Rainbow Child

Don’t have them, don’t understand the concept. I’ve spent this weekend with his little sister and it was great. We went out drinking, eating, we ended up at a klezmer music concert (great music, btw!) and, all in all, we had a great time together, just as it happened with his twin sister in Paris.

But the more I think about this brother-sister relationship, the more I don’t understand it. I know it’s some sort of parent-child thing, only cooler, but it still puzzles me. I am an only child and I was raised like one: I got to eat the whole bar of chocolate, I got to play with all the toys, I was grounded for every stupid thing I did. I have no idea what it means to share a room with someone, to take someone’s side out of brotherly care etc. I don’t know what it means to worry about someone who is travelling by plane and I have no idea how it feels to spend time with your siblings after months of being apart.

Yes, I have a family and, yes, I care about *almost* all of its members but except for my parents I don’t feel like there is any special bond connecting me to them. I have learned to accept them the way they are but I still judge them from time to time (not out loud, though) and we see each other for Christmas, Easter and a couple of times during the summer holiday. No big love between us, no real bonds.

I don’t regret not having siblings – hell, I’m glad I’m alone, spoiled and egotistic but sometimes I would like to know how it feels to care for someone not because you are great friends or because they are your parents but because you’ve shared so many things together, so many memories, because they were grounded because of you or because they wanted to save you, because you were fighting over the same bar of chocolate.

Siblings – strange creatures

Tomorrow we’re leaving for Athens. See you in a week!

I’ve always wanted to visit Braşov. I’ve been there once, but it doesn’t really count: it was raining like hell, it was cold and ugly outside and my main reason for being there was a book fair so I spent most of my time there at the fair. But everyone who has ever visited Braşov told me it’s a lovely city and I’ve been wanting to visit it again ever since, so this weekend we had a 1-day trip there.

We had no idea what we wanted to see/visit, but like always, we just walked around wherever we thought it would be nice and tried not to be your typical tourists. I wanted to see their Cărtureşti and at one point as we were walking around the city centre we just realised we were standing outside it! I totally love how it looks! I think my holidays in Baia Mare would be considerably less boring if we had such a bookstore there. Well, one can only hope.

The city itself is incredibly nice. I like it better than Sibiu and I think I also like it better than Timişoara, which is something! I think that Braşov has more old parts than Timişoara and it’s closer to Bucharest, which is a big plus if I ever want to move somewhere else

I don’t mind that not all the houses are renovated, quite the contrary. I daydream about living in one of those old houses with big windows. I think everyone who’s living in a communistic block dreams of moving out at one point. I’m so sick and tired of these ugly buildings! It’s always a breath of fresh air to walk around street or cities that don’t have this communistic architecture. I could move to another city just for its architecture.

But until then I’d better make my days here as colourful as possible

Viruses. Apart from the fact that my laptop is quite old for a laptop, it was full of viruses. It took him about 3 days to make it work again, not because it was that bad, but because we share the same great quality: laziness. Sometimes I think I’d be way better off without wasting so much time on the Internet, but I can’t stop. So whenever I’m forced to take a break I feel it’s like a breath of fresh air. Of course, the break can’t be too long.

Another communication problem that I’m having is phone-related. Yes, I hate talking on my mobile phone. I know, I almost never answer it, but at least I reply to the text messages I receive! The thing that drives me crazy is that I’ve changed my number and now I have a pre-paid number. It’s awful! No more messages to people who are using a different mobile network. Now I have to call them, the horror!!! I feel so limited… Up until now I didn’t want to talk on the phone, now I am obliged to do that if I want to communicate.

But on the other hand, it feels good knowing that just a couple of people have my new phone number. I somehow feel safe. From what, I don’t know, but I’m kinda starting to like this new situation.

I hate flying. I totally hate the feeling I have when the plane goes up, I hate the panic attacks I have when the plane moves while flying, I hate the bumpy landings. I hate everything about it! Other than that, what a great thing to be able to travel thousands of kilometers in such a short time!

We arrived in Paris around 3 o’clock in the afternoon and by 5 we were walking around the city. His sister is sooo nice! She found a place for us to stay there, she cooked for us, she was our guide, yeah, she was great!  Of course, she would have liked us to stay longer, to visit more places, to do more stuff, but maybe next time. Three and a half days were exactly the time we needed to walk around Paris and take pics with all the cameras we own (the digital ones + the film ones = 7 cameras).

On our first afternoon there we walked around the Latin quarter and Notre Dame. Whenever I’m visiting a foreign city I’m amazed of how good it looks. Most of the cities here are horrible: the big communistic blocks, ugly shops, cars parked everywhere, people dressed like they’re going to a funeral. It’s horrible! Being abroad is like a breath of fresh air and also like a punch in the face: you realise you’ve been cursed to live in such an ugly country and that no matter how much you hope things will change one day, deep down you know they won’t and you’ll grow old looking at the same shitty buildings, bumping into the same angry people.

But there everything is quaint: from the cosy restaurants to their old bikes scattered around the city. There was always something new to discover, some nice flowers in a window, a beautiful lady with a colourful scarf, the fact that the drivers respect the bikers and don’t honk at them to pedal faster, in other words – civilisation.

I could have walked aimlessly for hours and I still wouldn’t have got enough of it. I know it’s not good comparing what you have with what you could have, but being there made me not want to come back ever again.