Ploiesti Street Scenes

I went walking on Sunday.




The Cultural Building



The rain from Saturday night had left and the sun was beginning to peak out and the humidity was zooming off the scale.

I went over to McDonalds for lunch and as always, a Big Mac tastes like a Big Mac, the fries are perfect, and the coke has more fizz like at home. I also got the free wrist band (the rubber ones like WWJD or Live Strong) celebrating the UEFA Euro 2012 Tournament. Though it is so small it will only fit on a 12 year old.

After lunch, I just walked around trying to get lost and see what I could see.

I found several churches, the Cultural Palace, the local farmers market, and a book store to mention some of the more memorable.



Local Romanian Orthodox Church

 One church was just completing services and while it was open, I wasn’t sure that was the right time to walk in for pictures, so I may go back on another day. But as you can see, very old and very beautiful on the outside.  There some plaques describing the frescos and statues, but they were in Romanian, so I don't who they dipicted.

I haven’t figured out what the cultural palace is for, but it’s still a grand building architecturally.

I chuckled at the book store with the Robert Ludlum Bourne Identity and one of David Baldacci’s books on display.

Farmers Market

The farmers market was very clean and the meat was actually inside refrigerated coolers, and the vegetables looked really good. Though I did miss the smells of the spicy peppers so common in China.  But the onions and garlic section was bigger than I expected (maybe there is something to all that vampire stuff after all?) Very crowded as the locals shopped for their food.
To further my troubles at home, I did see another young waif in need of assistance who was out buying her veggies. I am thinking that maybe my friend Dan is correct and he should come here to assist me in starting up an orpanage to help all these poor pitiful lasses from a life of despair.

While I was finding these locations, the local gypsy kids were finding me and asking for money. The good news is that I can just wave off my hand and say “No.” and they wander away and don’t keep pressing. Except for this one boy and girl. They were fairly persistent. They kept after me, so I just started talking Chinese (reciting the menu and just saying food names) with all the energy I could muster. Their eyes got as big as dinner plates and just stared at me with incredible wonder and then just walked off quietly as if thinking “This guy is more messed up than us!”

"Bring Out Your Dead"

As I was heading home, there were two gypsies coming down our street. The man was driving his small one horse cart and they lady was walking next to it singing out something. The same phrase over and over again. All I could think of was the scene from the Monty Python movie where the characters were walking down the village streets yelling out “Bring out your dead. Bring out your dead.”

More Pictures ...

Bookstore Display

Church #1 Side View

Church #1 Front View

Church #1 Up Close

Church #2

Church #2 Close Up

Church #2 Statue Left Side

Church #2 Statue Right Side

Another Lonely Waif Needing To Be Saved