Ursu's Magic Adventures

19/11/2025

07/03/2021

The Easter Lent is starting next week in Romania, so I cracked open a jar of porcini/boletes I picked and dried last summer and cooked some pork and omlettes for the family in a feast worthy of the following 40 days of fasting ahead.
🍃🥓🧀🍄🍳🌶🍲
There's no real way of explaining these tastes and textures, so you have to come visit and experience them by yourself!
🚐🐻💪💚

06/03/2021

The first big thing to hit me when I first started living in a van was how close you are to everything: warm and comfy inside your mobile abode, but just a simple gesture away from the elements, the sun, your bare feet in the dewy grass or a visiting cat. 🚐🐈
Having all your comforts and security at hand and still being able to feel the refreshing mist of a morning sunrise in a different spot, day after day, is nothing short of a miracle. 🐻💚🌄
Wanna see what I'm talking about? Come on a magic adventure with me!

05/03/2021

Scattered all along the land, perched on hilltops in ancient vantage points, the ruins of old still keep silent watch over the vineyards of Western Transylvania. 🏰🧱🍇

Nothing pairs better with an old wine than drinking it in the presence of these ominous walls, enjoying the same views as the brave knights that wrote this land's history. 🍷⚔🎑

Ruins and Wine is going to do just that. There's still a lot of work to be done, but i just had to share a taste of the concept with you, so what do you think? 🤔🧐🎩

04/03/2021

The best part about living in a caravan is that it has a lot of 'the best part about living in a caravan is...' moments. 🚐🐻🥴
Sunsets are definitely one of them. 🐻💚🌄

Awesome music by CORBU

04/03/2021

My favourite weapons of choice 🚐🐻🎩🎸

04/03/2021

'Damn! I actually live here!' 🤩
Every now and then I find myself in some random amazing place somewhere in this magical paradise that we live in and I find myself thinking this fortunate mantra. 💚

03/03/2021

It's been quite some time since the last time I got high, but I swear this sky looks like bubble gum freakin' ice-cream, right? 🚐🐻🥴🌌🍨

03/03/2021

Happiness is only real when shared so come on, let's brew a coffee in a wooden fire on snow close to a creek in the forest with a ukulele! ☕🌳🔥❄🏞🎸🐻✌🚐

02/03/2021

Ever since the pandemic started I've relocated to my hometown in the western part of Romania, Arad. 🏡
Though the last 30 years of my hometown are shameful at best, the area is amazing and the nature, vineyards, lore, ruins and stories of old are captivating. 🏰🍇🍷
I'm really excited to start sharing with you the awesomeness of my homeland, so here's a tiny taste of some visual history. 🗝🗺

"Mappa della Transiluania e Prouintie contigue", printed in 1699 in Sibiu (Hermannstadt - Nagyszeben) by Giovanni Morando Visconti. The well-documented map also included the area of Arad among several important city views from Transylvania.

Soon after the Treaty from Karlowitz, the Habsburgs began to rule in Transylvania. They wanted to know this territory as well as possible, so Giovanni Morando Visconti, of Italian origin, will be contracted by the provincial chancellery to carry out this task, he will arrive in Transylvania where he will stay for an important period of time, his headquarters being in Sibiu. He was appointed chief military architect of the province.

In 1699, Giovanni Morando Visconti together with his assistants Johann Conrad Predtscheiner and Stefan Welzer finalized one of their biggest achievements, "Mappa della Transiluania e Prouintie contigue" (117,5 × 99,5 cm), an extremely complex and well-documented work, which includes 1141 localities, as well as 14 plans and vedutas of some cities from Transylvania (Sighişoara, Deva, Gheorghieni, Braşov, Odorheiu Secuiesc, Făgăraş, Bistriţa, Mediaş, Gherla, Cluj and Sibiu) and Serbia (Niš, Belgrade and Novi Sad). The field researches, the measurements, the topographic works, and the preliminary drawings were the results of teamwork; the leader of the team of topographers was Visconti.

¶ Only one copy is still preserved in Romania, in the town where it was printed, Sibiu (Brukenthal Library, Manuscripts, inv. no. 912 H).

¶ Cardinal directions are in Italian. O (Oriente) - East / P (Ponente) - West / M (Meridione/Mezzogriono) - South / S (Settentrione) - Nord



Sources:
Dragoș Măndescu - Archaeology on Visconti's Map of Transylvania;
Institute and Museum of Military History - [B IX a 487/15] - Budapest;
Gh. Anghel, Toma Goronea, Primul proiect al fortificaţiei bastionare de la Alba Iulia ... în Apulum ###VI, Alba Iulia, 1999

02/03/2021

Though picked and sold almost to extinction in most of Europe, the mighty but delicate snowdrop still grows in abundance in forests all along Romania. ❄💧🏵
Among the 3 species that grow in Romania, Galanthus nivalis is the most widespread. It's not an endangered species just yet, but populations are under surveillance as it is endangered in the rest of The EU. ✅
I've always liked flowers and I'm a big supporter of picking stuff from the forest, but I believe the most important aspect of this situation is sustainability! Whenever you forage, balance is paramount! ⚖
Nature provides quite enough for all of us, all we need to do is get along and not be greedy! 🤷‍♂️

Come on a magic adventure with me and let's find some of these elegant beauties in their own wild environment. 🐻🚐

01/03/2021

In case anybody's still wondering why I like mushrooms so much, this colony of 'Boobnipleus tittyformis', a very real and absolutely not made-up name, should explain everything.🍒🤗😋🥴
Come on an adventure with me! 💪🚐🐻💚🍄