Sibiu International Theater Festival 2010 (FITS)

One of Sibiu's remarkable cultural events is the annual International Theater Festival (28.5. -6.6.2010). Unfortunately I had only the chance to attend the festival on its last day but the play I saw was really amazing. I attended a Chinese adaption of Henrik Ibsen's "Hedda Gabler" theater performance: Aspiration Sky High performed by the Hangzhou Yue Opera Troupe from China.

In a nutshell the play is about (romantic) relations and how time changes them. Ibsen's original setting from the turn of the 19th century is transfered into an ancient Chinese one.

All the characters (including male) were performed by woman.

The play included beautiful dresses and splendid songs, performances and dances.

All the music was performed also live on stage. It was especially remarkable since you I couldn't see the musician initially and thought that it was prerecorded. The play was actually presented in Chinese with English subtitles at the side of the stage.

Thanks to the ensemble and FIT for this magnificent play!

Flat hunting in Düsseldorf (no commercial ;)

I recently moved to Düsseldorf, Germany and it was a major challenge to find an apartment from Romania without having the chance to actually see the apartment. Of course hunting for a flat nowadays happens on the Internet with again some sites being more helpful than others. There are portals for the whole of Germany such as Immobilienscout 24 or regional ones such as Kalaydo (in cooperation with local newspapers) with a very wide offer for Düsseldorf. The problem with these is that the majority of the flats are being offered by agents .

They usually charge the rent of two months as commission (!) on behalf of the landlord. Oddly enought, Immobilienscout 24 doesn't allow you to exclude commercial offers relsulting in a time consuming manual search for the word "provisionsfrei" (without commission). Another problem is that many private offers on Kalaydo lack pictures which is essential if you search from the distance.

In the end I found two pages which were useful: wg-gesucht.de and duesseldorf.studenten-wohnung.de. Both are targeted to students (flat shares, small apartments) but they are equally good offers if you look for a budget offer or an interim solution ("Zwischenmiete" in German). Ads often have pictures or if not landlords are willing to help out.
If you have some extra cash to spend I'd recommend the Zweitwohnagentur agency with a wide amount of offers and very good descriptions.