I love photographing people—it’s one of the best ways to meet, connect, and learn. I do it for a living, but I also try whenever I travel. Four days in Bucharest, I tried a lot…and pretty much failed. People didn’t want their photos taken, and the more I learned about the city, the more I (sort of) understood why. We all carry things baked in from our cultures. I was told a few times that once I left the city and headed north into the countryside, I’d meet a different type of Romanian. I had my doubts. I wasn’t upset about not photographing people, but it did change how I shot the city.
Today we headed out to Transylvania—checked out Dracula’s Castle (huge tourist trap, safer with vampires honestly), stopped in this incredible little town called Râșnov where a woman spoke to me nonstop in Romanian for three minutes, showed me her cheese, and let me take her photo. Then we landed in Brașov, which might crack my top ten favorite cities. Checked into the hotel, drove to the old town, parked, and started to walk. Five minutes in, I was taking a photo of a door (the doors here are unreal—there’s definitely a series coming), and a group walking toward us started yelling for me to take their photo. It was awesome. I hope they find this post and realize how happy it made me to break the ice in this city almost instantly. Turns out, the woman is from Chicago and will be in Boston soon with her husband (in the maroon), his first time in the States. The best way to kick off this second leg of the trip. Nice meeting you all! Drop me a note and I’ll get you the photo and enjoy Boston, which is on my top ten cities, you’ll love it.
Below is Brașov from our hotel, all lit up for the night. Tomorrow, a full day here, then we start the trek back home.
tr/trp – hold life still
Always look forward to your insights while you are on your journeys!
Always so beautiful and interesting story.
Great photo … and information