In search of my past
I have just come back from my 4day trip to the seaside. It's been amazing, except for today, when I had some health problems and we had to go straight back to Bucharest(my dad had planned to stop by in several places). So I'll write a full report on days and, of course, put it under cut. ^^
Monday, 13th of April
I woke up early, as I thought we'd leave as soon as possible. Seeing that it was 7:30 already, I woke up, hurried up and when I got down, my parents were still eating. Lol. Anyway we left around 10 am and didn't stop until we got to Bulgaria. Our first stop was the ex-capital of the country, Veliko Tornovo, whose citadel dates from the 12th century. Awsome, no? :D I love ruins of fortresses and such, because I imagine how life was back then and how geniuine the architects and engineers were back then. To create such masterpieces with only rock and imagination, that's what I call a genius! :D Anyway, we visited the fortress of Veliko Tornovo, which was placed on a hill, and admired the landscape of the city. Must add here that Bulgaria is an extremely poor country. After crossing most of it, I will never complain again about Romania. :)) Not that our country is poor, not at all, but if I was complaining about the way some villages look, or that we don't have good roads, then from now on I'll just thank God I don't live in Bulgaria. xD
Anyway, back on track...some pics from Veliko Tornovo:
if you zoom, you can see that the houses are not the prettiest...what I was saying.
my dad walking towards the fortress xD
that's approximateively how the river surrounds the hill on which the city is placed.:P
nightwish like pose. =))
really war-like picture...like...a mini fortress, and the flag, probably simbolising whose fortress it is.
the church inside the fortress
The rest of the day wasn't something special, we just drove to the Black Sea, and stopped by at the Nessebar resort. It was late so we went to bed immediatly, leaving the site seeing for tomorrow.
Tuesday, 14th of April
We woke up and went downtown. Actually, we visited the old town, which is indeed beautiful and has a lot of very old churches. Churches from the 12th century, even. And it was very quiet and peaceful, since it wasn't summer. The shops were all closed, except for some souvenir shops, from where we bought rose water, rose perfume and rose soap. There's a region in Bulgaria where they raise roses and use them to produce perfumes and oils. They're nr 1 in Europe I think. The sea was very angry and the sound of the waves crushing to the shore was sublime. *__* Definitely better than the road till there, where we only saw poor houses and bad roads. xD But still, they have more highways than us. Damn! :))
weird white fish at the hotel we had chosen for the night spent in Nesseber. At a point he was with his belly up and we thought he died, but in fact he was only sleeping. =))
sight of the old city.
ruins of the old city
old church. Really beautiful.
fat seagul. =))
best picture of the trip. :D
mermaid? :P
close houses.
After spending 2 hours in Nesseber we hurried back to the hotel to check out and left for Balcik. We knew that mom loves this place and we didn't tell her we're going there. She didn't notice anything: no change of course, no road marks, nothing. Even when we got there she thought we were making fun of her. xD But we weren't. She really loved the place and was incredibly happy. :D I'm happy we could make her smile. Balcik is indeed a lovely place, built and decorated after queen Mary's thoughts. Queen Mary was Ferdinand's wife, and Ferdinand was king Carol's nephew. (yes, the one who came in Romania in 1866 and brought the Belgian constitution) I discovered that she was actually british at her origins, being queen Victoria's granddaughter. Therefore, some places of Balcik have been concieved acording to her memories from childwhood(for example, there's an alley which used to have huge, white lilies, which she loved ever since she had discovered them, in her grandmother's garden). Queen Mary had an incredible taste and so many ideas, as a result, everything there has a certain purpouse, either functional or plastic, or even both. For example, there's a house(I think it was the Royal Kitchen) which was built between the waterfall and the sea, so you could hear both the water falling and the waves. Incredible. But the most outstanding piece of work is her spiritual tomb. She thought that the spirit should raise from the house, and climb symbolic stairs, to the spiritual tomb, which is situated right above the house where she spent most of the time. It's absolutely fabulous...touching. It's also interesting how everything has a religious meaning, but it's, at the same time, incredibly estethic.
Some pictures:
botanical garden
the waterfall I was talking about
the English court garden
another pose.xD Damn LJ, makes pics small.
lol, happy couple and the church. (can't remember the name :( )
me sitting on the royal chair. Thou' shall bow in front of the Queen. :P:P:P:P
the castle.
symbolic stairs, leading to...
..Queen Mary's spiritual tomb..
and queen Mary herself. Really beautiful woman. :) May she rest in peace, she's done so much for Romania..
We left this amazing place and headed towards another incredible place, the Kaliakra cape. My dad knew a restaurant, at the seashore, where he ate well the first time he went there. You'd never think that in that wilderness, there can be a restaurant. I have no words to describe, it's breathtaking...
see how peaceful the sea is?
Then our dad took us to another place. There was a lost village, even he wasn't sure where it was. He had to call a friend to ask. xD Anyway, there was a place, full of cliffs, agianst which the waves were breaking with fury. It was amazing! The sound they were making, was absolutely stunning! And they rose very high...moreover, the wind was blowing with fury, so the landscape was complete.
:|....
As the Sun set, we headed towards Romania, along the coast(or almost). By nighttime, we were in Constanta, Romania's most important city by the seaside. It's alo an acient greek town, which was then called Tomis. Here, in Constanta, my great grandfather(my dad's grandfather) spent most of his time, working. He was an archeologist and he was very passionate about this. He also had great intuition and inovation spirit. He made the archeology museum, which contains the objects he discovered in the ruins of Tomis. I'm saying all this because the following day I visited the museum and his tomb. I think that it was his grand father that came from Greece. (dunno if I said before that my ancesters were greeks)
Wednesday, 15th of April
We first stopped by the cemetery, to see my great grandfather's tomb. It's very beautiful, you can spot it easily. Besides feeling a slight sadness, as I remembered my grandfather, I felt a certain emotion...like, wow, here's my great grandfather burried...the one who discovered many things in the ruins of Tomis. I was very proud. I feel like....will I achieve what he has achieved? Probably not, because I don't have such intuition spirit to do business and then, it's not easy to come up with something original these days, with all the media and information traveling with the speed of light. But until I become a good doctor, I can be happy that he was my great granddad. ^^
His wife is also "burried" here. Actually, she was incinerated, so it's only the vase, with the ash.
I've never been this interested about my family's past before. And when my father started to tell me so many things about my great granddad, I suddenly realised that the most valuable source of information was gone...my grandfather knew more than my dad. He told us so many times stories about his father, but we never really listened...and now he's gone...:-< I should've spent more time with him.
Anyway..after we visited the tomb, we went to the museum of archeology. It's a really beautiful building, with lovely architecutre. The street which leads to it bears my great granddad's name...
stupid camera...zoom :P and ignore the grafitti. Morons..at least they didn't do it on the museum as well.
and this is the museum
near the left corner in the bottom, with the hat on, it's my great granddad...
I think he's the one bent above the snake.
and that's the snake in the picture. It was a symbol for good and protection.
Goddess Fortuna, with Ponthos, protectors of Tomis. :D He discovered them too.
And finally, I was impressed by the huge collection of pipes he had. A room full of them...And, as I heard, we have some of them here. Wow...I wanna see them. xD Two of them are on the chemeny in the old house.
I'm holding one here.
and that's my great granddad. :)
After seeing the museum, the headmaster took us to an archeologic site. At the beginning I didn't know what I was about to see, so I was extremely surprised when we stopped in front of an old, rusty house. Then I was told it was just a cover for an archeologic site...:| After unlocking the door, another cover appeared, and inside, a small room, with an even smaller door. When they told me it was a VIth century old tomb, I almost fainted. The idea that I was going to enter a tomb that was almost 1700 years old simply amased and scared me. But nevertheless, I did it, and soon I was inside a small room, with extremely well conserved paintings. 1700 years old...Mommy! I was thinking that, being so old, the tomb might have some strange bacteria xD, so I covered my nose with my scarf. :)) But since I still haven't died, it means that there was no bacteria.=)))))
(WS, I bet you'll like these:P)
no money for a proper instalation to conserve the paitings...Arrgh, I hate the politicians who only care about their fat asses! >_>
for those interested to read.:D
Also, as we walked to the site, the headmaster told us about the many tombs they discovered right bellow our feet. Really interesting.
Loved this. Seriously, if I hadn't had to learn all the history, I would've chosen archeology. I simply love ruins and discovering new evidence about how people lived in a certain era. But here you must first do history and then specialise in archeology. Too bad. Don't have enough patience for history. :(
After this we went back to the hotel to eat and then me and my mom went back to the museum to see a mosaique that my great granddad discovered. It appears that underneath it there were storage rooms, and people were walking on it from one side to another. From 2000 square meters, only 850 remained...
and this is the mosaique. :D
Then we met with my dad and had a walk by the seashore. It was really beautiful again, to listen to the waves crushing against the shore.
this picture defines me 100%. :D
What I didn't like in Constanta is that so many beautiful buildings are left in ruins, because the mayor doesn't want to recondition them. Arrghh...He said that if people who own them and claim the houses don't stop it, he won't give any money to rebuilt them. He wants to get the houses for some rich, fat assholes. Damn, why is it this world so unfair? It's terrible, I sometimes think it was better if I was born on Mars. This world is too unfair for my standards, for the way I see life and honestity(and I don't want this to sound arrogant). :( Unfortunatelly, I'll have to survive.
the casino, also left in ruins..even though from this pic you wouldn't say so.
Finally, we went to see the Shutsu house, where my great granddad had an appartment for a while. It's really beautiful. Too bad my dad has vague memories from back then. ;))
We ended our journey in a nice restaurant. The following day we'd take the road back to Bucharest.
Thursday, 16th of April
We left early and started the way back home. We should've stopped to several more places, but I wasn't feeling well and we drove straight home. Still, we stopped to the Capidava fortress, another roman archeological site, one of the many, among Tomis, Callatis or Histria. Really nice. :D
ruins rule!
By lunch time, I was home. I also went to the hospital and solved the problem. Now I feel a lot better and am ready for anatomy, tomorrow. ^^
Hope you enjoyed reading this, and also the necessary patience.:))
Roger lost.:( Against his fellow Swiss, Stanislas Wawrinka. He should've won...really...:( Oh, well...
Going to sleep. Missed my bed and my beloved Nicolas. ^^
Monday, 13th of April
I woke up early, as I thought we'd leave as soon as possible. Seeing that it was 7:30 already, I woke up, hurried up and when I got down, my parents were still eating. Lol. Anyway we left around 10 am and didn't stop until we got to Bulgaria. Our first stop was the ex-capital of the country, Veliko Tornovo, whose citadel dates from the 12th century. Awsome, no? :D I love ruins of fortresses and such, because I imagine how life was back then and how geniuine the architects and engineers were back then. To create such masterpieces with only rock and imagination, that's what I call a genius! :D Anyway, we visited the fortress of Veliko Tornovo, which was placed on a hill, and admired the landscape of the city. Must add here that Bulgaria is an extremely poor country. After crossing most of it, I will never complain again about Romania. :)) Not that our country is poor, not at all, but if I was complaining about the way some villages look, or that we don't have good roads, then from now on I'll just thank God I don't live in Bulgaria. xD
Anyway, back on track...some pics from Veliko Tornovo:
if you zoom, you can see that the houses are not the prettiest...what I was saying.
my dad walking towards the fortress xD
that's approximateively how the river surrounds the hill on which the city is placed.:P
nightwish like pose. =))
really war-like picture...like...a mini fortress, and the flag, probably simbolising whose fortress it is.
the church inside the fortress
The rest of the day wasn't something special, we just drove to the Black Sea, and stopped by at the Nessebar resort. It was late so we went to bed immediatly, leaving the site seeing for tomorrow.
Tuesday, 14th of April
We woke up and went downtown. Actually, we visited the old town, which is indeed beautiful and has a lot of very old churches. Churches from the 12th century, even. And it was very quiet and peaceful, since it wasn't summer. The shops were all closed, except for some souvenir shops, from where we bought rose water, rose perfume and rose soap. There's a region in Bulgaria where they raise roses and use them to produce perfumes and oils. They're nr 1 in Europe I think. The sea was very angry and the sound of the waves crushing to the shore was sublime. *__* Definitely better than the road till there, where we only saw poor houses and bad roads. xD But still, they have more highways than us. Damn! :))
weird white fish at the hotel we had chosen for the night spent in Nesseber. At a point he was with his belly up and we thought he died, but in fact he was only sleeping. =))
sight of the old city.
ruins of the old city
old church. Really beautiful.
fat seagul. =))
best picture of the trip. :D
mermaid? :P
close houses.
After spending 2 hours in Nesseber we hurried back to the hotel to check out and left for Balcik. We knew that mom loves this place and we didn't tell her we're going there. She didn't notice anything: no change of course, no road marks, nothing. Even when we got there she thought we were making fun of her. xD But we weren't. She really loved the place and was incredibly happy. :D I'm happy we could make her smile. Balcik is indeed a lovely place, built and decorated after queen Mary's thoughts. Queen Mary was Ferdinand's wife, and Ferdinand was king Carol's nephew. (yes, the one who came in Romania in 1866 and brought the Belgian constitution) I discovered that she was actually british at her origins, being queen Victoria's granddaughter. Therefore, some places of Balcik have been concieved acording to her memories from childwhood(for example, there's an alley which used to have huge, white lilies, which she loved ever since she had discovered them, in her grandmother's garden). Queen Mary had an incredible taste and so many ideas, as a result, everything there has a certain purpouse, either functional or plastic, or even both. For example, there's a house(I think it was the Royal Kitchen) which was built between the waterfall and the sea, so you could hear both the water falling and the waves. Incredible. But the most outstanding piece of work is her spiritual tomb. She thought that the spirit should raise from the house, and climb symbolic stairs, to the spiritual tomb, which is situated right above the house where she spent most of the time. It's absolutely fabulous...touching. It's also interesting how everything has a religious meaning, but it's, at the same time, incredibly estethic.
Some pictures:
botanical garden
the waterfall I was talking about
the English court garden
another pose.xD Damn LJ, makes pics small.
lol, happy couple and the church. (can't remember the name :( )
me sitting on the royal chair. Thou' shall bow in front of the Queen. :P:P:P:P
the castle.
symbolic stairs, leading to...
..Queen Mary's spiritual tomb..
and queen Mary herself. Really beautiful woman. :) May she rest in peace, she's done so much for Romania..
We left this amazing place and headed towards another incredible place, the Kaliakra cape. My dad knew a restaurant, at the seashore, where he ate well the first time he went there. You'd never think that in that wilderness, there can be a restaurant. I have no words to describe, it's breathtaking...
see how peaceful the sea is?
Then our dad took us to another place. There was a lost village, even he wasn't sure where it was. He had to call a friend to ask. xD Anyway, there was a place, full of cliffs, agianst which the waves were breaking with fury. It was amazing! The sound they were making, was absolutely stunning! And they rose very high...moreover, the wind was blowing with fury, so the landscape was complete.
:|....
As the Sun set, we headed towards Romania, along the coast(or almost). By nighttime, we were in Constanta, Romania's most important city by the seaside. It's alo an acient greek town, which was then called Tomis. Here, in Constanta, my great grandfather(my dad's grandfather) spent most of his time, working. He was an archeologist and he was very passionate about this. He also had great intuition and inovation spirit. He made the archeology museum, which contains the objects he discovered in the ruins of Tomis. I'm saying all this because the following day I visited the museum and his tomb. I think that it was his grand father that came from Greece. (dunno if I said before that my ancesters were greeks)
Wednesday, 15th of April
We first stopped by the cemetery, to see my great grandfather's tomb. It's very beautiful, you can spot it easily. Besides feeling a slight sadness, as I remembered my grandfather, I felt a certain emotion...like, wow, here's my great grandfather burried...the one who discovered many things in the ruins of Tomis. I was very proud. I feel like....will I achieve what he has achieved? Probably not, because I don't have such intuition spirit to do business and then, it's not easy to come up with something original these days, with all the media and information traveling with the speed of light. But until I become a good doctor, I can be happy that he was my great granddad. ^^
His wife is also "burried" here. Actually, she was incinerated, so it's only the vase, with the ash.
I've never been this interested about my family's past before. And when my father started to tell me so many things about my great granddad, I suddenly realised that the most valuable source of information was gone...my grandfather knew more than my dad. He told us so many times stories about his father, but we never really listened...and now he's gone...:-< I should've spent more time with him.
Anyway..after we visited the tomb, we went to the museum of archeology. It's a really beautiful building, with lovely architecutre. The street which leads to it bears my great granddad's name...
stupid camera...zoom :P and ignore the grafitti. Morons..at least they didn't do it on the museum as well.
and this is the museum
near the left corner in the bottom, with the hat on, it's my great granddad...
I think he's the one bent above the snake.
and that's the snake in the picture. It was a symbol for good and protection.
Goddess Fortuna, with Ponthos, protectors of Tomis. :D He discovered them too.
And finally, I was impressed by the huge collection of pipes he had. A room full of them...And, as I heard, we have some of them here. Wow...I wanna see them. xD Two of them are on the chemeny in the old house.
I'm holding one here.
and that's my great granddad. :)
After seeing the museum, the headmaster took us to an archeologic site. At the beginning I didn't know what I was about to see, so I was extremely surprised when we stopped in front of an old, rusty house. Then I was told it was just a cover for an archeologic site...:| After unlocking the door, another cover appeared, and inside, a small room, with an even smaller door. When they told me it was a VIth century old tomb, I almost fainted. The idea that I was going to enter a tomb that was almost 1700 years old simply amased and scared me. But nevertheless, I did it, and soon I was inside a small room, with extremely well conserved paintings. 1700 years old...Mommy! I was thinking that, being so old, the tomb might have some strange bacteria xD, so I covered my nose with my scarf. :)) But since I still haven't died, it means that there was no bacteria.=)))))
(WS, I bet you'll like these:P)
no money for a proper instalation to conserve the paitings...Arrgh, I hate the politicians who only care about their fat asses! >_>
for those interested to read.:D
Also, as we walked to the site, the headmaster told us about the many tombs they discovered right bellow our feet. Really interesting.
Loved this. Seriously, if I hadn't had to learn all the history, I would've chosen archeology. I simply love ruins and discovering new evidence about how people lived in a certain era. But here you must first do history and then specialise in archeology. Too bad. Don't have enough patience for history. :(
After this we went back to the hotel to eat and then me and my mom went back to the museum to see a mosaique that my great granddad discovered. It appears that underneath it there were storage rooms, and people were walking on it from one side to another. From 2000 square meters, only 850 remained...
and this is the mosaique. :D
Then we met with my dad and had a walk by the seashore. It was really beautiful again, to listen to the waves crushing against the shore.
this picture defines me 100%. :D
What I didn't like in Constanta is that so many beautiful buildings are left in ruins, because the mayor doesn't want to recondition them. Arrghh...He said that if people who own them and claim the houses don't stop it, he won't give any money to rebuilt them. He wants to get the houses for some rich, fat assholes. Damn, why is it this world so unfair? It's terrible, I sometimes think it was better if I was born on Mars. This world is too unfair for my standards, for the way I see life and honestity(and I don't want this to sound arrogant). :( Unfortunatelly, I'll have to survive.
the casino, also left in ruins..even though from this pic you wouldn't say so.
Finally, we went to see the Shutsu house, where my great granddad had an appartment for a while. It's really beautiful. Too bad my dad has vague memories from back then. ;))
We ended our journey in a nice restaurant. The following day we'd take the road back to Bucharest.
Thursday, 16th of April
We left early and started the way back home. We should've stopped to several more places, but I wasn't feeling well and we drove straight home. Still, we stopped to the Capidava fortress, another roman archeological site, one of the many, among Tomis, Callatis or Histria. Really nice. :D
ruins rule!
By lunch time, I was home. I also went to the hospital and solved the problem. Now I feel a lot better and am ready for anatomy, tomorrow. ^^
Hope you enjoyed reading this, and also the necessary patience.:))
Roger lost.:( Against his fellow Swiss, Stanislas Wawrinka. He should've won...really...:( Oh, well...
Going to sleep. Missed my bed and my beloved Nicolas. ^^