Acasă din nou în Bucureşti – Adventures
Acasă din nou în Bucureşti – Back Home in Bucharest.
Note: acasă = ‘at home’
I’m in the fourth month of my around-the-world Adventures with a longish stay in Romania until the end of August. I’ve owned a condo in Bucharest since 2006. My current one is near Piaţa Dorobanţi.
The title image is of my study. It serves as a guest bedroom. So far it’s been used for guests only twice. I spend a lot of time there at my desk. It’s the space where the flotsam of pamphlets and memorabilia wash up when I travel the world East-West.
The picture above the small cabinet is from Myanmar. I bought it last month in Bagan. The plaque above my desk is a lacquerware rendition the cover of a Tintin comic book. It’s a French series, the French love Vietnam, and I got the picture in Saigon in 2012.
I’ve always figured the exterior worlds I explore are more interesting than the interior ones. But then I posted last week on the hotel rooms I’ve lately inhabited. The response I got suggested you might like to see my Romanian interior.
It further occurred to me to document my space as it currently is. After quite a few years now, it needs an update. So this blog is something of a Before photo album.
Acasă: My Living Room
I bought my condo furnished. That means I did not choose the furniture, below. I have now lived with it for long enough. For the past three summers, at least, I’ve realized I need a new couch and a decent reading chair.
I usually read with my legs hanging over the arm of the chair on the right with a pillow at my back. Time for a change!
View from the dining area.
The artwork on the left is from China. The nicknacks on the shelves are from all over the place: Vietnam, Malaysia, Myanmar, Mongolia. The pictures hanging on the right wall are from India
I tend to watch a lot of Romanian news, mostly to have the language in my ear. I usually watch Digi 24. Their announcers are calm, and when guests come on to discuss contentious issues there are no shouting matches, endless interruptions or talk-overs.
Over the years the telecommunications here have improved to the point that in the past five years or so I’ve had super fast, reliable internet.
On the left wall of the living room you can see an opening. It goes to a short hallway which leads to my study on the left and my bedroom on the right. On the right side of the living room, next to the lowest of the TV cabinets, is the entry to the kitchen.
Acasă: The Kitchen
I really don’t cook anymore, so in the evenings I either skip dinner or go out with friends. I eat breakfast at my kitchen table and have lunch … wherever. The wall of windows that extends to the dining area face north.
The two batiks above the kitchen table are from Malaysia
Another view:
The cabinet with the mirrors has plenty of storage. The washing machine is in the kitchen. For drying I use a rack.
Did I clean the surfaces before taking these pictures? Uh, yes.
Acasă: The Entry
Good storage here, too. You can glimpse the front door on the left.
Acasă: My Bedroom
Unlike forgoing a decent reading chair for a long time, I finally did myself a favor a couple of years ago and invested in a really great bed and new drapes.
The duvet is bamboo, which is supposedly cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. I don’t know about winter, because I’m rarely here. I can say the duvet is amazingly cool on hot nights
Reverse angle:
The pictures above the bed are from Vietnam
I have plenty of storage, all throughout the condo. In fact, many of my cupboards and shelves are empty.
View out side my bedroom window:
At the moment I have no idea what direction my redecorating is going to go. As you see, there is a lot of brown wood and beige walls, with accents of green. I definitely want to get away from the brown/beige combo.
I also have a guest bath and another one in my bedroom area. The whole is 86.2 square meters = 928 square feet. The size is Goldilocks right for me. I always enjoy being here.
Categorised in: Adventure, Blog, Romania
This post was written by Julie Tetel Andresen
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