Another afternoon

This time I took Stephan in the park near me, IOR. It was all sad and messed up because of the recent weather events. But nevertheless, there were a lot more people than I expected, and you’ll read soon about that. Uhmm….the weather was warm for a winter day and I can’t help to ask myself if this is normal. I mean, more than 10 degrees….

Anyways, we took a stroll, ate some popcorn and reached the lake. There were so many birds there, it looked like spring. People with small kids, people jogging, teenagers…. You name it. And people in love, holding hands . Kind of sad actually, this last category, made me think of stuff….

We left the lake and as we were walking, Stephan was talking to his best buddy, Adi, on the phone. My phone, cause I have minutes . We climbed some stairs to reach back to normal level and then I saw them. 3 guys sitting on a bench. Radu (with whom I haven’t talked in ages), his best friend Alex (with whom I still talk and hang out) and another guy, Ciprian. Well, I must admit that it was weird. Stephan was walking to a side because he saw me waving to Alex so he left me there to talk. Actually, I talked only to Alex. He was like…ashamed, cause they were 3 and I was one and it was kind of weird, cause Alex knew who was Stephan and I think Radu realized too….Messed up thing, but friends know what I am talking about.;) And yeah, the talk was short and then I left. No word to Radu, just a glimpse or two, but he seemed pretty ignorant and defensive so I left him at it. Stephan didn’t even notice him and when I told him, he was like “What, that ugly dude?”. So yeah, weird. Odd. Although my heart was pounding and I could barely mumble some words to Alex, I know that probably I won’t talk to Radu ever again. No feelings left, no anything.

Below some pictures of the lake.

New Year’s

This is my first post in 2010 and I have no idea what to write. My mind must be either blank (which is not the case, so we’ll just drop that) or is so full that I don’t know what to write first (partially true, cause I’m not going to start telling you folks everything that’s going on in my head). So it must be something in between.

I haven’t done much since my last post. Oh wait. I did. I WON 2000 RON at this photography contest by L’Oreal Romania. And I actually got the money, believe it or not. My dad was quite skeptical about it, like he always is. I was patient enough, and on Christmas day I checked my account and the money were there. Perfect present I might say. Other than that, can’t say I took any special photos.

Below are some of my attempts of getting some good shots on New Year’s Eve party. We went at one of my best friend’s friend, who had this apartment somewhere near. It was ok, but it could have been better. Stephan wasn’t there, his best friend wasn’t there, not to many people I knew very well, etc. We didn’t know what music to play in order to get people to dance. A lot of food was left behind, not to mention drinks, ice-cream cake (!?!) and cookies. But at least I spent the night taking pictures and that’s fine with me.

The only thing that bugged me was the light. They turned it off, left only 3 lights on and they put this red cloth just to diffuse the light a bit. It turned out that I had to use my flash and most of the pictures look either too bright or too dark, because of me trying to set the flash to an appropriate value. And now, since I have got some money, I was thinking of buying an external flash for my camera. But first I need to learn how to work with what I’ve got. Enjoy the pictures and I expect some feedback. Criticism. Anything.

Afternoon with Stephan :)

Well, this was an interesting afternoon… Although I expected to stay no longer than one hour, I ended up leaving after 2 and a half. The company was too pleasant to leave.

I also had the opportunity to shoot the main river crossing Bucharest, during the afternoon and night. The lights were amazing to watch but a pain in the ass when I was supposed to take pictures. I had to give up my camera to Stephan at some point, cause he was keen on showing his talent…. Oh well, let’s just say he’s a novice. My camera wasn’t able to focus a couple of times and that drove him (and me) nuts after a while…. Not to mention that I didn’t have my tripod. And once night fell, it was getting difficult. It was as if my camera knew we had problems and when we least expected the battery was gone. But took some pictures just to fulfill my need for photography and his to be a model for a day.

He is handsome, isn’t he, cousin? He, he…..

Free shoot part 2

Here we were, shooting again like crazy blokes. This time it was in the IOR park nearby… I must say, I haven’t seen so many brides in one park before. It looked like a jar with brides and grooms was cracked in the middle of the park I am sure that they could have found something more beautiful, but I guess it was their choice.

Anyways, we were hoping to shoot more portraits. We did, but only by swapping our cameras/lenses and taking pictures of ourselves. I was pretty amazed at what my lenses could do. I didn’t expect some of the results, that’s for sure. We even photographed this vertical leaf. The poor leaf was kind of raped by our lenses

To sum up, two awesome days. My cousin left this morning. Pictures below.

Free shoot part 1

Well….yeah. A lot of pictures taken yesterday. I can definitely say that it was fun. I went with my cousin in the city and decided to shoot anything and anyone (if possible). From cats to dogs, cars to motorcycles, rusty cars to new cars, big cars to small cars (the TNT car and its reflection was my idea, it kinda looked funny), from day till night fall….it was great.

We met at 4 and ended up coming home at half past 9. I bet anything that he slept as comfortable as I did. We started from Piata Victoriei and ended up at Casa Poporului. I know it might sound like cliche spots to take photographs, but I think in the end it turned out pretty neat and special. We were waiting for night to fall, most of all, but we managed to take some pics at sunset too. I love the ones with the leaves most. I have a soft spot for autumn leaves, what can I do? We found this rusty car, all worn out and abandoned, so we immediately jumped on it. Not actually jump on it, but….yeah. At some point, I forgot to re-set my camera’s settings and those cool pictures with the leaves came out.

I had to take my tripod with me, cause we were longing for some long exposures. At Pasajul Victoriei we were kind of sad cause the cars wouldn’t come by at some point and we needed a lot of movement in the picture. Anyway, we waited and took some shots. At Casa Poporului we even got some attention from the police but in the end it was ok. I even thought we would get arrested or something, but the policewoman was really nice. She even laughed when she saw we were only taking some pictures of the building. My attempts at HDR failed miserably, as you can see in the last picture. I mean, it doesn’t look anywhere near an HDR… Ah well, at least I’m satisfied. Tomorrow we’ll try some portraits.

P.s. My shoulder hurts. A lot. Thank God that I have a smaller camera than my cousin’s. But I guess it’s the tripod’s fault.

Renault roadshow

It was nothing as surprising as I thought it would be. Being a F1 fan, not necessarily of Renault, I was anxious to see the cars. Indeed they all looked fast and furious, but in the 20 minutes or so that I managed to stay put, I didn’t see so much action. Some ‘donuts’ and that’s it. Not to mention about the marketing aspect, when some Renault city cars appeared on the track. I mean, common, how lame is that?

I was accompanied by three boys, if  you can imagine. We left one there to keep watching the show and me, together with Stefan and his best buddy, went for some shopping. I must say, it’s been an awesome day. It was very great fun to shop with these guys, especially since I wasn’t looking for anything and I didn’t have money either, so I just sticked to giving advice here and there and opinions most of the time We laughed a lot and they laughed at me most of the time. Unfortunately, the weather sucked big time, mainly due to the damn wind.

Otherwise, awesome time spent with the guys. It’s kinda freaky actually, to get along so well with them. And none of them being my boyfriend. Yet….

P.s. Took the wrong lens from home, too. But the pictures are lame anyway.

Barbecue time

Since is almost the end of the holidays, a friend of mine decided to have a barbecue at her place. She lives in Dragomiresti, close to Bucharest. She’s a mutual friend of mine’s and my best friend’s. We got there on time, although we had to switch from subway to maxi-taxi It was quite the experience to leave the city, even if it was for a couple of kilometers. We were four of us, cause we also took Alex and Cami, a couple me and Anca are proud to have been part of uniting. So the time spent on the road was fun, also because we began to play Fazan Children’s game, I know, but we couldn’t help it.

Anyways, like I said, we were there on time and our host, Cristina, was super mega hyper happy to see us there first. We got first to open the bottles Kidding, I at least, didn’t touch the alcohol and neither my friends. You never know when you need to drive back home.

People started to show up like half an hour later, mainly because some of our friends got lost on their way. They were driving their own cars and it was difficult cause I don’t think they’ve been to Cristina’s house with their cars before. Once these 2 couples arrived, the boys started setting up the fire and such. I must say, kuddos for them, they spent 3 hours without even sitting, just to get the barbecue done. Of course, we had to buy TOO MUCH meat, cause it was obvious once they started to cook it. Luckily, the drinks were enough.

It was a great day, “mici” included, not to mention the great people around the table. Cheers for Cristina and her mom, and her wonderful house and whatever. I got home pretty easily, cause a friend drove us in her Fiat Punto. Nice car….  Hmm…. Pictures below and this time with top notch quality. Enjoy!

It’s been a long time…

Awww, I like the Hollywood-ian look of this picture. Yes, it’s been a while since I last saw the city of Brasov and yes, it’s been a while since you last heard from me.

Well, not pretty much going on, I guess, otherwise I would have been more active around here. I haven’t taken out my camera in a while and I’m ashamed of myself. There is little to photograph during the summer, unless you get to see some foreign land or go on specific photo shoots.

Yesterday I woke up at 5.30 a.m. just to get a train to Brasov and have my moment of peace and quiet. Actually, there was no peace and quiet during the trip, come to think of it. My dad wouldn’t let me go unless I had someone else with me in the train so I managed to corrupt two of my best friends into coming We had a blast on the train, playing cards and listening to music (MJ all the way lol). We were stuck in Comarnic for 40 minutes so we were late.

I was supposed to meet my ex, Stefan, at the train station in Brasov, but he couldn’t wake up on time. Geez… So we decided to go and eat something near Piata Sfatului, the central square of the city. I was finally going to see him after a long time, 6 months to be more exact, time during which we kept talking and stuff. Actually, during the last few weeks, it wasn’t a day in which we didn’t chat. And I suddenly felt the need to see his face again. Don’t know why yet. So here I was. The girls and I split, so that I could chat with him alone. Turned out that he had made an appointment at this hairdresser’s and we went there and I got a new haircut. Short one. It was such a feeling to give up all that hair, I tell you. But I guess I needed the change. It was becoming a bother to wash so it is a new beginning for me.

I had a great time until 5, when we had the return train. The girls loved the new me and Stefan was even proud of himself . All in all, lovely trip and I MUST say this: I wish I had more courage and I wish we had more time….

Photos below, taken with 5MP camera on my mobile phone.

Souvenir…se souvenir

Can’t really say this is an artistic picture. Just wanted to share with you my souvenirs from the trip.

So, there are those 2 books, “A brief history of Britain’s kings and queens” and “Les trois musquetaires”. Some Skittles left in there….(if you find some around Europe, think of me and buy some for me too:P). I love London key chain. Paris bracelet. An iPod silicon protection (the iPod itself is not a souvenir but I recommend it for those of you who want to make an investment…). A Swatch watch. A “mind the gap” teddy bear key chain. And of course, Bertie Botts every flavour beans. Still have some of those. Dad ran into a chilli flavoured one, so I don’t expect to run out of beans any time soon.

On another subject, yours truly got her driving licence today. After many months of turmoil, I can say. Luckily, I got it from my first attempt, otherwise I would have had to start all over again, with the studying and such. The policeman who supervised me was super cool and really gave us a chance to prove what we knew. I was witness for two guys and believe me, no one was born with the driving skill in their blood. So for all the girls out there, men aren’t so good as they say.

Super extra happy.

Day 11 – Paris, Versailles

Last day of the trip. Couldn’t believe it was actually there.

First of all, we got to see a Pantheon in the middle of Paris. It looked pretty Roman to me, nothing to do with the city itself. It was like, from another world. Anyway, it had this pendulum in the middle, which shows the exact hour, depending on the meridian it is situated. It showed the people from the past that the Earth is moving. Cool.

We saw the University of Sorbonne, from the outside, because the school year was over so we couldn’t go inside just like that. Nothing interesting, I was expecting something more thrilling.

The driver really took his time in finding a place where to park the coach, near the Notre Dame. Finally, he managed to, and we could arrive in time to witness mass and to visit the cathedral. Lots of Romanian gipsies, of course. The cathedral is pretty impressive on the inside, something I really didn’t suspect, if you were to look at the outside.

We left Paris and headed for Versailles. I myself am a fan of the French monarchs of the past, including all the Ludovics, although I am not at all pleased with their way of living (like, they brought their lovers at the same table with their wife!!!) so I was a bit anxious to get there. To see the palace where these people ruled in luxury and had no worry in the entire world. We stood for an hour in line to get tickets. I got a free entrance (oh, the advantage of being young, many from our group said that they arrived too late in France ) so I didn’t mind it too much. The Palace was cool on the inside, but again too many people, especially my “friends” the Chinese. We didn’t have time to see the Gardens of Versailles too, but I managed to get some shots from inside the Palace. It was an amazing view, better than the one from the ground I suppose.

All in all, great day and thank God it was the last.

Conclusions: Never again I’m going on a trip like this with my parents, mainly because we can’t cope with each other for so much time. No offense, I love them, but I simply can’t stand their problems for so many days in a row. So we agreed on never to do this again unless necessary. Also, next time I’ll try to visit places outside the peak periods. Too many people in England and France that could be avoided if going there in fall, winter or spring. The group wasn’t too united, we were too many I guess, too varied in age and personality. I agree to the fact that we can’t choose who we go with, but still…. I missed my people, if you know what I mean. Of course, the girls were okay, but they weren’t that talkative, we couldn’t exchange information pretty much, it was like conversation for the sake of conversation. I don’t need that. I need feeling. And they were too…. self-centered or whatever.

To wrap it up, it was okay but could have been better.