A rock-climbing trip to Baile Herculane
It was in Romania in a ghost town called Baile Herculane. Back in the Soviet Era, it was a popular and luxurious holiday destination. It is a strange town, really. Comprised of tall concrete hotels—relics from soviet times—, even older classical palace-like buildings eaten by rust with broken windows and keep-out signs, wild dogs, rusty bridges over the Cerna river, and aging locals with unmistakable features. It was a slow and isolated microcosm, a place outside of time. Cupped between the palms of enormous stone hands.