It was the radiance of an opium dream, an airy and spirit-lifting vision

It actually began like any other horror story.

I was at home with The Gentle One a couple of nights ago. The previous evening it had started snowing and since then the white flakes continued falling. Indeed, it was pretty cold and windy, so we decided to stay indoors and dedicate some time to read and just having some nice relaxing time together.

 To this point everything was right.

I don´t have all my books here at the moment (unfortunately, they rest in many boxes at my parent´s place) and consequently I chose the gorgeous brand new volume waiting on my library. A friend of mine gave it to me during my recent visit to Spain this month as a late birthday present. This very beautiful copy of Tales of the Macabre is illustrated by Benjamin Lacombe and also so stunning that I spent the first half an hour looking at the pictures. But then I started reading (or re-reading, like most of you, gothic ladies, would probably do with Poe).

 Is in this point when things went weird.

Didn´t you realize?

Ok, I´ll help you a bit.

 It was a dark and stormy night, the wind was howling around the house, the snow was lashing against the window, and we were all alone in our new apartment.

So, recap: stormy night, new house and bizarre tales... we were totally in a horror movie!

In fact, I had been feeling kind of conscious about it the whole day, maybe because I am not used to the new apartment (you never know if it is haunted until, I don´t know, six months or so? At least that´s the quantity of time that I need to feel comfortable at a new place), maybe because I was reading Poe and partially because I had been watching The Conjuring the previous evening and by then I was totally horrified...

And then, it happened.

Tap, Tap... went the window.

"OMG!" I shouted, jumping from the couch. "Here they are!"

"It´s just the wind" said The Gentle One (who had totally jumped out of his seat too, and was now adopting a reasonable attitude in the hopes that I hadn´t noticed.) "And who’s ‘They’ anyway?"

"I don´t know," I answered hidding myself behind the sofa. "It could be ghosts, psychos or those evil Romanian spirits I have been reading about" (and, in point of fact, I had been reading a bit too much about Romanian folklore and the Vârcolac too, which actually didn´t help either). "I have watched too many horror movies, dude, I can recognize it when I´m in one!"

 

"I think YOU´ve watched too many of those movies now" he observed. "But seriously, it was just the wind. Now come out from behind the sofa, please"

And I was about to do it when, believe or not, lights went off.

"Oh, God!" I screamed into complete panic then. "You see? I was right!"

The Gentle One didn´t look too secure by then, but he heroically found the value to go outside (against my will, you don´t want your boyfriend to leave you in the hunted house after saying "I´ll be back in a minute") and check what was happening. Apparently, it was a general blackout affecting the whole street. And darlings, I can tell you I am not a big fan of them. I mean, I do love horror films, but just because I like to know they are not happening to me. 

The thing is that my noble fiancé was brave enough to turn some candles on and prepared a delicious dinner all byhimself (I was too busy by casting suspicious glances around) and when the electric power was restored, well, he prescribed to me a good dose of non-horror movies for a time.

 Fair enough, don´t you think?

P.S: By the way, I keep receiving so many questions about me for the next Give Away on my mail, that I just decided to open an Ask Fm account in order to make it a bit tidier. 
Remember that every question is an extra chance to participate.

This is the link: www.ask.fm/Violettebaudelaire 

Good luck!

Autumn in Bucharest

Ey, darlings! It´s so good to be finally back! I did miss you.

It looks like we arrived to Bucharest yesterday, but tomorrow is the two month anniversary of the day we moved to our new home. 

Can you believe it?

However, reporting my adventures has taken me much more time than I expected.

When we released our shimmering apartment I was foolishly convinced that we would get an internet connection soon.
 I assumed I would simply jump into the first internet provider office I could find, get a good deal and happily walk back home to make a couple of posts or whatever.

Silly Violette (I can hear you saying), she will never learn.

And you´re totally right. I am a chronic optimistic...

 The first time I visited an internet provider they smiled a lot (I really mean it, people. The kind of smile that makes you think about The Jocker), but as soon as I started talking in English the smile vanished from their lips. They (and from this point I will refer to them as The Inexplicable People from the Internez) sent someone who could "speak" English to me and explained that I couldn´t be able to register with their company as a foreigner.

 "Really?" I thought. "Ok, I´ll look somewhere else".

 

So merrily off I went, searching for the next internet shop.

And against all expectations, I heard the same words again. In fact, I tried three different companies that evening. 

"What´s wrong with The Inexplicable People from the Internez?" I asked The Gentle One. "Don´t they want our money?"

And then I started thinking they wanted something else in exchange.

 Something like children to eat.

 Because if they are able to transform a simple internet contract on a nightmare, well, they must come from hell or something.

 So, after a week of stupidity and confusion, one of those demons employees told us that we needed to get a national identity number in order to hire any service.

Yeah, like a foreigner you don´t have that kind of right.

As you might deduct, we finally got it but it took a long, long time.

Nevertheless, I am back and I´ll be able to tell you about my Romanian experience, which despite the crazy internet issue is being really amazing. ♥

The Autumn is a lovely season here, as you can see in my pictures from Herastrau park.

Oh! And I don´t forget about the whole Give Away thing.

 I kept receiving questions through the blog mail (you can see the address on the right column). 
So nice to see I have many lovely readers out there! 
I will answer them all on a post very soon and then I will claim the winner and the secret prize.

Good luck everyone.

Stay stunned! ♥