Bucharest is slowly coming to life after the post holiday slumber. Four days after the arrival of the new year the traffic is still manageable and the streets are still quiet. Many of the city’s citizens seemed to have found refuge in its parks, ice rinks and malls. Next weekend the last of the bucharestians who went away will probably make it back – by car or plane – and on Monday the city will be back to its crazy, crowded self.

10 degrees Celsius and that glorious blue sky? Hard to believe.

I’m back home after a five months absence. It’s cold in Bucharest, but not as cold as expected. And the last few days were quite sunny, which I like. No sign yet of the dark gloomy days that are the norm during winter time. Two days ago I took an evening stroll downtown to take photos of this year’s Christmas decorations. As always I took too many pictures and it was hard to decide which ones I like best.

Happy New Year to all my friends. I wish you a great 2012!

The two photographs from today, shot in Herăstrău Park, are not characteristic for Bucharest. They could as well be shot somewhere else in the world. I took them while I was out for a walk, experimenting with the camera, trying different framings and exposures and not looking to necessarily capture “the spirit of Bucharest”.

Or if you prefer, the street seen from a balcony.

Today at exactly 01:27:48 PM the thermometer located at the intersection of Dimitrie Cantermir and Mărăşeşti boulevards (an area also known as “Budapesta” because of the restaurant with the same name which, during the communist regime, used to be located on one of the corners of the intersection) the termomether was showing …. hmm … -5 degrees Celsius!

Since last January Bucharest has its own local version of the Walk of Fame or Avenue of the Stars or whatever you want to call it. How about that? It lies in a little plaza near the Cocor Shopping Center and so far it has six stars (you can only see five in the photo because I took the picture at the beginning of the summer, before the sixth star was added). The project was the idea of Cocor Shopping Center and Metropolis Theater and is intended to pay tribute to Romanian actors. Out of the six actors/actresses/directors represented so far, my non-Romanian visitors might know the actress Maia Morgenstern who played Mary in the “The Passion of the Christ” by Mel Gibson.

Since last year Bucharest has joined the example of other cities of the western world in offering free summer concerts of classical music. Going on from May 8th to September 25th, they start at 19.30 every Saturday and Sunday in Colțea Park, in the University Square, weather permitting of course. Did I mention they’re free? (or rather they’ve already been payed for from our taxes, I don’t really know to be honest).

Today’s photo probably doesn’t mean much for my non-Romanian visitors. It’s a humorous yet sad poster that I’ve found in the city center, which pokes fun at the recent results registered at the Baccalaureate exam. The Baccalaureate is a comprehensive exam held in Romania when one graduates high school. This year the news that shocked the nation was that only 44.5% of the high school students passed the Baccalaureate, the poorest results in the last 20 years. Many of the students failed the Romanian language exam which I believe is mandatory for everyone, no matter the profile of the high school (science, arts etc). This failure is ridiculed by the poster, which reads “Do you know why I didn’t pass the “Bac” this year? Cause I wrote many pages”. The funny part is that every word without exception is spelled incorrectly. Even funnier is that someone answered the question by writing “You didn’t sign the paper” also in incorrect spelling.