Făgăraș

When I was young, Santa Cruz was just a sleepy little surf town with a population somewhere between 30 and 40 thousand. That means it wasn't significantly larger than Făgăraș (population 34K) is today.
There's something very charming about Făgăraș (pronounced fuh-guh-rash) with its parks and cafes, its corner flower shops and marigold filled round-abouts. We go there at least twice a week for the meeting and grocery shopping. It's an easy drive—from our village you make a right turn onto National Road 1 and stay on that for 18 km. Easy.
In addition to the farmers market, grocery stores, and the Kingdom Hall, they have a number of second-hand places, such as the one where Joe found his $1 bike jersey and I found a fantastically funky Italian-made wool blazer for $5. Donna Pitts, you'd be proud.
On most weekends there's some event or other going on. Throughout July and August there were classic car shows, multiple open-air concerts, and a fair with local food producers, craftsmen, and performers. Of course we missed all of these weekend events because we were busy with some activity or other, but it's nice to know they exist. Maybe next summer we'll make it to one of them.
There's one big permanent feature—the fortress—and after two failed attempts, we were finally able to visit it while my parents and sister were here.
It's much smaller than Alba Iulia so we assumed the tour would take 20 minutes but to our surprise, we were there for over an hour. We could have stayed longer but we were extremely hungry so we rushed through the end then took ourselves off to lunch.
Below are some (actually many) photos of the fortress and the city of Făgăraș through the summer.

If you're reading this from the U.S, there probably aren't any buildings around you that are as old as the Făgăraș fortress, but maybe there's a place or two that has some local historical importance. If you've got time this week, why not visit one and imagine what daily life was like for people decades or even centuries ago. It's a chance to contemplate what things were better in the past and what things are better now. Personally I dislike modern light pollution but I'm a huge fan of potable water. What are your thoughts?

Thank you for reading.
Be well.

September's end

The last days of September were a busy time in Viștea de jos. We started off with a couple of day trips to Brașov and the ASTRA village museum near Sibiu. The ASTRA museum is an open air museum which showcases traditional Romanian houses, churches, workshops, and other buildings from

Familia mea

After 30 years of waiting, my sister finally visited Romania. In all fairness to her, she's not a long-distance traveling enthusiast, and as anyone who's ever traveled to Eastern Europe knows, there is no quick and easy way to get here. So I understand why

The greenhouse

As if last week's work of jarring food and cleaning Silviu's kitchen wasn't enough, we also built the greenhouse. So that it doesn't sound too dramatic, I should say that about a month ago a crew came and laid the foundation so

Zacuscă

Before each trip to Craiova, we eat all of the fruits and vegetables in the kitchen so we don't return home to bunch of spoiled food. Since the south of the country grows especially tasty produce, on the drive back home we stop at the roadside stands to

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September's end

Familia mea

The greenhouse

Zacuscă