Luxembourg - There and back again exhibition

I am more and more surprised to find people who do not know who J.R.R. Tolkien was and even say out loud they did not see Lord of the Rings, nor The Hobbit, some don't even know that they were books. I must be getting older or something, or maybe not in every country the trilogy was a hit. I have no clue.

For me, the Lord of the Rings movie happened when I was in my early twenties and I remember still the emotion, the enjoyment of every trailer which of course we would get on an unmarked DVD which was already multiplied a thousand times. We did not have Internet, or we did not know its capacity, the movies were released with a year in between. I remember watching the Two Towers in a room at one of my friend's house with basically the whole neighbourhood, because original DVD's were expensive and not everyone could afford one with cut scenes and extras and everything. Do you believe we watched even those pieces that got out of the movie and then discussed what it would have been like?

Those are memories no one could ever take from me, of times when the online life was 0, when true friendships were born and when we all spoke the same language and went around in the same circles where we did not have to pretend to be someone we weren't just to fit in. Easy times!

But enough about that, as I don't think I am capable of putting in words what I feel about LOTR as we'd call it. 

So here we are, in Luxembourg, in a totally online life where I found on Facebook that an exhibition with drawings inspired by Tolkien's work was opening at Cercle Cite in Luxembourg Centre. I must still be on a mailing list somewhere from my time working with Luxembourg Film Festival, cause I've received an invitation to the event opening and I really and truly wanted to go, but adult life meddled. 

So I visited the exhibition on a lunch break as I was waiting for my friend to get out of her office. I've visited the exhibition alone, with no one else around, except for the girl at the reception, and I had that feeling I had to rush it, but I didn't. I've studied each and every drawing and watched the whole movie and read all the explanations, because I owed it to Raluca in her early twenties to do so and to all my friends scattered around the world. 

If you made it this far, I applaud and thank you! 

Technical stuff 

The exhibition is called There and back again - Visions of Talkien and beyond and although you would think there were drawings from the Hobbit, the theme of the drawings leaned more towards LOTR. Nonetheless, the exhibition was interesting and combined with the explanations on the wall and the movie playing on a side made it a round event.

The artist is John Howe, it is at Cercle Cite until March 18th it is opened daily from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and it's free. Here is its description:

THERE AND BACK AGAIN - VISIONS OF TOLKIEN AND BEYOND

Journey to Middle-Earth in an exhibition of John Howe's art.

Artist: John Howe
Curator: Gilles Francescano
Original concept: Eric Necker
Graphic design: Mik Muhlen

Organisation: Le Cercle Cité
Collaboration: Les Imaginales d'Épinal
Under the patronage of the Canadian Embassy in Belgium and Luxembourg
In the context of Luxembourg City Film Festival


Visions of Tolkien and Beyond

In partnership with the Cercle Cité, "There and Back Again - Visions of Tolkien and Beyond", an exhibition centred on John Howe's art and his work on The Lord of The Rings universe will open from 9th February to 18th March 2018.

Embark upon a journey to the edges of the Shire, rub shoulders with Gandalf, walk alongside the Fellowship or tremble during the Siege of Minas Tirith, guided by the hand of John Howe and by his pencil, under the watchful eye of the cheerful elf hiding behind his beard. The art of John Howe is timeless, just like the man himself. Between his work for Peter Jackson’s films, his illustrations for the worlds of authors like Tolkien and Robin Hobb and his own research, John Howe lays the groundwork of a fantastic epic that will influence the dreams and nightmares of the inner child in us for a long time to come.

Exposition from 9/02 to 18/03 2018.
Opening hours: 11:00 to 19:00.
Free guided tour: Saturdays at 15:00

Free entrance.

If you liked this article or find it inspiring please do share it on social media and if you want to drop a line, you can find me at: Dichisuri.ro

Raluca

Buergbrennen Luxembourg 2018 - Just go Winter, already!

I feel as if I wrote about Buergbrennen too many times in my both working languages, Romanian and English. As expressing myself in writing in French might take a while, I will just write my impressions of the event and leave you with a tone of pictures and movies if I master the movie uploading tool of this blog without putting it on YouTube. If not, please go on my Instagram as I've highlighted one of my Insta Stories on my profile. 

This year, more than others I need a little bit of encouragement for passing the Winter. I don't know why, but this year, the lack of sun affected me and I've started counting the sunny days (since December 11th - 12 days of sun). Don't get me wrong, I don't mind the cold, I don't mind shovelling the snow early in the morning to get to my car, I don't even mind that the days are shorter, but the absence of sun is killing me. So much so that I've started taking vitamin D daily, prescribed by the doctor of course.

So you see, I need all the allies I could get, plus Buergbrennen was a chance to meet with friends and have a nice evening. Of course the white sky is back, but now I start noticing small signs of Spring and sun here and there, also February is almost over and in March the Spring should come. Enough of me whining, here are the photos:

If you liked this article or find it inspiring please do share it on social media and if you want to drop a line, you can find me at: Dichisuri.ro

Raluca

Luxembourg - Have you ever visited St. John's church at the Neumunster Abbey?

I have to admit I haven't, and I've been living here for the past five years. Somehow I never got to see it. Until last weekend when they organised an organ concert in the church, because they restored the organ and wanted to celebrate it.

I took some pictures then, but when I came home I started to research the St. Jon's Church and the Neumunster Abbey a little. For us, Romanians, the abbey holds a significant value, because it was there where Romania sighed the agreement to enter the European Union. Despite this post Brexit current that reached the Eastern European countries right now, I personally think that was a good move for Romania.

Back to the church, I've read that it was build in 1606 and that is has a Black Madonna. I wish I would of researched it a little bit before going there, to look for the statue, but I didn't. So here are some pictures from inside the church.

The concert was nice and it lasted a reasonable amount of time so it was a Saturday evening nice spent. If you liked this article or find it inspiring please do share it on social media and if you want to drop a line, you can find me at: Dichisuri.ro
Raluca

Spain - Photos from Zaragoza

You know I'm not the one to waste a good photo and also that I think all my photos are good, so today I'm going to show you all the wonders I've discovered in Zaragoza.

When I think of places to visit in Spain, somehow Zaragoza does not pop in my mind. I think first of Barcelona, of course, the south of Spain with Alhambra and Gibraltar, maybe Madrid, but never Zaragoza and that a bad thing. Granted it's not as touristic as the other places, but still you can get a feel of Spain when you get lost on the narrow streets or when you see those rooftops from the cathedral's tower.

I think I've said it, but I was in Zaragoza to work so not to do touristic stuff, but you know me :) Also I had an amazing guide, a lovely Romanian woman who lived there for a long time and told us all there is to know about the city and took her spare time to be our guide. I only hope I could turn back the favour one day!

I only had a quick check on the plane to see what we could possibly see and one thing stood out, the Aljaferia Palace. It's as I imagine Alhambra to be and it was impressive!

But then I've arrived to Zaragoza and the Cathedral Our Lady of the Pillar is simply amazing and it's not to be missed. I even went into the tower (don't worry there is an elevator) and the views from there are gorgeous. I even saw snow covered mountains and in Zaragoza was sunny and warm.

If you want, but I had not time to, you can check some museums, the most famous one is the Goya Musem. But just walking down the streets and pop into small shops is also a pleasure.

If you liked this article or find it inspiring please do share it on social media and if you want to drop a line, you can find me at: Dichisuri.ro