Just a few miles outside of Târgu Mureș a landscape opens up which is perfectly suited for shooting Western movies.
-
Recent Posts
-
Join 3,353 other subscribers
Cleaning Schedule
“I believe it is your turn to clean the staircase,” the neighbor reminded me, without putting the urgency into her voice which this admonishment would have deserved.
Only when I took a closer look at the staircase did I realize how patient the other residents of the house had been with me.
It hasn’t snowed yet
… but the trees are already covered with ice.
Yes, you recognized it correctly. This is Bulevardul Cetăţii in Târgu Mureș, Romania.
And the following photos I took close to the nearby village of Maiad/Nyomat, where the sun had already defrosted the trees, but the grass was still frozen.
Good morning
The view from my bedroom in the morning:
Well, actually it looks like this,
but I have always had the tendency to look at the bright side of things. It’s a better way to start the day.
What is this Palace in Turda?
Turda is not the most beautiful city in Romania, or maybe my judgement is unfair because I drove through the town on a rainy and grey November day.
But then this one building stood out due to its size and it’s atypical style. It looked like a Far-Eastern palace in the midst of one-storey Transylvanian houses.
It did not appear to be too old, but it had already been deserted. Some of the letters of the sign on the facade had fallen off. Through broken windows, I could see fine tiles adorning the ceiling.
Does anyone know the story behind this house? It is located at the corner of Strada Bicazului and Strada Albinei. Thank you for your help!
—
UPDATE: On Twitter, someone pointed out this article, according to which it was the residential house of a Roma family. – And other EU countries are afraid of Romanian welfare seekers. They should take a look at this house (although admittedly not everyone around here lives like this).
UPDATE 2: Thanks to everyone who replied! Several readers mentioned that there are whole villages consisting of palaces like these. I will need to visit Huedin and Buzescu.
Spooky Castle
The citadel of Rupea in Transylvania in a foggy November night.
Sad Things (13) Postcard from Viktor Orbán
Returning from a two-week holiday, I was excited to open my mailbox as soon as I came home. I expected parcels, fan mail, magazines and postcards from around the world.
You can imagine my disappointment when, upon my return from the Balkans in the first week of November, I only found one postcard from an autocratic, right-wing, nationalistic head of government.
And I don’t even live in Hungary!
Maybe I will receive a postcard from Vladimir Putin or Robert Mugabe next.
My Blog is a Millionaire
Four years ago, on a drab winter day, I was sitting in my room in Southwark, an unremarkable part of London, when I decided to set up this blog. I had already published many articles and several books Until then, I had only written some letters to newspapers, some of them published, some of them not, but I wanted to have my own medium, without an editor that you need to bribe with expensive cigars.
Today, while I was out jogging in Târgu Mureș in Romania, where I now live after having lived in three other countries between London and now, my blog crossed the threshold of one million all-time views.
That means that my blog has about 685 views per day on average. It’s shocking how many people are wasting their time like this, and that doesn’t even take into account my blog in German and the many people who print out articles to show them around at the office.
Looking at the posts which have been the all-time hits, there are some expected ones, like legal advice for free, travel advice and of course anything involving boobs. Many of you are shockingly predictable.
However, I don’t understand the popularity of all of these articles. Seriously, how many people had to look up where Lithuania is? And if 7,693 people have looked at my wishlist of books, why haven’t I received that many book presents? Lastly, if 9,630 people have looked at my CV, why haven’t I received a single job offer?
The sad thing from a blogger’s perspective is that many posts into which I put a lot of effort or for which I risk my life (like my video blogs) are not very popular at all.
I could have guessed that you are weird from looking at the search terms that you use to find my blog:
Twice as many people find my blog by searching for “pussy” than are searching for my name. In my four years of blogging, I haven’t had a harsher reality check than this. And I am not even a girl! – I will also never understand the 824 people who simply enter “no” in a search engine.
More uplifting is the international distribution of my readership. Although it is of course skewed towards countries with a lot of people, a lot of internet and a lot of time on their hands, I am still proud that I have had visitors from 220 countries so far. Have a look at the flag banner on the right hand side for the up-to-date figures.
There are however a few countries which really need to catch up (although it’s nice that the Pope checked my blog 6 times already):
If you are the tourism minister of one of these states, I recommend that you invite me to visit your country. That should increase these numbers and it will give you great publicity in the rest of the world.
Tagged blogging, Statistics
23 Comments
Video Blog: Climbing the Fortress of Kotor
In Kotor, the most beautiful coastal town in Montenegro, there was an easy (yet still exhausting) way to get to the fortress. And there was a hard way. Guess which one I picked.
The most romantic boulevard in Europe
Whenever I move to a new town, I look for a beautiful place where I can read, think and smoke a cigar. In Târgu Mureș in Romania, you can find me on one of the benches of this romantic tree-lined boulevard, lost in a novel and puffing clouds of smoke into the sky. Only the many newlyweds who come from all around the world to misappropriate Europe’s most romantic boulevard as a backdrop for their wedding pictures disturb the serenity.
These photos were taken when I moved here in October. By now, the leaves have turned yellow. With every burst of wind, the trees are shedding more of them. Soon, the first snow will fall and it will look particularly romantic at night. Which it already does now.
Whenever I walk up or down this boulevard, I am thinking of my friends in Hollywood because it’s exactly the kind of street they would love to use as a film location.
Oh, you want to know the exact address now? It is Bulevardul Cetăţii, behind the medieval fortress in Târgu Mureș.
