the holiday - one of those pathetic, silly posts

And i am back, after the most enjoyable long trip i've had in a very long time. I wasn't sure what to expect from this holiday. I took my mobile phone with me, but not the laptop, and i decided to break completely free from internet and related. Which under other circumstances would have made me feel totally disconnected from the world.

But what actually happens is this. Internet is an amazing place to get in touch with amazing people whom you are pretty unlikely to meet in everyday life by chance, since they are so many and most of them live so far away. However, everyday life is also an amazing place to get in touch with amazing people who barely know (if at all) anything about the Internet. What i'm actually trying to say is that i had the great opportunity of meeting and listening to and talking to a bunch of absolutely impressive people, for whom actual work, as well as living doesn't leave them time for too much virtual implication. Interesting, passionate people who really do have stories to tell.

Such as a policeman in Campulung Moldovenesc with a very intense passion for animals (and please take this literally) and his dream, ever since he was a little boy, was to have his very own Zoo. Little by little, he started collecting all sorts of birds and animals, exchanging them with more peculiar specimens from abroad and so on. The guy is currently actually slowly developing his very own zoo (some of the pics with animals are taken right there) and can tell you everything about each specimen in his exhibition.

Such as a nun in Humor Monastery, who taught me so incredibly much about history and iconography and the beauties of our very country and religion and art and so on in such a short time. Such as waiters with whom one could discuss about french movies and inn managers who are masters of local real-life storytelling, if i can use such a syntagm. Such as a potter in famous village Marginea, who's been modelling gorgeous thing all his life. Or a museologist in Ruginoasa who spent his life trying to identify as many objects which had belonged to Cuza as possible in order to manage to reproduce the original atmosphere of the palace in Ruginoasa. Or an archaeologist, and who's also working for the museum of history of Bucovina. And many others. I mean that kind of special people who taught me lessons of life. It might sound redundant, silly, or something of the kind, but it was not. It was an experience which left me tones of information and food for thought. As somebody stated on a forum somewhere: "i talked to the locals, and it was worth 10 history books".

I visited churches and monasteries such as: Agapia, Varatec, Neamt, Vovedania, Petru-voda, Sihastrie, Secu, Sihla, Rasca, Dragomirna, Putna, Voronet, Moldovita, Sucevita, Gura Humorului, Arbore, Trei ierarhi. And i will resist the temptation to write about them. Whoever is interested in my impressions will have to see me in person (and listen :)) ). I visited Neamt and Suceava fortresses (or is it citadels ? blimey), revisited Ruginoasa and Humulesti and all sorts of sights and museums in Iasi and Suceava, then beautiful pieces of nature such as The Muddy Volcanoes near Buzau, the fantastic Bicaz area, Lacu Rosu, Durau, Ceahlau national park, the salt mine in Cacica, the splendid ure ox reservation in Neamt

I discovered and rediscovered very nice music, since i am a road-lover (road-movie-lover, also) and i have this tendency to be always in search of and overwhelmed by the perfect combination between landscape and music. I only ate traditional food and i started learning how to cook. I bought a huge bunch of books (some of which i have already read) and traditional objects.

In other words, i had a great time, and i am surely going to keep on discovering new places and people this way (even if just during weekends the following period). And i'm also planning a multiday walk.