Strainu onLine

Today I feel like expressing my sincere hate for:

• Quelle Romania – it took them 2 month to deliver a very simple order. I understand that the goods had to be shipped from Germany, but even if they brought them by boat, it’s still too long;
• The council of Giurgiu county – because of the pitiful state of DJ601 from Bolintin to Videle. The craters on the road can very easily destroy a small car – like mine. It seems that the guys that should worry about the roads in the county are more interested in getting rich.

So until I can say it in person, I’ll say it here: FUCK YOU!

If you ever, by any chance try to format some HTML elements with javascript, and that formating would refer to float propertries, please be aware. Let me give you the most simple example I’ve met:


document.getElementById('a1').style.width='100px';
document.getElementById('a2').style.width='100px';
document.getElementById('a3').style.width='100px';
document.getElementById('a1').style.backgroundColor = '#FF0000';
document.getElementById('a2').style.backgroundColor = '#FF0000';
document.getElementById('a3').style.backgroundColor = '#FF0000';
document.getElementById('a1').style.cssFloat= 'left';
document.getElementById('a2').style.cssFloat= 'left';
document.getElementById('a3').style.cssFloat= 'left';


All the browsers will interpret it well, EXCEPT IE. On IE, the previous formating of the divs remains. The solution took me about 2 hours, and it looks like this. Do not ask me if changing the floating now would work, ‘cause I don’t know. I’m just to afraid even to think at such thing.


document.getElementById('a1').style.width='100px';
document.getElementById('a2').style.width='100px';
document.getElementById('a3').style.width='100px';
document.getElementById('a1').style.backgroundColor = '#FF0000';
document.getElementById('a2').style.backgroundColor = '#FF0000';
document.getElementById('a3').style.backgroundColor = '#FF0000';


Versiunea română aici.

The road
Map

Mogoşoaia is just a few kilometers away from Bucharest on the DN1B. Until you exit from Bucharest the road is not so good, but then everything is perfect. The shortest way from Mogoşoaia to Târgovişte is by returning a few hundred meters, then taking the DJ100A to the DN7, then DN71 to the destination. The trip should take about 1h-1h15.
[rating:4.5/5]

Food

We ate at a small restaurant in downtown Târgovişte, called Pizza C&C. The food wasn’t fabulous, but the place was clean and the service was more than OK. Unfortunately I have no pictures with the food.
[rating:3/5]

Sightseeing

The main (and only) tourist attraction in Mogoşoaia is the Brâncoveanu Palace. When we went there, the first floor was hosting the museum itself, while the ground floor and the underground had some modern art exhibitions. The most interesting exhibit was a note left by one of the visitors: „If you kid ever wants to go to an art school, beat the s**t out of him”. This says it all on the quality of the art.

The first floor was quite interesting, with lots of paintings, prints, clothes and carpets from the last 4 centuries. However, like in all museums from Romania, there were very few informations on what you were seeing so history lessons from school came in handy.

The garden is amazing and very well maintained. It’s worth making the trip for itself.

In Târgovişte, we only had time to visit the court and Chindia Tower. Unfortunately you have to pay for the pictures here, another bad habit of Romanian museums. The ruins of the palace are not very interesting if you’re not an historian, but the view from the top of the tower is quite impressive.

If you have the time, it would be a pity to miss the Dealu Monastery, just 5 km north of the city.

[rating:2.5/5]

Alternatives

You can choose to visit Ploieşti instead of Târgovişte (continue from Mogoşoaia on DN1B). If you’re fast enough, you can see both cities in one day, but I wouldn’t recommend it.

[rating:overall]

Links

• Metropotam
• http://www.patzinakia.ro/

Versiunea română aici.

The road
Map

To get to Cozia from Bucharest you need to follow the A1/E81 to Piteşti (115km), pass through the city and continue on the E81 to Râmnicu Vâlcea (68km), Călimăneşti (14km) and finally Căciulata (3km), for a total of about 200km. The road is quite good, except for the streets of Piteşti and some parts of Dealu Negru where the road has collapsed. Also, be aware of the never-ending works on the A1.

The trip takes about 3 hours without speeding. You could probably do it in 2h15-2h30 with a radar detector.

[rating:4/5]

Food

To sum it up: the food SUCKED. Big time. We ate at the Cozia Motel, but I’ve heard from some of my friends that the other restaurants in the area aren’t any better. You can see in the picture on the right the only thing from the menu they actually had, called Tocăniţă Cozia. It had no taste and it wasn’t enough for anyone.

But perhaps we were unlucky, so if you now any good restaurant in the area, leave a comment. You could help the future visitors to better appreciate the area. 🙂

[rating:0.5/5]

Sightseeing
The area is the second in the country by the number of monasteries, after Bucovina, so your only problem is choice. Mănăstirea Cozia, Mănăstirea Turnu, Mănăstirea Stănişoara or Schitul Ostrov are only a few kilometers apart.
You can also admire the Olt strait or the Lotrişor waterfall. To get to it, go another 5 km from Cozia on E81 then 2 km on a narrow path. Be aware that most cars won’t make it to the waterfall, so unless you own a 4×4, it’s better to leave the car on the E81.

The church in the Cozia monastery is quite modest, but the paintings are very well preserved. Even if nobody tells you, you might consider making the photos without the flash. There is also a museum/shop where you can see icons and books as old as the 14th century.

[rating:3.5/5]

Alternatives

You can continue on the E81 to Sibiu, the 2007 European Capital of Culture. The city is about 90km from Cozia, so count another hour and a half to get there. If you are a bit of an adrenaline junkie (or a mountain lover), you may want to return to Piteşti by DN1, then DN7C (Transfăgărăşan).

[rating:overall]

Links

• http://www.manastirea-cozia.go.ro/
• http://www.episcopia-ramnicului.ro/

• Copacul de hârtie îşi propune să ajute companiile cu reciclarea hârtiei – ele strâng hârtia ÅŸi voluntarii o transportă la un centru de colectare. Din banii rezultaÅ£i se cumpără copaci. Simplu, nu?
• GandeÅŸte în stil metropolitan! este un proiect care vrea să facă cunoscute proiectele Bibliotecii metropolitane din BucureÅŸti. Voi ÅŸtiaÅ£i că există?:D

Descriere: Un referat despre marketingul politic, pentru cursul din facultatea de Automatică şi Calculatoare
Materie: Marketing
Referat făcut la facultate.
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HotSpots Romania is the map of the places that have wireless in Romania. If you now any other hotspot, please leave a comment.

Parallel Computing homeworks from the Automatics and Computer Science Faculty, 4th year, prof. Nicolae Tapuş. Subjects:

• MPI,
• OpenMPI,
• pthreads,
• parallel Sudoku solver and generator.

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Database design project 4th year, Computer Science Faculty, Bucharest, prof. Mircea Petrescu. Continue reading…

It’s a big name for a small mashup (in romanian) from some of the guys out there doing restaurants reviews. It’s made using Pipes, the not so new anymore webapp from Yahoo! The data gathering is quite strange and difficult, as most of the websites used don’t have RSS feeds by category.

So what will you find ar rrr.strainu.ro? The latest articles about restaurants from Romania written by Metropotam, Ziarul Financiar, PAPABUN, Jurnalul de bucătărie and vinul.ro. You can read them online or get the list as RSS or JSON. If you have any other websites you would like to see here, you can always contact me.

UPDATE1: New source: gastronomie.ele.ro

UPDATE2: If you don’t want your site to appear here, just drop me a line. Do keep in mind that i’m not copying full articles and I do send the visitors to your sites to read the reviews.