România esti bine?
Poți să stai aici, lânga mine?
În europa, o să fie
Împreună, bucurie.
Că prieteni fără un plan
Sărbătorim, Și la mulți ani! – Des Sousa
Please excuse Des, that’s ‘s first poem in Romanian. It’s okay, though, right?
In other news, winter is coming!
We have been to the Botanical Garden in the day and at night in the past few weeks. During the day, it is not as nice as last winter, because there are temporary statues everywhere. But at night, you can see the statues lit up, and take the children on a quiz-tour.
The questions are somewhat simple. Which famous tower is France known for? The Eiffel Tower, the Mathematical tower, (there was a third, less memorable choice.) But, one of us (who shall remain nameless) got a question wrong!
For a while now, the cactus’s have been put away, so you could say there are fewer things in the garden. It is closing earlier, so that they can get ready for the evening tours. And when we went, the “Small World City of Lights” seemed well attended.
In addition to the quiz and international displays, there are things to buy for the children.
Black Friday came and went. As usual, I think it lasted three weeks, so it must have included at least one real Friday.
Today Romanians celebrate the Great Union of the first world war. This is when Transylvania joined the other Romanian provinces in 1918. Roumania was at its largest, and it was called “Great Roumania.”
(or the largest it had been under the name Roumania. it was probably much larger when you count Dacia and let’s not forget the unification of Wallachia with Transylvania and Moldova under Michael the Brave.)
There are sure to be celebrations in the center, during the evening there have been nice things to see every year. This year there are lights that we saw before in Brussels, a music show with traditional music, and young families, groups of teenagers, and pensioners, people of all ages, holding red, blue and yellow balloons.
The Christmas market should still be there tomorrow. The wheel is painted in the Romanian flag colors, and be sure to watch the light show at Avram Iancu square.
And it is voting day. Romanians are choosing between two surprise candidates, it should be an interesting election. A lot of things are being said that do not seem true, I wish we could have a debate to see how the two would react together.
It is a great day for a walk anyway.
La mulți ani România!