Passions, hobbies, pleasures... the beautiful side of life. Joy and lack of boredom. Passions (and now I'm not talking about the opposite sex or not) are the salt and pepper of existence. Our passions define us, they are part of our biography, as you can easily see in Hive, under bio, of course.
Passions define us, individualize us, bring us together or tear us apart. Like everyone else, I have a few passions, they were formed in childhood and adolescence and have followed me all my life. Some have remained unchanged but others have been influenced by my evolution as a human being and the evolution of the society I live in.
Reading was among the first serious passions I had. Considering that I lived, in my childhood, adolescence, and youth, in a communist society, with many ingratiations and lack of access to information, reading alone was my gateway to the world. I had no access to television, music, and movies of the democratic countries of Western Europe or the U.S.A. and only books could bring me a description of life beyond the Iron Curtain.
I read a lot, days and nights, several books at a time, exchanging with friends. Going to the bookstore was one of the great pleasures. Fortunately, we could find in bookshops and libraries many important books of universal literature, if they did not explicitly refer to politics they were accepted by the communist censorship.
I used to go to the bookstore and spend hours, browsing through books and often read books there that I couldn't buy. Every day I would read a few dozen pages, keep track of where I stayed, and then come back and read some more. It was pleasant, I remember with pleasure.
Then came the liberation from communism, everything became free, we had everything... music, film, television, magazines, internet. Overwhelming for someone who had almost nothing and now I was overwhelmed. Unfortunately, this abundance made a victim, reading!
I no longer had time for reading and from a book-devouring reader, I became a man who read almost nothing for years. My passion for books has remained, I love browsing books, I love going into bookstores, I love buying books for myself or as gifts but I no longer have time to read a book from beginning to end.
I remember now a walk through downtown (Bucharest), on the most beautiful boulevard (the Victory Way), and a stop at one of the best bookstores called Humanitas.
In fact, Humanitas is a publishing house that brought the best books in the world, it is a publishing house that I like very much and its director is a philosopher that I also like very much, Gabriel Liiceanu!
The bookshop is located in Revolutiei Square, the former Palace Square because this is where the Royal Palace, the former residence of the Romanian monarchs, is located. In this square are gathered several important buildings and monuments for both the city and the country. More about these monuments you can see here: A short walk under a blazing sun
Pleasant memories instantly came to me as I stepped into the bookstore. An eagerness to flip through a few books. To feel the air and smell the books.
This is not a big bookstore. It is just a small and chic one located very centrally, a representative of the publishing house. There are much bigger bookshops, real book malls, very beautiful. But I like this one in particular.
I looked up some titles, browsed through some books, made a point of reading something at home from the dozens of books that have been waiting for me for a long time, and enjoyed the totally unique atmosphere of a bookstore. More recently I noticed that the bookstore sells tea mugs and, of course, all sorts of rare and expensive teas.
I don't drink tea much but coffee always. It's a trend now all over the world, coffee addiction, so I'm in step with the world. This is not just a bookshop, it's also a small café. A book and a cappuccino!
The café is in the hallway in front of the bookshop and next to a very old church. Kretzulescu Church. Built-in 1720.
Books, coffee, and... goodbye. It was very enjoyable, I was reminded of my youth because of the bookstore and what could be more enjoyable than youth.
Revolution Square, Victory Way, I like them very much. A place where much beauty gathers. I don't think anyone can deny that.
In this last photo, part of Revolution Square, the Royal Palace, in front is the Memorial of the Renaissance - Eternal Glory to the Heroes and the Romanian Revolution of December 1989 and behind the palace, we see the upper part of a building that we, the inhabitants of the city, known as the tower block. It was the tallest building in Bucharest until 1970 when the Intercontinental Hotel was built. Bucharest is a city with high seismic risk and for this reason, no tall buildings are built.
I took a short walk in the center of Bucharest, in a place where all the buildings have a history and a story. A place sought after by tourists visiting the city, especially in summer. I went into the bookstore, had a coffee, wrote a MarketFriday post, for this community belonging to @dswigle.
Oh, I almost forgot! A flower, #alwaysaflower!
Some roses in autumn, some roses dreaming of a few more days of autumn.
HiveBloPoMo - Day 26
This is my attempt to post every day in November!
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