Scorpions in SIbiu!!! :):)

Yup... the Scorpions stopped by Sibiu for a free concert (yes! i mean free) as part of their Humanity world tour and we went. I am not a big Scorpions fan, i mean i only own one album that was played over and over again. I remember my mum and i trying to sing in the nasal way the lead singer does- much to my brothers anguish. :P

A local band, Compact, opened for the Scorpions, they too have been around for some 30 years. I really like their music and it was fun trying to sing along in Romanian! :P

Lunch at the Diaconescus'!

We were invited for a traditional Romanian meal to Laura's place the weekend before last and it was lovely to finally meet her mum and dad. The meal consisted of five courses which started out with 2 salads (i ate both! much to the delight of Laura's mother, and mine i am sure!:P) We moved on to a pasta soup which was delicious.

After we were finished with the soup, Laura's mum called me into the kitchen to observe how mamliga is prepared and taking the cooking class was Laura's dad. It's pretty simple really, you need the corn mix, salt, water and a steady arm. The main course of Sarmale and Mamaliga were served with their respective accompaniments. (yum!!)

Once we were done with that we were treated to an assortment of chocolate desserts and were left with no more place for the final course. We decided to work on our presentations for the high schools and continue with our Sunday feast after that. The last course was one of Laura's mums specialities- cheese pancakes... need i say more!!:):) pofta buna!!:)

Scorpions in SIbiu!!! :):)

pics for now.. post and video coming later...

Romanian Food!!

pic 1 - hot chocolate
pic 2 - Chocolate pastry from Fornetti
pic 3 - Mamaliga with sour cream at Papaya
pic 4 - Fried Chicken and Cheese at Andos
pic 5 - Vanilla/chocolate ice cream (in sibiu)

I just want to begin by saying- I LOVE ROMANIAN FOOD!! :):)

The LC has made arrangements for us to eat at two places, the first is Andos, which is a fast food joint. You can order a mini menu which can be with fried or grilled chicken/cheese/fish, and that is served with french fries and cabbage and bread. They also have sandwhichs which is not very different from the mini menu because they put everything in the sandwhich, including the french fries.

The other one is Papaya, which serves up traditional food and everyday we get a soup, a main dish and dessert. The food is delicious and oh I have to add, Romanians love their meat, bread and potatoes, and whoever knows me knows that that is all I survive on (and chocolate) :) Two dishes that I love are sarmale and mamaliga, I have to get the recepies for them. For dessert we have a choice of Tiramisu, chocolate eclairs, chocolate cake, something that is like cheesecake but is not cheesecake, something that translates to dream in English and other desserts that fall under the category of heaven/angel food/food that can make you smile forever!

I had written out some goals for myslef before the traineeship, and since I am not the most adventurous when it comes to food, one of the goals was to eat something strange… and I did… Tripe soup! I know it’s a delicacy in many places, including Romania, but its not something I have never tried before and I think I bowl of it is all I can handle in my lifetime.

But Romania has to thank its neighbour Hungary for two culinary additions. The first is the franchise Fornetti- they sell savoury bread (like patties) with everything from cheese to chocolate to meat to jam. There is an outlet on every street in Brasov and there is always a queue of hungry people at the shops’ window. The other is Kürtöskalács, its a hollow, cylinder shaped pastry fried in open fire and coated in chocolate, cinnamon, cheese, coconut, honey & nuts and thousand island sprinkles.

A drink that you will find in most pubs (lucky me) is Hot Chocolate! The consistency is just right and most places serve it with cream and a chocolate cookie on the side!! Lets just say I am qualified to write about the Hot Chocolate in most of the pubs in Brasov! :P

More art from Rudy

Pic 1- Andrei posing with his favourite one

Pic 2 & 3- More from Rudy's collection

Carpe Diem

Pic 1 - With Nico, Jenny, Andrei and Ashley

Pic 2 - with Rudy

Pic 3 - 'The kings joker changing the light of the universe'

Pic 4 & 5 - Some of his other pieces of art.

One of the new recruits (from @ BV), Rudy, invited us to his art exposition, ‘Carpe Diem’ on Monday. I don’t know much about the subject but I appreciate a fine piece of art, so I thought it would be interesting. Besides, he told us he had chosen Queen and the Beatles as background music. :)

The evening started with the Director of the gallery talking about Rudy and how gifted he is for his age(22). Then Rudy stepped up for his speech and he also made a special mention of his three international guests! :) A friend of his was capturing every moment for a documentary Rudy is making about a day in the life of an artist. Yes!! Finally, my 15 minutes of fame! :P

Like I mentioned earlier, I don’t know much about art, but you don’t have to to see that this guy is really talented. My favourite was the one called (when translated into English) ‘the kings joker who is switching the light of the universe’. I loved the colours and the strokes used in the painting, there is a specific term for it, which I do not remember anymore.

After that we made our way into an auditorium to watch a short film. It started off with images of people praying from different parts of the world. (mainly from smaller towns and villages) I always get shivers when I see images that describe the enormity of the world, things like a grand waterfall or a gigantic mountain range and with the right background music that can be eerie. So that slowly flowed into scenes of tribes from Australia, South America and Africa dancing and performing their rituals. Something that struck me while watching the different tribes was that, we are all so similar yet we spend so much of time on needling out the differences that exist between us and arguing over them. I mean we all love our parents and want to be happy and want to protect the people we care about. Right!?

(For some reason I am not able to write exactly what I am thinking, which is frustrating)

Anyway, we had to leave before the movie ended, but the movie continues to show how civilization is slowly working its way into the unexplored and undiscovered parts of the globe.

Sibiu

Last to last Saturday(27th Oct), Raluca (@ BV), her boyfriend Andrei, her friend Marcian, Jenny and myself visited Sibiu for a couple of hours. Sibiu was selected us the Cultural capital of Europe for 2007, so we just had to visit. Marcian was headed there for two photography exhibitions, so we tagged along in his car.

First impressions of Sibiu, well we only walked around the main city square, and i have to say it is very similar to the one in Brasov, from the layout to the colours. There are flags and posters on every street light reminding you that it is the cultural capital of Europe for 2007 . We might plan another trip there soon so i will have a more detailed opinion then.

As for the exhibitions, i really enjoyed them and discovered that i like photography exhibitions. :) There were quite a few Indian photographers featured there, which was really great.