under construction

June 22, 2012

under construction

it took me so long to do a post on bistrita, the town where i´m living at the moment, because...i´ve been looking at it in increments, a bit every day, saving the tough bits for later in the process. it´s going to be a long rambling post

i don´t think i´ve ever belonged here really- i was raised in the village, and later on while in school i was always waiting to move someplace else. for me it´s honestly just a small and boring place, especially in the summer heat. friends who disagree (lari? ralu? anyone?) please contribute with comments etc. i really want to leave this open to you.

anyway- here´s the view from my parents´ balcony at 9.30 pm - the only new element since 25 ys. ago is the church - started right after the fall of communism, obviously. our neighbourhood is non-central (pretty silly, since everything is close to everything here), developed while the town was growing what with factories and things, in the eighties.

orchid in my window, a real monster flower due to my father´s dedication
to watering it every evening

the most standard touristic sight in town: the old cathedral. now this has been in different stages of renovation throughout my entire life. it´s very important to me and my highschool friends, because when we were idealistic 17 we were part of a project to collect money for renovation. we sold some sketches/drawings of the inside of the church, and were collaborating with the local german community to keep the space open to the public a few hours/week, and to organize organ concerts inside, all cool stuff.

then in 2008, while i was in vancouver, the big tower caught on fire through some stupid un- elucidated accident. i found a youtube of that, for dramatic value. very sad event for everyone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spGI6vkK_Gg

so now it´s being re-re-renovated, and the work still stagnating. it´s a very old building, saying i hope it survives my generation sounds odd, but i think it´s a good and proper wish.

the ostrich with a horseshoe in its beak (not well pictured :( ) is the symbol of the town. obviously this is a contemporary fancy thing (although it appears on the coat of arms and all) but these colorful birds on the central sidewalks are a new sight to me. well ok, they don´t hurt anyone.

this is the passage next to/ leading to my former highschool. everyone seems to use it as bistrita graffitti central.

and from the other side:

and my highschool building, from the front. i barely made myself walk past it, but it looks as ageless as ever, at least from this angle.

another passage: this looks pretty banal to me , hey, i used to see it every day, but i somehow got the idea that people out there will find it interesting. architecture people, let me know!

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moving to a different part of town, and the ¨swinging bridge¨ across our little river. it really does swing, and i used to be fascinated with it. i think it became more and more dangerous as i was growing up (creaky noises, missing boards, shitty handrail. a friend from out of town in our junior year refused to consider crossing it) but in the meantime they strenghtened it a bit.

not much town on the other side of the river. it used to be more of an outskirt village, where i know my parents bought cow milk for me when i was little. this time i didn´t advance further than this attempt at sunbathing.

if this town has got something, it´s an abundance of flowers. every damn front garden boasts rose bushes of all flavors, which don´t even photograph accurately. i find them a bit depressing in their uniform cheerfulness. i like honeysuckle much better, and the out-of-control explosion of half-wild ugly flowers:

what struck me most about the town these days is, most places are under construction. they completely dug into the alleys of the main park, took apart all the benches for whatever reason and fenced off the gazebo next to which i was made a pioneer. my heart broke a little.

although, talking about ¨under construction¨: this is nothing compared to the former railway station, which looks like a bombing site. too ugly and sad for pictures.

one more gratuitous shot of a standard touristic sight: part of the old fortress-city walls.

and a roof detail in the central area. i ´m sort of torn about including more old houses, more gothic detail, into this mix. i can´t tell the right proportion. i´m used to bistrita being illustrated only as the central Germanic buildings, and i want the blocks of flats to be included in the mix too.