Joyeux Noël tout le monde! Merry Christmas everyone :)
Christmas always reminds me that the end of the year is so close and it always makes me stop and think for a while. What have I done this year? What have I accomplished? Is everything working as I planned in the first place? Wait. Do I ever make plans in the beginning of the year?
There are days when I feel so inclined to do some work, but sometimes I work too much on one thing that I forget the other thing. There are days when all I do is just laying on my bed, doing movie marathon and eating snacks the whole day. Not productive at all. There are times when I finally do something and feeling super proud of myself. But there are also times, when I feel so low it's like the whole world rejects me.
Well, let's keep all those answers and thoughts of resolution for the next post.
Right now I am in the middle of a 10-day break in my campus. I couldn't call it holiday because, well, to be honest it's not. It's just the time for us to prepare things before we finally do our final exam. And this is the time when all I really need is to escape to a place where I could rest my mind for a while.
These past few weeks have been so chaotic. Papers, quizzes, final projects, final presentations, puffy eyes, tired mind, unhealthy body. Not to mention the other factors, such as pollution, bad traffic... It's all too much for me. Plus, it is winter for countries in the Northern hemisphere, but for me who live in Indonesia, which I could say is a group of tropical islands, winter will just never occur. Instead, we got this heavy dose of sunlight that really stings your skin in the middle of the day. I mean, yeah, tropical island... paradise... But for me. it's not the time to enjoy the sun. All I need right now is just a fresh chilly air and a solitary place where I could just sip a cup of hot tea and look at the magical view and think about nothing. No papers, no works, not even a slight reminder that I'll have my final exams coming up next week.
Then suddenly, it all reminds me of... (going back to Romania once again, people) the Apuseni Mountains Trip. Then I realized that I haven't written anything yet about the calm-rainy days I spent in the Apuseni Mountains.
It was a rainy August 17th, the day of Indonesia's Independence Day. And look where I was, far away in the mountainous chain in the land of Transylvania. Hiking up and down the hill under the drizzle. I was amazed how the cloud was so low, it's almost magical.
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| The clouds above the mountain |
It was so quiet and peaceful. I personally never thought that I will go and explore a deserted village in the Apuseni with my AIESEC friends. On our way from Cluj-Napoca, we stopped by in Polus Centre, so we all could go to Decathlon and buy raincoat or an umbrella or anything that we needed before going to the mountain. None of us expect this kind of weather, so yeah... Then the ride itself took only around 1 hour. We were listening to ALL Spanish songs at the minibus (maybe this is why I kinda started to like Spanish songs HAHA).
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| Deserted village in the mountain range of Apuseni |
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| Look who I met on my way through the mountains |
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| Just right after the rain |
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| The infinity road |
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| Shepherds and his goats |
We went to the Turda Gorge (Cheile Turzii), or if I had to describe what place it is, I would say it is a natural reserve area that looks like a limestone canyon. According to wikipedia, this place is never inhibited since the neolithic period.
And OOOH! Not to mention, we went to the biggest glacier cave in Romania called Peştera Scărişoara and that time I was wearing my short pants because all of my trousers are wet 'cause of the rain. It was like -2C degrees down there, but it was such an experience I'll never forget ^^v And at night we stayed in a bed and breakfast accommodation near the Ariesului Valley. It was such a really nice place, perfect as what I needed right now. Just like what I've posted on my instagram account:
So, I guess as the conclusion is for now... Though it sounds rather sad, I'll probably just stay at home while waiting for my body to recover (ugh, yes, I caught flu and fever now). But I'll surely will go somewhere to rest my mind right after my final exams!
xoxo, Kiara
