the second day of our medieval festival: more fans for the pottery guy! this was the most animated stand sunday afternoon. (it was around 5 pm when i got into the square though, and most rational people were obviously in their homes, with their heads in the fridge.)
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| you can see how the Roma woman became immediately aware that she would be in the picture. dammit i was trying to be subtle and pretend i´m just interested in pottery-making. |
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| elsewhere, the medieval court in full session. (i think the yellow-mantled girl was a witch or something). |
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| and on the same stage: my friend patrick o´mahoney playing the mandola. his mini-concert (traditional irish music) was the only reason why someone like me would be out during that horrible heat. but alright, i was wearing a skirt and a top and sitting in relative shade. this man had on leather trousers and long sleeves and a vest. and was performing. !!!!! |
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| all in all, he´s got a well deserved fan base :). |
so i´m going to do some shameless plugging here - this is one of pat´s youtube clips - his youtube handle is mandolapat if you want more. i hope you appreciate the visuals too:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MU15IQRIltw&feature=relmfu
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| back to bistrita: the passers-by looked pretty sedated before 8 pm. |
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| at least we´re all safe |
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| even this baby in the contraption that i wasn´t so sure about the other day. it made me happy to see it put to good use. |
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| and when the heat calms down a bit and more people come out into the street, it´s nice to imagine what the old market days of bistrita might have looked like. not like this i´m sure - but with some of this same energy. |
(this mellow meditation is brought to you by...a number of beers, which i had with my friend post his concert. bless romanian beer. and summer evenings on terraces with people.)
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| later the same day i met another friend, my highschool classmate So. she took me on a brief trip to the folk side of the festival: shopping for bistrita county-specific embroidered cloth. this piece of cloth is something you´d drape around a religious icon on a wall...or that you´d lay the table with on a big occasion. |
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| the eternal headscarf-related question: does it look better like this.... |
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...or like this?
(i knew it!) |
this brings me to more linky s, because i can´t talk about the romanian folk costume properly, but i wish i could. but the most important thing, the costumes vary pretty dramatically from region to region. the basic pieces are the same, but the colors and details on blouses/skirts/scarves/vests will differ even within the same county. my friend is a native from the bistrita/nasaud area, so she identifies the nasaud costume as ´hers´, while i´d never. my mum is from bistrita but more down south, and this is the sort of costume she wore as a young girl:
my link 1 is more schematic (i can´t seem to be using that map, if it´s meant to be used at all)
http://romanianmuseum.com/Romania/RomaniaFolk.html
and here you´ve got a photo gallery as well. you´re welcome.
http://www.eliznik.org.uk/RomaniaPortul/index.htm
and so i came to the end of my festive bistrita experience...
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hah maybe it´s not a brilliant idea to drink separately with 2 different people in the course of the same evening. by midnight, i was walking home alone in a very good mood, and lo and behold, i end up on the big stage!
anywaaay, a good time was had by all, and no one threw up, so that´s excellent. |
c.
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