I HATE Flickr

God, who invented www.flickr.com/photos? He/She must be killed...I mean after uploading all my photos this stupid site tells me that I have reached my free upload limit so from now on if I want to upload more photos I must pay 25 $/year. And as a favour they/it didn't erase my old photos but if I want to see them I must delete the new ones. GEE! Is there anybody as stupis as I was when first choosing flickr???

Now I want to quit them for good! I'm waiting for your advice.

As a relaxation you can see photos from this weekend, from Cavnic ski adventure, on my "STILL - to become abandoned" flickr account on the botttom of this page.

I'm really waiting for your prompt advice. SenQ!

Laziness

...I know, I know I've been very lazy lately. Fortunately you are nice, patient guys and you understand. Actually at work there were some busy weeks, usually this always happens at the end of the year. Everybody gets crazy, everybody is in a hurry, everybody wants to buy thousands of presents, etc. So it gets crowded and noisy. The town is always full of cars and people wandering around hoping for a bargain, the Christmas ligts are already turned on in the city (I promise some artistic photos of that...in case I convince my BEAR - to be translated HUSBAND to walk with me:), so the Christmas spirit is everywhere... It is very nice but when you feel that even the last hope that today or tomorrow I will finish my tasks at work vanishes and you see yourself hopeless, you kind of get nervous....just a little!

Last wkd we went to Baia Mare and to Cavnic for ski. It was very nice, quite warm. I will post some pictures when I will finally download them from my camera.

I'll keep you up-to-date guys...do not dispair!

Back to ... civilisation

This wkd was for outdoor activities. After attending so many "indoor" events where our main occupation was eating, drinking and socializing we decided to get our noses out in the nature, especially that it had been snowing heavily the last weeks. We planned one-day trip nearby Cluj, and our first thought was to go near Tarnita Lake and climb the hills for a great panoramic view of the area. Well, Sunday at noon, together with our extreme outdoor partners, The Mishes, we packed some apples, water and some sweets and we drove into the wild.

As Mishu cried out for some snow, our driver (Peter), made us all a surprise and keept on driving long way after we passed through Tarnita Lake.

This is one of the dam's views

The road soon started to turn into a sinouos and snow-covered one. But our "race car", winter equipped, didn't let us down and we could soon reach the top of the hills and enjoy the great Marisel area.

Even if in Cluj there's no sight of snow here we could play with lots of it. The snow layer was about 20-30 cm thick. Enough to have a snow fight me and Peter and then me and Peter against Mishu...which of course Mishu lost! Anyway the Mishes were not in the mood for snow fighting...but will have plenty of time to "educate" them in that spirit as we booked our New Year's Eve with them in Slovakia...hehehehe. Hopefully they won't read this, so will clearly have an advantage with that!

Up there on the top of the hills we discovered again the quietness and peace of the old Romanian villages. Unfortunatelly, lately the Ro villages have turned into a strange mixture of old and new, a kitch, trying to be modern but at the same time keeping some old traditions. Here at first sight we felt like time stopped and that the village remained as I used to know it in my childhood.

We walked for aprox. an hour on the plateau on a terrible freezing wind but it was worth it to see people:

Make new friends:

This cute puppy (yes! he's a puppy from an interesting Romanian dog-race "ciobanesc" meaning the dog that watches for the sheep herd). This kind of dosgs can be very dangerous if you step on their territory, but this one was like a doll. Despite his fierce name "Ursu" (en. bear) he was very calm and friendly. I must underline that I guessed by mistake his name...hehehhe. Here, in this picture, he's having his siestaafter eating like crazy the cake we gave him. Anyway I would like to have a house with a yard and a dog like this one. I love dogs they are so dedicated and faithfull animals.This one came with us for a long way...well I think he had other reasons than just friendship..he was for sure thinkink of those cakes!

We admired the nature's agony...the last moments of life before complete burrial beneath the snow! The light was not so good for pictures!

This is the most normal picture Peter could take with the "author". He's always playing!

Anyway it was a nice trip...which ended with a feast at Motel Gilau and then a nice dessert home-made to which all the four protagonists took part in. We also played scrrable game. It doesn't matter who won, does it?! :)

Teambuilding

The news that "I MUST" participate to the company's teambuilding "adventure" next wkd pissed me off! We are supposed to go to a fancy hotel in Vartop, near Arieseni, visit the places and do team extreme (hahaha) sports and play other team games. Well, besides the fact that I have seen the area and did all the "extreme" sports already, they're planning for us to leave Cluj on Friday morning and come back on Sunday afternoon...Imagine 3 days of staying nose-to-ose with my colleagues. Good God! I know that that's the spirit but I rather stay at home with my darling and get bored in front of the TV (which won't be the case) than get bored with other 30 "team players". And, imagine that if you try to skip the extraordinary meeting you'll be seen FOREVER like the black sheep of the company. Shitty thing!

The Romanians have a very wrong ideea about teambuilding meetings. They saw/heard smth like that happening in the Wild Wild West at big companies, and BUM! they copy-paste the thing and think they are adventurous and extrem....alow me to HA-HA!

I understand for example a maximum 2-day teambuilding, but 3 days out of which one is just eating breakfast and way back home is stupid! And the ideea is that you do climbing on a rope and other silly things and you're supposed to feel like climbing the Himalaya Mts.

Well I think I'm so nervous is because I already know some of the guys who will show us the adventure (the pros), I've already done almost all the stuff they're going to do, I've seen the area (and seen it 2 months ago) and eveywhere in RO there's snow on the slopes and besdides all these: my dear husband is not allowed at the meeting and I have to stay away from all of that...Why???? Because I have to be a "Team PLAYER".

The truth is that some of "OUR" are so mean and so lack team spirit that they actually need to spend a month in teambuilding.

Yucks!

See here the site of our team leaders or whatever the extreme future-teachers: http://www.adventureinc.ro/

Here just a small view of what will do.

If they try to paint our faces I'm OUT.

It's winter time

One morning we woke up and our car looked like that:

We looked attentively around and all was covered in snow...it was Monday morning..so the week seemed to start quite GOOD. We talked to my parents (as all the tempting ski slopes are near Baia MAre - my home town) and they said in Baia Mare the snow layer is 15-20 cm thick. WOW! Soon to look foe the ski equipment somewhere deep in the cupboard.

In RO It's snowing like crazy and the temperature is getting lower and lower in our parts. It' s clear winter came a bit early this year. Anyway I hate winter when I have to spend it in a town like Cluj, where the snow is poor and always melting down. It seems more like rainning! But love the Christmas Eve and can't wait for the presents. I like to buy as much as I like to open mine.:) So I'm waiting.

Usually we spend Christmas with all the family, near the fire listening to everybody's stories. And when outside looks like this is even more pleasant:

as I said I hate winter in the city but love snow where I am in nature, It' slike time stopped for hours:

I must admit that all the pictures above are stollen (hopefully the real author won't notice!;). When I'll get out of this damn! office I promise to post my own. Anyway You know that my pictures are better then these...hahahah!

See ya on the slopes of Suior and Cavnic...God hepl us and keep the snow coming!

ERATA

Sorry foll all the letters eating and other grammar mistakes from my posts...but I'm always in a hurry when writing them and I'm AT WORK trying to hide from my curious coleagues.

DAVID

The last weekend we went to Moldavia, Bucovina, the North-Eastern region of Romania where my friend Anca and her husband live. It was at the same time a trip for pleasure but also to partcicipate at the baptismal ceremony of their newly-first born child DAVID. Altogether we had a special role in the ceremony, namely we were the god-father and god-mother of David.

We travelled for aprox. 5 hous by car through beutiful places and breath-taking landscapes, but horrible road (under construction). Fortunately we took some friend with us (Ana and George) who were heading for the same big event and were godfathers of the child as well.

As I was saying Bucovina, especially, is that part of Romania with plenty of Monasteries and where you feel like inwardness and peace is at home. The nature and the landscape is just perfect for meditation and rest. Here is just a piece of what we experienced during our trip, and are just some fugitive photos taken on the road. You can see the colour of Autum through the camera lens, but in fact they where more splendid.

We left Cluj on Friday afternoon and reached Manastirea Humorului (our destination) at 10 pm. After cathching up with Anca and Steven (her husband) as we haven't seen each other from New Year's Eve 2006/2007 and after a good sleep in their guest house, we woke up on Saturday in the baptism rush. Everybody was saying and doing something, not necessarily having a clue about it. I don' t know how time passed but we realize we were at the church listening to the priest about what we have to do as godparents. Obviously we were excited about our "status" and we relly hope not to miss smth or doing smth wrog as it was our first time in this position.

It's not a philosophy to attend and to be a godparent but it'a a nice feeling. The tradition says you remain the mentor and a spiritual parent of the child for the rest of your life and you are responsible for his evolution in that respect. Ouch! Responsible? Oh my Gosh! Now I realize. But the kid is a sweety and I think we will get along very well. He's so cute and small and funny.

Our main responsabilities as godparents during the ceremony were:

1. Carring a burning candle through the ceremony:

2. Holding the child in turn with the others godparents while the religious ceremony continued:

3. Dress-up the child with new clothes brought by us (poor baby was terrified with so many "giants" around):

4. Pay for the ceremony...one of teh most unpleasant moments!:)

I must say that the child, in order to be baptized, it is submerged in water, three times, in a big bucket. Fortunately our priest was inspired and boiled some water and then mixed that hot water (it was a funny scene to see the boiled water prepared for the little one, it was like a horror movie scene:) with cold one to make a pleasant bath to David. He cried like crazy when submerged...but we all have our good and our bad moments in life. I think this was the first David's bad moment;)
Here we gathered for the ceremony. The parents of David (our friends) in the middle, both looking left!

Touchin moments. Generations meeting under the church roof (grandmother and grandson):

Afterward everybody went home for the party. We gave the presents for the little one (usually money but also all kinds of baby stuff). Looking for a perfect present I was susrprised to see how diverse and quite expensive can be these things. But they worth every penny.

Well as I was saying after eating like a viking (they eat like crazy in Bucovina, but they have all the reasons to do that...the food is great!) we started the party. As usual me, Peter and Anca (David's mother) started dancing. We started to dance about 6 o'clock (the three of us) and in almost 1 hour the party heated up. At 1 pm we had to take a walk under the moonlight. The village is so quite and the air is so fresh that you have the feeling you could stay there forever.

When we came back the people were still rocking and the noise kept awake half of the village. It was our time to leave the premises. We were knocked out! Of course as we started dancing at 6 pm not at 8 pm as the rest of the people. It was a mega party anyway and we felt like in the College: young and fit! Hahahahah.

More pictures (but not all) at www.flickr.com/photos/ancu_bm. We didn't take too many pictures this time, but David's parents did so we're waiting!

Flea Market, Negreni 2007

In autum, every year, there's a flea market in Negereni, aprox. 80 km from Cluj, where you can bargain almost everything: clothes (most of them second-hand), shoes, sports equipment (our goal), antiques (some very precious I guess, but also extremely expensive, at least for me) and of course food and drinks. One side of the river:

and on the other side of the river:

We convinced the Mishes, our trip partners, or they convinced us ... it doesn't matter, to leave Cluj for Negreni hoping that we could bargain something to worth it, but cheap or very-very cheap. Anyway everybody goes to Negreni having that in mind. Last year we missed it, so this year will be our time.

We had in mind some skiing equipment for Peter and for Alexandra (skies and skiing boots). The offer was very poor in this field but still, there were some Hungarian fellows which had some good-looking equipment and with whom we could bargain (especially Peter in Hungarian and me in English :)

So in the end everybody got something cheap Peter skies and skiing boots, replacing the old ones and being the perfect present for his birthday. I got some old wooden plate for ornament, Alexandra got skies (her first) and some skiing sticks (lol...I don't know the exact word in English for that) and Mishu I think only something to eat...heheheh (the traditional kurtos kalacs).

Negreni is a mixture of commercial and traditional market. Of course are many sellers with all kinds of counterfeit goods, but also quality things. Some of them as I was saying are quite valuable and precious, but you need to have a good eyes for that. Every year collectioners from all over (Hungary as well) come to Negreni to complete their collections. But for that you need lots of money. A single small bronze statue, that interested me was 100 Euros (yes! the prices were very western only in Euros) which is quite much in Romanian money; and probably it was so cheap because was not that old and valuable...but it was well-made and signed by some unknow artist...for me!

In conclusion, it's worth while visiting this open-air enormous market, but you need patience, feel like bargaining and plenty of money on you! You can really find something nice at a good price. And if not you can enjoy at least the beautiful wild Cris Valley...but maybe not at 2-5 degrees Celsius as we did.

Wedding PICS

I've promised and now I have finally made it! I uploaded all the wedding pictures, grouped them by themes and post them on my address www.flickr.com/photos/ancu_bm. The link to this site which I will periodically update from now on with all our new pics is posted at the bottom of this page.

Enjoy the pics and leave some commentaries If you feel like it!

I wish you a dynamic weeked!...but not at work :)

Chestnuts Festival, Baia Mare 2007

Every Romanian city or town has an annual so-called "Beer Festival" when all the urban population goes out on the streets, eats the traditional meal MICI (impossible to translate or to describe the feeling when eating those:) and drink tones of beer. It's a time when everybody, young or old meets their friends and chat while getting drunk. Well Baia Mare needed to be more special than the rest of the Romanian cities so we organized The Chestnuts Fest.

The name it's not just a coincidence, Baia Mare is a rare place on the Romanian territory where chestnuts grow. In Romania we have only one more place like that but it's not at all so prosperous. You can see I still love that place very much even if I live in Cluj for 8 years now.
Anyway at the fest it gets very crowded at some point...I mean all the time...the streets are full of people wandering here and there trying to bargain something...clothes, pieces of traditional art, handcrafts, food, etc. At night (because the party goes on until morning; on Saturday we got home at 1:30 am and the party was still to continue) it gets very crowded, it's like attending a concert of thousands of people and having a survival space of 1 sq cm around you. You have to go where the crowd goes. If you want to turn left maybe you just get back from where you first came. Oh! But what am I explaining here...you all know what I mean.

It was a good moment to visit my parents and to involve them as well into this bath of people. Here we were still together, afterwards we got lost ;)

Through the sun-glasses (It was like summertime those days 23-25 degrees Celsius):

Like all the locals we sat to a table ate MICI with mustard, had a beer and had a lot of fun and bought some cheap clothes. Here is the MEN's side of the table:

Here is the WOMEN's sector. You can feel the "girl power" can't you?

We enjoyed the street singers (some old indians playing traditional music...they can be found on the street of Cluj as well).


We also had a walk through the old city of Baia Mare, now reconstructed and modernized and we fooled around...like kids. Gee! Those child-games can be so relaxing and fun...if your butt still fits those tiny spaces...auch!



Then we walked by the place where our wedding took place an in the Municipal Park. Somewhere on that hill on the back was the restaurant where we had our party:

And here is the Ethnographic Museum from Baia Mare...I'm ashamed as I have never visited it!

I realized that we have our beautiful and special places in Romania too, and in our small quiet tows as Baia Mare is we just have to raise our eyes and take a look...and of course take attitude and preserve them...and OK! we need some marketing training as well, as we have no idea how to sell our jeweleries .

Of course we have our funny silly parts:

But over all we're funny people with a great sense of humour and a great respect for our family...and we look good together even if some really fought for a place in the front:


Chestnuts...yummy they are tasty but everything that is very good it's hard to get. Try these with bare hands:


Or better do not try this at home...PLEASE!

More pictures

Hello guys! I have an account on flick.com which I plan to update with new pictures. For the moment you can find at my address: www.flickr.com/photos/ancu_bm the latest pictures taken during the trip ti The Bears' Cave and The Rusty Pit.
Soon more pictures are coming up! Stay tunned!

On the road to...

...Stana de Vale a small nice resort on the Apuseni Mts. where you can find the Wonder Spring (Izvorul Minunilor). It really is a natural spring but a great or better a huge business. The Romanian readers know what I mean, for the others it's a prosperous business which started with producing juice (once competing in Romania with Coca-Cola brand) and bottling natural water from the so-called Wonder Spring and continued afterwards with chips, sweets, etc. Now their factories because now are many are real empires across the national roads. If you want to visit one you need a guide and a car! The funny part is that Tehnofrig my ex-employer made all the tanks and bottling lines for these guys.

Anyway I, Peter, Mishu and gf Alexandra (The Mishis from now on:) planned a trip to Stana de Vale (never been there) and then maybe to reach The Bears' Cave (very famous in Romania) and then home. All in one day.

From left to right (Alexandra the little one, Mishu the big shadow, me of course and Peter).

On our way there we passed through Lesu Lake (very cold this time of the year)

Spectacular waterfalls (there are plenty on this area. We found out that the highest waterfall in Romania aprox. 96 m is in the neighbourhood. We missed that as it was a 5 hours trip on foot and we were quite late at that time and didn't have a map:)

And hundreds of horses going down to the valley for the winter

The road to Stana de Vale is through the woods, rocky and spectacular and in a glade you suddenly see some hotels, some chalets and few locals selling their fruits and vegetables. There is a big mark in the middle of the street: "Wonder Spring 300 m" and here you go:


Of course it is arranged for tourists' visits but we concluded it's nothing much, as you can see. You can take natural water home for free but we skipped that since Mishu saw some frog herbs (this is translated from Romanian couldn't find the equivalent in English;) up the stream.
Actually this spring is the only attraction of the area it you don't go deep into the woods searching for the highest cliffs or the biggest waterfalls. So we moved on and made a stop nowhere on the road to take a closer look at these:

We ate like crazy this kind of berry (don't know their exact name):

And convinced this little fellow to stay for the picture ;)

Our next stop was the Bears' Cave. It is the most famous visitable cave in Romania. Its name says it all: it is supposed to have been the bears' habitat and winter refuge over the centuries. But at some point while they were inside the entrance of the cave collapsed and they could not get out anymore. Some died of hunger some because the others ate them, a tragic end for a famous natural museum. At the entrance (very modern or better very urban, by the way):

Enjoy these stollen pictures (that's why they are blurred):

The so-called Rocket:

Done with the Beras' Cave; too bad only a small part of it is visitable, the other part is a natural reservation.
We headed the for the Rusty Pit (Groapa Ruginoasa) a wonder of nature. The earth is practically going down the valley more and more swallowing the margins together with the vegetation around. Big trees are going down like puppets. Luckily none of that happened while we were visiting. Otherwise the scenery is like a dream:

The Rusty Pit

And on out way back home...blocks of concrete here we come :(

We were not afraid to stay on the edge...here is the proof for the non-believers. Phew! What some 10 seconds that were!

Aren't we a coloured happy team?