I could call the memory box the external memory of my laptop. I take a few photos everywhere I go, whether traveling, taking a walk, or dealing with something. They keep piling up, and then they land, for safekeeping and rest, in the external memory I mentioned. Then I forget about them. When the need pushes me, I look through the folders with photos and often wonder what I find there.

Photos are the most essential ingredient of my blogs!

If I didn't have photos, I don't think I would ever have tried to write. Photographs stimulate, help, and remind me of life moments that would otherwise be forgotten forever.

Lately, I've found something else to do with my color photos, which automatically come from my camera or phone. I love looking for photos to convert to black and white.

Of course, all color photos can be converted to black and white, but not all are recommended. Many are lost in the process. This is why I find searching for the most suitable photos for conversion interesting and challenging.

January 2019, Iasi, Romania

It is one of the most beautiful cities in Romania, in the top 5, and I was lucky to work and live there for almost a year. Located in the northern part of the country, you can "benefit" from the rigors of real winter. I took a lot of pictures.

Snow and crows, I can say less snow, but a lot of crows, which "move" to the city in winter, to find food more easily.

The snow is white and the crows are black, that's where I got the idea for black and white!

But it's not the crows that give me goose bumps (of pleasure) when I remember Iasi. The architecture, especially the old one, the open spaces and parks, the churches, the monasteries, and the cafes.

Because I mentioned coffee shops, I can say that I started to be a real coffee drinker in Iasi, even though real coffee drinkers would laugh at me when they found out that coffee means cappuccino!

The best cappuccino of all time that I can't find anywhere else, and especially in the place where I live now, in Bucharest, we drank it every day at Coffee Story!

After posting the photos, I realized they were from another cafe, more of a coffee shop, not Coffee Story.

To correct this mistake, I will have to write a separate blog post about Coffee Story in black and white, so I will end with this last photo from that winter in Iasi.

The Palace of Culture, the city's symbol, is a historical and cultural landmark.

_{This is my entry for the #monomad challenge.}

_{I rely mostly on photos in all my blogs. Words don't help me as much as photos.}

_{I always start with photos when I want to write a blog. Photos remind me of places, events, and feelings that turn into words. The words have even less importance; they are a companion to the photos I want to show. This often makes the story uninteresting or common, yet it is necessary; otherwise, the photos would merely be a series of unexciting images.}

_{I make this statement as a plea to those reading not to overjudge the text and to focus on the photos. The story puts everything in context and provides the explanations and clarifications necessary for the blog to convey something of interest to the reader.}

_{A wise saying goes that a photograph is worth a thousand words, but I'm not sure. My opinion is that it depends on the viewer.}