Bucharest…we meet again!
It started at 5:30 am on a Thursday. I could not sleep the whole night — the enthusiasm of seeing Bucharest again after 1 year made me agitated and eager. I gently opened my eyes and I saw the red light creeping inside my room. I got out of bed and looked at the sun — the sky seemed to be on fire, the sun was making a powerful statement that morning. Half sleepy, in an impulsive moment, I took my camera and went outside to try and immortalize the moment. I simply had to, I felt the need to.
“Hmmm…this is the beginning of an interesting trip” I said to myself.
After the whole picture-sunrise-fire fiasco I got dressed, did my luggage and ate something. The bus was leaving at 7:45 am and as always I managed to get there pretty early. Suddenly it started to rain but it was a different kind of rain — a summer, mild, warm, cozy kind. In the bus, I found a place at the window and promised myself that this 4 days I will cut off the technology completely from my life. I needed rest, a break from some things and I was craving a real connection with a place or a person. So, no looking at the phone, no Internet, nothing (it did not go as I planned but most of the time I managed to stay offline).
As I was looking outside the window, things seemed different this time. The grass was greener, the sun was so beautiful, the sky crystal clear. The whole picture was a wonder for the eyes and I started asking myself — Why now? Why didn’t I see this before? My eyes were glued to the window and for a moment I blacked out and took it all in. It was overwhelming and I still get goose bumps when I think about that moment.
After 5 hours, around 1 pm, I was out of the bus and back on the good streets of Bucharest. Do you know that feeling — when you leave a place for a longer period of time and when you return something is different, it makes you feel better? Maybe it is because you grow up or maybe you start to see things from another perspective and when you are back you look at other things, things that make you happy.
The first surprise Bucharest had in store for me was the following : as I was walking in search of a pharmacy, suddenly I saw the most overwhelming “picture” (see below). There are no words to describe the cocktail of emotions that I experienced. I never saw, until then, such a strong bounding and devotion between two beings.
Afterwards, I met up with a friend and we went to Seneca AntiCafe — a place where you pay the time you spend there (1.78 euros — 1 hour). A quiet place, where you can enjoy a cup of tea, read a book, play a board game, relax or work. If you happen to be in Bucharest, I recommend you to try it out.
We played Scrabble — outside it was a little bit rainy and the hot tea was accompanied by a really interesting conversation. I always liked talking with people who wake up my brain cells and make me curious about a new subject.
(I will write a fragment of our conversation and I will try to be as accurate as I can):
“There’s this theory that words are powerful than actions and every word you put out there in the Universe is ultimately creating the output that you want. (…) You really have to read this book. It’s called ‘The game of life’. There is an example there with a woman who saw a wonderful and really expensive set of bed covers. When she told a friend that she is thinking about buying it, he replied to her that she presently does not have a permanent home therefore it is pointless to have such an expensive thing. She took this as a dare and bought the covers the next day. After this, she received a phone call from a realtor who informed her that she got the apartment she really wanted (it was really hard to get it). And there are other examples like this one.”
(….)
“Kids, up until a certain age, do not know why something is good or not. They just act. That is why you must not scold them when they do something wrong to someone because they do not know the concept of empathy. You must show them how they should act in certain situations, thus developing the empathetic side.”
The next day I went out to take some pictures and see how my Bucharest has changed in a year. Surprisingly, most of the things were still there as I remembered them. The nice Paul bakery, the Cismigiu park, the streets full of people. But the city offered me some new things as well — as I looked up I saw the old buildings and for the first time I observed that the old and the new are coming together in the same place, that the charm is actually given by the old parts that are still intact.
As we were walking, I spotted a sign in a garden. There was a place (like many others), a cafe hidden in the back of a building. We decided to go for a coffee because we were pretty tired but the sky played the main part in this decision — it got really grey and full of rain.
Saturday it was rainy so I decided to stay inside until late in the afternoon, talking with the girls and watching movies. I met up with a dear friend and we cooked dinner together (biryani rice with broccoli— delicious), enjoyed a good bottle of wine and had a really interesting talk.
I enjoy talking with her because I always find out something new and she gives me such a nice energy. From everything that we talked about, the following theory still lingers in my mind:
“Think about the following scenario: you go back in time and kill your grandfather. If you do so, you are actually never born therefore you cannot exist in the present when he is killed. So who killed the grandfather?”
“Well, I went back, killed him and I stopped existing in the future because another was born. But I killed him…right? And stopped existing.”
“Not quite. If you stop existing in the future, how could you have come back and kill him?”
And the discussion went on for a longer while making me question a lot of things.
The last day was pretty hot. We went shopping and enjoyed a really nice meal at a new restaurant called “Aubergine”, where the food is made from fresh ingredients. Foodie as I am and a fan of fresh food, I had to try it. It was really good and the bread was as any home made bread must be — really addictive (I would have eaten it continuously).
As I was coming home, I was thinking about what this short weekend meant for me. It changed me in the sense that I realized once again what I like, I do not have any regrets about the life I had build for myself and it opened even more my appetite of travelling and meeting new people (considering the fact that I slept in 3 different places and I experienced different life styles). I was tired but fulfilled — it means something to just go and see places, to detach from things, to connect once again with yourself and with those around you, to offer a smile to a stranger, to help someone. I had the most amazing sun accompanying me back home on the road and the whole time I felt like I haven’t in a long while — at peace with myself.
