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[pidge]

this must be the most anticipated autumn i've had in a long time. maybe it's because i have lots of warm, fuzzy green, purple, and brown sweaters that i've been dying to wear. i want to nest and turn off the air conditioner and wear layers again

Comments

unsolicited waxing of rhapsodic re Bucuresti

[sallymcvegas]

Bucharest is AMAZING--especially the university quarter where most of the killings took place during the '89 revolution--there are little sidewalk memorials to all these students who died and you could spend a whole day walking around and thinking about things that are within about a six-block area. The day I was there in May 2003 I stumbled into this tiny, ancient Romanian Orthodox church during a service that was being chanted a cappella by monks; I'm an atheist but it was almost enough to make me rethink that. There are also more really, really good used book stores in the university quarter in Bucharest than anywhere I think I've ever been. Make sure you carry some plastic grocery bags with you if you go out to buy anything, because merchants expect you to bring your own and fuss at you if you didn't. Not a lot of people speak English but Romanian is a Romance language so if you know French/Italian/Spanish you can read basic stuff like menus and street signs.

... and for what it's worth, Bulgaria is really interesting too... some of the most delicious salads I've ever eaten, and the countryside just north of Sofia looks exactly like I-81 between Roanoke and Lexington except with run-down old Soviet-era factories instead of truck stops. but unless you know the Cyrillic alphabet you will be totally screwed.

--JDL, Hollins '91, who ended up here because I'm going through all the Hollins people's journals sighing over their Tinker Day pictures.