Funny looking young bartenders
And cocktails
And a master juggling with bottles, shakers and glasses
And even fancier cocktails
Prepared by better dressed bartenders
And a jury noting their evolution
And more bartenders juggling with bottles, shakers and glasses
And the jury watching their every move
It was De Kuyper Cup Romania, the yearly bartending competition, of course.
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The Gallery from the Gallery (Romanian: Galeria din Galerie) is the name of a photo exhibition a fellow photographer from the community just opened. It is about the Bucharest subway and the pictures are exposed in the Unirii 1 station.
The rest of us used the opportunity, since taking photos in the subway is usually not allowed, to shoot there (you need an approval from the management, otherwise the security will ask you to stop).
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This picture, showing a herd of sheep from a Romanian village, won the fifth place in a contest organized by a national rural development agency/network.
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If the photographers are busy chasing some falling leaves, what are those girls supposed to to? They take pictures one to each other. Stupid photographers!
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The cotton candy is a sweet delight, the warm autumn light and colors are sweet, sharing the moments is also sweet.
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Răzvan found this intriguing place named the English Passage located next to the city center of Bucharest, near Calea Victoriei: all of us, including myself passed in front of it many times. I even think I may have passed trough it once, but noticing only a small part.
The first thing that captured my attention was the sign of an old-fashioned hat maker who's owner has the same name as me, next to a small music store as those you can see in the '80s movies and a watch repair shop. In a corner on the floor you can see a blanket and a couple of books, probably the resting place of an enlightened homeless person.
In line with the other stores there is a small pub, where we meet a local celebrity, probably the most famous person in the block: he is a painter, a legit one - later we saw some of his works on the walls of a restaurant in the next street. He had some beers already, which made him be in a good mood for talks and stories. Wile there, a huckster entered, he was selling socks. Our painter asked if they are "3/4" or just normal, the huckster sowed some, the painter bought a few. Later he looked more carefully at them "Those are not 3/4, I got shafted".
The passage is in fact an inner court, with apartments on all sides and 3 more levels above the ground. On the top is a roof made from colored glass, letting in an unusual light. The doors are a varied mix: some old, some new, some abandoned.
At the upper level some hooks were hanging from the roof, they were totally spooky and made us wonder about their purpose, imagining various scenarios. But they were simply for opening the windows on the roof.
When wandering to the stairs, one of the characters we meet was crazy person-type woman (she looked pretty much like a homeless person, but she had a home there) who tried to scare us away, telling is forbidden to wander on the stairs. She went even to pretend calling the police, she went back to her door and talked loudly (so he can hear) like she would have talked with a policeman at the phone, complaining about strangers. Later we learned: the place was used in the past as a location for a few movies, so the woman just wanted some money to shut-up.
Another interesting person was an old lady, she lived in the building for over 50 years and is very sad for its' current state, after the past glory: built by an anglophile, it was unique in the city, then a refuge for nobility in the early communist days, now is partly abandoned with some rooms abusively taken by gypsies/homeless people.
I don't ever try to guess the origins of the lips signs I saw in various places of the stairs walls
If the story needed a finale, when we left a luxury car was parked on Calea Victoriei, in front of the passage entrance and next to a pile of garbage. This is Bucharest, the next building is a fancy hotel, the other side of the street has sky scrappers.
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You thought Halloween is supposed to be creepy? Here's a creepier experiment: take the pumpkin you carved for Halloween as a Jack'o lantern and let it transform by itself for a few days.
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The forest is beautiful in the autumn, its roads are covered in warmly colored fallen leaves. A delightful place for a walk.
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When on a ladder the normal thing to do is to climb it to the top. Hopefully, having fun while doing it.
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The golden girl is playing into the sunset of a warm autumn day.
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As a joint project with Carmen, we made a desk calendar for 2013, it features photos from both of us put in some random order (you'll have to guess who is the author for each).
Update: here's a tutorial for making your own Inkscape calendar layout design
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This is some awesome trolling that happened at Nijikon 2012, someone posted a piece of paper on the wall with the text "if you fuck university/school, sign here" and a few kids took the bait and signed. Then another piece of paper was posted next to it, saying "if you signed there, you just fucked up :) good life at McDonalds". Brilliant!
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The main event at an anime convention is the cosplay contest and now at Nijikon it was the same. Busy with a different photo session (more on that later), I was able to attend only on Sunday, when they had the group contest, where the focus is on interpretation, less on costumes. Still, some of the plays were good.
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Out local anime conventions are growing, after Otaku gave the tone in spring, it was now the time for Nijikon 2012 to follow, bringing a number of international guests to show their cosplay skills and encourage the local movement.
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The Romanian fans eagerly awaited Nijikon, out biggest anime convention since last year (well, is not that bad, we had the smaller Otaku in the meantime), so when happened they put on their best costumes to show the world their passion. It happened over the last week-end at Palatul Copiilor in Bucharest.
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