Celebrating the passage of another year might come with both sadness and happiness, but you are the single one who can control that deciding how to cheer the beautiful event or next to what people. So let's say together good bye to 2021 and welcome with kindness 2022!

While in some parts of the world people are still celebrating the pass to the new year not being too much since the year in our calendars changed to 2022, there are almost 19 hours that already passed since Romania stepped away from 2021 and so did I.
2021 was a year that for some people seemed like having 2020 on repeat, and for others, it was a quite decent one.
Just look how many businesses appeared and how much some crypto coins evolved, hive and HBD also being part of these.
I'm sure that if people who are reading this post would answer to the question how 2021 was for them, we won't find two answers being the same because the last two or three years made us all live a lot more than perhaps we lived in our whole life so far, so what it truly matters now is to simply get used with everything (if we haven't already), and accept the new reality as it is, doing our best for a better life.

But if it is to answer the question from above, for me, it was a really good year, and actually, the best one since I am on the blockchain being part of this family for a little over 4 years now, so I think I have enough experience to say without fear that 2021 was a nice year for me and I hope 2022 will be at least as good as this one.

2021 made me have more trust in myself and what I'm doing, as well as daring to dream big while I was almost giving up on all my dreams, and this is a thing that can't pass like it doesn't matter that much because it had a big influence on me.

Anyway, while in one of my previous posts I explained what Christmas really means for me and what it looks like through the eyes of a girl that loves travelling no matter what, the post related to the New Year couldn't be missing, so, here we go!
It's actually the first time when I create this kind of posts, while in the previous years I was simply posting my travel blogs with just a few thoughts shared at the end of these.
But I couldn't miss the chance to talk about what 2021 meant and how excited I am for 2022. 😄
I know that many people are celebrating the holidays with their families and keep the New Year to be spent with their friends, but both I and my sister grew up being close to our loved ones also in this day, being just 2 exceptions in 24 years.
While one year ago we spent the day at home and then at a concert, the next day began quite early hitting the road to a place that we visited before but which we wanted to also be seen by my boyfriend, the destination being called Râpa Roșie (The Red Ravine), so it was a pretty good excuse to return there again.

But since we did this in the past, we couldn't stop our little tradition to also go outdoors during this period of the year so this time we started our little journey on the way to Păltiniș where we were hoping to find more snow than in the city because we visited this place at the beginning of the month and the snow we found was a lot more than expected.

Unfortunately, this time, we've only seen more snow on the slopes for the winter sports that are completed with artificial snow, but at least we got to be part of some incredible landscapes offered by nature, having fog and clouds on our feet and noticing elements of nature slowly getting lost in the white beauty.

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Along with the hundreds of journeys we had into nature, we've kind of surprised it in all its postures, but the thing we've seen that day was on a next level from everything.

I would lie by saying that these pictures were not edited, because I did add around 5% saturation to make everything more clear, but all you are seeing is real. It would be hard for me to believe so, but I was there and I know that most likely I will have to wait a lot more until I'll meet nature again the way I did. I'm in love with what my eyes got to see back then! 😍

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But since our plan was to go sledging and this wasn't possible at Păltiniș, we decided to try our luck again and get 60 km on a different direction where it was almost impossible not to find snow, namely on Transfăgărășan where we got to see snow even in May.

Even though we've spent quite a bit on the road since there are tourists coming from all the places to see this part of Romania and the queues created by cars were almost infinite, we had the mountains accompanying us the whole way until we became part of the landscape we took so many pictures of.

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And... hooraaay! We finally got to see some serious snow and now we can let the inner kids get out while sledging, but not before drinking some hot chocolate and eating some traditional food that will help us warm up a little because the difference between temperatures was huge!

Honestly, we had no hope to find snow since the mountains were not entirely covered in the white blanket we were searching for so long, but the surprise came when we stopped the car and got to see a different landscape than expected, so we forgot very fast about the cold weather and started looking for a place where we could go sledging. 🛷

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Personally, I always felt like winter is the single season when everyone can literally forget what their age is because we all will let out the inner kids get out and always enjoy the white landscape which is perfect for all ages. So along with the real kids that were no older than 14 years, I, my boyfriend and my father decided to become part of the team and do the same thing.

Unfortunately, we got to enjoy only going sledging for around 6 times each of us because the slope became pretty crowded in a few minutes while it also represents the way to a waterfall that is nearby and there were also lots of parents coming with their kids.

So we decided to have one last ride and then go back to the car and get ready for the New Year.

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While I've never been a fan of eating fish or anything else other than pork or chicken, my father thought that it would be a good idea to stop on the way home to Albota and get some fresh fish for the New Year dinner. And what better way to get it if not from a trout farm where you could catch it for yourself?

That's how a stop for a few minutes turned into an almost one hour long one where I caught two fish and my father four. So as soon as he paid for the fish we caught we got back to the car and continued our way to home.

But as I mentioned for a few times in this post, we are used to spending the passage of another year into Piața Mare from Sibiu, where it's always being held a concert with famous artists and bands.

While in my previous post the access was allowed only to those with a green certificate of COVID, this time the restrictions were paused letting everyone take part to the concert with the condition to wear a mask and keep the distance.

A thing that was almost impossible to happen since the people are not having the right education to keep safe both themselves and the people around them, but at least we got to see Subcarpati live, which is a hip-hop band from Romania that most likely gamers heard about because one of their songs became part of The Last of Us Part II.

The band was formed in 2010 and there are over 40 members having both singles together and on their own, but they all share the same genre of music, namely folklore on modern beats.

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Subcarpati's singles turned out to be some of the most loved ones since there are mixed together more genres of music so we got to see people being connected by some notes again! How beautiful is that?

For me, music was always one of the most important things in my life as it was never missing and I always found the right genre or singles to listen to heal every wound, but listening to folklore is not that easy for everyone because it's often sharing more or less sad aspects of every country, so this show did made us step from a mood to another.

But as I'm not trying to share any sadness through this post, I'll say that we spent a few hours at the concert and then walked back home where we finally cut a slice from the cake I was preparing in the morning which I can't wait to share the receipt for, in a separate post! ❤️

And as a final note, I just want to say that I'm very excited to spend the passage of another year next to some of the people I love the most, and also to thank everyone that is commenting and upvoting my posts as I would never be this happy if you wouldn't support me along these 4 years since I am on the blockchain. I can't tag all of you because I hate spamming people, but I am really grateful for everything that is happening in my life through this hive family that we all created so nicely and I hope it will remain the same a lot more from now on!

2021 brought a lot of surprises in my life and I can't wait to see what 2022 comes with in its backpack, so Happy New Year, hivers! Sendings hugs from Romania! 🐝

Oh, and sorry for the grumpy faces from the last picture, lol. The sun was too powerful and taking a picture with all of us turned into a real challenge, but hey, it's the single picture we have in the complete form from this day! 💚

Happy New Year everyone! 🎆

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