A full AUTUMN week & weekend

Cibin Fest continues in the Big Square until Sunday. Don’t forget that for the final 4 evenings of this event you’ll get to enjoy great shows from Hermannstadt 7.

At the BIS Theater (Stefan cel Mare, no. 56), this Saturday and Sunday there will be two performances of a Romanian-British Vanner Collective show-event. It’s about “All That’s Wonderful in the World.” These two are the last outdoor shows of this season. For the romantic and nostalgic ones, we recommend “La Cenerentola – Gioachino Rossini” (Cinderella), a two-act opera, after a libretto by Jacopo Ferreti inspired by the classic fairy tale of our childhood. The show takes place this Saturday at 19:00 at the Sibiu State Philharmonic. And Sunday, again at the Philharmonic, at 11:00 and 17:00 you can watch “Goe and his folks” a musical by Roman Vlad and Stela Popescu. If you venture further and reach the neighboring county at Cincşor,you must know that on October 1, the traditional autumn “Harvest Day” takes place. A good opportunity to take advantage of carefully selected Transylvanian dishes! And there’s more to this event : you can see a painting exhibition and you can attend the recital of Hakon Kornstadt, within the fortified church of Cincsor. Places at this brunch are limited, and the ticket price is 75 lei. Make sure you book your spot here. 

Cool concert with special guests

Imperium Live gives us a crazy rock night! This Saturday, September 30th, at 21:00, a Krypton Unplugged concert is announced alongside Rafael (ex. Iris).

The organizers say it will be an extraordinary evening, because the band is at its peak, and the newly founded Krypton Unplugged project promises to be of great value. Entry cost is 20 lei. You can make reservations here for this particular evening, and you will get 10% discount off the bill! You can make reservations for Imperium Live for Friday also. They’re celebrating autumn’s “Harvest Day” with good traditional food and live music performed by Maria Cojocaru and Alex Petre.

You know how to shoot a bow?

Also this weekend, Saturday and Sunday, in the ASTRA Traditional Folk Civilization Museum, a 3D ArcheryNational Contest takes place. It is the first competition of its kind in Sibiu and will take place on a special course put together by the organizers. So far, there are 104 participants! Surely we will have what to see. In the same contest, disabled people can participate, for whom a specially arranged route will be considered. Competition requires imitation of hunting conditions as accurately as possible. Participants will shoot from a distance of 5 to 50 meters at different angles, and there will be naturally sized targets. Interestingly, visitors can see close competition and even interact with participants while moving from one target to another. In complete safety, guaranteed by the organizers, they will be able to admire the skills of the archers, the variety of arches, starting from the historical replicas and ending with the last generation, capable of the highest precision. And if all this hunting will get you hungry, it’s good to know that you can stop by for some 5 stars romanian food, on your way back to the city. Give Hilton’s Camara Boierului a try, if you want to taste pure goodness, with a 10% discount off your bill!

Motivation to hit the gym

And as we can’t have a week without a sport, it’s good to know that on the 29th and 30th of September Sibiu hosts the National Bodybuilding and Fitness Championship 2017 finals. Friday is for training sessions and putting together last details, and the competition itself starts Saturday, at 11:00. The athletes and their muscles can be seen in all their splendor at the Transylvania Hall. Entrance is free of charge.

If you love science

Autumn comes with a whole night dedicated to scientists and technology lovers. This is the “Night of Researchers” event, organized by “Lucian Blaga” University. The event is known at a European level and it gives you the chance to meet researchers from different fields and take part in unusual scientific actions, organized in a fun and unconventional atmosphere. So, September 29th , starting with 16.00, the fascinating universe of science opens its doors in Sibiu for the fourth consecutive year. Experiments, exhibitions, contests, robot shows, lab visits and many other activities for audiences of all ages will be organized this night.

We’re thinking you can’t miss such adventures! All fun and play this weekend – which means you’ll have another great one in Sibiu!

The post How to best spend your autumn days in Sibiu appeared first on Travelscounter Blog.

Since ancient times, on Romanian territory natives have worked with soft clay they have modeled in every possible way. That’s why in any Romanian museum you’ll find clay statues, vessels, and household objects dating hundreds and thousands of years back! This craftsmanship has been transmitted from generation to generation. Moreover, in Sibiu, there is an event dedicated 100% to pottery, and it takes place (you guessed!) at the Astra Open Air Museum.

This event takes place every year in the middle of July, and this year it’s on July 19th to 23rd. The project has been going on for some years now, under the motto “Beautiful. Ceramic. Useful”, and the organizers define it as “A different kind of potter’s fair”.

This year, the main attraction is the pottery of Saschiz, a village in Transylvania with centuries of tradition in pottery. During three days, potters from Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria are competing both at the potter’s wheel and at cooking traditional recipes in clay vessels.

Another goal of this whole event, as the organizers have stated, is to seek a way to adapt production and ornamentation methods to international requirements, by gradually replacing lead varnishes with more eco-friendly glazes for household ceramics household, while at the same time keeping the character, typology, and style. Visitors of the Open Air Museum in Dumbrava Sibiu are invited to participate in demonstrations of pottery and cooking or buy beautiful, well-fired pots, in which the food retains its full natural taste.

What’s really interesting is that every visitor or curious can learn how to make a clay pot. You can mold the clay on the potter’s wheel, press clay in patterns, or decorate ceramic pots under the guidance of craftsmen.

The highlight? Culinary demonstrations are organized at the Country Fair in the Outdoor Museum, starting this Friday at 9:30 until Sunday. Potters and chefs will cook in earthen vessels on the open fireplace or in the oven, traditional Bulgarian recipes, Swäbische, Hungarian and Romanian as well: salted cheese Bulgarian pie (Banitsa), potato pudding (Patatnik),Swäbische Krumpir – Suppe mit Eier , sour or sweet cabbage meat rolls, goat soup, vegetables stew, Hungarian goulash, potato and Csabai sausage soup, and many more delish dishes. The Hungarians in Sibiu Association are also organizing a tasting of cabbage soup (Toros káposztaleves) and Palóc goulash (Palócgulyás) on Saturday an Sunday.

It’s another fun way to spend your summer days, and you should definetly give it a try. And since you’re in Sibiu, if you’re looking for scoops on where to go and what to eat, you can also check-out Travelscounter. We’ve got all the best restaurants, coffee-shops, pubs and clubs in Sibiu, and we’re giving you awesome discounts to use in all of them! Enjoy!

The post Something different on our list – a pottery fair at the Astra Open Air Museum appeared first on Travelscounter Blog.

Since 2005, selected European museums have exceptionally opened for a night, free of charge, as part of European Museum Night. The event takes place on the closest Saturday to May 18^th, simultaneously in countries that have signed the Council of Europe’s cultural convention.

The “Astra” National Museum Complex is a collection of museum units in Sibiu.

The most famous of these is the Museum of Traditional Folk Civilization “ASTRA” in Sibiu, located in the Dumbrava forest, on the way to Rasinari and Patinis.

For the longest night of Romanian and international culture, the Museum Night, the ASTRA Museum is offering an interactive program that will start this Saturday, May 20^th, at 6 pm and end at 1 am.

Starting with 6:30 pm, the scene on the lake will welcome the “Ioan Macrea” Dance School.

The “Ioan Macrea” Dance School was founded in 2012. It is the institution that continues the choreographic tradition so beautifully shaped in Sibiu by Master Macrea and continued by his daughter, Silvia Macrea.

The school organizes popular dance classes for children, adolescents and adults, and the choreographic section also includes modern ballet and dance classes.

Every year, hundreds of children choose to attend the dance classes of the “Ioan Macrea” School, where they learn folk games and customs, from professionals of the world famous Junii Sibiului.

At 8.00 pm, the Rasinari Calusari will take the stage.

This ensemble, composed of over 100 members aged between 3 and 26 years, has been guided by the same man, Tica Canean, for over 38 years. His daughter Mărioara Ţichindelean, together with her family, have continued his work for the past 11 years, wanting to carry the tradition of folk dances and traditional customs specific to the place.

At 8.30 pm, it’s time for one of Sibiu’s boldest musical projects : Domino. 

The group have started their artistic career in January 2013 in Vienna, representing Romania at the International Tourism Fair. DOMINO is an alternative rock band, but manages to be unique due to the many influences borrowed from traditional folk music, and the combination of instruments used.

The highlight of this year’s event is the amazing concert of the longest lasting Romanian rock band : Phoenix.

Phoenix is a living legend of Romanian music, which has lasted more than half a century. Romania’s longest-lasting rock band, headed by well-known Nicu Covaci, is making history on stage at Lake of the Outdoor Museum in Dumbrava Sibiului. 

From the repertoire of the band founded in the 60’s in Timisoara, you’ll get to hear some of their most poppular songs. So make sure you’re at the scene by the lake at 10 pm!

Besides amazing concerts and dance shows, there are a lot of other fun activities to attend while in the Dumbrava forest Museum.

Between 6 pm and 11 pm, at the Country fair you’ll have the chance to witness some culinary demonstrations – the making of traditional doughnuts and Roman culinary dishes.

Between 6 pm and 9 pm, the Castrum Novis Association is holding archery, arrow making , leather items making, and blacksmithing wokshps. The Veteris Milites Association is holding mint, jewelery making, ancient writing, and ancient games workshops.

The Household in Hodac will also have a part in this event.

Sibiu’s Teatrul Mic – or Small Theater – will present some interactive Romanian tales. To be more precise, visitors will have the opportunity to be actors in the childhood stories written by the beloved Ion Creanga.

Of course, the other entities within The “Astra” National Museum Complex will take part in this event.

The Museum of Universal Ethnography “Franz Binder”, located in the Hermes House, Square, no. 11, is hosting the “Travel” Exhibition. Between 6 pm and 12:30 am, visitors will have the chance to “take a trip” around the world with the help of all the items featured in this exhibition. Whether it’s musical instruments, religious artefacts or simple decorations, the 142 items, brought from 75 countries, will take us on a trip to Africa, Asia, Australia, and many more remote islands and places.

The “Emil Sigerus” Museum of Saxon Ethnography and Folk Art, located within the House of Arts, in the Small Square no 21 is currently hosting an exhibition showing the ways and means of the saxons. This exhibition has been organised in the context of all the events marking 500 years since the start of Martin Luther’s protestant reform, which has been widely spread throughout Transylvania also, the home of so many saxons.

There is plenty for you to do and see tomorrow. The entrance will be free of charge in all ASTRA Museum units, starting with 6.00 pm. So enjoy! And take the time to have some romanian food for dinner, also! Hilton’s Camara Boierului is right next to the Astra village museum, and if you get your discount code from Travelscounter, you’ll pay 10% less for your bill!

The post European Museum Night 2017 | Astra Museum Sibiu appeared first on Travelscounter Blog.

Sibiu is proud to be home to what is not only a local treasure, but a worldwide recognized one : The Astra Museum of Traditional Folk Civilization.

It is the largest open-air museum in Romania and one of the largest in Central and Eastern Europe. It’s located within the Dumbrava Forest, which only enhances the feeling that you really have arrived in a heavenly place! Over 300 houses and other buildings have been gradually brought in the museum,  around two artificial lakes with over 10 km of walkways between them. You’ll get to see windmills, water-mills, houses of sheperds, pottery workshops, churches, and many other things you won’t have the chance to see anywhere else!

And because we are talking about a museum that on a regular basis hosts dynamic and interactive events, you’ll get to do more than just admire. For example, every visitor can come to the museum and learn how onions were cultivated hundred of years back, and also learn how to cook.

This way, the visitors are a part of the recovery program of the Romanian culinary heritage organized at the Astra museum.

As you prefer, here you can specialize yourself in weaving, pottery and painting. Also, these days the students and teachers can learn about how the educational process “looked” o ne hundred years ago – writing on slates with chalk, manual counts, wooden benches. Tablets are not part of the picture, but you can find wireless internet throughout the Museum.

You can even sleep within the compound, and you can access all kinds of different activities, like riding in a carriage, or in a sleigh pulled by horses during winter time.

It costs between 25 and 50 lei per night to sleep here, 30 lei for 30 minutes of sleigh fun, 150 lei for an hour in a 2 person carriage, and 17 lei for a normal ticket.

And if, after seeing so many Romanian traditions, you get hungry for some Romanian food, with Travelscounter you can access the best romanian restaurants, and the best food deals.

Only 2 minutes away you’ll find Camara Boierului, housed within the Hilton hotel. Here, you can cut your own sausage and pastramy right from the pantry! And you can pay less by 10% when you ask for the bill, if you have a Travelscounter ALL DAY DISCOUNT. Or you can head back to the city center, and try the bean soup served in bread at Crama Sibiana. Make a reservation here through Travelscounter, or go as a walk-in with an ALL DAY DISCOUNT, and you get 10% discount off your bill!

So there you have it! A full day in one of Sibiu’s top attractions, a rich meal in some of Sibiu’s best restaurants, and a lighter bill at the end.

What could be more perfect? Enjoy!

The post MUST-SEE: ASTRA National Museum Complex – The Museum of Traditional Folk Civilization appeared first on Travelscounter Blog.