The Blog of bluemoon

The last trip always echoes in my mind for a long time. When the mind is more rested and free from the usual dark thoughts that push me towards pessimism, the memories of the last trip take their place with a noticeable beneficial effect. Beauty is, like love, the most potent remedy against depression and the unpleasantness of life.

There are journeys and journeys, some more pleasant and others where less pleasant surprises await you. To avoid that, I am a conservative traveler. If I like a place, I tend to go there several times to ensure pleasant and familiar experiences. I know that this way of perceiving traveling deprives me of many great experiences and the discovery of other places, perhaps more interesting than the few I repeat.

And yet, that's what I do every time, I see the same places over and over again, and often, I end up there even if I didn't plan it.

Such was the case with my most recent trip to Sibiu in Romania, a former capital of the renowned Transylvania region. The reason why Transylvania is so well known in the world has nothing to do with Sibiu or other cities in the area, nor with its architecture, nor with its drink, food, art, or the beautiful women. It's all because of a character who was placed here and who some people still believe exists today: Dracula!

I went this time to Sibiu, invited by a friend who directed a ballet show there. I went for the art and for the architecture of the city, more specifically, the Historical Center, the main tourist attraction.

About the show, the architecture, the food, and the history, I'll tell you more about it another time. Right now, I mention something else in particular that, at least for me, attracts me to this city and the historic center. The streets are a spectacle that I love to watch. I tried to remove the color from the photos, hoping for a glimpse of the past.

More than the streets, I like the passages between them. Because the houses are stuck together for long distances, small passages have been built that let you go from one street to another without having to make long detours.

These are my favorites, and some are so long that they can be likened to a street, like this one, which I think is the narrowest street/passage in Sibiu.

Unlike the previous trips I made to Sibiu, this time, thanks to another happy event, I traveled in the surroundings and even further, to a famous road called Transalpina, whose name, derived from Latin, means "the one that crosses the mountains"!

I must confess that the most extraordinary gift life has given me is friends and friendship.

I arrived in Sibiu, invited by a good friend of mine, the director Beatrice Rancea, to attend the premiere of a ballet show she had created. As I was traveling to Sibiu by train, I received a photo of the show's poster from another friend who was also in Sibiu on vacation.

Was it just a coincidence? I don't think...

My friend came to Sibiu to be close to the Transalpina, one of Romania's most beautiful alpine roads. So I hope you can understand why one day out of the four I spent there was dedicated to a trip to the mountains.

On the way to Transalpina, we made a stop on the plateau to look at the world from afar...

We had two more important stops. The first was at a monastery called Oasa. In Romania, almost every road leads to a monastery or a church.

In Romania, monasteries have a good habit of being located in wonderful landscape areas and often in remote and hard-to-reach places. In Oasa, it was the same. The monastery is situated in the forest, on the banks of a large lake.

The dam of the lake also supports the road, which, as it enters the forest, becomes increasingly spectacular. Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, we stopped here and then made our way back to Sibiu.

I met many bikers. Most of them were foreigners. They appreciate the Transalpina road, where they can prove their motorbike riding skills on winding roads. Most of all, they understand the freedom and the lenient laws in Romania, which are not respected either.

This was the black and white part of my most recent trip to Sibiu, my favorite city in Romania.

_{This is my entry for the #monomad challenge.}

_{I rely mostly on photos in all my blogs. Words don't help me as much as photos.}

_{I always start with photos when I want to write a blog. Photos remind me of places, events, and feelings that turn into words. The words have even less importance; they are a companion to the photos I want to show. This often makes the story uninteresting or common, yet it is necessary; otherwise, the photos would merely be a series of unexciting images.}

_{I make this statement as a plea to those reading not to overjudge the text and to focus on the photos. The story puts everything in context and provides the explanations and clarifications necessary for the blog to convey something of interest to the reader.}

_{A wise saying goes that a photograph is worth a thousand words, but I'm not sure. In my opinion, it depends on the viewer.}