , i would say maybe 35-40 meters , knowing that the tower of the "council house"(second photo) is 49 meters high . like always , it's placed in the "council square" where we have all the celebrations .
although i hate what holidays have become lately , with all the consumerism , crazy shopping , fake tv joy and all that , i think the idea of bringing a tree(a real one) in your house is great , it makes us better for a little while .

church 4

the "buna vestire" orthodox church .
built between 1934 – 1937 in the byzantine style .
just across the street from the central park .
(from the archive)

happy thanksgiving to all the american friends !

church 3

(from the archive - notice the shorts and t-shirts)
the romanian orthodox cathedral
it was built between 1894-1896 after a chapel was erected in 1876 . the picture actually shows the parochial house , the church is hidden in a courtyard because at that time the romanian population in the city didn’t have the right to build orthodox churches front at the street .
the church (second picture) is a copy of the greek orthodox church in vienna and as i said is hidden in the back between the houses .

church 2

the saint nicholas church
is a romanian orthodox church established in 1292 and built in stone starting from 1495 in the "schei" district , outside the walls of the old town of brasov . if brasov (founded by teutonic knights and the colonists they brought 800 years ago) was a "german" town , and the romanians didn't have rights as citizens , the romanians lived in schei and other sites in the area .
built in gothic style , later was redone in baroque style .
next to it is the first romanian school , started in 1583 .

church 1

today i start a theme . churches .i will show just a few of the city's churches . i have to say that i am not really interested in churches from a religious point of view , more because of the architecture .

this is the black church .

it was built by the german community of the city and started as a catholic church under the name of the church of saint mary . the construction started in 1385 and it was completed almost a hundred years later . the lutheran service replaced the catholic one during the protestant reformation in europe .

it is the most important gothic style monument in the country .

it's got the name after the most important disaster in city's history , the great fire of 1689 when some 3000 people died .

89 meters long , 38 meters wide , 65 meters high . the biggest bell in the country . an impressive 4000 pipe organ played in weekly concerts . now is a museum but still has a sunday lutheran religious service for the small german community .

from the top

this is a photo from the archive and it shows brasov from the top of the hill .

you ca see very clearly the old town , the defensive walls ,two of the defensive towers on the opposite hill , the central square , the black church .

brasov is 800 years old and it was built by germans .

the smaller pictures shows how the medieval brasov looked like a few hundred years ago in a scale model and how it looks like on google earth .

i'm a survivor !

yesterday morning i discovered that i have a subject for a photo right under my bedroom window .

a big yellow pear hanging there alone screaming : "i'm a survivor , i don't care that everything else is gone , i'm not afraid of the cold !" ... you know , that kind of things . or , maybe it thinks that it's a christmas ornament and just waiting to jump on a christmas tree .

15 nov 1987

20 years ago , on november 15 1987 something happened in brasov . the first anti-communist revolt in romania , two years before the anti-communist revolutions that changed the face of europe in 1989. ten thousand people gathered in front of this building - the brasov county council and had the courage to say what everybody wanted to say in romania : we had enough ! it's hard to understand how it was to live under communism in eastern europe if you didn't have the "chance" .

20 years ... i can still remember what i was doing that day ... but it's long gone and now , almost everybody doesn't have the time to care .

standing tall

well , it's more about the angle but it looks like this tree is guarding the city

naked light

naked light from a naked sun through a hole from behind the trees

i need a hot summer day !

please make a donation ! hahaha

pickles

here you can see a lot of artistic home-made canned pickles for the winter , on display in one restaurant . all kinds of peppers , chilli peppers , garlic , green tomatoes ... romanians like pickles with their food for a lot of dishes , all the potato dishes , bean dishes , rice , all kind of meat dishes . and they pickle a lot of different vegetables : green tomatoes ,tomatoes , cucumbers , peppers , chilli peppers , beetroot , cabbage , carrots , cauliflower , even watermelons or grapes .

and in this case , it also looks great . enjoy !

pairs 2

so tell me my dear blue mami , you're gonna have a boy , right ? with a blue room , blue clothes , blue diapers , blue car , blue ...

yes my dear yellow mami , just like you're gonna have a little girl . with a yellow room , yellow clothes , yellow ...

and the little blue boy and the little yellow girl will be :

friends forever ... fashion forever ... with mothers together

who knows ? but the soon-to-be-mothers are looking cool

pairs 1

take cover ! your helmet is not enough ... we need a big umbrella ! ok , from here we can observe everything in the park ... cool !

isn't playing , you know , fun , even when you just watch ? stupid question ... of course it is ...haha

fountain

the newest water fountain in town

coming home

i really like this shot . right place , right time , i was lucky ...

nothing much to say about it . it was taken somewhere on the narrow streets of the old town

feeling lucky ?

too many stupid places like these in brasov . places to gamble and meet the underworld . cheap "casinos"

oh , and related to this , next weekend's jackpot for the national lottery is 4.5 millions euros . the all time record for the romanian lottery is some 8 millions . i don't play but what if i win ? hahaha ... onestly , i wouldn't know what to do with that much money . i don't want a 10 bedrooms house , ferrari and other stuff like that . i would probably travel everywhere .

anybody won big ? how does it feel ? hahaha

autumn blue

now that the leaves are gone , i noticed these blue fruits on a fence near my home (they're blue probably because of the cold) . i have no idea what are these, probably some wild vine , but it was the only colorful thing on a sea of grey in a rainy afternoon . november rain ... hahaha , anybody remembers guns 'n roses ?

hungry ?

last saturday we went out , and because my friend was hungry we went for a late dinner .
the restaurant is called "ceasu' rau" and it means aproximately "bad hour" . they serve the so called traditional romanian cuisine which means a lot of red meat and other greasy stuff . me , after 2 years of singapore , i don't like it anymore , if i ever liked it .
you can see how a portion of ribbs looks like for some 7 euros

the hill

see you up there ! soon ! hahaha

you can walk (beware of the bears ! and it's not a joke , sometimes you can actually see wild bears in the woods nearby or even in the city) or you can take the cablecar and have a wonderful view of the city and visit the "brasov" sign

belvedere

belvedere comes from french and it means beautiful view . it's one of the places on the hills surrounding the city where you can have a poscard shot of the old town .
well , the old town is pretty much all that worth a visit in brasov . on the left you can see the "black curch" , the biggest one in town .

autumn colors

we had a few beautiful days this week ... sunny and with wonderful colors . some kind of "say goodbye to the leaves" days ... are we ready for the winter ? i know for sure that i'm not ... hahaha

the first snow

the first snow for the winter of 2007-2008 came in brasov on october 21st . it was a sunday . in the picture you can see what i saw when i woke up and pull the curtains . actually it was quite nice , big flakes , really heavy snowing for 10 hours but i wasn't ready for it . i thought that it was too soon and after almost 3 years without snow , i was a bit scared ... hahaha ... so i didn't enjoy it and , anyway , by the next morning it was gone so ... i hope i will see snow again only for christmas .. hahaha
btw , now it's raining , everything is very grey , wet , cold and ugly ... it's already november and we have 5 months in front of us that i wish i could just skip and head straight to green springtime

a fool on the hill

i really need to do this ... the blog , i mean ... hahaha
i can't say i'm in a good mood and i have to find beauty and meaning around me ... and to bring some structure into my life . so , after i will figure it out the technical part , i hope i can enjoy my own blog ... hahaha ... because , i have to say it , and i do appologize to whoever cares , i make this blog for me . well , if anybody else can find joy in my photos and in my city , it's great and i hope that someone can still find time for a small city from a strange country with strange people ... hahaha
oh , btw , happy halloween , if it means anything to you
you want creepy ? come live here for a while ! it's not dangerous , except for your brain !