24 iunie 2017 - Ziua Universală a Iei sărbătorită în Luxemburg

Dragilor,

Am să încep așa: Mulțumesc! Și le mulțumesc în primul rând celor care au făcut efortul să vină. Credeți-mă că și eu ies din casă în weekend doar pentru evenimentele care îmi fac o reală plăcere. Așa că nu pot decât să mă bucur că peste 30 de oameni au ales evenimentul nostru pentru a ieși din casă. Apoi le mulțumesc tuturor celor care au venit, au socializat, s-au pozat, au postat pe rețelele sociale folosind hashtagul pe care l-am creat pentru eveniment. Vouă, dragilor, vă mulțumesc! Și îmi cer umil scuze că nu am apucat să trec personal pe la toată lumea să schimb o vorbă și să vă mulțumesc personal. O fac acum.
Nu știu voi cum v-ați simțit, dar eu m-am simțit super. Am simțit că am alături oameni de calitate pentru care a meritat tot efortul. Și ca în fiecare an au fost mici surprize care mi-au dat aripi și mi-au demonstrat că sunt pe drumul bun.
Ziua a început bine, am cules lavanda din care am reușit să fac trei buchețele, apoi mi-am pregătit IA, dar și iile pe care aveam să le împrumut prietenelor. Când a venit timpul am plecat spre Luxemburg, iar când am ajuns în Piața Clarifontaine oamenii se adunaseră deja. Am lipit litere pe ramele aduse de Elena, care se chinuise cu o zi înainte să le curețe, apoi am făcut poze, am socializat, am făcut poza de grup și apoi am fost la restaurant. Acolo am mâncat paste și am vorbit cu cei care au dorit să ni se alăture. A fost super să îmi am prietenii aproape!
Cam asta a fost, nu vă mai țin mult în suspans, ci vă las cu poze. A fost frumos așa cum trebuia să fie! Vă mulțumesc!

 Asta a fost Ziua Iei în Luxemburg pentru mine. Desigur, sunt mai multe poze, dar fiind blogul meu personal am ales doar pozele în care apar eu.

Mă găsiți pe Facebook, la Dichisuri.ro

Raluca

Belgium - Autelbas Castle

I don't know if I ever told you, but my husband is a castle lover. On the first months of our arrival in Luxembourg he found online a map with all the castles in the area and in the past four years we started to cross of the list one castle or even more each weekend. So much so, that now we visit castles with our friends and we go to castles which are more than two hours away from us, because we visited all there was to visit in our area.

Still, from time to time we discover little hidden gems, surprisingly close to us. That was the story with Autelbas Castle.

Autelbas Castle, known to the French speaking people as Château d'Autelbas, is a ruin of a castle which is very close to Arlon, in the province of Luxembourg in Wallonia, in Belgium. I do have to say, that even in ruin, my husband loves castles and we spent a gazillion minutes noticing all the details of it. It would not be a problem, but with this castle I kinda got the feeling that it was private or on someone's property that we were trespassing.

No one came to rush us out and my husband even went inside a yard, which was definitely private to take pictures of a gate. I guess that's passion.

The Autelbas Castle dates back to the 13th century and it was the residence of Autel family. Did I ever told you that in this area there are a lot of castle owners? Even the owner of our house descends from castle owners and his castle was reconstructed and is very close to Arlon, but in Luxembourg. We live close to the "Valley of the seven castles" which are all privately own and if you follow my blog you probably remember our adventures of crossing out all the castles off the list, private or not.

In 1413 the Autelbas Castle was ruined and reconstructed in 1432, only to be burned to the state it has today, in 1983. Because it is technically a ruin, the visits are prohibited and I got the feeling that visitors were unwelcome. There is a farm around the castle, with cows and manure so even if the ruin has its charm, one can't get pass the feeling that the castle is out of touch. Still we took plenty of photos to show to you and who knows, maybe someday the ruin would be consolidated and the park around it will host medieval fests as the other castles in the area.

If you liked my post you can find me on my Facebook page, Dichisuri.ro 

Raluca

Celebrate the Romanian Blouse in Luxembourg!

The Romanian Blouse celebrated in Luxembourg in 2016

Romanians in Luxembourg will celebrate for the fifth consecutive year the Romanian Blouse, called IA. Initiated by the online community “La Blouse Roumaine”, the festivities will take place on Saturday, 24th of June.
At 6 p.m. we will be in Place Clairfontaine, in Luxembourg City, wearing our traditional Romanian Blouses. After that, we will go to a beer garden where we can get to know each other better, and we can share the story of our IA.
If you are curious about Romanian traditions and folklore, and if you want to get to know us better, please join us! You can admire first hand this beautiful piece of clothing.
The Romanian Peasant Blouse is a representative piece of our folklore. Rooted in an idyllic past, Romanian women carried on the tradition of sewing peasant blouses. With everything being done manually, from the fabric to the thread and embroidery, just a single blouse can be created during the winter season. For just one blouse, the woman would work from three weeks to three months. During Easter Celebrations, she would wear her new blouse, being admired by the whole village for her craftsmanship and ingenuity in creating these authentic pieces of art.
IA preserves tradition through its ornaments, which highlight the differences in age, social status, and life events. The structure of the Romanian blouse has remained unchanged over the centuries.
In 1940, the famous French painter, Henri Matisse, created an important series of paintings which portrayed women in Romanian blouses. The beauty and handmade embroidery of peasant blouses inspired several designers, like Karl Lagerfeld, Tom Ford and John Galliano, but the Romanian Blouse is the original.
That is why, the celebrations of the Romanian Blouse in Luxembourg, give you the unique possibility to admire and ask questions about this piece of our heritage. Every Romanian Blouse that traveled to Luxembourg is bearing a story, either they are inherited from grandmothers, or they are found in a remote village or bought at the market. No matter the case, in their migrant luggage, the Romanian women found a place for their blouses.
The 24th of June gives us the possibility to proudly wear our blouses and tell their stories. For five consecutive years we celebrate our dear blouses in Luxembourg, and we would like you to be part of our story.
In 2013, over 24,000 people, in 50 countries, across six continents, chose to voluntarily participate in the day of the Romanian blouse. In many cities around the world, Romanian women wore IA and then posted their pictures on social media. The day of the Romanian blouse is celebrated every year on 24th of June.
Celebrate IA in Luxembourg! To view the full program, visit our Facebook event at:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1790860431229383/
Raluca Caranfil

Luxembourg - Remish - Salsa Cruise

The weather in Luxembourg is definitely better then last year and the year before. So much so, that I managed not only to insolate myself daily, but to burn my arms and face. I'm not complaining though, I have all the sun protection creams in the world and I actually prefer this weather to the cloudy and rainy one that Luxembourg usually has this time of year.

I've told you about the weather because there will be a lot of posts with outdoor activities, cause what to do when It's sunny outside?

One of those activities was a Salsa cruise on Moselle. I honestly have no idea how to book such a cruise, my friend took care of the booking, but I guess if you look hard on the Internet you will find all the details. They went a long way, but people living in Luxembourg are still not that Internet and social media friendly so you have to know someone who knows something, unfortunately that's how it works.

On that particular day there were a lot of someone on that boat cruise, I would say around 200 people if not more, so somehow this Salsa cruise is advertised, I just don't know where to look.

The cruise started at 7 p.m., the boat left at 8 p.m. and it came back to the shore around midnight. As I understood the party continued until 2 a.m., but the boat was docked.

We started in Remich in Luxembourg, we went up to Schengen, we crossed into France, we spent almost an hour to go through the flood gate and then we turned, spending another hour to get back through the flood gate and back to Remich.

Of course this are small details, because people who embarked on the cruise were not there for the itinerary. A Salsa Cruise means that people are dancing salsa while the boat travels on the Moselle. As I am not much of a dancer, I enjoyed the scenery, I took a million pictures, I ate pesto pasta and danced a little, but not too much.

I was in great company and I had a lot of fun. I will definitely repeat the experience!

 

If you liked my post you can find me on my Facebook page, Dichisuri.ro 

Raluca

Luxemburg - Romania - Mi-am purtat IA peste tot

Dragilor,

va scriu acum pentru ca am timp și pentru că perioada mai încărcată s-a terminat. La mine e așa în valuri, ori mă plictisesc de mor de viață, ori am treabă și evenimente de nu mai am loc în agendă. Tocmai am încheiat o astfel de perioadă, care recunosc că îmi place, așa că acum am detașarea de a vă povesti. Și despre ce să vă povestesc eu, dacă nu despre IA mea. Ați mai văzut-o, am mai purtat-o, e o ie veche de cel puțin 60 de ani care se ține încă bine, care nu respectă întru totul canoanele, dar eu o iubesc.

Cred că v-am mai spus că eu port ii pentru că simt că mă protejează, așa și cu IA asta, o iau când am nevoie de ceva acolo să nu fiu singură. Și până acum nu m-a dezamăgit. Pe foarte scurt, am organizat în cardul unei conferințe la Universitatea din Luxemburg, un panel/un atelier.

Eu am intrat în treaba asta de undeva de pe margine. Am făcut un filmuleț în care spuneam că IA este un obiect al zonei mele de contact și vorbeam cum îmi păstrez eu identitatea cu ajutorul Iilor. Cred că am și postat pe aici respectivul filmuleț, pe care la vremea lui eu l-am considerat mediocru. Profesorilor mei li s-a părut genial și m-au invitat să spun două vorbe în cadrul conferinței, așadar la început trebuia să vorbesc de filmulețul meu maximum 5 minute.

Însă, pe parcursul pregătirii conferinței, fără să vreau am ajuns un fel de coordonator. E o poveste lungă și nu vă mai bag în ea, dar panelul trebuia organizat de artiști, iar tema era cum se poate integra actul artistic în educație. Eu nu am nici o treabă cu tema asta, dar pentru că nu am trac la vorbitul de vorbe în public, am ajuns coordonator.

Evident că am purtat IA (și evident că fiind coordonator și vorbitor, nimeni nu mi-a făcut o poză decentă), am primit complimente și am și câștigat un premiu pentru cel mai bun panel al zilei.

A doua zi am plecat spre București și evident că IA a venit cu mine. Am spălat-o seara și am uscat-o pe calorifer și cu uscătorul de păr ca să o pot pune în bagaj și să nu putrezească, fiind udă. Și am purtat IA și la București și mă credeți că au fost vreo 5 oameni care mi-au zâmbit? Și e chiar greu să îi faci pe oameni să zâmbească în București.

Am mers cu IA la cel mai nou muzeu din București, Muzeul kitschului, unde am pozat în Pirandă pe o canapea kitschoasă

Apoi am mers de la Universitate la Romană și înapoi, pe jos să căutăm o carte la Cărturești Verona. Probabil că am să scriu cât de curând și o postare despre cum s-a schimbat Bucureștiul de când nu l-am mai văzut, dar important e că am purtat IA.

Scuzați multitudinea de selfie-uri, dar trec printr-o fază în care cred că doar singură îmi pot face poze decente. Probabil că o să treacă :)

Mă găsiți pe Facebook, la Dichisuri.ro

Raluca

Luxembourg - Live Cinema@Philarmonie

I've just made a list with all the posts to write on the blog and I've panicked a little because I have a lot of stories. First thing first, let me tell you about Live Cinema at Luxembourg's Philharmonic.

I don't know if you are familiar with the concept (I wasn't) of Live Cinema. You watch a silent movie and the orchestra plays some sort of a soundtrack. The "official" definition I found online describes Live Cinema as "live musical accompaniment of silent movies".

Nevertheless, if you live in Luxembourg you can experience Live Cinema at Philarmonie every month. You have to check their website for information and tickets. I went to The thief of Bagdad, but there are more silent movies to choose from. Next I might try a Charlie Chaplin movie

A word of advice, although you might be tempted to buy a ticket in the first rows, don't. If you want to watch the movie, it's uncomfortable. If you are more interested in the performance of the orchestra, maybe it is a good idea. I had tickets in the forth row and my neck was stiff for a day after, but because I was the first time at this sort of event I've learned my lesson.

I am more active on my Facebook page: Dichisuri.ro.

Raluca

P.S. Wearing a fancy dress is not mandatory, I even saw people in their jeans. I am old school and I've dressed up for this occasion. I so rarely wear my doll dresses, that I have to take advantage of every chance I get.