2015.06.01 – Trip to Poland Part1

Because it was a long weekend we decided to visit beautiful Poland, more exactly to beautiful Krakow.

This was our itinerary for the way there:

We stopped for the night in Košice, Slovakia and then continue the next day.

Košice, Slovakia

I have to admit I’ve heard about this city but I didn’t know any details. It really impressed me and I might go back there some time.

By Ioana Cis

Katowice is the largest city in the Eastern Slovakia and was the European Cultural Capital along with Marseille, France. The center of the city is build in a dramatic Gothic style combine with Renaissance, Baroque and Art Nouveau, with Slovakia’s largest church in the middle of it all: the St. Elisabeth Cathedral. The long main street is rimmed with aristocratic palaces, Catholic churches and private houses, it is a pedestrian street filled with boutiques, caffes, restaurants and pubs, it’s where it all happenes in the summer. The only thing that clouds the city are the blocks build in the communist era, enormous and arranged in a domino like position.

Being one of the largest city in Slovakia and the second University center there are a lot of things happening here: film and music festivals, theatre and other out-door events. You can go rafting in the region, hot air balloon travelling, biking and a lot of all other things.

We were only there a night but I can say that the city really attracted me. probably because it is close to home and reminds me of most of the cities in Transylvania. There are a lot of places to crash and for all kind of budgets. We stayed at Hostel Barno a pretty cheap place, 15 euros a nigh. I have to say I have seen other much more better Hostels but we were on the clock and just picked up the cheapest one and it’s not that far from the city center, 10 minutes of walking.

The way to Krakow

The next day we maid our way to Poland. We relayed on our GPS, which we named Doina, don’t ask why, it was just the first name that passed our mind then. We kind of made it a longger trip and passed through the Tatra mountains, that are absolutly beautiful. Take a look at some of these images:

And yes. This is the birth place of Tratatea. It’s a great place for outdoors activities, all the resorts, as we saw were connected by bycicle roads and the scenary is just breathtaking. Plus it is pretty cheep.

Learn more:

Kosice: wiki, slovak-republic.org, visitKosice.eu

Tatra Mountains: wiki, Krakow-info, discoverzakopane.com, poland.travel, zakopane, travel, Tatra Mountains National Parc ;

The Mocanița from Vaser Valley

Summer of 2013 (uau, it’s been such a long time!!?) ended with a trip to Maramureș, we tried to visit moast of the historical places and the first Ițm going to talk about is going to be Vișeul de Sus, here you go on a time travel to the past, on the Mocanița forest railway train.

Deep into the mountain forests of Maramures there is a small town, named Vișeul de Sus where small forest trains still live and travel along the Vaser Vally.

The track from Valea Vaserului is the only forest track in Europe that still works for its original purpose and turist purposes as well. It has been working since  1932, when it was used exclusively to transport wood from the  hard-to-reach areas in the mountains. It is famous for being the last true forest track that works on steam. According to the official history it was built on Austro-Hungarian gauge of 760 mm. The track runs alongside the Vaser river with lots of curves, several tunnels and bridges for 56 km deep into the wilderness without any villages or roads but with bears and wolfs.

At the beginning of the 18th century the area was inhabited by german speaking settlers, they explored the forests and harvested the timber, sending the logs downstream of the Vaser river.  When the railway was build it was a very big progress for the area. The purpose of the small gouge was to make it easy for the trains to take the curves and to actually make it possible for smaller trains to pull empty logging waggons up the mountain and to let the heavily loaded trains to roll down helped by gravity.

Even if after 1945 forest roads began to replace forest rail roads in Europe in Romania there were built even more. In 1970 the State Forest Administration operated over 3000 of tracks. In 1986 new forestry steam locomotives were built in Romania, and in 1989 there were 15 railways operating tantalizing 1000 km. After 1990 the economic changes had a devastating effect on the Forestry industry leading to the collapse of almost all of the operating railways, most of the trains with their wagons were sold or scrapped and the tracks were abandoned.  Fortunately one of them survived, The Mocanița from the Vaser Valley.

From 2003 the railway is being managed by a private corporation “R.G. Holtz Ltd”, which holds the depot, most of the locomotives and the wagons, the railway is still state-owned along with the forest in the valley. Since 2000 the railway has been receiving help from abroad, from Switzerland to be exact from the “Hilfe für die Wassertalbahn” (“Help for the Vaser Valley Railway”). The Swiss helped with the restoration of some disused locomotives the porches of some passenger wagons, the refurbish and restoration of the historic train station. From 2005 regular passenger trains hauled by steam locos have been in operation for tourists and since 2007 the Vaser Valley has been under European protection as part of the Maramureș Nature Park.

Wainting for the airshow

While waiting for the Satu Mare Air Show I thought I should post some of my best pictures from last year’s show. The show was at Satu Mare’s Air Club at the Exit to Zalau, near the airport. There were a lot of people, maybe all of Satu Mare, I think the little ones were the most excited about it, but probably the adults were equally enthusiastic about the idea too.

Cluj-Napoca

The perfect place in Cluj to make a photo session in Autumn and winter is on the hill of the Fortress, near the Belvedere Hotel. It offers you a great view of the city and the lanes are very nice, especially when the leafs of the treas are getting colored.

The fortress was built between 1715 and 1735, during the Hapsburg occupation. The walls are shaped as a star, and it had a tour a redoubt and bastions that surrounding the fortress. It served to protect and control the city and it had administrative buildings, serving as a prison during the 1848 revolution. No it is the perfect meeting point for couples and not only, and it’s perfect for night photography. If you wanna see more, check the Facebook page.

You can see from the hill the cathedrals, the central park and other landmarks.

National Day, 1st December

The first and only time I participated to the National Day manifestations in Romania was in 2011. I guess it was a good year for me, lots of traveling and lots of changes. After visiting Barcelona, a trip to Bucharest was just perfect. Plus I didn’t saw my friends there in a long time.  Even though I didn’t see even half of the parade at least I made some interesting vintage shots.

AHFOTOBLG goes Facebook

I am proud to present the launching of my Facebook page, finally, https://www.facebook.com/AhFotoblg, So from now on you can read the story on the blog and all the photos on the Facebook page. I already updated the all posts. I hope everybody like them.

Enjoy and feel free to LIKE…

Mozilla meet-up Cluj Napoca

Dap…a trecut o luna si jumatate de la eveniment, dar acu ca sunt in sesiune si ar trebui sa invat mi se pare momentul perfect sa postez pe blog 😛

Am sa pun numai pozele  si cateva link-uri utile pentru cei care doresc sa contribuie in comunitatea mozilla, este foarte tare si poate sa aduca o gramada de beneficii.

Catalunya week – end

Barcelona, mandra capitala a Cataluny-ei a fost asaltata, in week-endul 11-13 noiembrie, de un avion plin de romani dornici de cunoastere si de distractie.

Cupa Bloggerilor

Asta e al 4 draft al acestui post…am incercat sa urc pozele chiar in ziua respectiva, dar sincer nu am stiu ce sa scriu si din pacate nici acum nu prea am inspiratie.  Asa ca mai multe info gasiti aici sau pe tweeter…

Cross-ul Companiilor

Mda….am cam tras chiulul cu 2 saptamani, nu am profitat de culorile extraordinare ale toamnei si nici nu am up-datat blogul cu cele cateva fotografii pe care le-am facut intre timp.