Romania - In Sibiu the houses are watching you

I was so pleased to see foreign tourists in Sibiu, you can't imagine! That means that there is something to see and do in Sibiu and that this town has touristic potential. Nonetheless, as much as I've looked on the Internet I could not find an explanation for Sibiu's eyes. I had to turn to Romanian and in my language there are some articles. So this post is meant to explain in English what is the deal with Sibiu's eyes and of course to post my multitude of pictures taken last week in Sibiu.

Now, a few things for the ones that never heard of Sibiu, like ever. Sibiu is a Transylvanian town build by the German population that came to Romania in the mid 12th century up until the late Modern Age. They called it Hermanstadt and the architecture that we are able to admire today in Sibiu is due to their influence. In 2007 Sibiu was together with Luxembourg the Cultural Capital of Europe and the connection between these two cities is maintained until today.

Sibiu's eyes are an architectural improvement for a problem that the people of the town faced. On short, they were not able to keep their edibles in the basement because the soil was moist, so they build their houses with large attics where they would store food. The attics of the houses in Sibiu's centre are two storeys high and the eyes are just ventilation shafts.

They are made in this unique construction way since 1700 and today the people of Sibiu lost the craft techniques to make them. Although I saw the eyes in Brașov and Făgăraș, the people in Sibiu claim that their eyes are unique. I guess you just have to visit all the Transylvanian towns to see for yourselves.

The eyes would help air the attics, but at the same time their shape would prevent the rain from coming inside. Essentially they are made of roof tiles raised from their place using clay. Today Sibiu's eyes are a trademark of the city and I have to admit, they look great in photos.

Every time I saw them I imagined that they are sleepy or wide awake and to me they don't look creepy at all. Somehow you don't feel alone in Sibiu. The houses are forever watching!

I only hope that the people of Sibiu would take more care of their heritage, because what they have is unique.  

  As you can see some of the eyes are left uncovered, but modern times ask for modern improvements. Some of the attics are habitable now so some of the owners covered the eyes with glass and some of them closed the eyes altogether. I was a little disappointed of Sibiu. Once you leave the city centre it becomes an old communistic town with angry and mean people.

I hope you loved reading this post as much as I loved putting it together! Also, if you fancy keeping in contact with me, drop a line at Dichisuri.ro on Facebook.
Raluca

Ce reprezintă cămășile românești pentru mine?

Dragilor,
vă mulțumesc că ați fost răbdători și ați urmărit pagina blogului și cât am fost inactivă. Am ales să scriu această postare în română pentru că în ultima perioadă am participat la vreo trei evenimente ce au legătură cu iile/cămășile românești. Primul a fost vernisajul expoziției IA Aidoma în Lausanne, Elveția, al doilea a fost vernisajul expoziției IA Aievea în Sibiu, iar al treilea a fost organizarea Zilei Iei în Luxemburg.

Pe rând veți găsi aici postări cu poze de la toate trei, însă azi vreau să stăm la povești. La Sibiu am fost întrebată ce reprezintă iile pentru mine. Și evident ca orice jurnalist care se respectă, mi-am găsit greu cuvintele, iar ideile alea geniale au venit seara în pat când momentul trecuse.
Pentru mine iile (pe care din rațiuni personale le voi denumi de acum cămăși) reprezintă legătura cu România.

Ca orice român plecat de acasă (fie că recunoaște sau nu, sau că e conștient de asta sau nu) îmi e dor de ce e al meu, dar în același timp ce a fost al meu nu mai este. E un paradox, dar e firesc, țara, orașul, lumea, universul meu, odată lăsat în urmă nu a încremenit în timp. Sunt noțiuni mobile și e normal să fie așa. Și cu fiecare vizită acasă sau cu fiecare contact pe care îl am cu România, o găsesc mai schimbată și mai îndepărtată de ce știam eu. Dacă e schimbată în rău sau în bine, nu e momentul să discutăm aici, însă pentru mine e schimbată.

Dacă mai țineți voi minte Amintirile lui Creangă, cum pleca el cu căruța din satul lui și cum ne punea profa de română să găsim metafore. Ei una era cea a universului pierdut, pe care o spuneam papagalicește, dar pe care viața m-a învățat că nu e o glumă.

Știu că probabil sunt eu mai artistă, mai sensibila (deși nu par), dar pe mine mă doare ca și cum aș fi pierdut ceva. E o frustrare, amestecată cu durere, cu dor, e un sentiment pe care nu îl pot descrie. Ei aici vin cămășile. Bucățile alea de pânză ce poartă cu ele un univers. Cămășile vin dintr-un timp pe care eu nu l-am cunoscut, dar pe care îl simt aproape.

Discutam într-o zi că eu nu vibrez la imn, dacă ma iei repede nu știu să îți spun ce culoare vine la băț pe steag, aia cu Gradina Carpaților nu am înțeles-o nici atunci, iar frunza pe bune că nu știu de la ce vine, Dracula e al irlandezilor, am mai discutat, așa că eu rezonez cu iile. Dacă îmi arați o cămașă sunt capabilă să plâng, dacă îmi povestești povestea ei o voi reține, îi voi visa culorile și modelele, mă voi chinui să o citesc și dacă e posibil voi dori să o port.

Pentru mine cămășile reprezintă România aia curată și cuminte pe care o știu eu, România aia isteață și îndrăzneață, România mea. De asta le adun, de asta adun momente legate de ele, de asta spun prezent când e ceva demn de a fi urmărit, de asta investesc bani, dar mai ales timp în promovarea lor, pentru că mi-a fost dovedit de câte ori până acum că sunt magice, că pot vorbi și că pot atrage oamenii ăia faini de partea lor. Și eu cu oamenii ăia rezonez.
Oi fi răspuns la întrebare? Nu știu. Însă am făcut o postare cu care să vă urez o săptămână faină!
Raluca

Luxembourg - "Knotted gun", a small sculpture with an important message!

I am writing this post for that one person who might look for this sculpture in Luxembourg. I've passed by it every day while it was in its former location, but when it moved it was sort of a witch hunt, because cultural news are still written in other language than English, in Luxembourg. So much so, that if you search for it today you will find only articles related to the death of its author and not its location.

So what am I talking about? The Knotted gun or the Non-Violence sculpture was made by the Swedish artist Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd after John Lennon was murdered. It is a Colt Python .357 Magnum revolver with a knotted barrel and the muzzle pointing upwards. Luxembourg, or to be exact the European Commission, owns one of the 22 originals. Also Luxembourg is related to that first one sculpture that the artist made, because the Luxembourgish Government donated that sculpture to the United Nations in the 80s.

Nowadays, the sculpture is in Kirchberg park, a very nice find which goes to show that you can live for almost 6 years in one tiny place and still have a tone of things to discover. The park is close to Coque Centre and the sculpture is in the middle of it together with other sculptures.

I only wish the Touristic Centre would organise the Art tour in Kirchberg, cause I for one am fascinated by the works of art that this place encapsulates.

Here you can see its place in the park. Basically the sculpture in the back is tall enough for you to spot it in the distance, walk towards it, brace the grass and you will find the Knotted Gun. 

In this day and age when the aggressivity turns so quickly into violence, the message this tiny sculpture is bearing is more important than ever. The gun is cocked, but the knot makes it clear it will never shoot. If you want this is a plea to think before acting, to filter all information and have an open mind!
I hope you loved reading this post as much as I loved putting it together! Also, if you fancy keeping in contact with me, drop a line at Dichisuri.ro on Facebook.
Raluca

Netherlands - Tulip fields of 2018

It has been the fifth year we went to see the tulip fields, hence the title, so it's become some sort of a tradition for us. Also, Nederlands is my favourite country in this area so it's good for my mental health to visit it at least once per year.

One thing though, as in all countries, the capital is somewhat different from the rest, not in a bad way, just different. I love Amsterdam as much as I love the whole country, it's just a different kind of love. I don't think this rule necessarily applies to Luxembourg, but there are slight differences between the German half and the French half.

As I said all of this, let's got to the tulips. This year I took over 500 pictures and in my opinion they are all great. So for you to see all the pictures in this blog post is a little bit impossible. I also wanted to make a movie out of them, but it was a 20 minutes long movie, who watches pictures of tulips for 20 minutes? So I will just post all the different kind of tulips and of course pictures of me and Luna.  If you want or need some pointers as what are the tulip fields, I wrote a post about that last year.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope you loved reading this post as much as I loved putting it together! Also, if you fancy keeping in contact with me, drop a line at Dichisuri.ro on Facebook.
Raluca