Miss Mischief, always up to no good...Kylie

..Spider-Cat revealed

...autumn sales, really value for money :)

...look at his face, and it's not even Christmas!

The Three Musketeers

No, not Dumas' novel.. the real thing..and their reunion in Iasi, Romania. It all happened in the summer of 2010, when Athos (aka Andrei) and D'Artagnan (aka Costin) decited to pay a visit to their friend, Porthos (aka Cristi), recently married and relocated to Iasi.

And here they are, armed with their cameras, looking for...ahhhh, you will see :-)

The Palace of Culture

Stephen the Great (Stefan cel Mare), Prince of Moldavia between 1457 and 1504. During his reign, he strengthened Moldavia and maintained its independence against the ambitions of Hungary, Poland and the ottoman Empire.

Clock in the central tower, made of an ensemble of eight bells that reproduce, every hour, “The Union Hora”, a melody sang for the first time in Iasi, in 1859 with the occasion of the union of the two Romanian historical provinces Moldavia and Walachia.

St. Nicholas Church

The Palace of Culture, designed by the Romanian architect I.D. Berindei in flamboyant neo-Gothic style

...this fight has been won, we'll see about the war...

Metropolitan Cathedral - inside the cathedral, in a silver coffin, lie the relics of Saint Parascheva

...ready for another fight...

Rosetti - Roznovanu Palace, Iasi City Hall. Between 1830 and 1833 it was restored by the known architect Johan Freywald, the one who designed the Metropolitan Cathedral as well.
In its whole, as architecture as well through the interior frescoes and statues which enriched the exterior in 1830, the palace belongs to the neo-classical style, with baroque elements.

Iasi City Hall

Metropolitan Cathedral

Grand Hotel Traian

Two years before Gustave Eiffel became famous for the Statue of Liberty, the American symbol, and seven years before erecting the Eiffel Tower in Paris, the master from Cote d’Or gave birth to a neoclassical masterpiece here in Iasi, Unirii Square: TRAÍAN Grand Hotel

Grand Hotel at night...

The Danube Delta, Romania, August 2010

The Danube Delta, a buffering interface between the Danube river catchment (805, 300 sq. km and the Western Black Sea (5,165 sq. km) is a unique place not only in Europe, but also among other delta ecosystems due to its high biodiversity, to its renewable natural resources and to its beautiful scenery doubled by its cultural sites remnants and worth.
The Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve has the third largest biodiversity in the world (over 5,500 flora and fauna species), exceeded only by the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and the Galapagos Archipelago in Ecuador.

We started our journey in Tulcea, picked up a tourist map, jumped on the first ferry (there were not too many and it happened to be a fast one) and decided on the way to stop at Crisan.

Everything here makes you feel like you stepped into a different world, a parallel one, and it feels so peaceful. Like time stands still and life has its own pace.

We rented a canoe for a day and paddled all day long on the nearby channels. It was so beautiful, I could not be bothered to take any photos. As for the birds, sorry, they were all too fast or too shy for my camera.