What were the odds of that upgrade? It was only yesterday that I casually shared a photo showing snow in Braşov and told y’all how it had gone away without coming back so there hadn’t really been any snow for a while but then this run-on sentence just kept going until a near overload of ludicrousity (if that’s a word, which it might be…).

When I woke up this morning, I spent a minute or two debating whether I would only open one eye or two. Eventually, that shifted gears to general semantics like degree of openness and length of contiguous openinity (play along, now). Once the sleepies had been removed, I was surprised to find other out-of-focus, light-colored objects seeming to fall. Surely, it could not be snowing!

To my amazement, it was!

With the Revealing of the Kitchen, yesterday, it seemed natural today to go ahead and release the prequel: A New Home. While two colors, it is one building. A 2 story house with basement and attic. At an unknown point, the owner (post-communist, I believe) expanded by adding a very long structure which has its own attic and basement as well. Why? They wanted to outfit both sets of attics and basements into liveable areas, so they could artificially split the entire structure into several separate apartments.

That’s where I live. I rent the main floor of that right-hand addition. The off-white, creme colored section. You can see it has 5 windows and a big green door. It is pretty big inside with an entry room, comparatively large kitchen, large walk-in storage area (where the water heater is!), bathroom with jacuzzi-style tub, “huge” living room, and a big master bedroom. Half the apartment has a green faux-marble tiling, while the living room and bedroom have beautiful wood floors.

The attic above and basement below did not get complete renovations, so no one lives there. That gives me much desired latitude in playing music loudly. Plus, in Romania, the people are very much used to having noise from neighbors, which would make complaints very rare indeed (unlike US apartments, where people call the police about “disturbing the peace” if they can hear a fly crawling on your side of the wall). Hooray! I’m an audiophile.

Now, the other part of the building (tan/olive) is fully inhabited, I believe. I don’t go snooping around, but I see enough people coming and going. Plus I seem to recall the landlady mentioning something to that effect.

Yes, those are her garden gnomes on the grass. In the summer, she apparently had picnic tables and a barbeque grill on the lawn, so tenants could have outdoor parties. Not too shabby! There’s also a spot for parking a couple cars behind the gated entry (the “garage”). Three cars, if you’re really brave or desperate.

Otherwise, park outside on the street. As you walk out of the property — through the people gate, not the car garage gate — the street looks something like this (below). Left hand picture is what you see if you look left. And… well, make the calculation.

Let’s pretend you’re me for a moment. It’s time to pick up a couple items from nearby stores. You turn left and walk down to the end you see in the photo. Turn left again. One of the first things you see is this cute little “vegetable and fruit” store.

Alas, your attention is drawn a little further down the sidewalk where you see Laura looking smart, all decked out in her cute early-winter casual look.

She appears to be staring across the street. At what?

An ugly little store, which appears to be selling a combination of electrical christmas decorations, insurance products, and first aid kits (required by law to keep in your automobile). I’m not really certain what other mysteries await inside.

Distractions aside, we walk down the street just a bit and it opens into Piaţa Unirii. There are two main pieţe in Braşov and this is the lesser of the two, located in Poarta Schei. (The other is Piaţa Sfatului where all the expensive shops and restaurants are conveniently organized for tourists with American dollars, my friend.)

The small structure in the foreground is a very old community well. I might be crazy, but I am under the impression it was built in the 1600s. (Any readers know for certain? Let me know and I’ll make the correction.) The blacktop immediately surrounding the well is considered a “taxi station” (one of several spots in town where taxis congregate).

In the background is a very pretty building which I understand houses some apartments on the top floors. A local shopkeep mentioned she believes it owned by “The Church” (as they say). That info is not confirmed, however. On the bottom floor are two or three curious little shops. And, in the far, far background you can see Sfântul Nicolae church.

Mind-boggling, isn’t it? I find it completely stunning and will share more detailed photos of it in the future. Built in 1392 from wood, Sfântul Nicolae is the oldest Orthodox church in all of Romania. Various reconstructions and additions were undertaken in 1495, 1594, and 1739. Immediately adjacent to it is the very first Romanian school in history, established in 1495. (Note: with all the various empires controlling Transylvania throughout recorded history, this is the school to have first specifically taught in the Romanian language. And with knowledge, comes power.)

One last diddy for you. I read in one or two places that Romanians love their ice cream. Apparently that holds true even in the winter.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 15th, 2005 at 4:00 pm and is filed under Living. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.