Roads of Romania

Ready for one more blog?

2009-10-08T22:55:00.006+03:00

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Cris has been scolding me lately for letting this blog die. To be honest I had the intention of writing more about the trip to Paris and about a September trip to Vienna but I got entirely caught up in a new project which has kept me busy. In a way, this project was born from my trip to Paris so it is Paris' fault that I kept away for so long. I'm kidding, of course, but here comes the story of what kept me away for such a long time. While I was preparing for the trip to Paris I discovered a nice blog by the name of Paris Daily Photo. Its author Eric, who recommends himself as a "friendly Parisian", is posting an image of Paris a day with a small commentary. Extending my search I found out that there is a whole bunch of daily city photoblogs, some still up to date, some already closed after being in use for a few years. This is how I got the idea of creating one for Bucharest, the city where I was born and where I currently live. My declared goal was (and is) to post a daily photo taken in Bucharest accompanied by a small commentary related to the photo. I shared this idea with a few friends and was asked by some if I think anyone will be interested. I certainly hoped that some people will be interested. If not, the worst case scenario was that I will get to know my city better :) And so a new blog was born: Bucharest Daily Photo. So far I kept at it for more than two months and I have about 50 visitors a day to each version (English and Romanian) of the blog. This activity takes a lot of my time because it turns out that it's not easy to come up with a new photo and a commentary every day. But at the moment I'm having fun with it and I really enjoy it so I don't mind the work.

The Moveable Feast

2009-07-22T15:28:00.002+03:00

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At the beginning of July I went to Paris for a six days vacation. I've been to Paris two times before, in the summer of 1999 and in December 2004, not counting the 7 hours I spent there last summer on a layover, when Cris and I were flying from San Francisco to Bucharest. We took the RER to St. Michel, downed some coffee (myself) and beer (Cris) and strolled through the Luxembourg Gardens before returning to Charles de Gaulle airport to catch the flight to Bucharest. In a way Paris was my first trip, the one that opened me to the world of travel. It was in the summer of 1999 when we were already studying in New Jersey at Rutgers University. You could argue that I was already traveling outside of Romania but the truth is that we used to spend all of our vacations in Romania so all I knew of the world was New Jersey, Bucharest and back. That prompted me to ask Cris in the summer of 1999 to go and see other places and I proposed that we go to Paris. It took me a long time to convince him but I eventually did and he agreed to go with the condition that I take care of visas and planning - back in 1999 Romanians needed a visa to travel to France. Passports in hand I went to the French consulate in NY and applied for a visa. Everyone told me I'm not going to get the visa but I didn't see a reason why I won't get it. I was in a PhD program in US, I thought that was sufficient evidence that I don't plan to stay in France illegaly. We got the visa and I took care of the rest of the planning: plane tickets, hotel. It was probably my most researched trip - for months I read about Paris on the Internet, what to see, where to go, what to do. At some point I got tired. Everyone was raving about how great, how marvelous, how charming it is. Give me a break! I said to myself; it's only a city, how great can it be? I arrived in Paris and I was caught into exploring the city and didn't think about this at all. A few days later while I was drinking coffe at a small cafe on a side street I realized that I'm already caught in its charm. I love Paris. It's great and marvelous and charming and I just love it. Paris is for me the quintessential Western European city, the glory of the French and European civilizations. It has everything I want in a city, architecturally, gastronomically, artistically & socially. It's full of life and culture. In my three trips there I feel like I've barely scratched the surface. There are still dozens of places I've yet to discover. Whatever makes you happy in the end, and that's what this city does for me. I'll never tire of going to Paris, a city I could easily go back to endlessly, roaming around, revisiting the Notre Dame and the Louvre, looking in windows, going into cafes, tasting the food, laughing at the miniscule rooms and feeling at home because it feels so familiar.

A few Paris images:

Notre Dame church:

Eiffel Tower:

Coffee time:

Place des Vosges:

Paris skyline:

Louvre Museum:

Skyline with Eiffel Tower

Cote d'agneau:

Champs Elysee:

River Seine:

Parisian cafe:

A tad of a hiatus...

2009-07-21T23:48:00.003+03:00

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I'm back in Bucharest, as you probably guessed. I didn't get to write about the last 5 days of the New York trip. This "write as you go" experiment gave me a good perspective about what it means to be a travel blog writer. I wanted to post daily but found out that it was difficult. The time it took me to write, correct and post the text was significant, especially considering the fact that I had to do it in two languages. It was also the first time that I travelled carrying a notebook in my bag. Over the course of the day I tried to make notes of everything I saw and did. In the beginning it was a bit of a nuisance to write down everything I found noteworthy but I got the hang of it quickly. And it proved to be very useful. I think I will continue to keep a diary when I travel.

I spent the whole month of June in Bucharest except for a few days at the beginning of the month when I went to the Romanian seaside, more precisely to Năvodari. The occasion was the invitation from a good friend to accompany her to the "Catamarans National Championship" at Marina Surf. It was sunny and we had good weather for the entire five days we were there. I had a great time, my only regret being that the water was too cold for swimming. I think I'm starting to like these "lie in the sun" type of vacations which I didn't care for before.

Marina Surf beach, Năvodari:

Trying to escape the sun:

The catamarans are ready for the ride:

On Your Marks, Get Set, Ready, Go:

The winners:

New York Notes from the trip Part 5

2009-05-20T04:31:00.001+03:00

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Day Five. Another day, another museum. This time, to make Cris happy, I picked the National Museum of Natural History. First we took a short stroll through the southern part of Central Park. We passed by the pond - I wonder what happens to the ducks in winter? :) (This was my attempt of a literary joke) - by some baseball fields full of activity, and finally by the Strawberry Fields and John Lennon memorial. The museum was pretty crowded, given that it was a Sunday. Cris got upset when he found out that the IMAX theater was closed. He was looking forward to seeing a movie at IMAX. Instead, we got tickets for the Cosmic Collision, which turned out to be a 20 minutes movie narrated by Robert Redford with some nice special effects. It showed the importance of cosmic collisions and I learned a few new things (about solar wind and how Earth is protected by it by the magnetic field generated by its iron core). After the show we spent most of our time in the Rose Center for Earth and Space. Exiting the big silver globe that is the Planetarium you can descend via a spiral platform that traces the history of the universe. From the Rose Center for Earth and Space we went up to the fourth floor to see the dinosaur halls. Huge dinosaur skeletons dwarfed everything in the room. We left at the closing time regretting that we didn't have more time to look around. If I were to live in NY I'd probably come here more often.

My morning bagel:

The Central Park Pond:

John Lennon Memorial in Central Park:

Museum of National History, entrance hall:

Rose Center for Earth and Space, Museum of National History:

My diet was too severe:

One of the dinosaur halls:

Dinosaur hall:

Dinner:

The Globe at the Trump Tower, Columbus Circle:

New York Notes from the trip Part 4

2009-05-13T17:06:00.001+03:00

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Day Four. I said on my previous posts that I won't do anything too touristic on this trip but as I passed by the Rockefeller Plaza on our 5th Avenue stroll I noticed a booth with the following sign "Top of the Deck - Tickets for the Observation Deck" and I couldn't help myself, I convinced everyone to go up on the Rockefeller Center. I was surprised that I didn't know about climbing the tower before, but I read in the LP Guide that the observation deck was closed for almost two decades from 1986 to 2005. We moved to the West Coast at the end of 2000 so the deck was still closed at that time. After paying $20/person (ouch), going through different security checks and watching a short movie about the center, we were ushered into an elevator and told to look up. As the elevator started a movie was projected its ceiling, showing different images from the history of New York and after a short ride we arrived on the 67th floor. The views from up there were amazing and we got a pretty nice look at the Empire State Building and the Central Park while the Crysler Building was partially obscured by another building. We spent about half an hour there taking pictures and listening to the French tourists. Based on our observation half of the tourists in NY at this moment in time were speaking French. Who knows, maybe they were French Canadians but I think they were French taking advantage of the weak dollar.

Afterwards we sat down at the Rink Cafe for drinks and snacks. While trying to find our way out of the building to the cafe we passed by many stores inside the Rockefeller Center including a shoeshine store where believe it or not, there were people in line waiting to get a shoe shine. Didn't see that one before. After the break we walked by the NY City Library through Bryant Park to Times Square, this time at daylight. It was as crazy as at nighttime. Every three meters or so someone was advertising something or trying to sell you some kind of tour. We were pretty tired by that time so we decided to go see a movie and we picked Star Trek which was just opening in theatres. Cris and I are old Star Trek fans, we have seen all the series (even half of Enterprise) and most of the previous Star Trek movies. This one is a prequel, happening before the start of The Original Series and showing how Spock and Kirk met. I really liked the movie, I thought the actors were well chosen and they had a good chemistry together. It made lots of references to the series, as a gift to the fans, it had good special effects, lots of action and a decent script. I hope it does well at the box office so we can see them again in a sequel.
Oueensboro Bridge:

Fifth Avenue:

Also on Fifth Avenue:

Rockefeller Plaza:

View of Central Park from the top of Rockefeller Center:

Midtown Manhattan seen from the top of Rockefeller Center:

Empire State Building:

The entrance to the Rockefeller Center:

Bryant Park:

Times Square:

The line for the TKTS ticket booth in Times Square:

Times Square:

New York Notes from the trip Part 3

2009-05-11T16:47:00.001+03:00

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Day Three. This was the day we decided to visit the Met mostly because it was cloudy outside and it looked like it's going to rain. We started with the Egyptian wing so Cris won't get bored. He tends to do that when we visit art museums but he likes history a lot more. The museum was full of school children making fascinated noises at the sight of the mummies: "Miss, is it a real person inside?". As expected, Cris found the whole wing fascinating and he was trying to read about the Egyptians while I kept interrupting with my impersonation of the Bangles "Walk like an Egyptian" which Cris said he didn't remember. I was trying to make him remember so I even did the dance. Finally I left him in peace and went upstairs to the Modern Art section which proved to be amazing. I wonder if they own more Impressionists painting than Musee d'Orsay. Room after room filled with Monet, Manet, Renoir and some of the most famous ones too. "The Garden of Sainte-Adresse", "The Regatta at Sainte-Adresse" and "Grenouillere" by Monet, "Boating" by Manet, Picasso, Van Gogh etc. I even found a painting by Gaugain that my mom liked - she kept a reproduction of it in her bedroom. I had no idea it was displayed here, I tought it was in the Louvre since my mom visited Paris but never been to New York.

We stayed in the museum until closing time, had dinner and headed for the crazyness of lights that is Times Square. I like Times Square, its hustle and bustle, the noise, the crowds, the flickering ads, the cheesiness. Once there we were deeply impressed by the sight of a banner that said "Bun venit", which means "Welcome" in Romanian. There were Welcome banners in different languages all around the square.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Egyptian Wing:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Temple of Dendur:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, Temple of Dendur:

Gaugain, a picture that my mother used to like:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, entrance hall:

Metropolitan Museum of Art, facade:

Delicious Italian food:

The Italian restaurant we ate in ("Erminia"):

Window display, Upper East Side:

Upper East Side:

Times Square at night:

The "Welcome" sign - in Romanian - in Times Square:

Times Square at night:

New York, Notes from the trip - Part 2

2009-05-10T07:35:00.001+03:00

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Day Two. Our first destination for the day was Washington Square in Greenwich Village but to our disappointment the park is closed for reconstructions until "Spring 2009". I was hungry and earning for a bagel and we walked around the neighborhood to find me one. I'm crazy for bagels, it's one of my favorite breakfast options. Within the world of bagels I like the sesame ones, toasted and with cream cheese. After enjoying this late breakfast, we took the subway from Christopher St. to South Ferry with the intention of walking around Battery Park. When we got there we found Battery Park overrun by tourists. I guess not many people had the same hesitance as us in coming to an area with swine flu. Or they decided that 98 cases in a city of 8 million is good odds. In any case, the line to the Statue of Liberty ferry was weaving around the park and all around us there were people with cameras photographing statues and pigeons.

We left the park and headed north where I was planning to take a picture of the Wall Street bull. I had to give up because it was impossible to see the bull from the group of tourists and you probably had to wait in line for minutes to take a picture of it. I settled instead with taking pictures of the New York Stock Exchange whose facade was draped with a huge American flag. They were filming a commercial in front of the Stock Exchange, we couldn't figure out for what product. Three beautiful young women dressed smartly in short skirts were parading around while a guy sitting on a bench, reading a newspaper was supposed to fall down when seeing the girls. They repeated it for four or five times until we got bored and left. Next stop was the World Trade Center site which at the moment is a construction area. You can't see much over the tall fences, just some colorful cranes. We turned right on Fulton and followed it all the way to South Street Seaport which is only a bit more than a glorified mall with shops and cheap restaurants and a beautiful view of the Brooklyn Bridge. We had some beer on the terrace while enjoying the view and headed for the bridge. The weather was good, sunny and clear, perfect for walking. The bridge was - of course - packed with tourists. And again we wondered the streets for hours until it was time for dinner.
The very patriotic facade of the New York Stock Exchange:

The Ground Zero construction site:

What they're building at Ground Zero:

Lower Manhattan seen from South Street Seaport:

The almighty Brooklyn Bridge:

Brooklyn Bridge:

View of Manhattan from the Brooklyn Bridge:

New York, Notes from the trip - Part 1

2009-05-08T15:31:00.001+03:00

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We've been planning a trip to New York for a long time but kept postponing it for different reasons (birthdays, weather, relatives visiting). Finally, about a month ago we bought the plane tickets and decided to leave on May 5th, right after the May 1st holiday in Romania. About two weeks ago the swine flu story broke out and we hesitated asking ourselves if we should postpone the trip once more. We watched the news on CNN for hours and in the end decided to go ahead with the trip.

Cris and I have been to NY many time before, back when we were grad students at Rutgers University in central New Jersey, about an hour by train south of New York. For this reason Magda, who had also been here before, and I decided that this trip will be more of a "get back in touch with the city" sort of trip in which we would do a bit of tourist stuff but we would take it easy; we'll try to enjoy things and activities that we didn't have time to enjoy back when we were running to cross all must-sees off the list. This time we would enjoy sitting in cafes and watching people, we would eat in good restaurants, we would shop a little. We won't climb the Empire State Building or go to the Statue of Liberty. We've done it before and we don't feel the need to do it again. We'll probably go to the Met, see a musical or a movie, try to meet friends who live in the city or close by.

Our first night in the city, for example, we went to eat Indian food, something that we miss in Bucharest where there aren't many choices in terms of Indian restaurants. Magda got out her magic Zagat map that she bought on her last trip to US and we picked Chola on East 58th street between 2nd and 3rd Avenue. The restaurant was crowded, noisy and the decoration a bit kitchy as any respectable Indian restaurant would be and the food was very good. I asked for the usual - samosa, chicken tikka masala - while Cris decided to try some new stuff. We ordered a bit too much - I guess we forgot about the American portions - and asked to take home the leftovers which were about half of the meal. Walking from the subway to the restaurant I felt some familiar smells rushing back at me: the ominous smell of food that you find in an American city and - because this is NY - a faint smell of garbage.

On a different topic, we're staying with friends on Roosevelt island right in the middle of East River. It's one subway stop away from Manhattan on the F line.
A view from the Roosevelt Island towards Queens:

A view from Roosevelt Island towards Manhattan:

Manhattan Midtown East, Lexington Avenue:

Manhattan Midtown East, Lexington Avenue:

Touching base

2009-04-28T14:49:00.000+03:00

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My god, I've been a bad blogger. I haven't posted in a long time, but I'm still here. I still read blogs when I have a few spare minutes, but I rarely comment anymore. I have myself to blame for this and ... don't hold your breath ... of course, she who is to blame for everything, my dear contry, Romania :) Those of you who know me personally already have an idea of why I dissapeared for a year from the blogging life. Yes, that's it. Cris and I moved back to Romania where you had to concern yourself with calling your cable company 10 times to make sure they actually show up to install the cable one month after you signed a contract with them. Such is life in a Latin country :) Who would have time for blogging in such conditions? Still it's true that even though nothing around us seems to work properly anymore, our social life has improved greatly. This is one characteristic of the "Latin lifestyle" that I enjoy. Romania is one of those countries where you can always count on finding someone ready to go out for a beer even on a Tuesday night. My cultural life has improved as well given the fact that Bucharest is becoming more and more cosmopolitan and there's a lot going on on the cultural scene.

I've travelled a bit during the last year but not as much as I wished. This was due to many factors, Cris having knee surgery for example. But I'm not complaining, on the contrary, I must say that for me life is good.

Posting pictures

2008-02-05T20:16:00.002+02:00

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I've decided that I'm going to start posting pictures on my blog such that when I don't write anything because I don't have the time I'll still post something. Pictures, I have thousands of those cause I really like to take pictures. I'm merely an amateur, not an expert in photography but I like to take pictures of the places I visit. Sometimes I am one of those people that see a place through the viewfinder, but I can't help myself. Ideally I would like to capture the essence of the place, such that when someone sees them they'll say "yes, that's the soul of Paris without a doubt". But most of the time they're just nice pictures of the places I visit. I don't think I'll be able to post a picture a day but I'll try to post often enough. I have enough pictures to last me to the next millennium :)

Because Cris and I are heading to Argentina on Friday for a second trip, I'll start by posting pictures from our first trip to Argentina, which we took in February 2006. Today's pictures are from a tango show at Cafe Tortoni, a famous coffeehouse located on Avenida de Mayo in Buenos Aires. The cafe opened in 1858 and is located in a beautiful 19th century building.

Happy New Year Everyone!

2008-01-04T14:40:00.001+02:00

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It snowed yesterday in Bucharest

Travel and safety

2007-04-19T18:58:00.000+03:00

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Easter came and went, leaving me with three extra pounds. We made the family rounds as we always do when we return to Romania. We've met a few friends and I ventured downtown Bucharest a few times. Our president was suspended yesterday.

On Sunday we're leaving for Israel, visiting family for two weeks. I've been there before in October 2005 and I liked it. I found Israel as I read somewhere, a "small country with big sites". I feel that's the best way to describe it. I grew up under a communist regime so I'm not a religious person. I guess I can call myself a nonpracticing Christian. I only go to church once a year, on Easter night. I don't read the Bible. But even someone like me feels something when stepping into Nazareth, or at the Jordan River. It feels like you're breathing history, old or recent, it doesn't matter.

When I tell people in Romania that we're going to Israel, there's one question that everyone asks "Aren't you afraid?" I also remember getting the same question when I was getting my green card in 2002 (because of September 11). Aren't you afraid to go to US? "I'm already living there" was my answer, "just that I had a working visa and not a green card. Nothing will change for me." Two years ago I was contacted by a Swiss who wanted to visit Romania. He's seen the news reports and was afraid of being robbed. He was asking me if he should carry a paralyzing spray while visiting. I told him there's no need for that and after his visit he was laughing remembering his fears. Same when we traveled to Argentina, some of our friends were marveling at our courage to visit a country in South America. The media's representation of a region doesn't always tell the whole story. Most of the time our fears come from our ignorance about that particular place. And in today's world, can you be sure that you're completely safe anywhere in this world? Do you think that you're safer in your own home town? Did anyone expect the tragic events that took place at Virginia Tech just a few days ago? I have friends who interviewed for a professor position there. It sounded safe at that time. One of the victims was a Jewish professor born in Romania, who survived a labor camp in WWII and the totalitarian regime in communist Romania. We're never safe from random acts of violence and unfortunately that's a reality we have to live with.

I feel like my post doesn't have a point, like it's missing something. I guess my point will be, don't stay home just because the outside world seems less safe. Of course I don't advertise going into a war zone. I don't want to tempt fate in any way. Of course I'm a bit afraid too when I'm traveling to a place with a history of violence like Israel. But my belief is that in most places the overwhelming majority of people just get along peacefully on a daily basis and they are simply interested in living their lives, earning a living, and being normal people.

These are pictures from my previous visit to Israel:

Acre

Golan Heights

The Jordan River, the site of Jesus’ baptism (complete with gift shop)

The Sea of Galilee

Nazareth, the Grotto of the Virgin inside the Basilica of the Annunciation (this site is believed to be the place where Virgin Mary was announced by an angel that she was to become a mother)

Baha'i Gardens, Haifa

Elijah's Cave, Haifa

A Coke bottle

The Dead Sea

Us floating at the Dead Sea

On the plane

2007-04-06T21:19:00.000+03:00

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What's a girl to do when she has a new camera and she's stuck on a plane for 12 hours? For starters I took about 30 pictures of the plane's wing, followed by about 10 pictures of my seat and the book I brought on board, portraits of Cris, Amsterdam from above etc. I stopped short of photographing my shoelaces.

The wing:

The book:

Landing in Amsterdam

Schipol Airport

Final destination, Bucharest:

Water and Fire

2007-03-27T06:39:00.000+03:00

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Big Island, Hawai'i, 5th Day. This was the most eventful day of the trip and the longest day as well as we left the hotel early after breakfast and came back after midnight. Before going we checked the weather report which showed a 50% chance of rain at the Kilauea Volcano but since this was the day before last in our vacation and I wanted one more try to see the volcano we decided to take our chances and go. And it turned out better than two days before, at least in the beginning of the day. We were able to stop at many waterfalls on the way to Hilo and this time the "scattered showers" were for real. We started with the gorgeous multi-tiered Umauma falls for which we had to pay an entrance fee because the access road was part of the grounds of the World Botanical Gardens. Nothing seemed to come cheap on Big Island. After seeing the falls we took a walk through the garden and I think it was worth the money. The garden had a lot of exotic flowers and trees that I've never seen before and some that I thought I knew but turned out to look different that what I was expecting. They had some bug spray at the counter but we ignored it, something we started to regret as soon as we got deep enough within the garden to be too lazy to return just for getting sprayed. We left the gardens in some sort of dancebreak movements, and I kept on scratching until we reached our next stop: the Akaka and Kahuna Falls. It was our third attempt to see these falls, the previous times it was raining so hard that we stayed in the car and decided to return another day. To get to the falls we walked a short path through the rain forest. With so much rain, the vegetation was living life to the maximum, everything seemed so green and lush.

Afterwards Cris decided he's seen enough waterfalls for one day so we drove to the Kilauea Volcano. We passed by the visitor center and found out where we can see lava flowing. We drove the park loop, stopped and walked through a light rain to different craters, passing the time until dark. I liked the bleak, desolated landscape, the fumes rising up from the black earth, a lone rainbow shining through. About an hour before sunset we drove down towards the ocean to the end of Chain of Craters road. We parked a looong way from the end of the road, passed by numerous warning signs - "Extreme danger beyond this point" - and started walking on the lava. There were two paths marked by the rangers, one to a viewing point very close to the end of the road. It was difficult to see the lava from that point so we took the other path and continued passed the markings. At some point we found the remains of the old road, complete with a bent "No parking" sign caught in the lava field. We kept on walking until it got so dark we were afraid we'll have problems returning. We were pretty deep inside the lava field at that moment and we could see the lava shining in the night at many points ahead of us. It was a great sight and we stood and watched for some time. After that we subjected our knees to some more suffering - it's not an easy job to walk on lava - got back to the car, had dinner at the Volcano Lodge and started on the 3 hours drive back to the hotel. The people at the Volcano Lodge deserve my recognition. First they told us we have to wait half an hour to be seated but when they heard that we have a 3 hours drive ahead of us they took pity and fed us right away.

The Umauma Falls

At the World Botanical Garden

Akaka Falls Park

Kilauea Volcano

That's me in the middle of the road

A Place of Refuge

2007-03-22T19:50:00.000+02:00

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Big Island, Hawai'i 4th day. On the fourth day on Big Island Cris demanded that we keep his part of the bargain and go snorkeling. Leafing through the travel guide to find a good place to snorkel, I found that one of the best places according to the guide's authors was very close to a Hawaiian temple. This was the beach I picked, thinking that we can do both activities, see the temple and go snorkeling afterwards. This time we drove south keeping to the west side of the island, passing again by fields of lava sprinkled with white stone messages and past the airport and the resort of Kailua. As soon as we left the highway the road started to descend towards the ocean. The Hawaiian temple that I wanted to visit had the long name of Pu'uhonua o Honaunau or Place of Refuge at Honaunau. From what I've read this place was a sort of an extreme form of "get out of jail free", or rather "get out of trouble alive" meaning that if those accused of a crime could manage to get here they would get absolved. In ancient Hawaii the society was regulated by the"kapu" system of laws and according to the kapu the crime that one can be accused of and executed for could be as ridiculous as "one's shadow touching the shadow of a leader" or "walking the same path as the chief" or "men and women eating together". It was believed that the violation of these laws will bring god's anger in the form of famine, lava flows, high tide and earthquakes so the violators were hunted down and killed. Their only chance was to reach this place of refuge and once inside the priests will perform ceremonies to absolve them and they could return home. It wasn't easy to reach the place of refuge because the well defended royal grounds full of warriors were adjacent to the pu'uhonua. Today this place is a neatly organized national park and the quiet and beautiful grounds really feel like a place of refuge. There are some reconstructed Hawaiian huts, the wall that separated the place of refuge from the royal grounds and a reconstructed thatched temple that used to contain the bones of 23 chiefs. The small cove was full of green turtles basking in the sun. We walked around the place, following the lava all the way to the ocean. After the visit Cris finally got his wish, we went snorkeling at the beach just north of the place of refuge. The travel guide was right, it was a good place to snorkel with plenty of fish. On the way home we stopped by the St. Benedict's Painted Church, a small catholic church whose walls were painted in Biblical scenes in 1899 by a Father John, a catholic priest who came to Hawaii all the way from Belgium. He's done a beautiful job with the painting.

Some rain must fall

2007-03-10T04:11:00.001+02:00

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Big Island, Hawai'i, 3rd Day. All three Hawaiian islands that we visited so far have one thing in common: their west side is dry and gets lots of sun while their east side is ... my travel guide says "green" but I'll translate that for you and call it as it is: rainy. In the summer staying on the green side is not a problem but in the winter it rains a lot. Otherwise the temperatures in Hawaii are pretty much the same all year with this one exception: on the east side it rains more, especially during winter. It goes without saying that this being the beginning of March, I booked a room in a hotel on the west side of Big Island. Even though the volcano that we wanted to visit was on the east side and the fact that I understand that rain is good for the earth, I still didn't want to see lots of it on my vacation. So on the third day came the time when we drove to the wet side of the island. The weather forecast sounded resonable with a prediction of "scattered showers". The weather people in Hawai'i surely have a very developed sense of humor because what we found was this: they weren't showers because by showers I understand a fall of rain of short duration, short underlined; they were rather downpours lasting all day; also they weren't scattered, rather it was raining everywhere. Later that day we found out that the weather report is a bit of a joke around locals. Apparently they predict the same forecast every day. We drove through rain for hours and tried to get out of the car here and there, but in most places the rain was so heavy that you couldn't see anything, much less enjoy it. We went all the way to the volcano but no luck there as well. What we found was rain with a new element of surprise, fog. On the way back to the hotel we caught a gap of about 20 minutes in the downpour and we managed to get out of the car and admire two waterfalls, Pe'epe'e and Rainbow. After that the rain started again. I was happy to return to the west side.

Big Island, Hawai'i - Day 2

2007-03-07T20:31:00.000+02:00

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I had great plans for our second day on Big Island but it wasn't to be, I had to rethink everything because of the weather. I was planning on a 4 miles hike but when we approached the start of the trail it started to rain and fog was rolling in so we turned around and drove northwest. The highway climbed to 3000 feet rapidly. Where I grew up I'm used to seeing fir-trees when we get to this elevation but here it was just pastureland and even a few cacti sprinkled here and there. We passed a few little towns and stopped at Pololu Valley overlook. The view was of a small black sand beach surrounded by soaring cliffs and it was beautiful. Living in northern California spoiled me a bit, because truth is I've seen many valleys like Pololu. There's three per mile if one drives down Highway 1 from San Francisco to Monterey, granted not with volcanic sand. I liked the view but I didn't think it was so exceptional as my travel guide described it. We hiked down into the valley, a short hike on a clearly marked path. As we got closer to the beach we were surrounded by a horrible stench and soon we discovered the source: a dead cow covered with flies. How the cow got there I have no idea. If it was near the cliffs I would have asummed that it fell but it was right in the middle of the beach. The beach was very rocky, with big and small bolders and the occasional patch where the bolders were grinded into coarse black sand by the ocean. We walked around, took some pictures and started on our return. At some point Cris was telling me about an article that he read about how plants produce methane and I guess I was so taken with the subject, my mind wandering off in all directions that I mistepped and took a nasty fell. I didn't break anything but I got a big bruise which started to bleed a bit. I don't even remember when I fell last, probably more than 10 years ago. I kept looking at the bruise on the hike back, like it was something that I've never seen before. I hope I'm not turning into a hypochondriac.

Back on the highway we stopped in Kapa'au and took a picture of the statue of Kamehameha the Great, who's probably the greatest Hawaiian king, the one who conquered all the islands, excuse me, the one who "united" the islands. We left the highway to get to a heiau - a Hawaiian temple - but no luck there as well; the unpaved road was too muddy and we were afraid the car will get stuck. To use the remaining daylight we took a stroll around the fish ponds at the Mauna Lani resort. After that it was time for the second sunset of the trip.

Hawai'i -Third time but different

2007-03-01T10:05:00.000+02:00

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As many of my friends know already I'm not a beach person. I don't dread going to the beach in fact I might even enjoy it a few times a year. But I tire quickly of life at the beach and most of the time I feel I would rather go hiking in the mountains than lying flat on a piece of sand. Cris loves the beach, of course. We often trade a day at the beach for a day of hiking which is good because we end up going both places, getting a taste of both experiences.

You could say we are lucky to live in California for part of the year, because California has both beaches and mountains just hours apart. But the beaches of northern California are not swimable, not without a wet suit and a lot of courage ;) In my six years of living in San Francisco I was able to swin in the ocean only once; it happened in Santa Cruz, 2 hours south of San Francisco and my legs were paralyzed by the cold the entire time. I will probably have to pay the price for this in my old years ;) And so we managed to find a place, 5-8 hours away from San Francisco that has both mountains and beaches, a place where one can swim without freezing. First time we went to Hawai'i it was almost by accident. I would probably not have chosen Hawai'i as a destination on my own. As I said, I'm not a beach person. I didn't know much about the 50th US state and little that I knew had to do with images of perfect beaches. I had five days of vacation left out of the "generous" 15 days per year that my company was granting to its employees. The company's policy didn't allow for vacation days to be carried over to the following year. Plus I was not to leave US because I was still waiting for my working visa. Some friends were going to Kauai for a conference and this is how we ended up going to Hawaii in december of 2001. As soon as I started planing the trip I realized that Hawaii is much more than its beaches. I loved it in Kauai. Next came Maui in April 2005. This was when I discovered snorkeling and I started to like the beach a little bit more. After Maui Cris and I were talking that we probably won't return to Hawai'i. Been there, done that, there are other places in the world worth seeing. What made me rethink this decision was the fact that I wanted to see the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park on Big Island.

On Sunday morning we flew from San Francisco to Kona, Big Island. The plane landed in the middle of a lava field, a desolate landscape but like nothing I've ever seen. The Queen Ka'ahumanu Highway that we took to get to our hotel was also cut through this huge lava field produced by a eruption at the beginning of the 19th century. Across the lava field we saw "corral" grafittis, "Bradon loves Jenny" made of white stones. We arrived at the hotel at around 5 o'clock in the afternoon. There wasn't much time left until dark so we found a place on a beach terrace and sipped Mai Tais while watching the sunset. Since it's our third time in Hawaii the scenery feels familiar; but as Vincent Vega said in “Pulp Fiction: “It's the little differences", and these are what we're going to look for on this trip. More to come on Big Island.

View on landing

Sunset on the beach

Presidents' Day

2007-02-15T03:56:00.000+02:00

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It occured to me that this year we're staying home for Presidents Day, something that didn't happen in the last few years. For me a long weekend always meant an occasion to go somewhere far away, at least 200 miles distance from home. Take the last four years for example. For 2003 President's Day we went to Death Valley. We decided just a week before President's Day weekend that we'll go there and we couldn't find any accommodation in the park or outside the park for that matter. So we had to take the last room available to us on a 50 miles radius which proved to be a smoking room. I don't smoke but given my upbringing in Romania I am used to a resonable amount of smoke around me. But this room was something else. I've never been in a room that stank so bad in my life. Everything had a lingering smell of smoke, the bedpost, the bed sheets, the lamp, the bathroom, even the remote control. But I was happy to smell it when passing by the reception I counted ten people stopping to ask if there are any available rooms.

In 2004 we went to visit friends in Long Beach. They were busy preparing for a 6 months trip around the world, so we barely spent time with them. I've been to Los Angeles before but it was always to visit friends and I never had the time - until this trip - to see the touristic Los Angeles. So for Presidents Day 2004 I got to see Hollywood Boulevard and Mann's Chinese Theatre and Mulholland Drive. The thing I remember most about LA is that no matter where we went we ended up waiting in traffic on some highway. I-10, I-405, I-710, an endless asphalt jungle passing through endless suburbia.

President's Day 2005 found us in Joshua Tree National Park. It rained a lot but we kept on hiking and photographing cacti. Our car lost turbo drive and we had to come back to San Francisco driving on I-5 at 40-50 miles per hour (hint: speed limit is 70 on I-5) It took us 9 hours.

Last year President's Day caught us hiking the Perito Moreno glacier in Patagonia. The trip to Argentina was one that I'll always remember.

This year we're staying home in San Francisco.

A room with a view

2007-01-23T00:32:00.000+02:00

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We're back in California since last Tuesday. This time the trip seemed shorter than usual as I spent most of my time on the plane sleeping. We found San Francisco very sunny for this time of year. It usually rains a lot in January but it's been sunny ever since we arrived. As we entered the apartment I realized what I missed the most about it while we were gone: the view from our living room window.

We moved into our current apartment about 4 years ago. We came to see the apartment late at night, after long and tiring hours of work. We were aware of the fact that the apartment had a view but frankly it was entirely lost on us. Those were the times when the economy was in bad shape and all we heard on the radio on the way to work was how another IT company is laying off 10000 people. What we cared about was that we would be saving $400/month in rent and that the building was rent controlled. We decided to move in. When the day of moving came we entered the apartment and got struck by the view. We wondered how tired we were from overworking not to notice it the first time? It's the very first thing that catches the eye as one enters the room. And at night when the lights from downtown are on it's equally beautiful. I'm in love with this view. When I'm feeling down I look out the window on the San Francisco downtown and it never fails to cheer me up. And every time I look I find some new detail that I didn't notice before. I'll surely miss it when we'll return to Romania.

Forget Krispy Kreme

2007-01-09T15:49:00.000+02:00

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And since we're on the subject of food, look what I indulged myself with last evening. Papanasi, a traditional Romanian dessert, are fried cheese-filled pastries similar to doughnuts, served with a dollop of jam and sweetened sour cream. You can find them at many restaurants in Bucharest.

Would you like to eat something?

2007-01-02T14:31:00.000+02:00

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I came up with a new business idea, to sell t-shirts and bumper stickers with the slogan "I survived the holiday season in Romania". It was that bad, really :) I've never seen so much food in my life. Romanians like to eat a lot on holidays, especially after a month of Christmas fasting. I was talking to a guy who lived in France for the last 20 years and he was in owe: "You come here, people seem poor. You go to visit them for some casual lunch or dinner and they set up a table like they're throwing a wedding reception. I've never seen so much food, maybe except for US" he said. That's the way it is in Romania. People like to feed their guests until they're about to pop. On holidays it's worse :) Everyone cooks the traditional dishes. You get invited to ten meals in three days, and in every house you have to taste the cooking. The moment you enter the door you are asked "Would you like to eat something?" and no matter of the answer you will be served something even though you just ate two hours ago. You end up eating a lot more than you want. You have to do it, otherwise the hosts get upset. Nothing gets wasted or thrown away. And so I did eat a lot. Since I don't cook the traditional dishes while I'm in California this was my occasion to try them and I didn't refuse anything that was offered. I'll probably have to diet when I return to California.

Traditional goodies

The dish considered the most traditional is sarmale, cabbage leaves stuffed with rice, meat and herbs usually served with sour cream and with mamaliga, a cornmeal similar to polenta (many of our neighbours like Serbia or Bulgaria have sarmale too but the serving with polenta is I believe truly Romanian)

The traditional drink is tuica, a strong brandy made of plums. If it's twice distilled than we get the much stronger palinca (a term we can't use anymore since it became a Hungarian brand)

Fresh wine made by Cris' dad

Pickles

In the end some dessert, a traditional cake that people bake for Christmas or Easter called cozonac

How the EU stole Christmas :)

2006-12-20T11:44:00.000+02:00

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The Christmas decorations in downtown Bucharest come in blue, white and yellow this year. Especially blue. First time I saw them I asked - without giving it much thought - why did they use blue? Christmas is supposed to be red and green. Last year the lights were mostly white and two years ago they were also white and blue. Is the city hall fixated on white and blue? My brother told me the lights are celebrating Romania's entry into EU which will take place January 1, 2007. Duh. This year they have a reason for the blue :) Afterwards I noticed that the decorations lining Magheru Bulevard, between Universitate and Romana, the core of downtown, even display a round circle made of stars that has been the mark of the EU for so many years.

Yes, it's true. Romania will join the EU starting January 1, 2007. It's not my place to say if we're ready for this step or not. Others have done it for me and the subject has been debated in great detail. From my part I hope that joining the EU will bring more political stability for my country, the pressure to accelerate the reforms, a raise in foreign investments and hopefully some curbing of the corruption that has engulfed Romania since the fall of the communism in 1989. I realize that these are all long term goals and that we might not see any changes for many years other than an increase in the freedom to travel and maybe an easiness in doing commerce. I guess the end goal - aside from political stability which to me will be the greatest achievement - will be economic growth for Romania and with it a raise in the standard of living of the population.

This year's decoration

Last year

Two years ago

In defense of SFMOMA

2006-12-07T12:18:00.000+02:00

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Following a link from an architecture forum I found this article on Forbes about the world's ugliest buildings. The article talks about how the list was conceived and what criterion was taken into consideration when choosing "the winners", merely the price that it cost to end up with an ugly building. Still, I was surprised to see that the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art made the list. Most of the buildings on their list are indeed ugly but to my untrained eye the SFMOMA presence as a nominee is undeserved. Their argument is that "The building itself isn't necessarily ugly. But for a museum, the architecture is inappropriate; it calls too much attention to its design and takes away from the art inside. It is a classic example of a signature building, and who wants to see art in a building like that?", an argument which to me seems a bit shaky. I personally don't mind seeing art in an signature building. Plus, except for the central skylight which was used by the architect Mario Botta to give the atrium a theatrical feel you don't really feel the building while you are inside. The exhibition rooms are still rectangular spaces like in any other museum so the building doesn't take anything away from the art inside. Not to talk about the fact that this argument can be used for many other famous buildings, for example the Guggenheim museums in NY and Bilbao or the Centre George Pompidou in Paris.

Go Scarlet Knights

2006-11-10T19:46:00.000+02:00

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A few people asked me why there hasn't been any posting on my blog lately. I guess somebody was reading my ramblings after all. The answer that I prefer is that it was a busy month and I couldn't find the time to write. The other answer is that I need more self-discipline; I can be pretty lazy at times. I'll try to behave from now on :)

Now back to the title and the topic I wanted to write about. I've lived in US for 10 years but I never became interested in American sports. I've never watched a baseball game, even though I lived in New Jersey and San Francisco both places where baseball is very popular. Basketball I like and I watched for a couple of years. I started doing it when I was working in Sacramento and the Kings were the standard lunch discussion topic. The peer pressure stopped when I left that job and I stopped watching the games. Football I've watched twice, the first being the "historic" Super Bowl with the "wardrobe malfunction". We were stuck at Tahoe with a friend who wanted to watch it. The second time I watched a football game was last night when I saw the last half hour of the Louisville-Rutgers game. For those who don't know that about me I went to Rutgers and that apparently makes me a Scarlet Knight. Every time I used to wear a Rutgers t-shit to work people would ask me "Are you a Scarlet Knight?" "No, I would say, I'm European so all I know about is soccer". What I remember about the Knights was that while I was studying at Rutgers they always lost. It also used to bother me when they had a home game and the whole campus was blocked. I lived on campus and it was a pain to get home on a game day. Last week a friend asked us if we follow the Knights. We said no, why bother, they always loose. He said not this season, they're winning. Last night he called to tell us that there's a Rutgers game on ESPN. So I started watching and to my surprise I started liking it. The Knights won and apparently I was lucky enough to see another historical game. The Knights won their biggest game in history, or so the commentators said. Since I don't know anything about football I don't know what this victory means. But I'm glad that the Knights won. I liked it at Rutgers.

I took some crappy pictures of the TV to remember this historical win.