The Budapest – Bucharest saga. New episode.
I don’t know if many people think they’re in Bucharest when they’re in Budapest, but for sure the one or the other music star made the opening with a joyous “hello Budapest” when concerting in Bucharest. There seems to be a magic attraction to confusing the names, for whatever reasons.
But to travel to one place instead of the other (there are, after all, 821km between them), that was unheard of. Till now.
“MORE THAN 400 supporters of Athletic Bilbao were left feeling, well, rather stupid in the middle of the week after ending up in Hungary to watch the Europa League final.
The match was taking place in Romania.”
Read the whole story here. And watch out when booking your tickets.
Thanks to M. for the link.
P.S. it was a wonderful final. But about that on another occasion.
Cycling in the Carpathian Mountains
“Pushing through a damp, flower-decked meadow on the hilltop, we reach the edge of a narrow valley filled with giant bog rhubarb. Before he plunges down into it Nelu, the hunter, turns to me with a grin: “In this vegetation, the bears can just pop up – right in front of you!”
I am wishing that I had changed out of my cycling gear. These shoes have no grip and the shorts are much too tight for escape manoeuvres.
How did this happen, I ask myself, as I follow Nelu into the tall, spiky vegetation. Only an hour ago I was on a cycle tour in the Romanian mountains – now, fired up with plum brandy, I’m chasing bears through a landscape that could only be dreamed up by the Brothers Grimm: steep-sided hills covered in flowers, deep gorges and dark brooding forests.”
Kevin Rushby is the Guardian’s “Grumpy Green columnist” and has very recently cycled through Romania’s remote mountains. Read his full story here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2012/mar/30/kevin-rushby-cycling-remote-romania
Thanks V. for the reference!
Sighisoara’s got the Blues. Festival.
Sighisoara – Transylvania – Romania – February 23-25, one of the most underrated music festivals in Europe. The setting can hardly be more picturesque,
it’s off-season so the 400 years old walls of the medieval citadel may show themselves from their vulnerable side,
and the music…
Check it out here,
or here.
The festival website is here.
Enjoy, ye lucky ones who can attend.
Queen of the Seven Volcanos
Crina Coco Popescu - photo: celmaisus.ro
“Romanian Crina ‘Coco’ Popescu, 16, has become “the world’s youngest climber and the first woman worldwide to have ended the Seven Volcanoes circuit – climbing the highest volcanoes on seven continents – after having climbed Mount Sidley (4,285 metres) in Antarctica on Jan. 24.
Born in Rasnov, Brasov County (a mountainous area in central Romania) Crina Popescu has been doing mountain escalations since the age of 6, alongside her father. Coco was named athlete of the year by the Romanian Federation of Mountaineering and Climbing. She climbed in 2010 no less than four of the globe’s peaks as part of the Seven Volcanoes and Seven Summits circuits – the volcanoes Giluwe in Papua and Pico de Orizaba in Mexico and the highest mountains in Oceania and North America: Carstensz Pyramid and McKinley, respectively.” (source: TEDx Bucharest)
Read about her last climb in Antarctica here on worldrecordsacademy.org.
You can follow her on her blog.
Contratulations Crina!
Anti-Romanian Superbowl ad
Is someone gonna sue those guys from Audi for this overtly anti-Romanian intimidation campaign?
Born to win, played to charm
“I was born to win, not to exist.”
Happy birthday, Gheorghe Hagi!
The Analyst, with Capital A
Horațiu Dediu (Horace for the pronounciation-challenged), a Romanian blogger, was named the world’s best analyst covering Apple for the second consecutive year, topping legions of investment bankers wrestling with the subject every day.
““Public information to me are secrets in plain sight”, Apple analyst and Asymco.com blogger Horace Dediu told me last week. “Private information on the other hand has no insights and can also lead to wrong deductions.” I am pretty sure many on Wall Street would disagree. Then again, Dediu couldn’t be further away from Wall Street, despite having being called the most accurate analyst covering Apple by Bloomberg.”
All yer Techies and Followers Of The Big Bitten are welcome to read the full commentary quoted above on Gigaom.com here and the article on Bloomberg here.
Thanks A. for the link.
From the natural world
A Romanian photo was selected among the best 50 photos from the natural world by boston.com. It shows a bird in flight over a Danube Delta canal. (UNESCO world heritage landscape)
Congratulations, Daniel Mihăilescu!
The entire series is worth a look. Or more. Here – enjoy. And thanks V. for the link.
First Knight
George Iacobescu is the first Romanian Sir.
“Romanian businessman George Iacobescu, president and executive director of the Canary Wharf has been named a Knight Bachelor in UK, according to Romania’s Embassy to London. The has been given the title for contribution to charity, to the community and the financial services industry. He is the first Romanian who has received such a title from Queen Elisabeth the II-nd. It allows Iacobescu to use the noble title Sir.”
The whole article here. (Thanks to V. for the link). An interview from 2008 with the Canary Wharf boss here.
Frosty Christmas at the ice hotel
We wish you a merry Christmas, cold outside, but warm at heart!
On that note, BBC just announced the opening of Romania’s first ice hotel, on Christmas Day. It’s located at Bâlea Lac, a superb glaciar lake at 2000m above sea level in the heart of the Carpathian Mountains, around midway through the Transfăgărășan, the road Top Gear gents named the best driving road in the world. Nowadays however the lake and the road are invisible under meters of snow[boarding paradise].
50 courageous Brits already reserved a spot, a wedding is announced.
The short BBC report here. The tripadvisor page for the ice hotel is here. More details on the ice hotel, here. Finally, breathtaking Bâlea Lac in images, here.
Have fun folks, enjoy the holidays and have a good slide (literally) into the New Year!
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