I'm back!

"I'll be back!"
Just got back from a long(3.000km), wild, crazy but fascinating trip to "very" Eastern Europe: Ukraine, Russia.Let me start with good things. The "greatest" good things that russians have are: good roads and good women ( in Romanian translation: dumuri bune si femei bune:)
Well, the roads are not as quite German or American highways but way better then the roads that we see, have or hope to have in Romania.It's incredible what they did without European help. Good roads are great when you have to travel long distances and these countries are endless. The traffic I saw reminded me about strong economies such as German or American. The trucks, buses and cars were just older then me( and I am pretty old:)Also, interesting to notice that from every 5 vehicles, every 4 cars were "Made In Russia".
I will not make any comments on good women.I'll only suggest to go visit and see by yourself. Dosvidanya!

I'll hit the road

"All roads lead to Rome..."
The Romans, for military, commercial and political reasons, became adept at constructing roads.At its peak, the Roman road system spanned over 70,000 km and contained about 372 links.
In our days roads lead to different directions. Yes, many are still headed towards Rome but I choose the opposite direction.Tomorrow early morning I'm leaving to go East. So far, I visited and have been in 11 countries primarely located in West. It's time to visit again some "wild" places. Last time I visited Russia and Ukraine in early '90. I am excited for visiting these places again especially that I'll get to Caucaz mountains, Azov and Black Sea etc.Unique places.
I'll be gone for less then 2 weeks but... I'll be back!

Just friends

"The only way to have a friend is to be one..."
I read once that we all keep our friends for personal benefits. When we realize that a person can't bring us any other favors, we'll let it go off our list of friends.
Just think of your amigos, aquintances, friends, good friends, best friends. Why do you consider them friends? Maybe because they are nice to you, maybe because they listen to you or help you when you need, maybe they make you feel important?....
Are we friends because we help/like/listen to each other OR we become friends after we help/like/listen to each other? I have no ideea.
Maybe beeing nice/listening/helping all the people around you, eventually you will find people with same values who will turn into your aquintaces, then friends and good friends or...maybe not.
Real friends are like precious jewels. Very hard to find.

People's greatest need

"The deepest need of human nature is desire to be apreciated..." W.James
For years many wise people spoke and wrote about human relationships.The main thing is: treat every person in the way you would like to be treated. Sounds easy.
Show respect, smile, be patient, be kind and nice, no cursing etc.
Recently couple of my Romanian friends who immigrated 2 years ago to another continent came back for a visit.They mentioned 2 things that bothered them while visiting Romania: 1. A lot of smoking; 2.Plenty of rude/impolite people (stepping on toes, cursing, etc).Words such as "Thank you" and "Sorry" are not very popular around here...
No wonder why Bucharest and Bombay got the last place of "The friendliest cities in the World".
Let us be friendlier, nicer and let us smile more. Let's make the World a better place. I start with myself. What about You?

Stinking communism

"We are moving toward a new world, the world of communism..." M. Gorbachyov, 1987.
Today, while walking thru Bucharest downtown I was a witness of a situation which made me think of communism era.
At a traffic light, a man with a foreign accent started yeling:" Helloooo! Do you miss communism? Ceausescu? Do you miss him? Do you love Fidel Castro? Do you love communism? Do you want communism to return?Hellooo...". Need to mention that this man had a cuban look and was adressing to 3 young man( one of them had a t-shirt with Fidel Castro(!). The funny part was that all of these young man were not Romanian and had no ideea what's going on.Later I got to talk to them.
It looks like today communism stuff looks cool: we use it on clothing, on TV ads and newspaper.It looks like today many of us already forgot the smell of old era. All the places where communism was are under construction, are left behind. Even some new sky scrapers are built the mentality and sistem is still there. Today I wandered: Do I miss communism? Do we miss communism...stinking communism? Hopefully not.

Learn.Live.Hope.

"Learn from yesterday, Live for today, Hope for tomorrow"
Past is gone and I can't change it. The only things I keep are experience and my memories, some bad and other good. Past may be my teacher or my ruller but I should not let it guide my life. It's gone and only good things are worth keeping.
Present is here and I should live it in such way that when my present becomes my past, I will keep it and treasure it.
Future is coming. My past and my present can influence my future but I decide today how my future will look...
Learn. Live. Hope. Life is worth living.

To be or not to be a ...blogger?

In the beginning there was the Word. It existed before we all showed up here, it was before we all thought about internet or bloggs. It will exist after all of us will be gone...
People use words to express feelings, desires and dreams. They use them to heal or to kill, to build or destroy. Some words are full of wisdom, other words are stupid but all have power. Some words are still alive but other are dead. What keeps words alive? People? Technology? Maybe something else...