Time passes so quickly that it seems hard to keep track of the clock. I remember when I was active and working, I used to measure the time between the days I got my paycheck. Now that I'm getting older and the needs have shrunk and I no longer measure time by the days when the money comes in. Now I count days (actually weeks) by the dates I have to post in certain communities of Hive.
Today is Wednesday again, so I have a walk to tell about. Lately, there have been a lot of issues that have caused me to put off walks, to put it mildly. The weather outside, the state of my health, the constraints due to the pandemic have caused my walks to sometimes be confused with some trips of necessity, such as visits to doctors or various state institutions.
The daily walks, for health reasons, are more on the streets of the neighborhood and are not very interesting. One weekly walk is on the occasion of my wife's attendance at her favorite church, and fortunately, it is a long way from our house. The first part of the trip we do by various means until we reach Victory Avenue, our favorite avenue in the city, which preserves many of the historic buildings, built 100 - 200 years ago.
This is a recurring walk, every Sunday, but I try to show the city from a different angle or perspective each time, in the hope of not boring our dear readers.
I most enjoy walks that have a purpose, in the sense of getting to a certain place and getting a reward. This time, I mean every time, the goal is for my wife to get to church and for me to go to a cafe afterward.
I start by showing you the place where we have to go, Stavropoleus Monastery, located in the Old Centre of Bucharest. My wife has no bad taste, the place is quite special. Yes, there is a monastery in the city center, a monastery where six nuns live and where the religious service is held by a famous priest, Father Marchis. Erudite and progressive but also conservative, as is required of a priest who must glorify the past.
Now let Wikipedia tell about the monastery because it knows better than me. This is for history buffs, otherwise, you can skip this part.
Stavropoleos Monastery (Romanian: Mănăstirea Stavropoleos), also known as Stavropoleos Church (Romanian: Biserica Stavropoleos) during the last century when the monastery was dissolved, is an Eastern Orthodox monastery for nuns in central Bucharest, Romania. Its church is built in Brâncovenesc style. The patrons of the church (the saints to whom the church is dedicated) are St. Archangels Michael and Gabriel. The name Stavropoleos is the genitive case of Stavropolis (Greek, "The city of the Cross"). One of the monastery's constant interests is Byzantine music, expressed through its choir and the largest collection of Byzantine music books in Romania.
The church was built in 1724, during the reign of Nicholas Mavrocordatos (Prince of Wallachia, 1719-1730), by the archimandrite Ioannikios Stratonikeas, a Greek monk from Pogoniani. Within the precinct of his inn, Ioannikios built the church, and a monastery which was economically sustained with the incomes from the inn (a relatively common situation in those times). In 1726 abbot Ioannikios was elected metropolitan of Stavropolis and exarch of Caria. Since then the monastery he built is named Stavropoleos, after the name of the old seat. On February 7, 1742, Ioannikios, aged 61, died and was buried in his church.
Following the recommendations made by 
I entered Victory Avenue and the first photo is of a small tree that has been adorned with leaves and tulips(!), probably an expression of hope and desire for spring to come as soon as possible.
Just fifty meters further down (i.e. towards Stavropoleus) is Saint Joseph Cathedral. But that is not what I want to report about now. I want to draw attention to the very tall building in front of the small cathedral. This building, a sort of skyscraper for Bucharest, was built very close to the cathedral and it was found that it can damage the resistance structure of the cathedral. A lawsuit was filed and an order to demolish the tower was obtained. That was ten years ago and nothing has happened since. This tall building has not even been demolished but neither can it be used as a company and office building.
This walk starts in the morning because my wife has to get to church by 10 a.m. and I like that. I really like walking this avenue in the morning because it is almost deserted.
I can then quietly admire my favorite buildings, such as the Odeon Theatre, of course also a copy of a theatre in Paris.
The Capsa confectionery, restaurant, and hotel, founded by Grigore Capsa, was first the confectionery in 1868 and the rest in 1886. The founder is the bearded one in the middle, he was a student of a famous Parisian pastry chef.
The restaurant is famous because the greatest artists, writers, and politicians of the period between the two world wars used to meet there.
We are already closer to the monastery, we have already entered the Old Centre of Bucharest. The place where most of the historical buildings can be seen. It is the most sought-after place by foreign tourists, both to admire the streets and buildings and because of the countless restaurants and terraces grouped here.
A few more steps and we reach Stavropoleus Monastery. Before that, we noticed a beautiful cat playing with a... carrot!
Looking up from the cat brings up an image I really like. We are on Stavropoleus street, immediately to the left is the church and in the background is one of my favorite buildings in Bucharest, namely the CEC Palace, built at the beginning of the last century.
The first part of the walk ended here. After everyone had had what they wanted, i.e. church festivities and coffee, we returned home along the same route. Already the boulevard is filling up with people arriving late for their walk. From this second part of the walk, I was left with the image of a small puppy being walked by a man.
The man with the dog was with a friend, I guess. What intrigued me and made me follow them all over Revolution Square was that the man never turned his head to see what his dog was doing.
I think the puppy was used to this treatment and was happy to go for a walk, even if his owner didn't mind.
This dog, as absorbed in his world as his owner was in conversation with his friend, was the novelty part of this week's walk. I hope next week I'll find something new.
I'll say it again and again, I've found that my main activity lately is... walking. Like all of you, I love to walk, but only now I have realized that walking has become my main mode of relaxation. Slowly, slowly overtaking the other pleasures I still have.
For #WednesdayWalk by