Bled

When I was a child, and later, as a teenager, I circled around the Romanian Athenaeum without knowing what the edifice was good for. Then I began to think that it had been built for George Enescu… And when I first entered the concert hall, climbing one of its spiral staircases,

Bucharest became the capital of Wallachia in the middle of the sixteenth century in preference to the earlier sub‑Carpathian capitals of Câmpulung, Curtea de Argeş and Târgovişte. It became the capital of the united Romanian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia

excerpt Lying on the hot tile floor, Brave Leader was reaching back and scratching his ass with the Romanian people. What he lovingly called the Romanian people was in fact a tiny little bathroom brush with ivory engravings, which he never parted with, and liked to have

Almost no one in Vintileasa saw on TV the scene when the revolutionaries broke into the famous Studio 4 in the afternoon of 22 December 1989. The villagers were busy doing other, more important things. Some were killing their Christmas pigs. Others were stealing wood. Most

The match, said the propaganda secretary, ought to represent the clear expression of the class solidarity of the Vintileasa agricultural workers with all the peoples of the world. And the match between the teams of Impetus-Vintileasa and New Road-Ţifeşti, decisive for

We joined forces and bought him an amazing present for his birthday. Then we put on smart black suits and black hats. We took the present and went to his place. It was two at night and murky. The fair was empty. Only a few pairs of lovers were kissing hidden in the merry-go-round

Arhip had written thus: Educationally, the novel does not amount to very much. As simple as that. Even too simple, an aesthetically-minded critics might have objected. The typist, thinking of dinner, of guests and the fact that she hadn't managed to rustle up everything

I couldn't say I was properly introduced to Magdalene, the wording would be equally pretentious and inexact; as a matter of fact, she actually rushed into my studio… She was tired, exhausted, shabby, as if she had come out of the hundred year war. I had worked all

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

After the conclusion of the treaty with Germany, a big cloth producer from Berlin called his oldest and most loyal clerk and told him:The Treaty with Romania was ratified. Mr. Madger1 was quick. We must resume immediately our relations with the Romanian merchants. You called

Mitzu and Barutzu have grown up some and started conspiring. In the brief reprieves between a lot of hair-pulling and two-way jostling, with their generation's interests in mind, they eventually realize they are in duty bound to organize against the big guns: Mummy

Neamţu Monastery: My coat hanging loosely on my shoulders. I was slowly climbing the road to the hermitage. I was drinking in the bracing mountain air like some life – giving elixir. Now and then I stopped to embrace with eager eyes the flint rocks whitening the distant