Ufff… I just returned to Bucharest. It was a too short night flight to be able to sleep too long – it takes less than 4 hours to fly from Lisbon to Bucharest… not enough to sleep, although, Thanks God I had plenty of conditions – all 2 seats next to me where empty, so I had almost a flat bed. Such a luxury was not available in the business class. However, in the last 2-post TBU conference days, I went to visit 2 gems close to Porto – Guimaraes and Braga. Today, I will write about Guimaraes, the European Capital of Culture in 2012 and I promise to come back with a story on Braga, as well (which I loved it more :). But, let's go and show you some places in this special town.
During the last few months, I had a special project on my Romanian blog. I asked my readers to take part at the process of electing the 7 wonders of Romania – the most important men-built monuments of my country. The election was organized in two rounds – in the first round, I asked people to nominate 10 "wonders" – the monuments they believe are representative for Romania. After 3 weeks, I counted all the nominations and I set up a list of the 15 most nominated monuments of Romania. In the second round, my readers were asked to vote 7 out of these 15 choices. The response was truly overwhelming. I received thousands of nominations (almost 150 nominated monuments) and almost 4000 votes in the final round. So, I decided that my first post about my country to present you what Romania has the best. Not selected by myself, but by thousands of voters ! So, let's start a journey amongst the best Romania can show to the world.
"Where from? Where from?" It is the 4217th "Where from?" I have heard since I got to India. It is the standard question which a vendor or a would-be guide uses to try to start a conversation with His Royal Highness, the Foreign Tourist, who would be me. "I am from Bhutan", I answer bluntly. "It's impossible" retorts the seller, amazed. "Yes, I am the adopted son of Bhutan's King, the best friend of the Crown Prince and the fifth in line to inherit the crown." The seller is left bewildered. Although I will often hear the word Bhutan around me, no seller will ask me where I come from again… Welcome to India ! Welcome to Jodhpur !