Beautiful Targu Mures!

I don't know how well you can see from this picture but this is a sad view of the town we live in. Fiona and I went for a walk on Saturday up to the plateau that rises above our town. It was a great walk (about 1 1/2 hours) on a crisp and sunny day. We even stopped at the top on a park bench and shared a flask of steaming coffee and some chocolate chip cookies, yummee!

The area is mostly forested so you actually don't get that many great views over the city but it is a beautiful place to walk. Well at one point the hill slopes down from the road enough that you can see over the houses and you can actually view most of the city from this spot. Well it was a bit hazy so of course the mental pictures that I took turned out much better than the digital ones... but what can you do.

So the picture above is only worth about 50 words but I think you can make out the gist. From this view on a cold and hazy day TM looked like it had just been through a bombing raid. All you seem to see in the distance are giant plums of smoke bellowing up from a city lying in ruins.

However, what you are actually seeing are the pollutants rising from the very ugly and environmentally unfriendly, monstrosity of a fertilizer plant looming in the distance. It is disgusting to look at and it's the enemy of my nasal passages, but it does employ thousands of people, so I guess I can put up with it while I am here. Who am I to stop families from putting food on their tables. I just wish there was a better way to get the food there... for them and for me.