Gara de Nord: Your Gate to Bucharest

On October 4, 1868 a law passed for the construction of railways in Romania. It allowed the H.B. Strousberg Prussian Concession to build, in three years, the first Romanian railway network. On September 22, 1869 works were started at the main railway station of Bucharest: Târgovişte Station. It was opened to the public on 27 November 1870, when the railway Roman-Galaţi-Bucharest-Piteşti was inaugurated.

Built after a plan proposed and approved by the Technical Council of the Public Works Ministry, the Târgovişte Station was thought as a transit station, with six lines, direct access to the three storage areas (one of them was for perishable merchandise) and a depot for locomotives with eight places. The last line insured direct access to the Reparation Atelier for Locomotives and Wagons.

The passengers' quarters with a single floor was 93.4 meters long and was made of a central building, guarded by two towers. It had two clitoral wings and the front was parallel to the Calea Targovistei Street. Between the two towers there were three main gates for passenger access. The entrance became in 1896 the Royal Salon, specially created for the visits that the King of Austria, Frantz Ioseph 1st and King of Serbia, Alexandru Obrenovici paid the king of Romania.

In the summer of 1887, at the Bucharest Central Atelier for Locomotive and Wagons Repairs a gas plant was built that supplied power to the installations in the station and in 1897, a power plant became operational. The plant insured electric lighting to the station. Once the station was modernized, the name changed to Gara de Nord (North Railway Station).

Since then, a lot of work was done to keep in line with traffic increase and continuous modernization of railways transportation.

Now, almost in the middle of the town, Gara de Nord is the main railway station in Bucharest and the largest one in Romania. With good connections with subway, local transportation and international airport, Gara de Nord is your gate to visit Romania.

Apple's Wisdom

Steve Jobs: "Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important tool I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything - all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."

Silicon Valley

About 50 years ago, the authorities of Stanford University (California) tried to solve their financial problems by leasing part of the university land to high-tech companies for 99 years . The original bequest of his farm by Leland Stanford prohibited the sale of the land, but there was nothing to prevent its being leased, so the Stanford Industrial Park was founded. The goal was to create a center of high technology close to a cooperative university.

Geographically, Silicon Valley is an area surrounding San Jose, California, in the Santa Clara Valley. Technologically, it is the center of today's computer industry.

But don’t think of Silicon Valley like an area dominated by robots and metallic-futuristic architecture. It is a spot with natural attractions. It is an attractive place for residents to live and tourists to go to see. The areas around Silicon Valley can also be visited and enjoyed.

The Two Wolves

A native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt.

He said: „I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart. One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one. The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one.”

The grandson asked him, „Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?”

The grandfather answered: „The one I feed.”

[Source: Native American Story]

Mărţişor: Welcoming the Spring

Mărţişor is a traditional celebration of the beginning of Spring. It is a symbol of friendship and love, appreciation and respect, given especially to women.

The name Mărţişor is the diminutive of the name for March (Martie, in Romanian), and thus literally means "little" or "dear March". (It is also the folk name for this month.) It is made with red and white string, from which a small decoration is tied, and which is offered by people on the 1st day of March. Usually, women wear it pinned to their blouses for the first days of this month.

Red is the color of fire, sun, blood, and the symbol of life, associated with the woman. White is the color of the cold snow, foamy waters, the clouds, and also of man's wisdom. The thread of the Mărţişor represents the union of the feminine and the masculine principles, the vital forces which give birth to the eternal cycle of the nature.

Ski invitation: Predeal

Situated in Brasov county, between Prahova and Timis rivers, is Predeal, the highest town in Romania (1033 m). Surrounded by mountains, it is an excellent base, in winter, for skiing. You will not find here the slopes from Austria or Switzerland, but, if you enjoy the “white sport” it is a good opportunity to practice it very easy.

Not so far from Bucharest (around 150 km), Predeal is very easy accessible by train (or car). So, next time in Bucharest, in a winter business trip, take one more day. Gara de Nord rail station is almost in the middle of the town. 2 hours and 15 minute are enough, in a comfort of Snow Train (especially in service for winter period), to reach Predeal. We’ll have one day full of fun.

Romanian corner in Paris: Atelier Brancusi

A most unusual man and a most unique artist, the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brâncuşi (1876-1957), trained initially as a carpenter and stonemason, was a central figure of the modern movement and a pioneer of abstraction. After attending the Bucharest School of Fine Arts, Brancusi traveled to Paris in 1904 where his early influences included African as well as oriental art (and, of course, Romanian folk carvings). Brancusi created his first major work, The Kiss, in 1908. From this time his sculpture became increasingly abstract, moving from the disembodied head of Sleeping Muse to the virtually featureless Beginning of the World and from the formal figure of the legendary bird Măiastra to numerous versions of the ethereal Bird in Space. Brâncuşi decided to make much simpler work and began an evolutionary search for pure form. His sculpture gained international notoriety at the 1913 Armory Show in New York.

In his Paris studio (at 8 Impasse Ronsin), Brâncuşi devoted great attention to the arrangement of his sculptures, documenting individual works and their installation in an important body of photographs.

In the 1930s Brâncuşi worked on two ambitious public sculpture projects, an unrealized temple in India for the Maharajah of Indore and the installation at Târgu Jiu, Romania, of his Gate of the Kiss, Table of Silence and Endless Column (this entire ensemble, together with Heroes Cathedral, dedicated to Romanians heroes on World War I).

On his death Brâncuşi left the contents of his studio to the Museum of Art of the City of Paris, on condition that the studio to be installed in the museum in its entirety. This is now the Atelier Brancusi (near the Pompidou Center in Paris).

Atelier Brancusi in Paris is only the starting point in knowing this great artist. Come to Romania to visit the monumental ensemble in Tg. Jiu and his memorial house in Hobiţa Gorj (a traditional Romanian village)

Spiritual Saga

Introduction: How is Romania today? To understand it, you have to know a little bit about its history, its role in this part of our world. And if you want to know more, come to visit it, take the unmarked paths, speak with peoples, see and think. You'll have the surprise to find true treasure of history, art and life. Come inside, listen to people, admire their native smiles, and try to understand! Let’s start with some history.

In the 15th-18th centuries, monasteries in Wallachia and Moldavia were generally erected, financed and maintained by enlightened ruling princes, high dignitaries or high clergymen. Monasteries became the main promoters of art and culture, with learned scholars, schools, training centers, libraries, and printing facilities attached to them. Their development was also due to the valuable assets and vast estates, forests, vineyards, lakes etc. that they owned, which were donated by their princely founders, landowners or by wealthy believers.

Monasteries in Romania, especially in Moldavia and Wallachia, have been most cherished, and probably are the best-preserved cultural sites in the country. One may justly wonder why. A glimpse on monasticism, its roots and cultural connotations may, to a certain extent, provide answers to the question. Another reason is of a historic nature. Romania was geographically placed at the crossroads between the Eastern and the Western worlds, a rich land encountered and coveted by three empires (Hapsburgs, Ottomans and Russians), and consequently, ravaged by foreign invasions for centuries long. In the Middle Ages, Wallachia and Moldavia were under Ottoman suzerainty, meaning that their ruling princes were Romanian, elected by local boyars; the countries were free to deal with their internal affairs as they pleased, but they had to pay an annual tribute to the Ottoman Empire. Monasteries, of which many were fortified (during Stephen the Great's rule in Moldavia, or during Matei Basarab's rule in Wallachia), represented a subterfuge devised by the Romanian princes in order to delude the Ottomans' interdiction to built defense fortresses that could oppose resistance to them. The great number of monasteries and churches may be also related to the Romanians' constraint to hide themselves and their precious assets in safe and hardly accessible places (usually located near the Carpathians and the Sub-Carpathians) at times of war. The art and historic treasures kept in monasteries are living tokens of the Romanians' need to store and preserve their history and culture at difficult and uncertain times. Likewise, the Romanians' yearning to keep their identity through Christian faith, as a people confronted constantly with the 'strings and arrows' of fate, their need for stability and security may account for the great number of churches and monasteries raised all over the country.

The monasteries that one can see today, which fortunately have escaped the lapse of time and the evils of history, transcend their Orthodox significance, and give an accurate account of the Romanians' spiritual life, artistic wealth, and saga.