“The capital [city] grows green” the sign says. Doesn’t look much like that, I would add.
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Green city
People in the snow
Even if the snow is all over us, life continues its course.
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Snowy city
There is one thing a winter must not pass without, that is a snow like in fairy tales. We just had it in Bucharest. Then is another thing which we will hopefully miss: snow and freeze which seems like never stopping.
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Winter hotness
It may be winter outside, with snow and freeze, some parts of the city will remain warm or maybe hot.
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‘Dat Ass x3
Usually I don’t do such kind of editing in my photos, but here I had to obfuscate some phone numbers, since this post purpose is not to endorse any products or services. Still, the snow was abundant.
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Bucharest Artist Photographer Salon 2013
Saturday at F64 in Bucharest we opened Salonul Artiștilor Fotografi din București (Bucharest Artist Photographer Salon), the third edition. It will stay there for a couple of weeks, so you can see our pictures there – 32 photographers are represented.
As you can see in the re-enactment above (pic made by Carmen), my picture is a moment from an Indian wedding, shoot last year in Kolkata when my friend got married (I only hope his wife, Anwesha, is not mad at me for the selection).
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Late for Christmas
Is not that for this season I put the cart before the horses with New Year pics first and Christmas last, after a stupid accident my main camera is spending the holidays at the repair shop and I am left shooting with a weaker backup, so my enthusiasm and technical means are limited. Still, I had to show a picture with my tree.
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Fireworks Fail
The New Year Eve is the perfect opportunity for the photographer to get out of his house and capture some nice fireworks in all their glory. This year, for personal/family reasons, I had to stay home but still attended some fireworks: the closest ones, so we went to the Cuza (also known as I.O.R.) Park in Bucharest. It was as expected from our shady mayor: weak, boring, cheap. Reminder: next time, make the extra-effort and do to Piața Constituției, that is the worthy fireworks place in the city.
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Children in winter
The holidays are near, so a friend invited me at the kindergarden, where his daughter and her classmates had a cute little performance, with the girls dressed as snow flakes and the boys as snow men.
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City Lights exhibition opened
I teased about it a few weeks ago, I am part of the City Lights (ro: Luminile Orașului) photo exhibition which opened yesterday evening at F64 in Bucharest. It will stay there a couple of weeks and in January will move at Cărturești near Piața Romană.
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Pork and saukeraut
After in previous posts I may have engrossed some with explicit pictures from traditional pig slaughtering>, is probably the time to show some pleasant-looking pork based food. From Caru’ cu bere in Bucharest (the same place I enjoyed papanași a while ago), here’s what they call, in the English language menu “Romanian pork shank served with pan fried sauerkraut, polenta, horseradish and chili pepper” (ro: ciolan de porc cu varză călită, mămăligă, hrean și ardei iute). This is a serving for two, the dish is large enough.
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Children and Pig
It was interesting to watch the children reactions at the pig slaughtering, on one hand was the boy, he was a bit grown-up and obviously used with the process. He was excited, eagerly waiting to eat some pig skin. While the men worked to clean the pig, he kept shouting “it looks good!” and “it smells good!”. When done, he didn’t wait for approval to rip and eat some skin.
On the other hand, for the little girl it was probably not the first time to assist, but maybe the first she understand some part of it. She was unhappy, not liking the color of the pig skin she got to eat: it was red (from the blood). Actually, I don’t like it red either (people claim is softer) and prefer it clean.
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Kill the pig! We are not a colony!
Something struck me when photographing a traditional pig butchering, a guy told me with pride “Europe should not tell us how to kill the pig!” (background: European Union tries to impose rules for sacrifices of animals raised in rural households, Romanian peasants refuse due to convenience and price increase).
That is the key to read many recent [in/e]volutions in our society: populist politicians protesting “we are not a colony” when EU tries to push us into civilization, modernization, morals or anti-corruption: we keep the old ways, killing the animals with our hands (and eating their blood), we elect known corrupt politicians and delinquent to rule the country.
And then we drink and wait for an elusive deity to save us all. Welcome to Romania!
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Ignat
Is an old tradition in rural Romania to raise pigs, starting from early spring. They may receive a name, Ghiță being a popular choice, and become almost a member of the family: getting carefully feed, being talked to and such. Still, their final mission is to provide food for the family.
Cleverly, the pigs are sacrificed and transformed to food, at the start of the winter: on one hand, the fat pork is consistent food, will help people deal with the cold weather, on the other hand the cold weather will help with preserving the meat (in old times they had no freezers, nature was our big freezer).
On top of that, there is the religious side: is handy to have some special food for the Christmas meals. But… Christmas is preceded by a long fasting period, no meat allowed, but people were clever again, they re-used a Christian holiday, St. Ignatius (Ignat in Romanian) which takes place on 20 December for the pig sacrifice: it leaves enough time to prepare the Christmas food (bacon, sausages, leberwurst and such) and just pretend they know nothing about fasting that day.
Sorry, pictures with the pig being killed are not included, my aim here is not to shock people but to present a tradition.
Once sacrificed, the big is cleaned: the hair is removed with fire. Traditionally hay was used, but in modern days using a flamethrower is more convenient (powered by the gas one will use in the oven).
Everything is carefully cleaned: the hair has to go and leave the skin clean and tender (skin is the only part of the pig which can be eaten raw, uncooked: just add some salt).
Washed, the pig will tart looking like pork, the meat you can buy from the store.
An important tradition, before the pig to be chopped or even a single part to be eaten, a cross is cut on its forehead and they put some salt on it (from childhood, I was remembering something about holy water too, but I am unsure, it seems not used everywhere). Then the chopping begins.
With the operations still under progress, is time to bring some boiled țuică (with sugar, pepper and cloves), workers, family and guests will drink it warm wile eating some fresh, salted, pig skin.
I missed this step this year, but right after is the time for a small party, the pig’s requiem, with freshly cooked pork, pickles, polenta and more boiled țuică. More work will start after that, the meat has to be prepared to last for the winter: stuff the sausages, boil the bacon, dry, smoke and so on.
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Romanian elections
Yesterday it was the elections day in Romania, the final results are still counted but all the pools show a decisive victory of the communist coalition, just as everyone expected. The country is bracing for at least 4 years of an authoritarian regime, rampant corruption and dissolution of the order of the law.
The elections were organized by the same communist regime, the one which, back in the summer, tried a coup d’etat (which partly failed, thanks to the European Union strong intervention) and frauded a referendum, of course they used the same tactics. For example, I travelled in the village of Jupănești in the Argeș county. Here, totally against the law, in the elections day, a huge banner of the communist coalition was placed in front of the voting station entrance. Needless to say, it was the only advertising I saw in the entire village and also needless to say, the village policeman was around, keeping an eye on everything.
Actually, after we left the highway (two days before elections, when advertising was still allowed), passing trough villages, I saw only signs for the communist coalition (USL) and an extremist-populist party (PP-DD). The rural Romania in Argeș was looking like a country where is no democratic party (as far as I know, this is pretty much the case for a large part in the South and the East of the country).
This is the current-day Romania: a country with no hope.
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