Walk

The Bucharest Of Former Times

Volume I, 1871 - 1884 The Christmas of 1871? My young age then was so eagerly waiting for it. By 10 o'clock the night of the Eve, the shrill voices of the carolers would resound all over Bucharest. In those days the carolers were children from the edge of town, children

Route No. 1

Walking around the city arm in arm with literary recollections… Laying on façades invisible memorial plates with quotes in verse or prose… Experiencing live the sensation of osmosis between fiction and reality… Feeling literature become history, and history – literature…

The Mogoşoaia Bridge

excerptsThe Beginnings With the passage of time the ancient road was called by sundry names: lane, bridge, promenade – as if it needed any name or title, this street of streets whose reign over the city goes back two hundred years. Victory Promenade! The Nation's

Adventure Under Ground

One sleepless night I went out to walk my dog. Although I had noticed that for a few days some digging had been in progress on my street, I failed to be heedful enough and fell in a ditch. Frightened, I started to scream:'Help! Help!''Well, dear,' said

Inquiry Halfway Down The Stairs

Excuse my asking sir, but people say that the grandmother of the family in whose flat you have a furnished room is your mistress. Should that bother anyone? She is a good-looking woman who has just turned 56 and if you must know it, she is quite a spicy one. It was her who

The Apprentices Of Saint Anthony

excerptIAfter Shrovetide Reverend Ghelasie, mighty tired after the evening of Shrovetide that expended to till the matins service, spent in the company of his friend and neighbor Ghervasie, opened an eye only when the early March sun, also fatigued, cast a reddish-yellow

Long Autumn

In our parts, at Jassy, autumn starts late in May and lasts until Christmas. There is no summer in Jassy. If from time to time, winter did not come we could say we have only autumn over here. Nice weather begins with foul smells, green flies and heat. Then it turns nasty.

Public Force

Paris Street in Bucharest is impassable because of the crowd. A policeman clutches at the shirt of some individual who refuses to be taken in custody and who in his turn clutches at the policeman's shirt. The public, who have forborne seeing about their business are

Captain Scabbard

excerpts EPIZOOTIC A few years ago, Captain Scabbard's company was transferred to the border to protect the country from cattle diseases. He found this very convenient, as by the frontier there is far less discipline among officers, and life is more regular. Besides,

Savings

Oh, what inclement weather! Now it rains and then it snows; it snows in the morning and rains in the afternoon; the devil alone knows what else he can invent, but anyhow the streets are full of mud. How can I reach Porunceanu's house?! If I hire a cab, I have to keep

The Beoble!

Our century witnessed the birth and death of a most interesting state, a state that no conscientious historian is allowed to overlook. I mean the Republic of Ploieşti, a state that, in spite of its only fifteen hours of life, has undoubtedly written a most famous page in

Tonia

from Don Juan CHAPTER VI Sometimes he would run into Tonia by chance. This is one way of putting it, because he often walked the streets close to her house, he went to a beer joint two corners away, sometimes he was in the park nearby speaking kindly, helping small groups