This year, my country is celebrating 100 years since it became "Romania". If you think about it, we are pretty young.
Somehow, a lot of us show this young age. My country still has a lot to learn, to build and to demonstrate. While slipping on a path of stupid nationalism, like the rest of the countries around the eastern and south-eastern border of the European Community, we can't seem to find that national spirit.
A hundred years ago we still had borders in what is now Romania.
Passing from Bucharest (today's country capital) in order to go to Brașov (a pretty important commercial node right below the center of the country) required to go through a border. We pass by it everyday now, each and every one of us, never considering to rebuild this former stronghold in order to accomodate a little bit of history here.
No sir. Better to leave it to decay and rot while the sound of the trucks passing by fight with the sound of the eagle that was hunting my drone as I was taking some pictures.
Right at the bottom of one of the only passes through the mountains around the area of the city of Brașov, this border crossing was one of the many others, scattered around the mountains. These were points on a border that stopped Romanians from "the Kingdom" to have access to Romanians in Transilvania. Though speaking the same language, having the same traditions, these borders existed and I suppose they should be today a reminder of the harm they were doing.
We somehow tend to forget that.
I took the pictures in two stages. The ones with the camera were around Easter, while the weather was still bad. The other ones, up from the drone, I took a few days ago and you can see that everything around is green. The mountain seems way fuller that way.
The place is really full of trees and it's not easy to drive the drone. First of all, there was a terrible sun and I had no sun shader for the phone. I was flying only by "eye contact" and on top of that, there was this damn curious eagle checking out the drone and making some weird sounds. I decided not to take the risk and fly it higher.
Guess I'll keep inside this article the old photos. The series made with the camera. I should as I got soaked while snapping these. There was this bloody rain/snow that I thought it's gonna ruin Easter.
I like their eerie look. The place looks a little bit "ghost town" like. With the round, fortification tower, and the place right down by the river as you exit the narrow crossing, this made the perfect place to put the customs. Back in those days, they were using the natural fortification to concentrate the enemy in case of something bad going on. Crossings in our Carpathians held the enemy at the gates multiple times.
I guess that checking the more recent history, this place has been also some forest ranger canton. Though it looks like it's been abandoned since before I was born. It's placed in a very small mountain retreat, on this border of the two counties, where not more than 10 houses are being constantly used. The place is pretty much deserted all time round. The only thing that "crowds" the place is the fact that the 2 lane road, passing through it, brings all the truck traffic. That's the rule around these parts. We don't have a highway to cross the mountains (to our shame), so the heavy traffic deviates through this small mountain crossing.
This could be very well a nice stop, eat and rest. A wealthy and entrepreneurial hand could easily invest in a nice restaurant, connected to the roots of the place. A restaurant with a museum, why not?
Eat while learning history.
God knows the traffic is crazy and being on a national road would mean 24-hour business. With accommodation. Anyway, this would be the first decent stop for more than 70 kilometres while coming from the South.
The pretty thing about the place is that if you just make a turn and pass behind the first line of trees, the noise of the national road fades and serenity hits. Feels nice to just stay there for 10 minutes, enjoying a way too warm May afternoon, just listening to that eagle scarring the shit out of the pigeons around.
