Bulgaria

For my mother's 80th birthday we went to Bulgaria and visited a couple of resorts on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast.

1-Golden Sands
Hotel Astera, where we stayed

Other imagines from the resort

Doesn't she look great?

2-Balchik...

... is a Black Sea costal town, renowned for its Palace and Botanical Garden.

During Romanian's administration(1913-1940) was the favourite summer residence of Queen Maria of Romania (born in 1875, Eastwell, Kent - died in 1938 at Sinaia -buried at Curtea de Arges Monastire).

In accordance with her last whishes, here was kept her hart until 1940 when the region went back to Bulgaria, then moved to Bran Castle.

Oltenia

This week together with Adi, I was visiting another region of Romania, named Oltenia. Nice, we passed through small towns (Horezu, the capital of Romanian pottery, or Motru, known for its coal mines), charming villages (Hobita, the birthplace of Constantin Brancusi, the father of modern sculpture, see in picture#1 the house where he grew up), peaceful monasteries (Tismana) or wild landscapes like Dealul Negru.

Then we went to Targu Jiu and visited the ensemble of Brancusi's

sculptures - The Endless Column, Table of Silence, Alley of Stools and The Gate of Kiss -

a memorial for fallen heroes in World War I .

I'v seen many of his sculptures in museums from New York and Philadelphia like Bird in Space, The Prayer or Mademoiselle Pogany (the one thet I like the best) , but these in open air are very impressive and actually are considered the apex of his artistic career. He died in 1957 (the year that Adi was born), at 81 years old, leaving over 200 sculptures. His work is appreciated word wide and sold at record prices - for example Madame L.R. was sold at an auction for $37mil.

Corina, do you recognize who is near The Endless Column?

The Gate of Kiss....

Only in front of Michelangelo's David I've stayed so long as I've stayed on a stool at The Table of Silence!

Happy B-day Sergiu!

Today Sergiu is turning16. Happy Birthday from all of us!

1.His new hairdo

-Corina how do you like it?

2. The cake- strawberries and coconut- yummy!!!!

3.The entire proud family...

Gheorghe Munteanu - Murgoci (1872-1925)

Yesterday, toghether with Nana, I was visiting Braila, (hers and my father's birthplace) a town on Danube river banks.

Here I found out an interesting fact about our ancestry, that we are related through my father's mother (my grandmother) with the renowned Romanian geologist, Gh. Munteanu-Murgoci. He studied math and science at the Nicolae Balcescu High School, the same high school as my father did years later. Then, he studied geology and mineralogy at the University of Bucharest, where, in 1903 he became a professor, after he took his PH degree with "Magna cum laude" from University of Munich, Germany.

Alongside Nicolae Iorga or Vasile Parvan, he was one of the founders of South-Eastern European Institute in Bucharest.

Also, he was a member of the Romanian Academy.

He published many studies and books in this field: Sinteza geologica a Carpatilor Sudici, Cercetari Geologice in Dobrogea Nordica or Balta Dunarii to name a few.

Unfortunately, he died pretty young, at only 53 years old.

So, Corina, this is where we take our smarts! What say you?