Walking, Books, Shopping... But Mostly Walking

Of all the activities and needs I have, one of the most enjoyable and easiest to do is walking. Plus walking brings many benefits to my heart and overall health.

For someone who lives on the outskirts of a relatively big city, where he finds almost everything he needs for existence and is also retired, and walk in the spectacular and representative part of the city, i.e. downtown, turns almost into a journey. A journey that often repeats itself in more or less the same places, places that are well known but where something new is always happening. Because there are always all kinds of new temptations and events, which make every walk unique.

In the city where I live, Bucharest in Romania, University Square is the most popular place for meetings and, consequently, the starting point for different walking routes in the city center. A center where there is mostly 18th-19th century architecture, and which is the most beautiful part of the city.

Following this tradition, our walk (I mean accompanied by my wife, or even better, me accompanying my wife) also started from University Square. Although I noticed the architecture and the old buildings, I start here remembering my favorite building here, which is the National Theatre of Bucharest, a building inaugurated in the 1970s.

Here is also a cross. It is a memorial to those killed during demonstrations of young people and students, in what was called "mineriade". These events are a disgrace and a stain on Romanian society, which happened after the 1989 revolution when communism was eliminated from Romania.

_{The mineriads (Romanian: mineriade) were a series of protests and often violent altercations by Jiu Valley miners in Bucharest during the 1990s, particularly 1990–91. The term "mineriad" is also used to refer to the most significant and violent of these encounters, which occurred June 13–15, 1990. During the 1990s, the Jiu Valley miners played a visible role in Romanian politics, and their protests reflected inter-political and societal struggles after the Romanian Revolution.
Source}

I witnessed these events that remain the most terrible in the country's new history. Obviously, passing by this monument, the unpleasant memories come back automatically, but moving on, oblivion does its job and helps us to come back to the present.

It's Friday again and that's what #MarketFriday is all about, this challenge, initiated by @dswigle, has turned into a community of those who are used to recounting little or big events they have experienced while shopping.

So, I try to show the shopping part, both actual and those remaining only in the wishful thinking phase. The city is suffocated by cars, it is one of the busiest of the European capitals. To encourage alternative modes of travel there are also places where you can rent bikes...

I'm not a cycling enthusiast but something caught my eye looking more closely at these waiting bikes...

... an unexpected reference to Hive.

In the end, I have to admit that this walk was not just for pleasure, it had a purpose. My wife was looking for a gift for our granddaughter and wanted to go to a certain bookstore. Although the bookstore is very close to University Square, we took a detour through the narrow streets, the old streets of the city.

This street has a nice name, it's called Lady Street. About ten years ago the old buildings in the Old Center started to be renovated. They're still working...

Here I had a big surprise... concerning myself and how I observe things. Looking between these two buildings I realized that I had not noticed before that I could see the Russian church in the back. I've passed this street hundreds of times.

Overcoming this perplexity, at the end of this street I approach the bookshop. In fact, this is an area of bookshops and antique shops, of old and new books, but second-hand.

In these places I can find almost any book, many at very low prices, as you can see from the photo, prices start at $ 0.45...

We arrived again in University Square and in front of an important building of the city. Coltea Hospital!

_{It was the first hospital in Bucharest, built on 14 December 1704, on the initiative of the backward Mihai Cantacuzino, to be a hospital for the poor. The hospital was organized and operated following the model of the Ospedale di S. Lazzaro e Mendicanti in Venice.
Source}

And so, through the rickshaw, we arrived at the bookstore across the street from the hospital, the place where we will also shop, my wife does not conceive of leaving the house without buying something, no matter how insignificant.

Bookstores have changed in recent years, they don't look the way I used to know them. They've diversified their offer, especially as people don't read as much anymore.

Books are still the majority and can be seen, in the background, on the bookshelves, but many people enter bookstores to buy items to give as gifts.

Well, my wife was looking for something specific, something she had seen before and wanted to show me. Something for my granddaughter Ilinca who is three and a half.

The initial choice was this handmade doll...

...and then I slipped into this one, made of wood.

The price of each doll was $10. I didn't buy them in the end, not because of the price, but because I thought they might be dangerous for a small child to bump into because there were wires in the dolls.

Eventually, we turned our faces to books. We bought two books and a puzzle, which were even cheaper than a doll.

Ilinca was very pleased with the gift!

After dealing with the bookstore, we returned to grand boulevard and I want to show you now an unpleasant contrast to the eye. Some people actually live on the sidewalk, next to indifferent passers-by.

A few meters ahead, we met tourists. How much the luck of each of us differs. Maybe it's not luck, maybe it's about the chance to have, or not, a normal life.

A sad end to a pleasant ride. To sweeten the pot, I again appeal to a suggestion made by @dswigle, namely #alwaysaflower!

Beautiful spring everyone!

_{Traveler to the city where I live is what I've been doing for many years, that is, I try to show what is more interesting, more important, and not necessarily what is more beautiful in the city where I live. I don't bypass the ugly places or the sometimes uncivilized behavior that I try to explain through the history of these places but I focus especially on what I think a visitor would like to see when he arrives for the first time in Bucharest. Bucharest, the capital of Romania, a member country of the EU, is located at the crossroads of Central, Eastern, and Southeast Europe. I'm going to use this tag #mycity and then put these places on the Pinmapple map for those who want to discover them more easily!}

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