The series dedicated to the Revolution – Part Four, in which we, the conscripts Angelo and George, tell you how and why the Romanian Army was a walking catastrophe in December 1989. Contrary to the official propaganda, which portrayed it as one of the finest armies in the world: a “multi-purpose army”. A Multi-Purpose Army! My Arse! In the 1980s, Ceaușescu imagined an immovable military force, the “people’s army”, as communist propaganda called it. Everything was perfectly organised on paper:...

Some journeys take you somewhere; others slowly distance you from everything you know. The road to the far north of New Zealand is one of these. We leave Auckland with a full tank and the familiar feeling that a journey begins when you leave the city behind. Except this time, the city doesn't disappear immediately. It clings to us for a long time: motorways, petrol stations, traffic lights, suburbs, shops, trucks, houses following one another without interruption. In the rear-view mirror,...

Two waterfalls. Beautiful, magnificent, impressive. Two names, each telling a different story. “Rossignol”—“The Nightingale”: its waters become a stream as they flow downhill, producing a gentle sound, a whisper which, according to the locals, resembles the song of a nightingale. Hence, they say, the name of the waterfall. Less poetic—or perhaps simply lacking a musical ear—we would say that its name is inspired by the birdsong echoing through the forest that surrounds it. Series: The...