Little Surprises

Sometimes showing interest and knowing a little of the language makes a big difference.  We found this out repeatedly in Brasov.  The elderly gentleman in the photo is one of a group of three who made this sculpture.  It was made s part of a celebration of the overthrow of Ceaucescu.  The sculptors circled Romania's borders thrice with it before bringing it to its current resting place.  He also told us about some of the changes to Brasov over the years.  The Brasov sign on the mountain, for instance, said "Stalin" in the 1960's.  All of this was in Romanian and it was very interesting talking with him. 

Nine Tenths

I am nine tenths of the way done with the border bars!  That means I am so much closer to being done.

Beautiful Boxes

We took these two painted copper plates to MolDeco and they turned them into these beautiful boxes.

Out And About Brasov

 Some photos from the municipal center of Brasov; you always know the town you're in because it's right there on the mountain.

The Legacy Begins

 We have had Risk Legacy for a while and were waiting to gather a group of people to play.  Got that now and played our first two games.  The board's changed a lot already!  The game goes much more quickly than old Risk and it's quite fun to play.

Poppy Done

Well, it's done and I don't like the results.  This one I'm going to blame on the directions.  It seems the designer was not familiar with the threads actually in the kit, which resulted in lack of coverage on the border.  The instructions were perfunctory and hard to follow.  The chart was unclear. And I really hated working it.  It's done now, so it's one more piece off my list!  I learned to not start something without proper instructions.

Toppling A Dictator

 In the center of Brasov there is a small park with about three dozen graves.  All of the fallen were killed or injured during the uprising against Ceacescu in 1989-1990.  The youngest is six years old.  This area is revered and taken care of and shows the price of freedom very starkly.