Huayna Picchu- a Priority on My Bucket List

 

I haven’t compiled a definitive bucket list on paper yet, but if anyone asks me to name one place in the world I want to visit above all the others, my answer will be, without any hesitation, Machu Picchu, the best-preserved city of the Incas which, thanks to its strategic positioning in the heart of the Andes has fortunately escaped the destructive wrath of the conquistadores.

However, after watching many videos about Machu Picchu and its unique location, I realized that the mountain peak which rises right next to this fabulous wonder of the world, Huayna or Wayna Pichu, is no less fascinating than the Inca city itself, as it also features spectacular temples and Inca ruins. Therefore, when I think about the magical moment of finally reaching this fabulous stronghold of the mighty Inca Empire, I already imagine myself facing a dilemma: Shall I climb the stairs to the top of Huayna Picchu as well or shall I avoid such an adventurous hike?

It is obvious from the Youtube videos I have watched so far that the trail to the summit of Huayna Pichu is not recommended for people who fear heights. It is a journey made on steep, sometimes very narrow steps on which tourists have to be extremely focused to avoid a tragedy. There are also steel cables which help them in the most difficult portions of the trail, which indicate how dangerous this trek really is, and from what I have seen the descent is even scarier as there are segments in which the stairs are so steep that tourists actually have to crawl their way down until they return to the foothills of Huayna Pichu!

It is also true, however, that those who choose the entire package and include Huayna Picchu in their itinerary are rewarded with some truly exhilarating views once they reach the top; to see Machu Picchu and the entire area surrounding it from above must be a unique experience, which I would like to live one day. I am convinced that all the people who were there didn’t regret their choice of climbing Huayna Picchu for a single second. It is a hike which might also occupy a high position in my bucket list, but for now, all I can do is watch how people who visited those fabulous places lived some truly extraordinary moments in the Peruvian Andes.

The Wolf Seems to Be My Animal Spirit Guide

 

One of the activities I do when I want to chill out is to solve quizzes . I discovered that some of those quizzes are quite interesting as they can help me find out new things about the world and maybe even about myself.

For example, earlier today I made a quiz which would reveal my animal spirit guide or totem. Although I did it just for fun because I can’t say that I truly believe in such stuff yet, I have to admit that I liked the result when I found out that my animal spirit guide is the wolf.

As soon as I read the description of the meanings which this animal spirit can offer, I could identify myself with the main characteristics of the wolf, both positive and negative. Thus, I think intelligence and a strong appetite for freedom are features which characterize me, but at the same I can also relate to a rather negative characteristic such as lack of trust in people or even in myself.

Of course, doing a quiz on an entertaining site isn’t enough to convince me of the existence of these animal spirits, in which many populations truly believe, but it certainly raised my curiosity about this topic. Will I be able to connect with my animal spirit if it really exists? Will it appear in my dreams and offer me guidance? Will it help me overcome the obstacles of real life? These are still unanswered questions, but that’s exactly what makes this discovery so exciting for me.

Anyway, I’m glad my spirit animal is a wolf and not a snake, as I can see that other people got after doing the quiz. Of course, the snake is a symbol of wisdom and spiritual guidance, but I really prefer wolves to appear in my dreams instead of snakes! Should I believe in the power of such existence? I have no idea, but I’m confident that one day I will find an answer. Until then, I will try to find out if the sharp instincts and deep intelligence of my wolf spirit can really guide me on the rough path of life!

Mountain Roads- Often Scary, Always Fascinating

 

Last year, as part of a summer trip to some of the natural and cultural landmarks of Romania, I had the chance, among other great exploits, to travel on some truly unforgettable mountain roads, such as the one from Curtea de Arges to Vidraru Dam, a journey full of extraordinary sights and discoveries which left me with great memories that will be never be deleted from my mind.

As the trip was made at a relaxed pace, there were several stops along the way until we reached the dam, so there were plenty of opportunities to take pictures. However, the almost indescribable beauty of the mountain landscape was also scary. As the road was going higher and higher it was more difficult to look down at the canyons under it., and going close to the edge of the road was obviously dangerous, as the view of the deep ravines below was a warning to everyone to be extremely cautious. Definitely, it wasn’t a trip recommended for those who suffer from vertigo.

This combination of feelings and mental states which ranged from wonder at the incredible natural beauty of the mountain to fear of the frightening ravines below is a truly remarkable experience. It can also be your last adventure too, if you feel too cocky and ignore the danger by going too close to the margin on the road. That’s why I preferred to keep a little distance from the guard rails, and even so I can’t deny that I was feeling a little anxious, and now when I look back at the photos made on that occasion, I almost relive those stunning moments. Mountain roads are truly splendid, but they can also, be highly dangerous, so we must always be very cautious when we are there.

The Light Will Always Shine at the End of the Tunnel

 

Whenever we travel across a mountain road the chances of passing through tunnels carved into the rock are quite significant. For me, they are symbolic of the obstacles we encounter in our existence because life can also be seen as a long journey in which happy moments alternate with dark passages. There are short tunnels which can be crossed by car within a few seconds; they represent in my view the minor obstacles we have to deal with daily. They cause us a little discomfort, but we usually have enough strength to overcome them and continue our journey into the unknown.

However, from time to time we also come across extremely long and dark tunnels. Once we enter them, we're not sure how long it will take before we reach the light again, and thus we are in danger of becoming overwhelmed by fear, anxiety, and even depression. It is during those dark moments of our lives that we have to remember that there is a way out of every tunnel and if we are strong enough, the dark and frightening tunnels can't stand in our way.
As we sink deeper and deeper into the obscurity there comes a moment when we see a point of light which grows bigger and bigger as we're heading to the tunnel exit. All we have to do is always go forward until we're back into the light; if we believe in ourselves and we keep our mental strength and determination we are unlikely to get lost in the tunnel.

The feelings of joy and relief we have once we find the light again are symbolic for those truly special moments in our lives when we realize we managed to overcome the obstacles, but of course, the long journey through life continues and there will be many other tunnels, some smaller and others long and scary, to cross before we reach the end of the road. It's an often difficult, but always fascinating trip in which we learn a lot of things about ourselves and everything that we encounter in our path!

Unforgettable Football Matches: Deportivo's Miraculous Comeback

 

Some time ago, while searching for the latest soccer news on the FIFA  site, I stumbled upon a photo gallery which took me eleven years back into the past and made me relive one of the most incredible Champions Leagues match ever: the second leg of the quarter-final between Deportivo La Coruna and AC Milan which took place on April 7, 2004.

After the first leg, things were more than clear: Milan had obtained a convincing 4-1 win and they were already making plans for the semi-finals. After all, they were the title holders and they were also undoubtedly the team of the moment in Europe. Therefore, I considered that the second leg would be a formality for them and I preferred to stay out later that night and miss the first half of the game.

Imagine my surprise when I entered home and found out that Depor were leading 3-0 at halftime thanks to the goals scored by Pandiani, Valeron, and Luque! It was simply unthinkable for an Italian club, and especially a giant like AC Milan, to receive three goals in one half! But on the other hand, Super Depor had earned the reputation of a giant killer in both Spain and the Champions League. It seemed that nothing was impossible for that fantastic team which had earned so many fans exactly for its fearless, unique offensive style used against the powerhouses of European soccer.

I watched the second half nervously, hoping that the miracle would continue until the end. After all, one goal from Milan would have saved the Italians from disaster, but it didn’t happen. Depor was in complete control of the match and when the captain Fran scored the 4-0 goal, I knew it: The miracle has been completed!

It rarely happens to me to watch the replay of a soccer match if I know its results, in the case of the legendary Depor vs. Milan clash I made an exception and watched the entire game again the next day. What an amazing team that SuperDepor! They were bound for glory, they were definitely the most entertaining team in Europe.

Sadly, Tristan, Pandiani, Valeron and all the other legendary players stopped in the semi-finals, when Jose Mourinho and its extremely pragmatic FC Porto side found the antidote for SuperDepor’s enchanting style of play, and even more sadly from that moment on the decline started and the Galician team fell into obscurity and it has recently reached a truly low point when it was relegated to the Spanish third division in the summer of 2020!

However, the legend of Javier Irureta's Superdepor and its stunning thrashing of AC Milan will remain forever embedded in football history as the greatest achievement of a small team that made its fans dream of European glory.

Radio Was Priceless for Me in the Eighties

 

Many years ago, in the eighties, the radio played a significant part in my life because it represented the main way to find out what was happening in the world. The television and the press at that time were completely obedient to the ruling political party, and in fact the only one which existed in my country, the Communist Party, so for many people the only solution to get real news from the West was to try to listen to radio stations like Radio Free Europe or the Voice of America, which had programs in the Romanian language.

For me as a child, those radio stations represented a glimmer of hope in a bleak reality, and although the communist authorities did their best to prevent the radio waves from reaching the houses of Romanian citizens, they often failed in that respect. Almost every evening we used to listen to those radio stations from the world instead of watching the boring two-hour TV programs of the national television which glorified the communist regime and its unique ruler.

Those times are now history, and so are the radio days for me. Now, when access to information is no further than a click away, the classical radio has lost its significance for me. Of course, there are lots of stations I could listen to on the Internet, but the radio as a whole no longer has that extremely high value of being my window to the so-called free world. Nevertheless, I will always keep in mind its golden days and acknowledge the paramount importance it used to have for me.

Photo source: Pixabay

10 Years Ago- The Day I Quit Smoking

 

August 18th is a date which has a special significance for me: it marks the anniversary of 6 years since I quit smoking. Whenever my the mind takes me back to that summer day in 2010 I remember quite clearly the feeling of sheer determination to finally achieve what I had been contemplating for a couple of years, which is giving up that nasty habit. It was the day in which I finally grabbed the bull by the horns, said to myself "No More Smoking!" and stuck to my resolution, which is no small achievement in my opinion if we consider the fact that there are still many people who want to quit smoking, but still haven't got enough will to do it.

This small, but nevertheless important anniversary also represents a good opportunity for me to make a comparison between the smoking past and the non-smoking present and identify the ways in which the decision I took six years ago has influenced my life ever since. The more I think about it, the more I realize that it had nothing but positive consequences, so here are the key reasons for which my life has improved after kicking cigarettes out of it:

1. Health improvement

This is an aspect I noticed shortly after quitting and its signs were more than obvious: no more yellow fingers caused by nicotine consumption, no more coughing due to tobacco, breathing became easier and my stamina grew as well within a few weeks. I remember reading an article in a medical site which stated that if you manage to quit smoking while you're still young your life expectancy will be significantly longer than the one you had while you were a smoker. I did before the age of 35, so my chances of adding a few good years to my life expectancy are significantly higher.

2. Financial aspect

My decision to give up smoking was greatly influenced by the fact that at that time the price of cigarette packs was growing at a fast pace as the government regularly added new taxes on tobacco producers in an obvious attempt to make cigarettes less accessible to the ordinary people. Before August 2010 I hated the government for constantly the price of cigarettes, but now that I'm on the other side I think they did the right thing. The high price of cigarette packs is a solid reason for many heavy smokers to gradually reduce the number of units they smoke daily until they realize it's time to give up! It is needless to say that the money spent on that poison are simply lost, and when you realize how many other useful things you could have done with your hard-earned money them instead of wasting them on that garbage you can't stop wondering why you started smoking in the first place.

3. Passive smoking is no longer an issue

Quitting smoking doesn't necessarily mean that the nicotine will be completely out of your system. There are circumstances in which you are subject to passive smoking, but fortunately, this possibility has been considerably diminished in my country after a law which bans smoking in closed spaces has been recently adopted in my country. Pub and restaurant owners certainly didn't like that law at all as they lost some of their customers because of it, but smokers got used to it, and whenever they feel the urge to smoke they simply get out of that closed space and satisfy their vice without forcing the others to smoke passively.

4. Coffee Tastes Better Without Cigarettes

I used to think that a cigarette was an almost indispensable accessory to a cup of coffee, but as soon as I quit smoking I realized that the flavor and the taste of quality coffee is much easier to identify and appreciate without being accompanied by tobacco. Coffee not only that tastes and feels better than cigarettes, but if consumed in moderate quantities it has benefits for our health, but I'm convinced that if it is accompanied by a cigarette those benefits are simply neutralized by the negative effects of tobacco.

5. I Can Chill Out Without Smoking Nowadays

I used to think that smoking would help me relax for a few minutes during a stressful day, and maybe there was a little bit of truth in that, but after my smoking days were over I realized that there are other ways in which I can relax and diminish the stress, such as looking at playing a game, listening to a song I like or looking at some beautiful pictures of natural landscapes on my smartphone, and so on.

As a conclusion, when I think about the differences between my life before and after quitting smoking, I can only find positive aspects of my decision to quit. Smoking is a matter of individual choice and I respect smokers as long as they practice their habit without doing any harm to others; since I've been one of them for a few years I realize how difficult it is to give up smoking, why is why I appreciate so much those who go all the way and succeed in getting rid of this vice once and for all. If you think about quitting smoking, I wish you good luck and I know you can do it!

Photo source: Pixabay

The Sphinx in the Bucegi Mountains- a Natural Wonder of Romania

 

Sometimes I feel the need to detach myself from the immediate reality and let my mind wander throughout centuries. One way in which I try to connect to the past is to look again at pictures of spectacular sites I visited and relive the feelings I experienced when I saw amazing things like wonders of nature or historical buildings or monuments.

For instance, today, after watching a documentary about the Roman conquest of Dacia, my mind flew immediately to an amazing natural rock formation which is one of the symbols of my country: the Sphinx from the Bucegi Mountains.

Two years ago, when I made a journey high in the Bucegi Plateau, this 8-meter high and 12-meter rock impressed me because it resembled perfectly the head of a Dacian warrior. It was hard for me to believe that it was the work of nature and not of the human hand, but that’s the reality. Now, when I look again at the pictures I made with this quiet giant called the Sphinx, I almost expect him to wake up and gather people around him to defend the country from its invaders.

Shaped by the action of nature throughout thousands of years, the Sphinx stands still and proud like a true king of the Carpathians. For some people, it’s just a rock and nothing else, while for others it has a symbolic and mythological value. As for me, I have to say that I consider it a perfect illustration of nature’s capacity to create unique and wonderful things that will last as long as the Earth itself.

Ancient Citadels- a Bridge Between Present and Past

 

Whenever I travel to old citadels who were restored thanks to the hard work of people fascinated by history and archeology, or even when I see simple ruins whose origins are often shrouded in a veil of mystery, I experience a strange, but wonderful feeling of living both in the present and the past at the same time.

 

I can see tourists like me walking in the citadel yards and admiring the vestiges of the past while taking as many memories as they can with their fancy cameras and smartphones, but in the meantime  the mind takes me back in time centuries ago, as I try to paint my own mental pictures of how life was then. The more time I spend in an old city or medieval fortress, the more vivid those pictures are in my mind.

 

Knights all wrapped up in heavy metal armors, merchants negotiating with buyers, people of different social statuses filling the streets of a citadel, some of them so wealthy that they afford to throw some coins to the poor dirty people dressed in rags who can barely earn their living, all these images of a vibrant, but also troublesome past keep my mind occupied while visiting any place of great historical significance.

I think the possibilities are unlimited when it comes to letting our imagination wander back in time and the role of the visual elements represented by those ancient walls, ruins, bridges or bastions in stimulating our creative thinking is highly significant.

That is why I love visiting them so much and I think that examining an ancient building is often a much more cultural experience than being in a busy city avenue surrounded by modern skyscrapers. Any visit to an old place represents an invaluable history lesson for me!

The photos from this post were taken in the following locations: Râșnov Citadel, Făgăraș, Neamț Citadel, Sighișoara, Deva Fortress, Rupea Citadel.

Do I Live in a Ghost Town?

 

A few days ago, in an effort to improve and expand my general knowledge, I decided to take a look at a list of cities and towns from my country ordered by population; I was simply curious to see what the rank of my hometown, Onești was on such a list, so I googled it and the first site I opened in order to check it out was World Population Review, which I considered to be a reliable source, but when I opened that list and looked for Onești, I had an unpleasant surprise: it wasn’t anywhere on the list!

Every town in Romania, no matter how small, was present in that table, except for Onești, which may not be a metropolis, but it isn’t a little town either; even with a dramatic decrease in population in the last a couple of decades caused by the bankruptcy or the severe reduction of activity of the factories which were part of a huge industrial platform, once the heart of the town, and the consequent migration of many people to greener pastures, in search for work, Onești still has, at least according to official numbers, a population of almost 40,000 inhabitants, but according to World Population Review, those people simply do not exist!

After such a bewildering find, I couldn’t stop wondering: Do I live in a ghost town? Is Onești a real site or is it an illusion, a deserted place which can’t be found on maps or on Google Earth? Or maybe the guys from World Population Review still aren’t aware of the fact that 30 years ago the town of Onești regained its original name, which had been first mentioned several centuries ago, after being named Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej during the communist period? That maybe a possible explanation, but still they have no excuse for this omission.

Fortunately, there are other sources as well, and when I looked for the list of Romanian towns and cities on Wikipedia I had a sigh of relief: my hometown is included on the list, with a population of 39,172 inhabitants which makes it the 49^th town in Romania by the population at the moment. It isn’t a desolate place populated by elves, zombies, White Walkers or other mythical or fantastic creatures, but a real town whose inhabitants breath, talk, work and struggle for a decent living, so luckily I don’t live in a ghost town yet!

Anyway, I’m curious to find out if there are any other towns from around the globe which are not included on the list made by World Population Review, because if there isn’t any other one in such a position, that would make Onești a truly unique place in the entire world!