People of Romania

Going back to Romania after all these years was like a dream. 

It was so much the same and so different all at once. 

And every second of it felt surreal. 

But the people were always my favorite part.

And that hadn't changed.  

So even though our two week trip felt way too short, I tried to capture as much of them as possible. 

Gypsy superstitions about cameras and photography made it a little bit of a challenge. 

I only wish I had been better at getting a portrait of all of our hosts in front of their respective homes. 

Oh well, another reason to go back. 

Mititei - Romanian street food. Always served with mustard and a thick slice of bread.

One of the smiliest and happiest Romanians I have ever met.
He cut open this squash to show us the inside. Using only the finest kitchen tools of course. 

Vendors set up shop on the sidewalk for your convenience. 
It's always the worst when you can't get garlic right outside your front door.

Gypsies love having their pictures taken. 

Luckily I couldn't hear what she was yelling at me through the bustle of the marketplace. 

 

The view from behind.

He stopped to help these metro performers by volunteering as their conductor. 

Clearly they needed one.

Parks are always packed with chess players. It's all very serious business.

Also, those are books hanging on lines in the background serving as an outdoor bookstore. Oh the convenience!

And it's not just players. There are crowds of men watching all the action. Chess spectators.

Incidentally I have never once seen a woman playing chess in Romania. 

 

Putting away his wallet after he just gave money to a beggar. I liked him immediately. 

The best way to photograph gypsies without being yelled at or having a finger waved in your face.

Side-note: I wore a bright colored skirt while we were there and got so many double-takes from people. 

Earning his keep.

Tending her flowers.

 

Manning the train station.

Keeping up with his peeps.

Talking to herself. 

Talking to somebody else.

Helping dad drive the truck - we stayed with Mihai and his adorable family out in the country

This is his grandma.

And this is his grandma's reaction after spotting him in the truck.

The double handed wave.

This is his grandpa.

And this is him with his dad and uncles.

Some people would yell at you for taking their picture. Others flat out ask you to take theirs. 

Can you guess which he was?

I was happy to believe his palm reading when he said I looked like an angel, had the beauty of the earth shining out of my eyes, and would find love wherever I went in my long and happy life. Then this fortune telling took a turn for the worse when he looked at Ryan's palm, got this above look on his face, and started spouting out things about death, heart disease, and six months to live. 

  Some little old ladies exiting the monastery in Hungary where we spent a cold afternoon. 

The people are lovely (wouldn't you agree?) and the scenery is insane!

More photos of the countryside coming soon.

At Sunset

 

Looking out across the valley I think it is quite possible that nobody has ever appreciated any place as much as I do this place right now. And then the bells across the lake sound out, all five churches ringing simultaneously to mark the hour, and I am certain that nobody ever has.

Sunlight is melting into the mountaintops and I'm afraid to turn away, or blink, or hardly to breathe, for fear that it will all just disappear. So I remain still and silent. And in those minutes try my best to absorb it, to breathe it in, to memorize it.

Initially I left the house in pursuit of an adventure, but I have a feeling that tonight I will not get very far. I did not take the sorcery of a sunset into account.

As is always the case with sunsets, pictures simply do not do it justice. 

And Autumn Begins...

with a breakfast of peaches & cream.

Can we just explore the perfection that is fresh peaches with real cream?

Beautiful. Juicy & sweet. A perfectly delightful start to this season and to my day!

And then a scenic jaunt on my bike, camera in tow.

I never think of fall as being a season of blossoms but clearly I have been wrong, cause this is just a taste of all that is just beginning to bloom along my path to school. 

Autumn, I welcome you with open arms.
Crisp air. Changing leaves. Sweaters. Bike rides. Apples. Bonfires. Soup.

And the thunder rolled

As it was nearing 11 o'clock last night I entered our bedroom to commence with the usual pre-bedtime rituals. Opening the window allows a cool breeze to moderate the heat of our un air-conditioned second floor, and is one of the night-time necessities of the summer months. I usually do not hear a voice speaking to me out of the dark when I do so, but last night I did. A voice, I thought, whispered my name from somewhere just outside the bedroom window. But because that seemed an unreasonable and unlikely reality, it took a second and louder whisper to assure me that it was a fact and not just a figment of my overactive imagination.

Because our usual late night visitors have long since moved away, I was momentarily bewildered as to who it was standing behind our house. This required a response from me to determine who it was creeping outside our window. Luckily it was friend not foe, and we were beckoned outside to share in the wild display of electrostatic-icity as it ripped across the sky.

It was lovely to experience the thunderstorm that way. Standing among friends barefoot in the grass with the warm night air brushing up against our bare skin, feeling as though we were sharing in some sort of magic the universe was offering up to us as a gift. The night sky was robed in clouds that were illuminated only as the cracks of lightning rolled across the valley, with the thunder chasing close behind it. It was a spectacle indeed. As, I am sure, were we, although of an entirely different sort.

We stood there in the dry desert air until the raindrops formed and drove us indoors. And then we drifted off to sleep as the light show continued on outside our window long into the night.

 

 

 

I've never shot lightning before - it was quite elusive. And like so many other natural wonders it just couldn't be captured properly. It only took about 70 shots to come up with these few of actual lightning, but here they are just the same. A glimpse of the lightning show to which we were lucky enough to have grade-A front row seats.