Samstag

A real spring day in Ploiesti today. Home alone, the gentleman had to go to work. So for me, nothing better to do than housechores. What I miss for today is a place like MuseumsQuartier to go and have breakfast till late in the afternoon, or just hang around, having a drink, having a chat, watching the children.

What both Ploiesti and Bucharest still miss, is the tradition of living & eating in the streets. I found this again in Wien, after missing it from back home in Novi Sad, or even in Belgrade. A public space, where you can simply be oblivious, leaving behind the worries of the day, the wrinkles on your forehead, let alone the files, the emails, the computer.

I still cannot figure this out, how Romanians lost the tradition, along with the desire, to take on to the streets. Maybe 50 years of comunism forcing them to hide in fear behind the walls of the houses take their toll. Many times I wonder where the glamour of the Petit Paris, as Bucharest was dubbed between the two World Wars, has gone. I am not particularly fond of that image, but nevertheless I have to admit that it has a certain flavour. Nowadays, what is left of that is just ruins, silent witnesses of a past glory, crushed down in decay at this restless beginning of the 21st century.

For fresh pictures from Bucharest, please visit Frau Novala's http://sodazitron.blogger.de/ .