End of the European tour

Today is my last full day in Brussels, O has already headed home to Spain and is returning to Puerto Rico tomorrow. It’s been a great week, both in Spain and here in Brussels.

My hosts for the night, French S and Greek Y, and I are soon off to buy some pains au chocolat - we have a brunch appointment with Swedish M and A to admire their little son N…

Tomorrow, I go back to Sweden and hopefully I will have time to update the blog and show you some photos from my travels. Until then, have a great weekend!!

 

A quickie post from Spain

Just a quick note to tell you that the first days of the European tour have been great! Even if I got up at 04 on Sunday and 05.45 yesterday Spain is hot and sunny, which I guess is no big surprise but since I haven’t experienced a Spanish summer since 2006 and my last visits have been freezing cold (Easter and October last year),  I am fully enjoying not shivering when going to bed!

I had a great day on Sunday in Barcelona, spent it with my friend A and talking non-stop while walking around in the city, having a paella mojada (wet paella, i.e more sauce than a usual paella) by the beach, eating Basque pintxos (tapas) and of course watching the final in the Euro 2008!

We ended up watching the game in an Italian bar/restaurant and drinking my favourite Venetian drink Spritz al Aperol (you can find the recipe in the Travel links category, right-hand side of the blog)! It felt a little absurd to find myself watching Spain vs Germany together with a bunch of Italians* but it was fun! We were all curious after the game to see if there would be any celebrations in Barcelona, seeing that most Catalans do not consider themselves Spanish… but oh yes, people were very excited and cheering all over the city!

Because of the chaotic scenes all over the city after the game, I didn’t manage to meet up with my other friend R and his girlfriend L until after midnight - so we only had a quick chat before going to bed, all three of us exhausted (they after helping out with a move, and I after a very long day). Yesterday I got up early and walked to the trainstation Sants - I almost missed the train but that’s another story, and when I finally arrived in Zaragoza after more than 4 hours on the train, O and I couldn’t find each other in the train station!! Una estacion de mierda as I called it, it is way too big and confusing with different levels but finally I figured out that he was on the departure side, and I of course in the arrival section… It was great to see him again even if we had only been apart for 2 weeks!

After a nap and a shower I felt like a normal person again, and we had lunch with O’s younger brother J-I in …. Ikea!! I know, another absurd situation but what can you do with a guy like O who loves Ikea and kottbullar (meatballs)… O’s mother was happy though as we found a cupboard for the kitchen in the bargain corner. In the evening we had a snack in El Corte Ingles, (we always go to the big department store when we are in ZGZ) together with all the local pensioners - it’s so sweet to see old couples sharing some churros con chocolate (I actually saw some old couples having a Swedish meatball-lunch in Ikea as well!). I asked O if he thinks that we will do that too when we are old, and he said that he hopes so! Afterwards we had a drink with O’s sister, her sweet daughter M who has become so big (she’s turning 2 soon) and O’s brother C (whose German girlfriend lives in Stockholm!).

As usual we didn’t arrive to O’s parents home, in a village 45 minutes’ drive from ZGZ, until really late but for once we only had a simple salad for dinner (it’s usually a 3-course meal regardless of the time of day / night!). It was great to see O’s parents again and yes, it is much easier to communicate with them now!

Well, better go as we are having lunch soon (it is after all almost 3 o’clock!), and O’s mother is making our favourite meal! Borrajas y ternera rebozada…

 

*) I was told twice during the evening that Italians are the 2nd biggest group of immigrants in Cataluyna with more than 30,000 Italians calling Barcelona and the region their home!!

 

My European Tour, Summer 2008

Tomorrow my European tour kicks off - really early, my parents are driving me to the local airport in Skåne, Sturup (or Malmö Airport as it is officially called) at 04.30 in the morning. My flight arrives to Barcelona at 10 o’clock and I am meeting up with a Spanish girl (A) with whom I used to study in Italy. It’s funny, we don’t know each other that well but I am sure that we will have lots of catching up to do anyway - gossip about old friends and find out what we have been doing in the last 7 years since we last met (can it really be that long??)! She has also promised to show me around the city, fingers crossed that it doesn’t rain like predicted.

 

One of many Gaudí buildings in Barcelona

I have only visited Barcelona once before, in August 2005 - O and I were there at the end of my Spanish holidays and at the beginning of his… We had met just before the summer, and both had already made holiday plans which we decided to not change for some reason. Unfortunately it meant that we were apart for almost a month twice during the summer! I arrived by train from Valencia in the afternoon, took two sightseeing tours by bus and then spent a few hours at the train station reading The shadow of the wind (by Carlos Ruiz Zafon), which I had just picked up in a nearby newspaper stand. It was great, I had only been in Barcelona for a few hours but thanks to the guided bus tours, I already recognised lots of locations mentioned in the book!

Barcelona under rainy skies - the weather was not great last time.. and it is supposed to rain tomorrow!

O was on his way from Brussels, really stressed about me waiting at the train station and driving through France in pouring rain, while my old friend R* and his girlfriend L, our hosts, were arriving back from their holiday in Italy.. The 3 of them arrived at 23.30 and we had a lovely 1 ½ days in Barcelona with R & L being great hosts. This time I am staying with them again, and as it is the Euro 2008 final tomorrow I am sure that we will end up watching football - especially as L is a huge football fan (Barca, of course!) and for R as Spain is playing… I am sooo curious to see if L is going to support Spain or Germany!!?

The roof of Nuesta Señora del Pilar (the cathedral) in Zaragoza

O is already in Spain since this morning, at home in his hometown close to Zaragoza but we have decided that he will spend Sunday with his family and I will meet up with my old friends. On Monday morning I take the sloooow train to Zaragoza, almost 4 hours but it’s ½ price compared to the AVE (Spanish high-speed train)**! We are going to visit the EXPO 2008, a big international expo on water and sustainable development, as well as spending some time with O’s family. I am a little nervous as it will be my first big Spanish test - both O’s parents and I are looking forward to hopefully being able to communicate a little better than before

Manneken Pis dressed up for the Belgian National Day, the 21st July

I head to Brussels already on Wednesday***, a bit early but Ryan Air only has flights on Wednesdays and Fridays to Charleroi, and I am travelling on a budget! O will join me in Brussels on Thursday (Iberia ticket paid by his company as he’ll work in the Brussels office on Friday), and we are staying in a swank hotel on Thursday night (the Sofitel Europe on Place Jourdan, it is quite exciting to stay in a hotel in Brussels for the first time!), but the other nights we will be crashing with friends.

The European Commission headquarters (the Berlaymont) building reflected in the new Lex building

Hopefully I will be able to blog a little during the week, but I have a busy social schedule in Brussels meeting up with friends and ex-colleagues + my favourite hairdresser, as well as picking up my new credit card and do my tax declaration etc. I will be back in Sweden on Sunday, while O returns to Puerto Rico. In the meanwhile you can enjoy some of my old photos from Barcelona, Zaragoza and Brussels.

Another symbol of Brussels, Atomium!

*) I met R, just like A, when studying in Italy. We later on lived in Geneva at the same time, and Brussels… In Brussels we actually worked together, sharing an office! The funny thing is that he comes from Zaragoza just like O - they didn’t know each other but we have met up at Easter in ZGZ. R cannot believe that I might end up living in his old home town!

**) Last time I travelled by train in Spain, 3 years ago, I took a very slow train from Madrid to Valencia - it took 6 hours with no toilet facilities onboard and only one “toilet break” (when I didn’t dare to leave the train as they announced that the break was only 5 minutes long and they wouldn’t wait for anybody!). I got through a big chunk of the book One hundred years of solitude though

 

Friday theme / Show & tell: Cooking

Victoria in Florida has chosen “cooking” as her last Friday theme.
Next time it is my turn to choose, but as we take a holiday break over July and August - the first Friday (5th) in September will be my first chosen theme - A SUMMER MEMORY.
The September themes are as follows:
5th September: A summer memory
12th September: Flags
19th September: A song that you think represents your town / region / country (home / adopted place of living) (use youtube if possible).
26th September: Walls - it could be anything from a beautiful wall, to what you have ON the wall(s), or what does the wall say about you… Maybe a little tricky!?

I promise to link to all Friday theme bloggers in September, I haven’t had time to prepare those links yet, sorry!

So, cooking is a big favourite of mine; both in theory (reading cook books) and in practise (the cleaning up afterwards is not that fun though!)… You might have already been able to tell that from my new Wednesday theme on recipes! I have a category called Food and recipes if you want to check for recipes; in the category widget on the right hand-side. However, today I am not publishing any recipes but just some nice photos of different ingredients:

Unstaffed stands with fresh vegetables and fruit for sale can be found along the roads in Sweden during the summer. At the moment strawberries are sold almost everywhere, but also new potatoes, eggs, radishes etc. We bought our Midsummer strawberries and potatoes along the road, paying by putting the money through a little hole to a small safe.

Do you like radishes?? I don’t and I can’t remember ever eating radishes at home when I was a child, only at my grandparents’ place.

Visiting markets is a great way of experiencing what the locals eat when travelling, even if it is not always so easy to figure out how the products (veggies, fruit or spices) should be used:

I have already published a few photos from the Mexican market in Tijuana, but here is another one of a fruit stand:

This Palestinian woman was selling bread in Old Akko (Acre) in Israel.

Another photo of products sold in the market in Akko, it looks like almonds and some spices!?

Last time I was in Spain, in October 2007 we were picking figs with O’s father! I am heading back to Spain on Sunday, I wonder what kind of fruit we might pick in the plantation during the summer!? O’s mother told us a few weeks ago that the red currant bush that we brought from my parents’ garden in Sweden (in 2006) is finally growing some berries so it will be nice to see it among all the almond and fig trees! She wanted some advice on what to do with the red currants, so I suggested making jam…

Have a great weekend everybody!

 

Wednesday recipe: O’s favourite Coleslaw

At least once a week O wants to eat coleslaw - I don’t know if it is a passing obsession (that has so far lasted half a year) or if it will be a constant, weekly meal forever!? I even had to prepare a bowl of it for O before leaving Puerto Rico last week. It is a simpe enough recipe and as cabbage is one of the few vegetables (together with carrots) that last at least 2 weeks in the fridge, it is very practical to throw together when not having any other ideas for dinner:

O’s favourite Coleslaw

small cabbage - shredded as finely as possible*
2 small carrots - shredded
juice of 1 lemon or 1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
0,5 teaspoon salt
a tiny pinch of sugar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
3-4 tablespoons mayonnaise (I usually swap the quantities for mustard and mayo as I love mustard)
salt and freshly ground black peppar

Cure the cabbage and carrots by tossing them with the lemon juice / vinegar, oil, salt and sugar, and let sit together for 30 minutes in the fridge. Then dress with the mustard and mayonnaise, and season to taste.

Serve together with some ham, sausages, fish or just bread. Sometimes we make a tuna & tomato salad to accompany it (I know, I know two salads for dinner… but why not?).

*) I refuse to use the new foodprocessor, as it is extremely impractical and I can’t even close the lid properly, so I chop with a normal knife… The old one back in Europe though, which I have had since 1997 was perfect for chopping any kind of vegetable or making pastry for a quiche..

 

A Swedish Midsummer’s Eve including the traditional rain…

Finally some time to update the blog - we are in the summerhouse; my parents, my brother and I and with only one computer that my father uses for working The weather is not great - windy and scattered showers so we haven’t spent a lot of time outdoors yet.

However, let me start by writing about the big Midsummer’s eve celebration last Friday. My brother, my sister and I had invited some of our friends for the event which was also the house warming party for the new summerhouse. I had only invited my two best friends from my hometown; Å who lives in Copenhagen with her 2-year old son H, and L who lives in Stockholm but is soon moving to the south of France to be with her French boyfriend F.

The girls were coming together with H (the son) and F (the boyf) on Thursday evening, which was the same day I arrived from Puerto Rico. Fortunately I wasn’t too jetlagged when I landed on Thursday morning in Copenhagen, and I was already at home at 10 o’clock. My mother and I drove straight out to the summerhouse on the Baltic coast where my brother was already waiting. My father, my sister and her new boyfriend O No 2 (yes, she has managed to find herself a guy with the same name as my O (O No 1)!!) arrived just shortly after. Our new summer paradise was just the way I had imagined it - peaceful, cosy and well, still needing a few improvements (some more furniture, curtains, repainting of the shed, a hammock etc*) but perfect for the Midsummer’s party!

I love that the new camera takes great photos even against the sunlight…

My friends and I slept in the guesthouse which has a double bed and a sofabed. We woke up early on Friday (Midsummer’s eve), due to the ”uncurtained” windows facing east, my jetlag + the 2-year old H who charmed us all despite the early hour! After breakfast we walked down to the beach (a 5 minute walk) - the sun was shining with an amazingly beautiful light, and I took some really nice photos. However, the sky was looking very dark so we hurried back to the house but in the end it didn’t rain… just yet!

The Baltic coast in Skåne has beautiful beaches…

The rest of the guests started dropping in around lunch time (we were 19 in total + a toddler and a new-born baby), and we prepared the traditional Midsummer’s meal - new potatoes, pickled herring, sour cream and chives + snaps, and strawberries & cream for dessert. People were playing kubb (a traditional Viking game from the island of Gotland) and drinking beer, as well as chasing H - as in typical toddler-style he immediately discovered the hole in the fence and insisted on trying to run out on the road…

Clearing the table in the rain…

Just when we sat down at the table to eat lunch, the sky turned black and the rain started pouring down. And just like in the herring-ad (unfortuntely I couldn’t find the ad on youtube, it’s very funny and very true), we grabbed our plates, glasses and song booklets and ran inside!! The first round of herring and snaps were consumed indoors, sitting on chairs / the floor before the sun returned and we ventured outside again for a second round of food and drinks. And of course we sang songs to accompany the snaps 

Nowadays the snaps is sold in small bottles so everybody can choose their favourite flavour

In the afternoon we headed to a nearby field to play Swedish softball (brännboll), but once again the weather gods decided differently and everybody had to run back to the house in a sudden (?) downpour! We could only laugh though, as it was such a typical Midsummer’s eve - most years this is how we celebrate!

Strawberries, cream and so-called spettekaka from Skåne (traditional cake from my region, almost like a merengue). Please note the Midsummer table cloth

Fortunately the BBQ dinner was not interrupted by rain, it was a little chilly though but we had a great evening with rosé wine from the south of France and a tasty cheesecake in the company of friends and family. Just the way a Swedish Midsummer’s Eve should be celebrated!!

Somebody was hungry…

Updated: I completely forgot that we went down to the beach to look at a big bonfire and fireworks later on in the evening… It was a new tradition for me, I know that they make bonfires in Denmark for St Hans**  but not in Sweden. But it was nice to see everybody gather on the beach, some people jumped into the sea to swim (which is not adviceable when you are drunk, especially as there are very strong currents around here)!

*) Projects for the summer…

**) St John / San Juan - there was of course a big party in San Juan, Puerto Rico this past weekend. In PR the tradition is to walk backwards into the ocean on the night of the 23rd June (I think it is, can’t remember the reason why right now) and in Greece people jump over small fires, I experienced that when I was in Thessaloniki in June, 2004.

 

Friday theme / Show & tell: 5 o’clock

Victoria in Florida is still chosing the themes for the month of June and this week it is simply 5 o’clock. I had been thinking of showing a photo here of what we will be up to at 5 o’clock today, which is the most important party event of the year for Swedes - Midsummer’s eve. Maybe it would have been a picture of people jumping around pretending to be frogs (a traditional dance and song about the little frogs) or throwing logs of wood around (it is a game called Kubb). However, it might be a little over-ambitious, and not very social to be blogging in the middle of the party, so I chose to prepare this post earlier in the week…

Five o’clock - I did a google search and it turns out that there is a Five o’clock club - which is some kind of networking group, it is also used to describe beard growth visible late in the day on a man whose face was clean-shaven in the morning (a five o’clock shadow).

In Swedish the search for “Klockan fem” gave me “Mord klockan fem” - a murder mystery by Agatha Christie, which I have actually read! In English the title is Hickory dickory dock - from the nursery rhyme with the same name, which I learnt when we lived in England and I always liked it;

Hickory dickory dock,
the mouse ran up the clock
the clock struck one,
the mouse ran down
Hickory dickory dock

In the Swedish translation the clock strucks five (Klockan slog fem, musen sprang hem) so we are back to today’s theme!!

My computer still has the European (CET*) time, which is very practical when I am communicating with family and friends. Because time telling becomes so much more important when you live in a different time zone than family and friends - it is necessary to keep track of the time difference so that you don’t call people in the middle of the night… and people always ask me what time we have here in Puerto Rico when I talk to them. It is easy, we are in the same time zone as New York, i.e -6 hours! However, during the European winter time, it is only -5 hours as Puerto Rico doesn’t have daylight saving.

Five o’clock in Europe is only 11 o’clock here in Puerto Rico!

Oh, and one last thought on time keeping - why can’t all countries adhere to the 24 hour-clock (see photo of my computer above)?? It would be so much easier! Especially for people, like me who can never remember which is pm and which is am… It annoys me that it is impossible to re-programme our digital clocks here in Puerto Rico (micro-wave, oven, alarm clock) to show for example 17.00 instead of 5.00.

Have a great weekend, I am at the moment enjoying Midsummer’s Eve in the new summerhouse, together with my family and best friends. Hopefully I will be able to log in soon to tell you all about it! In the meanwhile, my foreign readers can read about Midsummer’s eve celebrations in my post from last year.

The non-organic may pole from Midsummer’s Eve in Brussels in 2006. I have been told that the pole will be recycled this year, this time outdoors! O will be very proud, as it was his idea and creation! (read more about how he made it in the linked post above).

 

*) CET = Central European Time

 

Wednesday recipes: Lunch tips - Aubergine & Potato

Today I am heading east, across the Atlantic all the way to Scandinavia!! I will be landing in Copenhagen at 7.35 tomorrow morning and hopefully I’ll be in the new summerhouse by noon - I can’t wait! My best friends from home are joining us tomorrow evening; Å and her son H from Copenhagen, and L flying in from Stockholm and her French boyfriend F from the south of France. And on Friday it is Midsummer’s eve which will be celebrated in the same location - the party will also count as the housewarming! My brother and sister have also invited some of their friends, all in all I think that we will be 17-18 people including our parents.

However, I had promised to try and keep up the Wednesday recipe-theme from the last 2 weeks (anyone who is interested to join, feel free!!) so here are two recipes, which I made during the last week.

This first recipe is originally from our new Greek cookbook The Olive and the Caper. Adventures in Greek Cooking by Susanna Hoffman - it is a great book, with lots of history, anecdotes and culture. The author is an antropologist which gives the recipe book an extra interesting perspective!

Greek Fried Aubergine with feta & tomato:
1 aubergine (eggplant for the Americans)
2-3 tomatoes
feta cheese
fresh basil leaves, if available
flour
salt & pepper

Cut the aubergine in ½ centimetre thick slices, turn them in some flour and fry in quite a lot of olive oil. Let the aubergine rest on some kitchen paper to drain off the oil while cutting the tomatoes in slices. Put the aubergine back in the frying pan with a slice of feta cheese and a tomato slice on top (and a fresh basil leaf if you have that). Heat until the feta is more or less melted. Serve with a salad or as a starter.

The following recipe I invented on Friday when I had no motivation to cook an advanced lunch, but had some home-made tomato sauce left over from Wednesday’s home-made pizza! What to cook, what to cook? - Aha, I love potatoes so here it goes:

Potato slices with tomato sauce:
2-3 potatoes
1-2 decilitres tomato sauce (home-made or bought)
salt & pepper

Cut the potatoes in ½ centimetre thick slices. Boil in water for approx 10 minutes. Drain the potatoes and fry in some olive oil. Season with salt & pepper. The potatoes should be soft on the inside and crispy on the outside! Serve with a dollop of pre-heated tomato sauce on top of each slice and a green salad. Easy-peasy but it was a yummy lunch. You could also serve the potatoes with any kind of meat or fish, or as they are as starters - maybe in combination with the fried aubergine above!
 

 

Travel fever and packing anguish…

… no, it doesn’t always work to literally translate expressions from one language to another. The above title would be resfeber and packningsångest in Swedish - completely normal words / expressions that just sound weird in English! Resfeber is translated with “nervousness before a journey” in Lexin* but is more than nervousness - it could also be interpreted as impatience to leave, to depart…

Anyway, once again I am struggling with packing - just like when I was going to the US in February / March. This time I only have to pack for one season… however, a European summer can mean temperatures ranging from 10-12** degrees to above 30 (Celsius that is). And I have a problem with imagining even wearing a jacket, a clothes item I haven’t worn since the above-mentioned trip a few months ago.

My way of packing - first gather over a few days everything that you think that you might need in piles, then sort out and select the necessary, and the final test - does it all fit in the suitcase?

I am going to spend 1,5 months in Europe, mostly in Sweden but also in Barcelona and Zaragoza in Spain, and Brussels - so the packing is difficult to plan! I need city clothes as well as summerhouse wear, and Midsummer’s eve party gear… I should probably try to follow some kind of packing formula such as Michele’s vacation packing tips excluding the diapers and warm hats (I hope at least)

Shoes are always a huge problem - the shoe chosing is not an easy task, and they take up a lot of space - don’t know if this is my final selection…

Well, with the current weather in Sweden (rain and 11 degrees), Brussels (13 degrees and sunshine) and Zaragoza (16 degrees), I won’t have much use for my bikini or dresses - but who knows, there are many weeks until the 1st August when I go back to the hot and humid Caribbean, and let’s hope, for the European holiday-makers’ sake that the weather will improve!

So fingers crossed that everything that I am planning to pack will fit in the suitcase (it is not a huge one actually), including all the presents that I am bringing home…

Puerto Rican coffee, an interesting book, some spice jars (actually bought in Habitat in Brussels) for the new summer house, a dress for Midsummer’s eve etc..

*) The on-line Swedish - English dictionary
**) according to Aftonbladet it was 8 degrees and pouring rain on Midsummer’s eve in June 1987!

 

What a mess - in different languages

The language centre where I study Spanish has been a real mess lately as they are refurbishing the offices. However, the mess has taught me two new Puerto Rican expressions (see below), and lead to a reflection on how to say the same thing in other languages:

• Puerto Rico - Que revolú! Or Que arroz con pollo! (rice with chicken - I like this one!!)
• Italy - Che casino!
• Spain - Que jaleo**! or Que lío!
• France - Quel bordel!
• Sweden - Vilken soppa!

So, chaos can be associated with a revolution, a casino*, a brothel or a soup!! How about that for a mess Do you have any other examples of how to describe a mess?

*) actually casino means brothel in Italian! Casinò is the place where you gamble! I didn’t know this until I looked it up on my favourite dictionary on-line: WordReference. It is a great web-site where you can find words in English, French, Italian, Portugese and Spanish, there are also forums where language / translation issues are being discussed!

**) also a dance from Andalucía.