Shame on Romanian TV

So I’m here at my parents’ house in FL for Christmas, and they have a satellite dish that receives several Romanian TV channels. My parents turned it on to see what Christmas programs are available, and one of the channels had a Christmas Carol show. I was working on my laptop, and turned to watch [...]

The ancient city of Histria

On the shore of Lake Sinoe in Romania, very close to the Black Sea, lie the ruins of the oldest documented city on the territory of modern-day Romania: Histria. (See satellite view below, or go to Google Maps to explore the full map.) We visited it in September of 2008.

It started its life around [...]

Memories of fairy tales haunt me to this day

Memories of fairy tales haunt me to this day, originally uploaded by raoulpop.
Took this in Moldova, Romania, last September. Would love to revisit that place and a few others I saw. You rarely see such beauty these days.
Another place I’d love to visit in Romania is Muntii Apuseni. Never got the chance to see them [...]

Happy Birthday Tataie

It’s my grandfather’s birthday today. He died just a couple of weeks ago after a painful struggle with mesothelioma, a form of cancer caused by asbestos exposure.
He’d been coughing for a few years. It was a persistent cough, but it wasn’t a severe cough. He coughed here and there, and especially after he came into [...]

Living in a mad world

There are two things I want to talk about today. The first took place right here in the US, and the second happened in Italy. Both happened recently.
We’ve got a conductor who has forgotten the US still means freedom. Apparently, a tourist, possibly from Japan, who knew very little English, was taking photos of the [...]

The reason behind our trip to Romania

You may recall that I mentioned a recent trip to Romania in a few of my posts. The occasion for our trip was a joyous one, thank goodness: my wife’s sister got married. I would have loved to post a few photos of them, but she and her husband would prefer to stay off the [...]

Downtown Bacau, Romania

Bacau is one of the bigger cities in Romania. I had a chance to visit its downtown area this September. I’d never been there before, so I stopped to take a few photos. It was early on a Sunday morning, so there weren’t many people on the streets.
I love the northern Italian architectural elements used [...]

Passing through Cheile Bicazului (part 2)

I realized something after I read through yesterday’s post on Cheile Bicazului a couple of times. I hadn’t included any photos of the actual mountain pass, which made my comments about how it was carved out of the rock seem a bit superfluous. That was an oversight that needed to be corrected.
This time, you’ll get [...]

Passing through Cheile Bicazului

This is Part 1 of a two-part post on Cheile Bicazului. You can read Part Two here.
During our recent trip to Romania, we passed through Cheile Bicazului, a stunning, narrow pass carved through the Carpathian mountains. We started out on the Transylvania side, where the weather was beautiful and sunny, though we could see [...]

My grandfather’s garden

My grandparents on my mother’s side always had a garden, no matter where they lived. They were city folk, and even when they lived in an apartment, they managed a nice little plot of land in the back of building, where they grew fruits and vegetables. Later, they moved in a house with a big [...]

Dog under window

This photo was taken at the house of Ion Creanga, near Iasi, Romania. He was a famous and dear writer of folklore and fairy tales, among other things (see Wikipedia for more details). This was his country cottage. It’s called “Bojdeuca lu’ Creanga” in Romanian. I took it last summer during a whirlwind tour of [...]

Condensed knowledge for 2007-05-10

Like chicken soup, but full of plump bits of juicy data:

The Cellar is running a few shots of a nasty deer accident in IotD. Kinda graphic, but thankfully the driver was okay. Watch for those deer, folks! Drive slower when you’re in wooded areas. You never know when one of them will jump out in [...]