The beautiful autumn has turned into the real autumn!
That mix of summer and autumn, with clear skies and sunshine, mild temperatures... that is, the most pleasant part of the four-season year, is over. At least for now.
Now we finally have rain! I'm so glad it's raining. Many of my fellow citizens in the big city are not at all happy when it rains. The traffic is explosive when it rains... City dwellers are not the best friends with rain.
I, who grew up in the country, know the importance of rain for nature, for the land, and for plants. In my little backyard, the ground is rock-hard after a summer of no rain. I had a hard time digging a small hole to plant anything...
It's finally raining!
It's good for the city too and now I'm not only thinking about the green part but also the dust-covered streets and buildings. A good rain washes and washes away even the bricks in the houses and walls.
For me, autumn rain is a source of nostalgia, especially after the years of my youth when just walking in the rain helped me get over the many sorrows and disappointments... typical of adolescence!
This walk, which I will gladly share here in this #WednesdayWalk community gathered and shepherded by our friend @tattoodjay, is a walk under a gentle November rain in Bucharest, Romania, so South-East Europe.
The weekly walk, always the same takes place through the city center so that, we (meaning my wife and me) who live in the suburbs don't forget that we belong to a big and lively city.
The Old Town, the Old Center is my favorite place. The most beautiful street, in my opinion, Victory Avenue and CEC Palace are almost always the zero point from where the beautiful part of the walk starts (not to mention how we teleported here from our house).
As you can probably see from the picture above, the inhabitants of Bucharest are suicidal crossing in forbidden places and when the traffic light is green for cars. Actually, they are not suicidal, they are irresponsible and think they are interesting if they don't respect rules and laws. Unfortunately, there's not really anyone to tell them they're doing something wrong...
I forgot to mention that this weekly walk is not accidental, it has at least two well-defined goals. The first target is the wife visiting a monastery.
While my wife is at the monastery I can watch the streets empty because of the rain.
I don't think pigeons like rain either, although I have often seen them bathing in small puddles of water collected from the rain. In any case, on this occasion, they became masters of the pavement.
The second goal of these walks is coffee and it's the one that gets me out of the house. The little cafe nearby, on Academy Street, behind the National Bank.
I feel a guilty but still insensitive pleasure looking at the people ghostly walking on the pavement in the pouring rain.
Crossing University Square in the rain...
Well, coffee was plentiful and good but, we had to leave for home eventually. The walk to the metro station took us through University Square. I haven't seen it in a long time in the rain, probably since spring.
As in any self-respecting central square, there are a few statues of historical personalities of the country in the University Square. Here, the statue of Michael the Brave is the most representative, Michael the Brave was the first ruler, adventurer, and commander of armies who achieved the union of the Romanian countries (for a short time) in 1600.
But something else happened here. There was also an outdoor exhibition: Celebration of the 25th U.S.- Romania Strategic Partnership.
This is an extremely important partnership for my country and offers us an "umbrella", if it rains now, of protection in these moments of Russia's desired expansion. Russia is very close to Romania, geographically speaking.
I have visited, i.e. walked among these panels, several times in sunny weather. Now only this "guru" seems interested in doing the same, protected by an umbrella...
Finally, I'm leaving the square, the statue, the exhibition, and the rain...
... and we landed in the subway. The downtown subway is modern and pleasant, but I had to take the second subway, which also goes to the suburb where I live. Because young people in the suburbs don't really know what civilization means, the oldest trains run on this line, they must be fifty years old. The young people I mentioned used to write and "draw" on everything they catch, usually in bad taste. I did find something that can be shown through.
Now I have to give credit for the title of the post, inspired by a gorgeous song you can listen to here, of course, November Rain by Guns N'Roses!
Traveler to the city where I live is what I've been doing for many years, that is, I try to show what is more interesting, more important, and not necessarily what is more beautiful in the city where I live. I don't bypass the ugly places or the sometimes uncivilized behavior that I try to explain through the history of these places but I focus especially on what I think a visitor would like to see when he arrives for the first time in Bucharest. Bucharest, the capital of Romania, a member country of the EU, is located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeast Europe. I'm going to use this tag #traveltomycity and then put these places on the Pinmapple map for those who want to discover them more easily!
