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It’s been a while since I took a trip to visit a city. I move back and forth between Bucharest, the city where I work, and Brasov, the city where I’m at home, but during the pandemic there was not much else.
I used to love buying train tickets and visit other Romanian cities. Sometimes, one day trips were enough, while other times I wished I’d stay longer just to observe how people lived there.
Taking advantage of a work project and being close to Sibiu, we decided to go visit for a couple of days. Apparently other people had a similar idea as the city centre was filled with more people than I feel comfortable to be around.
One lovely thing about traveling to places where you’ve been before is that one learns that most of the tourists like to see the main attractions, leaving adiacent streets quiet and empty. And great houses are not just on the main streets and in the main square, you know?
I’m not saying that the main attractions aren’t amazing; there’s a reason why they are popular. It’s just that I’m not in that place in my life where I want to be in the middle of action. I’m not one interested solely in the most popular areas or buildings, but rather of how people built their streets and houses and how they get about their every day life.
One place I absolutely need to visit when I am in Sibiu it’s the Erasmus library and coffee place. This time there was no coffee for me, only books in German. I am thrilled to just enter the library and check the books and choose which ones to take home with me.
German has a special meaning to me as it’s one proof I have for when you really want something you can make it happen. I basically learned German by myself one summer back in 2005 and then kept building on it. I’m not fluent by any means, but I can understand most of what I hear and read. In a way, it’s so intimate to me. It’s weird given that it’s a language and its main purpose is communication and diving into a culture, thus making it anything but intimate. However, when I read in German there’s something about it that feels like unveiling deeply held secrets.
We mostly walked and took pictures. I loved to disconnect for about two days. I wish I’d say I took time to think and plan the autumn which is almost coming, but truth be told I was present and interested in the experience itself.
I’ve realised though that my birthday is coming up, which is always nice. Especially because I’ve always thought 32 sounds like a good age. Such as 17 or 27. But we shall see what life has in storage.
Make today count!
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