she lived here for five years to teach english. coming from california (?), i believe the cultural shock was a bit bigger, but the website and the posts are very clear and very useful for newbies like me and like many others!
yesterday as i was looking for pictures for the food post, i bumped into margarete hurn's blog. she is the author of "the foreigner's guide to living in slovakia" and her blog has the same name (you can read it here, if you are curious how another foreigner sees and lives among the slovak culture).
she lived here for five years to teach english. coming from california (?), i believe the cultural shock was a bit bigger, but the website and the posts are very clear and very useful for newbies like me and like many others!
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i cannot believe i've never mentioned the slovak food in this blog! slovak food is very very go-o-o-od! is very heavy, but i'm from minho, my stomach can take with papas de sarrabulho very well! some things are a bit different, but very very good. so, the breakfast! (from this website, by an american living in slovakia!) looking at the picture, i think i should put aside my cafe latte and bread with butter! so, that bread is called rozok, they eat a lot (some in 72seconds, true story!) and the cool and different part, is that i've never seen them cut the bread in half! they spread the cheese or mustard or whatever right over the bread and eat it. very interesting! i still didn´t understand the cheese thing but in here it has different colors and flavors, to eat with the bread. it's ok. the whole breakfast is very nice i think! the bryndzové halušky is, let's say, the national dish, and it's delicioooouuuusss and i must learn how to do it! this meal consists of halušky (boiled lumps of potato dough similar in appearance to gnocchi and bryndza (a soft sheep cheese that is in a lot of slovak dishes, very good!), optionally sprinkled with cooked bits of smoked pork fat/bacon. here we have bryndzové pirohy, which are crescent-shaped dumplings filled with salty bryndza cheese, or more often with unripe curd cheese. i've only eaten them twice but they are always delishsh! goulash doesn't need presentation! it's always very intensly flavoured! it's time to talk about...kofola! during the 1960s and 1970s kofola became exceedingly popular in communist Czechoslovakiabecause it substituted for western cola-based drinks like coca-col or pepsi, which were available but priced at more than twice the price of kofola. it's a sweet flavoured coca-cola, with hints of wine, cinnamon, wah!very good, better from the tap! although i miss my fluffy white bread, the bread here is so much, so varied and consisted that i often forget about the portuguese padarias. and now...the soups! oh, they are so good, now i am a huge fan of garlic soup with coliflower. the soups in portugal are créme but here all the vegetables are floating on the water and they taste more..delicate as well. some, just some.
and that's it for now! hope to have more gastronomical adventures! here are some nice videos about the evs volunteering across europe. the first one is in french and the second one has english subtitles and it's about two volunteers who worked in graz, austria. finally! the two bottles of port wine that luís brought gave me the strength to finally organize the portuguese evening! we made it in rms and this was the preparation: the super kitchen and slowly the people started arriving! there were 15 of us during my presentation and 10 people during dinner! the menu was more or less respected, with caldo verde, pataniscas, arroz de feijão vermelho e bacalhau à brás. the cool thing was that i really found bacalhau! it was frozen and not salty but it was bacalhau! the decoration was perfect, thank you so much! there were ballons, colored napkins and plates, wof, perfect, a little wedding like o. said! and after a "saúde!" with port wine, i started my presentation about portugal. i talked about the geography, landscapes, history of borders and the dscoveries, the flag, the national anthem, the dictatorship, the 25th of april, the music, food, braga and i don't remember more. everyone really enjoyed the portské vino! "salazar's lesson" and the super desert prepared by o.: the portuguese flag made of fruit!!! and in the end we danced a bit of regadinho, erva cidreira and manavu! and it really was a great evening, thank you so much for being there, for helping and for making it very fun!
last weekend we went to pest'any to promote the project in grapefest, a festival that was in it's first year with a good line up. i really enjoyed it, not a lot of people, good weather - although there was a huge storm on friday (and i didn't really know any band besides royksopp.) but it was good because i got to listen new things, for example, vec was introduced to me as the father of slovak hip hop. the concert was super fun, here is an example: and this is my favourite slovak music so far! i really like it: AUTOBUS! funny video, from a czech band but royksopp won extra points for covering kate bush! after campfest i went to teplý vrch to make the 72minutes game in a summer camp.
teplý vrch is a bit far but it is a very little village around this beautiful lake! ah, it felt very good. although i am late on some news, this is one is too important to respect chronological issues!
THE OTHER'SLOVAKIA IS OUT! it's a photo competition for all evs volunteers who were or who are currently in slovakia. the idea is to get a different view on the country and try to show the slovaks how their country is seen by others. finally, the photographies will be exhibited in a gallery in bratislava and the event intends to gather all the evs in the country. so, promote and participate! more information is here. (photo taken by jano) the last week i went to campfest in kral'ova lehota, a very beautiful place, to promote the 72h project. campfest is a big festival that lasts for three days organized by the christian youth of slovakia.
as these months are months of experiences, this one was for sure a big experience. i did not know what to expect from a christian festival, but what happened was really different from what i have(n't) imagined. so, i'm used to simple and calm demonstrations of faith, even living in the most catholic city of portugal, known as the city of archbishops. this festival made me a bit uncomfortable just because i was not used to such an explicit demonstration of faith, praise of god, etc. it was very surprising to see circa 4000 people there, mostly youngsters with 15-17 years. to see them praying, holding hands, holding bibles. closing their eyes during the concerts (christian music), getting on their knees, arms up high. it was just unusual, strange. but an experience! last year, on the 15th of august, i started a big journey with luís and ismael: we started the caminho de santiago. st. james trail, as you can see on the map, covers a big part of europe, and it is market with yellow arrows. it was a wonderful experience. we started in ponte de lima in portugal and walked for 7 days until santiago de compostela in spain. on the way there are several cottages where people can rest, and during the walks one can meet a lot of different and interesting people. although it is christian pilgrimage, we did it without religious reasons, and was very special nonetheless. once you get there, you feel an incredible accomplishment and you just start thinking about the next ones. we thought about france, let's see. these are the yellow arrows that indicate the way (the blue ones point to fátima, another pilgrimage destination in portugal) the view from our 3€ room in tui, the first stop in spain, over the minho river fortunately we got all kinds of weather: horrible heat, misty days, rainy days the north of portugal and galicia are very green and fresh. we cross vineyards and wonderful forests on the last day, in rained a lot for the first time, we got lost for the first time, my hips started hurting for the first time, but when we got there we almost ran! this is us when we arrived and this is us after the shower.
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i don't understandnerozumiem ti means "i don't understand you" in slovak. a tradition, let's say. after not understanding anything in granada, now i don't understand anything in bratislava. Archives
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