bucharest subway flooding

seemingly never ending rains have harassed bucharest for the past two weeks. for the most part the rains were annoying in their persistence and didn't cause much more than exasperation, but on friday evening the water curtain came down heavier than usual inundating some parts of the city. caught far from home i had to walk through almost knee high water on what hours earlier were perfectly dry sidewalks. at the piata romana subway stop i witnessed this unusual underground waterfall that you see pictured bellow. apparently the subway system is not waterproof...

eyes eyes baby

i met this guy last month while on assignment. i was covering the romanian eurovision song contest and he's one of the artists that took part in the competition. i really wonder how the world looks like when you look at it through those crazy contact lenses.

izvor park

i've just scanned a film and found this frame that i had completely forgotten about. i took it a few weeks ago while taking a stroll in a park near where i live.

the anti ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement) protest in Bucharest

the soldier and the president

i took these two photographs on december 1st, 2011, while covering the national day military parade. the first one was taken right before the parade begun. the second one shows president traian basescu in the back seat of his limo getting ready to leave at the end of the ceremonies.

just a mess

even though this is a pretty common sight in bucharest, each time i pass by one of these things i can't help but wonder: "what the hell were they thinking?"

my neighbors' dog

i definitely don't have the best window view, but it sure gets better every time this fellow shows up for its morning survey.

animal rights activists

these are images from two protests, organized by the same group, in the same location and with the same purpose. the first took place in december and the second happened last month. the organization's name is "cutu-cutu" which could be translated as "doggy-doggy" and it fights for animal rights. in this particular case these people were protesting against a new bill that, in an attempt to solve the stray dog problem that bucharest and other cities and towns in the country are dealing with, would allow the local authorities to euthanize the abandoned dogs that roam the streets.

in the end their and others' efforts led the romanian supreme court to declare the law unconstitutional.

note: the lady in the fourth image that looks like she was yelling was actually yawning. she did that every 20 seconds or so. i guess it was because the protest started quite early.

icicles

auction

photographing an art&collectibles auction is not exactly thrilling. it's actually plain boring in my opinion. but when one of the white gloved guys that handles precious paintings and other objects showed up on the stage carefully holding an animal skin, things got a bit more interesting and a bit more humorous.

snow in bucharest

snow arrived to bucharest late this year. i took these photos last week during a quick morning walk through downtown bucharest. it was the first snow storm of this winter.

a busy weekend

the very short story goes like this: many romanians took the streets in bucharest and in several major cities during this past weekend to show their support for an ousted official of the ministry of public health. for the most part the protests were peaceful, but on saturday and sunday after nightfall some of the protesters became more and more aggressive. the riot police had to intervene and from that point on things degenerated. street battles happened around downtown bucharest for several hours each night. people from all sides - angry youngsters, policemen, journalists, peaceful protesters and bystanders - got caught in a whirlpool of confusion and violence and some got hurt.
i was out taking pictures for the romanian news agency mediafax during both nights. below is an edit of the photos that i took.