What are they watching?

Disturbing Signs

Country folks

Got out of the city the other day and briefly met these nice people.

Dogs

They love dogs here in Romania. There are so many strays it is astounding. Strays with eartags mean that they are being cared for. Strays that dont have tags are picked up and taken away.

Every morning I can hear them howl. There are packs of them, they can be territorial, but so far Ive never seen any of them fight with each other or growl at people.

Ive had a couple of dreams about taking one home with me. But they need a serious bath first.


Luckily, Ive also seen a lot of veterinary practices around as well.

More nice things to look at

I feel bad because I could talk endlessly about the some of the ugly parts of the city. But there are some nice things as well, and they deserve their fair shake. So here goes:

A nice little river flows thru town.

There's loads of statues and monuments.

The Boulevard Unirii has fountains that go for at least a mile.

The old Bank or Stock Exchange is reflected in the windows of the new one.

Outskirts of the city

Had to take a ride out to the Brico Store, kind of like a Lowes Hardware Store, to get some stuff for work. Its in the part of town that is just off the edge of the map that you get at the hotel. That part of the city where the car dealerships and the cheap malls and, well, the Brico Stores, are at. Imagine boulevards that go on for miles that look like this, and you will understand the ride. Actually, if you look at the other picture - the nighttime one that was taken from my room - out past the soccer field you see some reactor type smokestacks. I went past those to get to the Brico Store.

Did I say soccer? Football. I meant football. Did I watch the game? Next time a game plays, I will take another picture for you.

The People's Parliament (part 4)

More stuff! Bleachers and concrete barriers and scaffolding.... The suspense must be killing you, huh?

All right, heres a clue: May 18-20.

There. Google away...

Something I did NOT expect to see (part 2)

This guy drove all the way from Connecticut to Bucharest.

The People's Parliament (part 3)

Lotsa road work. Lotsa construction. What's going on? All will be revealed soon.

Lotsa Fountains

And lotsa billboards in the background

Something I did NOT expect to see (part 1 of I hope a lot)

The guys who mow the grass at the parks are hired on a monthly rate rather than a weekly rate, if you know what I mean. Which is fine for this little guy.

He was very bright green, very saturated.

Field Trip at the Museum of Natural History

Some nice things to look at

The bottom picture is in the middle of "Aviator Plaza" (my translation) There are some words inscribed into the base, but even if I could read Romanian I wuld not risk my life in crossing the street to get ot the center. Its one of those crazy Euro-roundabouts with no signs or stoplights -- you just keep driving until youre life-threatening-detection senses tell you to stop.

I still have not driven here in the city - and so far, the only people on this job who are driving are the locals. Im not looking forward to driving here.

Rubber Stamps

There are a huge number of storefronts that sell rubber stamps. And there are a lot of notary publics as well. If you are shopping for birthday presents for people (and they happen to be Romanian) then you might want to consider getting them a rubber stamp for their birthday. And to show some extra class, have the card notarized.

Which came first, the tree or the wall?