through the gate

a view of the gate and balcescu streets from the schei gate

living

a street next to the tâmpa promenade with beautiful big houses and a great view . a nice place to live . brasov has a lot of communist apartment buildings but we are lucky to have an important part of the old town with houses and nice narrow streets .

elections

did i tell you that we have elections ? hehehe ... i hope not .

yeah , on sunday we have elections for county councils , city councils and city mayor .

this one , with a banner big as a building is the mayor of brasov and he will most probably get re-elected .

residential

i love that room at the top floor . this is a house in a very nice area , next to the tâmpa mountain .

junii 6

these are the last pictures from the parade . hope you had a good time .

junii 5

these are from republicii street . this street is full of tables from all the cafes and restaurants so the day before they had to take everything out of the way and a few hours after the parade everything was back . btw , a few days ago i counted and there are 19 cafes and restaurants with alfresco areas in the middle of the street taking maybe 2/3 of its lenght . maybe one day it will be from one end to the other . oh , and one more thing , after the parade the cleaners were really busy with all the "gifts" , horses "gifts" . hahaha

junii 4

to see horses running on the streets and no cars at all it was amazing . if you ever want to visit brasov , you should consider coming during this festival , it's probably the best time .

junii 3

i have a lot of pictures and i can't decide which ones to use ... hehehe ... some are interesting for the portret , some for the horses , some for the costumes , some just as a snapshot ... so i will post as many as posible ... hahaha ... enjoy

junii 2

the other 3 groups (best costumes) : junii brasovecheni (old town brasovians youngsters) , junii rosiori ( redish youngsters) , junii albiori (whitish youngsters) .
they come down from schei on baritiu street , old council square , muresenilor street and then return on republicii street , old council square , poarta schei street .

junii 1

finally the parade . it is the first sunday after easter and the last day of the days of brasov festival .
the parade and the whole juni festival is an ancient ritual that over the centuries got more complex meanings .
"schei" is a district of brasov (a former village next to the old fortified german city of brasov) where traditions are still strong . junii were ancient military clans . there are 7 groups of juni (aprox. means youngsters) each with their own flag and costumes . it's a tradition and a ritual so everything has to be very specific . for example the order in which they "descent into the citadel" .
here are the flags for the first 4 groups : junii tineri (the young unmarried youngsters) , junii batrani (the old youngsters) , junii curcani (the turkey youngsters) , junii dorobanti .

the days ...

waiting for the parade on muresenilor street ...
...and after the parade on republicii street .

the days 5

the charity alley . different organizations had stalls here trying to raise money for different projects

... and a face painting stand . i saw the results and it was quite nice ...

the days 4

two concerts everyday , one at noon , one in the evening . this is on sunday , after the parade , traditional romanian popular folk music and dances .

the days 3

the flowers fair in the old city council square

wine alley

the wine alley . romanian wine brands offering free samples of their products .

so , what is this festival about ? among many others , a crafts fair , wine alley , fruits alley , flowers fair , charity alley , concerts , parades ...

the weather was not so good but this pictures took on sunday (the last day) show how crowded was the alley in front of the central park where the stalls for the crafts fair were instaled . a great chance for souvenirs , home decorations , jewelry , gifts .

the days 1

i told you about the "days of brasov" festival held on 1-4 may . it's about time to post something about it although i didn't really watch closely what happened .

lets start with the poster (the small one is from last year) . you can see the hats of the 7 groups of "juni" (more about this in the next posts)

to drive

probably the day will come , and soon , when people will drive trucks and tanks on the city streets . why ? size matter ... oh , wait , it's not that , it's stupidity ... hehehe

deco

recently , brasov got a lot of new urban furniture . everywhere but especially in the old town . and it looks better .

this is actually an old design but with new paint . there were a lot of them before but now i think this is the only one left . and it's in front of the city hall .

rainbow

last week in brasov we had the chance to see a double rainbow . and it was quite long , almost 20 minutes . not the best spot but this is the view from my window .

meat

sunday we went for a picnic in cristian (some 10 km from brasov) at a country house with a nice garden .
so ... mixed grill ... hahaha ... meat , meat and more meat . oh , and some fresh salad . and some red wine ... hehehe

nighthawk

last weekend was very busy ... hahaha ... actually not really , maybe just a lot of birthday celebration (not mine) . that's why i didn't post .(sorry)saturday night we were almost home when we decided to go for a night cup , listen to some music and watch the view from belvedere , a parking on the road to poiana brasov .

so , this is the old part of brasov on a saturday night / morning (aprox 3 am)

contrast

back to brasov .
but keeping the animals theme .
i bet you don't get to see something like this in your city .
a mall and a flock of sheeps right next to it .modern and ancient . in a city . in europe . in 2008 . hahaha . very traditional . very rural . very romanian .

yard life

my aunt has 5 roosters . the smallest one is a real fighter . it's actually the oldest and it's taking care of the whole yard . the biggest is the white one and it looks like it's wearing long underwear . the colorful one is a beauty but has no tail . the one on the fence (from 2 days ago) likes to fly a lot . which one's gonna be the next dinner ? hahaha