Sinaia reloaded: Vertigo and the lost Milka

I know that it took me too long to post new photos and that September in general has been a bit lazy, but the last days I was working heavily on creating two videos about the events in Domeniul Greaca (see previous posts).

The second day in Sinaia we decided to go high on the mountain and take the telegondola to take us even higher and see the world from 1400 meters. The telegondola (or teleferic) is that little box which travels upwards or downwards on a line. It's like those creepy chairs that the skiers use to go to the top, only that it's closed and it feels safer. Although still scary! But it was a huge relief to find it and finally sit after all this walking upwards. From around 500 meters that is the altitude of Sinaia, we walked to 1000 meters, following the road which is made for the cars. Long story short, it was quite tiring.

So, this is the line, this is the little pink box and I admit that it feels a bit creepy at first. Until you get down. Then you feel great again.

Of course, if you want to go back down, the fastest way is the little pink box again. By the way, do you see the tiny houses? That is Sinaia. We walked from there until the beginning of the line. Upwards. I assure you, it's a lot. And we are in bad shape. This counts too.

After we returned down and while we were waiting for the mini bus to return to town, I saw this. They have various tools for bicycles there and apparently many bikers use the telegondolas to go to 1400 meters and explore the mountain with their bikes.

But my inexcusable eyes, slaves to my stomach which has most of my brain cells, fell on these delicious 535 calories. Someone had left them there. To tempt me? To confuse me? To tease me? Maybe they just forgot it there. Anyway, I did my duty. Click on it, so that you can see it better. Go ahead, click on the photo of the purple beauty. You will see it bigger. Probably you will feel the need to go and buy one. It will be my fault. I have no regrets for that.

So, we took the mini bus. But we went to the Peleș museum. It was a house of Nicolae Ceaușescu who, as every dictator who respects (only) himself, thought that it was fair for him to have many nice things but the rest of the people not.

Of course, like many dictators, he didn't have a very nice end. Even though I was very little in 1989 when the revolution took place and the dictator with his wife were executed via a firing squad in live broadcast, I still remember intensely the feelings of these days.

Now Peleș is a museum and there were many visitors, even from the USA. The old days are a bad memory (shown in black and white) and the sky around the place is blue.

In the city of science

In a not very good area on the 19th, Métro line 7 - Porte de la Villette, lies the enormous building of the Cité de Sciences et de l'Industrie. It is what its name says. In several floors, the visitor can see and interact in various ways with the big variety of educational games over various fields of science or watch some informational videos (I raised my portfolio by 45% on a stock market exchange simulator). The Planetarium is a great experience, where you can watch on a 360º screen Le Navigateur Du Ciel (The Navigator Of The Sky), a movie about the Earth and the galaxies, made with a very interesting technique. Extremely recommended.

The pictures I took were no big deal. Still, a bit more patience and this is about to change.

The entrance.

The entrance, edited.

There is a helicopter inside. I don't know if it can actually fly in there, even if there is quite some space.

Many interesting things to see. You must enter early in the morning if you want to see as much as possible.

Going out, to the metro or tram station. To the left, a 3-star hotel. To the right, little boxes. There are more and they are even sadder.

The editing may not have much contrast, but the picture itself, with the two buildings within spitting distance, has lots of it. Of contrast, that is.

At the Louvre

Another long walk today. At the Louvre. And later I experimented a bit with the 500D outside, at the garden of Tuileries. Some photos made me want to lick them, but I showed strong character. Unfortunately, I will have to wait until Nikos decides to send me the photos before I'm able to post them here and have our eyes see something better.

Anyway, buy the book and let people know of it, because it's a time of strong need (in a good way, though)! More details in the next days. For now, behold some photos of art pieces from one of the most famous museums of the world.

Some battle. One of the numerous battles in the paintings. Why so many battles?

Yes, the history of humanity is filled with battles and there are battles everywhere, all the time. Why the fuck do they have to fight all the time?

By the way, this is what people take when some safe assholes send them to battle.

Death. How honorable.

King Leonidas at Thermopylae. Apparently he wasn't a real king, otherwise he wouldn't be under the cloud of the arrows.

Maybe being a king those days didn't have today's definition which is "rich useless piece of human garbage, sitting somewhere while people get disemboweled for him". There were others that were superiors, apparently. Or maybe in Sparta they were deeply insane and had no problem to go and die, because why not.

At least in Egypt they were peaceful. Not with slaves and not all the time and oh, well, they weren't peaceful anywhere. In all the ancient world they were killing each other like crazy. How did humanity even survive to reach the current era? Besides war, there have been some freak epidemics from time to time.

Why can't we just give a high-five like these guys in the picture do? Preferably without the handcuffs in the other hands.

Love the differences! (Torino intermission)

Last year, in August, we were in Torino, Italy, for a week. It was a very nice experience in total. What I regret is that I only had my video camera with me and I took mostly some video clips. The pictures were taken with this camera, which I used in a few of my movies, and it's on 5MP. Yet, i managed to have some interesting shots. Like these:

This is part of the view from the top of the Cinema Museum. Definitely worth the visit.

There is a glass elevator that takes you to the top and you see everything on your way up. Not very comfortable!

Here's something that I loved. The old watch shed, as it says in Italian above the silver car.

On it, written in various languages, "LOVE DIFFERENCE". Written in English, Italian, Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, Greek and a few more that I couldn't see. It's quite simple, really. Love the fucking differences, because they make us better.

Torino is beautiful. At least in summer. But in summer, almost all places are beautiful. Love the differences!