Christmas decorations in Auchan Luxembourg

Christmas spirit has come to Auchan also  

International Bazaar - impressions

Like almost all the people living in Luxembourg, we've also been to the International Bazaar held the past week-end

Our general impressions are:

- huge crowd of people stuffed in a small hall

- even worse, there was no ventilation system and the air was very difficult to breath, taking into account that almost every stand was cooking something

- as a consequence, we've seen one young lady fainting

- like last year, we found the delicious raisins in chocolate from Iceland

- another negative point for the organisers, one had to pay 50 cents to use the toilets Or, if you sell drinks and food, it is an obligation to ensure free of charge toilets for customers.

EPSO - exam hall in Bruxelles

This is how the exam hall for the EPSO written test looks like:

To be brief, it is a very large, very basic hall part of the Bruxelles exhibition centre (near the Atomium):

To get a better idea of the size, there were about 400 - 500 people taking the exam at the same time:

Marilyn Manson at Rockhal on Sunday, December 20, 2009

Marilyn Manson will perform in Luxembourg, at Rockhal, on Sunday, December 20, 2009.

Tickets are already on sale for EUR 36      

Further details on www.rockhal.lu

Mini Europe parc within Bruparck in Brussels (IV)

And the last post about Mini_Europe:

And remember, it's only a 2 hour drive from Luxembourg ...

PR: wait...  I: wait...  L: wait...  LD: wait...  I: wait... wait...  Rank: wait...  Traffic: wait...  Price: wait...  C: wait...

Puzzle - forest flowers - part 1

We're accumulating experience as we've finished the first part of the forest flowers puzzle:

Hopefully, next year we'll be able to tackle 1,000 pieces puzzles

Mini Europe parc within Bruparck in Brussels (III)

Several other miniatures:

www.luxair.lu flies too high on service fees

Yesterday we purchased airplane tickets to fly from Luxembourg to London with Luxair.

We would have preferred to fly with  British Airways (cheaper rates and safer planes), but due some circumstances our only choice was Luxair.

Anyway, even if we had to fly Luxiar, we did not purchase the ticket from www.luxair.lu, due to their incredible high service fees, when compared to the competition.

Bear with us for a short comparison for service fees:

www.luxair.lu - EUR 20

www.expedia.fr - EUR 0 (yes, zero)

www.lastminute.com - EUR 0 (zero)

www.ebookers.com - EUR 0 (NIL)

To conclude, don't buy directly from Luxair, even if you want to fly with them.
That is if you do not want to throw money out the window.

Shops open in Luxembourg this Sunday, 29

Shops in Luxembourg Ville will be open this Sunday, 29 November from 14:00 to 18:00.

Also, Auchan supermarket will be open on Sunday from 10:00 to 19:00.

How to cook sarmale - recipe (including photos)

Sarmale is a typical Romanian dish, which in English terms can be translated as stuffed cabbage rolls.

For the preparation of a serious quantity of sarmale,the following are needed for the composition:

- one big pickled cabbage (the one bought weighted almost 3 kilograms, including the brine it was kept in).
You can  find pickled cabbage at the East-European groceries that you might know. We usually buy it from a Turkish shop in Trier, on Neustrasse (20 meters from the junction with Kaiserstrasse)

- 1 kilogram of minced meat (it can be pork, veal, or mixed. For those on a special diet, you can use also chicken)

- 100 grams of rice (depending on your taste, you can put more or less rice)

- 2 chopped onions

- 1 big grated carrot

- 2 eggs.
- 2 spoons with sunflower oil
- laurel (leaves)

The preparation starts by mixing well all the ingredients mentioned above and seasoning according to taste with salt, pepper and paprika:

Once you're almost done with mixing, you can also add some tomato juice:

- cut the cabbage leaves carefully, to obtain stripes of cabbage as large as a palm:

- place a small portion of meat mix onto the cabbage leave and roll it to obtain an hermetic cylinder like shape:

- the small pieces of cabbage that result upon cutting the cabbage are used as a first layer on the bottom of the boiling pot:

- place the rolls in successive layers in the pot:

- once you reach the top of the pot, place another layer of chopped cabbage leaves and 5-6 tomatos:

- add on top some extra tomato juice, additional spices and water to completely fill in the pot

- finally, boil them for approximately 2-3 hours at moderate heat. The key is to boil it until the cabbage leaves become tender:

- we recommend eating sarmale with fresh cream.

Bon appetit !