Another day of fire, another Sunday of fire! The heatwave has blanketed the part of Europe where I live. The summers are starting earlier and earlier and are getting harder to bear. Because of the dangers that the excessive temperature outside can cause to my tired heart, I had to spend this Sunday in the increasingly cold of the house. I had to give up my usual walk.
Well, there are plenty of things you can do at home when you have free time. Since I've been in the Hive, and it's been five years since I was lucky enough to get here, I've never been bored. In fact, I don't have free time!
The most recent event in my life that brought a change from the routine of retired life was a short trip to Sibiu, the former European Capital of Culture in 2007 and one of the most visited cities in Romania. Travelling and photography are very closely linked. The places visited are easier to remember with the help of photos. For me every time I leave the house is a reason to collect a few more photos and so the archive is continuously growing.
I chose this Sunday to walk through the photos and choose a few from my last trip to Sibiu.
I remember the courtyard of Brukental High School. This school is the oldest in Romania. It is attested from 1380. Over the old school was built the present building in 1781. This is history.
I arrived in this market at a time when an exam was being held in high school. Lots of relatives and friends of students waiting for the outcome. The high school is on the left and on the right is the Evangelical Cathedral, the second largest in Romania, the current form is after the 1520 renovation of the 12th century building. That's for location. I was primarily interested in people.
People who work while others, like me, walk around.
Much of the construction is made of brick. Brick is very decorative. I like fences and buildings without plaster, just brick. I like the reddish colour of the bricks and here I also respect their age. They have been there for many hundreds of years!
Then the roofs, the same colour as the brick.
Sibiu is a medium sized city and what I call here Sibiu is actually the old city. The old town, very well preserved, is the main attraction. The old town consists of two parts, two levels. The upper city and the lower city. The connection between them is made by several staircases. I like these old stairs very much, I have walked up and down them many times, occasion for many photos.
The staircase I remember now is the staircase that connects the Small Square with the Goldsmiths' Square. Now go down...
... and now it's going up, from the Goldsmith's square to the Little Square of Sibiu.
The city where I live is the capital of Romania and is called Bucharest. Although this city is almost six hundred years old, it cannot be compared to Sibiu. First of all because Bucharest was built without rigour. Secondly, because much of the old city was demolished during the communist period in Romania.
There is no similarity in what exists in Sibiu and for this reason I appreciate a lot what I saw in this short trip. Although there are several cities in Transylvania that resemble Sibiu, none of them offer as much as Sibiu. History, architecture, gastronomy, multi-ethnic population.
These photos rekindled my desire to visit Sibiu again. I hope it happens this year!
I wrote this post also thinking about #SublimeSunday by 
