Flashback: Memories of a Journey by the Mocănița Steam Train(2019)

 It’s Saturday morning in the small town of Vișeu de Sus, in Maramureș County, Romania. I have come to this amazing region on a weekend trip to discover some of its treasures, but the highlight of

my journey is undoubtedly represented by the narrow gauge steam train, called in Romanian “Mocănița”, a wonder from the past which is still alive and well as it travels every day across the last forestry narrow gauge steam railway in Europe.

At 9:30 a.m. all the passengers are embarked on the train and the journey can begin. It’s going to take quite a long time for the old train to complete the short 18-kilometer trip along the Vaser River Valley to the Paltin station, which is the final destination for tourists, but speed is certainly not the reason for which I am here; in this case, the whole experience of this hopefully fascinating journey certainly matters a lot more than the destination!

After several kilometers in which the little steam-powered train goes through villages with houses on both sides of the track, the view becomes more spectacular as we enter the forest and the landscape is getting wilder, but the presence of human activity is visible all the time as there are areas in which we can see logs by the riverside waiting to be loaded in the wagons and transported to the home village. Thus, the Vaser Valley forestry railway turns out to be much more than a nostalgia trip for tourists; on the contrary, it still plays an active role and it’s still as vital for the local communities as it was back in the 1930s when it was inaugurated!

All of a sudden the train stops right by the side of the mountain because of a mechanical problem and the unexpected break lasts for about half an hour. Passengers become a little anxious as time passes by, but eventually, the intervention team fixes the problem and the train moves on; the delay means that the journey to the Paltinu station will be completed in 2 hours instead of 90 minutes, as it was scheduled, but the exquisite beauty of the wild landscape soon takes my mind off this small inconvenient as I try to enjoy the last part of the journey. After all, slightly unpleasant events like that make the trip more authentic as the Mocanita has kept its unique appeal precisely because it offers visitors the chance to see what it was like for real to travel by steam train and understand that it was sometimes an uncomfortable, even troublesome experience.

Finally, we arrive at the Paltinu station and we get off the train for an hour and a half. There, in the middle of the wilderness, we can admire the majestic rocky landscape and enjoy some food and drinks. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough food stalls for all the tourists who are hungry and thirsty after such a long journey, so we have to stand in quite a long line, and that is really the most unpleasant part of this adventure, but once get over it we soon forget those less exciting moments and focus once again on the natural splendor and the fresh air which fill our hearts and lungs with joy and vitality.

At 1:20 P.M. the journey back to civilization begins. Once again the locomotive is huffing and puffing as a black cloud of smoke rises into the air and the small steam-powered train slowly makes its way on the narrow railway, allowing me to enjoy the stunning views of the mountain. At around 3:00 P.M. the Mocănița arrives back at the starting point. It’s the end of a long, quite exhausting, but also highly rewarding and unique adventure that I will always remember with great pleasure!

Sunday Morning Chillout in the Park of My Town, Onești

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Sibiu- the City Where The Houses Have Eyes

 

A few years ago I was walking through the old town of the stunningly beautiful Transylvanian city of Sibiu when I noticed several houses whose rooftops had some truly unique features: the windows in the attics looked like eyes. The first house I observed, which had five eye-shaped windows appeared particularly creepy to me, and for a while I kept having an odd feeling whenever I looked at the pictures I made on that summer day.

However, this is not an uncommon sight in the historical center of Sibiu. Many of the houses you can admire there contain such weird and wonderful windows which are known as the “city’s eyes.” The strange feeling I experienced when I first saw the house with five eyes, which was the first one that drew my attention, was that it was alive and watching me!

In a way, those eyes can be viewed as the guardians of the old city. They are located in a public square and some of those houses were built as early as the 15th century, so they witnessed a lot of important events in the history of Sibiu! If I were a writer of horror stories I think the “city’s eyes” would represent a source of inspiration for a scary tale that I would entitle “The Houses Have Eyes.” Anyway, people who visit the old center of Sibiu should keep in mind that the city’s eyes are always watching them!

Of course, those eye-shaped windows are not necessarily creepy, it depends on how each person perceives them after taking a closer look at these weird, but wonderful architectural elements. Nowadays when I look at those pictures again those eyes seem to be looking at me in a much friendlier manner than the one I had in mind when I first saw them. I see them as a gateway to the past of the splendid city of Sibiu, as they seem to encapsulate the rich cultural heritage of this fabulous Transylvanian citadel.

The more I look at those eyes, the more I feel that they are more than simple windows, as they also have the more important purpose of communicating with those who visit the narrow streets and lovely squares of the old citadel, and the message they try to convey is simple, yet extremely powerful: "We are the eyes of the city and we're watching all of you. If you come with good intentions and you want to experience the treasures of this wonderful Transylvanian citadel, you are truly welcome!"

A Look at My Spotify Stats for 2020

 

2020 has been an awful year for me, not necessarily because of the Coronavirus pandemic, but mostly because I lost someone very dear to me, so in these times the moral support and boost I got from listening to my favorite types of music, hard rock and metal, has been essential in helping me cope with the huge sadness and grief I went through. Heavy metal was here for me in my darkest moments of 2020 and will undoubtedly stay with me for as long as I live!

As for my listening stats for 2020, I have to say that the mail sent to me by Spotify in early December, which presents a short review of my listening habits for this cursed year, does not reflect the whole picture, because I also use Youtube Music for my auditions, therefore I can have an accurate picture of my 2020 year in music by consulting my stats on Last.fm, which I'm going to do in a future post, so for this article, I will only take a brief look at my Spotify 2020 wrapped and draw a few conclusions based on it.

1. MY TOP BAND- OVERKILL

Last year they were in second place, but thanks to their fabulous 2019 release 'The Wings of War' which also made me feel like listening to some of their older and great stuff more frequently in 2020,  the thrash metal veterans from New Jersey took the top spot. They fully deserve to be in this position because they're one of those few bands which sound better as they advance in age. To me Overkill sounds as fresh as energetic as they were 3 decades ago, and their latest album is absolutely stunning. As you can see, 'Where Few Dare to Walk' is my favourite songs from 'The Wings of War', but really all the songs from this album are at least very good, if not great. I think that, out of all the bands which put thrash metal on the map in the 80s, Overkill is the most enduring and consistent, as they have a remarkable catalog of 19 studio albums, some of them being truly fantastic, such as their latest one!

2. MY TOP 5 BANDS- ONLY CLASSICS HERE

Spotify is not very detailed in terms of stats, so it only offered me a top 5 of my favorite bands from 2020, just like it did last year. The first thing I can say about this Top 5 is that thrash metal heavyweights took the lead this year, replacing traditional heavy metal classics like Judas Priest(last year's winners) and Iron Maiden, which are probably still in my top 10, but Spotify doesn't bother showing us too much, as unfortunately, it doesn't show our top albums either. Anyway, the presence of symphonic metal veterans Therion in this chart shows that there is some variety in the metal I usually listen to, but nothing can beat thrash in my musical world for the time being. 

3. MY TOP 5 GENRES- PRETTY AMBIGUOUS HERE

Speaking of less accurate stats, this is where Spotify really is at its worst. I mean, of course, metal and rock are my favorite types of music, but what kind of metal and what kind of rock? I suppose thrash metal and traditional heavy metal, maybe hard rock would replace metal and rock if Spotify did a better job. Anyway, no surprises here as I love power metal and thrash metal is mentioned here in the form of the new wave,thanks to bands like Havok and Warbringer which in my opinion are at least as good as the old boys of thrash, and they will keep on growing in quality!

4. MY TOP 5 SONGS- WARBRINGER TAKES THE GOLD MEDAL

Speaking of Warbringer, they are the winners of my Top Songs category, not with a track from their latest release, which is truly great, but with fabulous songs from their previous album, 'Voe to the Vanquished.' The track 'Remain Violent' is one of the tunes I found repeatedly on the daily mixes made by Spotify based on my preferences, and I found it so damn catchy that I played it on repeat several times, which I don't do with many songs. Anyway, two more thunderous thrashers from Kreator and Overkill, a power metal tune full of hooks and an unbelievably catchy chorus from German band Orden Organ and a more melancholic track, a semi-ballad from the one and only Motorhead made me my top 5, but of course, this was a close call, and these are not necessarily my favorite tunes at the moments, they're just the ones I played most frequently.

 5. MY TOP DECADE- THE 90S

I cannot put an end to this article without mentioning that my favorite decade of 2020 was the 90s according to Spotify, and the aforementioned "Love Me Forever" by Motorhead was my top song from that decade. This doesn't mean that I like the music of the 90s more than other decades, but those were the years in which I discovered hard rock and metal and it isn't a surprise that I have some feelings of nostalgia about that decade, and that is probably why I listen to the music of that decade quite often. 

6. MY TOP PODCAST- THE HEAVY METAL HANGOVER

2020 was the year in this I started listening to podcasts on Spotify and, even if I tried to listen to shows related to a variety of topics, heavy metal was my first choice, and after trying several podcasts, I found one which I truly love- The Heavy Metal Hangover. I was captivated by the discussions between the two hosts, Chris and Jay, as soon as I started listening to the first episode in that series, and I kept on listening to them for several months as the podcast started in 2018 and I had many episodes to discover. It's highly entertaining and truly interesting to the hosts analyzing metal in its multiple aspects, and I can never get bored listening to them, so this is by far my favorite podcast on Spotify for the time being.

                                  

💀💀💀

That was my short analysis of my Spotify year wrapped. 2020 was full of sadness and misfortunes for me, as it was probably for a lot of people, but listening to heavy metal helped me a lot and I know that it is here to stay and make life more exciting and more pleasant for years to come. Long live heavy metal!

At the Brașov Zoo

Autumn- the Season of Melancholical Beauty

As the autumn progresses and the days get shorter, wetter and colder, the combination between the dark, misty, often gloomy atmosphere which is characteristic for this season and the exquisite beauty of its natural landscapes generate contrasting states in my mind and soul.

I cannot deny it: whenever the sunny, often annoyingly hot, but also joyful summer days are over and the first signs of the fall appear I feel slightly uncomfortable as I have to come to terms with the fact that once again the sunshine will be replaced for the next half a year by rain, cold, darkness, and eventually the unforgiving frost of the winter. Although I have to go through this transition every year, as I have done ever since I was born, and I know that it's the natural thing that happens in a country with a temperate climate, I still can't avoid the feelings of sadness associated with this yearly passage from summer to fall.

The feeling of melancholy is almost inevitable during this period of the year and I'm convinced that a huge number of people who live in countries whose climate can be generally characterized as temperate are affected by it, and they have to make serious efforts to fight these negative moods which can certainly lead to depression and other serious mental and physical health issues.

One of the ways in which I try to keep this state of sadness under control and prevent it from taking over my mind is to go beyond the dark, the cold and the rain associated with this season, and see the outstanding beauty of nature in the autumn. If the weather allows me to get out of town and make some short trips in the surrounding areas and I have to admit that the first part of this autumn has been unbelievably hot, with temperatures soaring way above the normal the average for this time of the year(which is definitely not a good sign, but more than likely an indication of the fact that the effects of global warming are getting stronger and stronger in my country), I take full advantage of this unexpected opportunity during the weekend days, but even if a walk in the park is enough to change my mood as I immerse myself, even for a short while, in the beauty of the autumn landscape.

The exquisite symphony of colors which gives the impression that the hills around my town are in fact giant paintings with an incredible variety of nuances and tones, the distinctive sound made by the carpet of fallen leaves as I step on the alleys of the park or the hilltops shrouded in mist after the rain create a remarkable variety of images and sounds that have a healing effect on my sound as the inevitable melancholy associated with fall mixes with wonder and admiration at the splendors I discover all around me. It is enough to open my eyes and see how lovely nature is even during a season I generally dislike to realize that all we need to do it is see beyond the appearances to discover the beauty of the autumn, just as we have to explore our souls and go beyond its surface to discover the true beauty which lies deep within ourselves!