Iona

Sunday Best

Cismigiu Gardens Every time I visit this place, I feel the same. Maybe it’s because the elegant flower beds, the winding paths and the chatter of happy kids. Or maybe it’s the young lovers who paddle rowing boats, the skeletal old ladies who gossip on benches of battered

On Urban Utopias

see photos see movie On one of those buses there were comfortable sofas and a piano with a pianist playing Bizet or Vivaldi. On another such bus – trees, grass, a four-handed witch, and Little Red Riding Hood, while on the third bus, people were welcomed by a magician,

Uncommon Transport Or How Three Buses Were Detoured Directly To The Lane Of An Imaginary Realm

see photos see movie This summer, the Romanian Cultural Institute and the Ilotopie theater group proposed a new form of a public transportation line for Bucharesters: a transportation out of line! For almost a week, three buses belonging to the RATB public transportation

Festival Of Urban Art Architectural Projections

Press ReleaseSeptember 16, 2008 The Artmix Cultural Association (www. artmix. ro) announces the launch of the second Festival of Urban Art Architectural Projections, which will be held in the night of September 20, 2008 as of 10 PM in Constitution Square and University

Bucharest Days, A Popular Celebration

The inhabitants of Bucharest came out of their homes in great numbers last weekend to celebrate their city, on the anniversary of 549 years since its first being mentioned in a document. Over one hundred events, taking place in 30 locations, brought entertainment for every

Night Lights Light Nights Of Bucharest

Sometimes glowing colorfully in the dusk air, as doors of museums open up for late visitors, or, some other times, its dark sky flushed by lasers for white nights of entertainment, Bucharest often begins to live and breathe anew after sundown.  White NightsNow that the

Condemned To Noise

Newspapers have recently brought to us the information that Bucharest is one of the noisiest cities in Europe. When it comes to bad things, few people do a better job than us at reaching the superlative. As far as I am concerned, I did not need the press to identify the

Smells Of Bucharest

from left: rundown houses on Lipscani and Mosilor, Dimbovitza river from Hasdeu bridge, street in Cotroceni Bucharest smells exquisitely during the time of lindens and rain. Vigorously soaked for a half hour, the city heals even from the stenches that make you ill. Under

Bucharest – A Collection Of Smells

Photos by Dan Hayon excerpts My first adventure in the capital city, sometime in my early adolescence. Confusion and ecstasy, fear and the excitement of the unknown, as though in a foreign country where, strangely, everyone speaks my own language. A dizzying cocktail of

Sunday Morning. A Bourgeois Walk In A Post-Communist City

clockwise from top left: Smardan St. , Stavropoleos St. , Caru cu bere pub (2), Stavropoleos Church (3), Russian Church. Early Sunday morning before 10 A. M. , the city offers its first surprise. It is empty. The bare streets are visible in all their twisted length, without

Eastern Station

In those days they used to go to the Eastern Station, visiting some acquaintances: friends, as they might, after all, also have called them. Except that on this point, at least, Olga was right: they were not their friends; indeed, there was no way or time when they could

The Town Within The Town

Government Palace in Victoriei Sq. a fragment from the novel Derapaj (Skid), Iaşi, Polirom 2006 Maria’s life glowed with a murky sort of splendor, her past, though committed to oblivion, constantly closing in on her and obscuring her thoughts like the spots of a solar