Kumpaa sinä kaihdat, yksinäisyyttä vai laumaa?

Sometimes I wish I had the words to describe this all. The beauty of Saturday mornings filled with melancholy music, strong coffee, a smell of oranges and good conversation. The bitter sweetness of waking up next to someone and holding him tight because tomorrow he might be gone. The sparkles that are created by the laughter shared with dear friends who never stop joking even when life is treating them badly. The joy of scribbling down ideas and reading about theories. The insane happiness when playing with words and language.

I wish I could tell you all about how it feels.

Slovak Goodies

Slovak food is hearty, typical of a country with strong rural roots. It is heavy on meat (especially pork), potatoes, dumplings, thick sauces and cheeses. If you’re looking for vegetables – there’s always cabbage, often in the form of sauerkraut. Salads are not traditional – but you will find them in restaurants in bigger cities. Try soup or a meat/cheese appetizer. Lunch is traditionally the largest meal of the day, with dinner on the lighter side.

http://www.slovak-republic.org/food/

 

I’m going to be honest here – I have stayed quite far from the local food, mostly because I cook my own. Sometimes I like having some Middle Eastern dish, which is quite far from Slovak cuisine. Nonetheless, there are some foods I really like, and I thought I’d share them with you.

Kapustnica – soup made on sauerkraut, meat, mushrooms, sausages and smetana (aka smotana in Slovakia). This is something I definitely want to make myself.

Nakladany hermelin – this is actually Czech, but nevermind. My mission is to find the best pickled hermelin in Bratislava. The one on top is in the going for the gold at the moment. What is nakladany hermelin? The cheese is similar to camebert, and it’s been marinated in oil, onion and spices. It’s really tasty with pickled onion and something spicy. And a glass of wine.

Wine – one of the things that surprised me the most when moving here was the quantity (and quality) of Slovak wine. No, I’m not a great connoisseur when it comes to wine, but this is good. It’s fairly cheap and most of all, it is local.

 

Tatratea/tatransky caj – this is something I prefer to avoid where possible, but those who know say it’s delicious. And OK. Tea is delicious.

“Life must be lived and curiosity kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.”*

Sometimes life is just way too confusing.

 

*Eleanor Roosevelt

Attempting To Be Creative

 

When it comes to food and cooking, there are  a few things I like: simplicity, freshness and flavour. There is no need for the food to be complicated or fancy, and usually a few selected ingredients are better than a whole lot of them. Today, when my cupboards were completely empty (except for legumes), I started racking my brain, trying to figure out what I needed to buy. At the end I realised that onions and tomatoes would be more than enough. So now I’m just waiting for my chickpea and lentil curry to get ready.

And some spices.

Sociology of Law

http://cybernormer.se/2012/01/15/cybernorms-featuring-roger-cotterrell/

The above link leads to a very interesting interview on sociology of law and European Union law. As part of my current uni course, I need to write a blog. I’m thinking about addressing some of the main topics here as well – is that a yes yes or no no?

The Walk 6/2/2013

Dobré ránko!

Favourite shopping from Prague: the book, not the coffee.

 

It’s never too early to make faces – at least the coffee is starting to kick in. Once done with the coffee, it’s time to walk to work. Today I’m bringing the camera, yesterday’s sunrise was absolutely amazing and I don’t want to miss it!

Swedish vs. Danish

Natalie asked about the relationship between Danish and Swedish. This is an interesting question, because it really depends. I have a Danish friend and when he speaks, I understand most of it. He understands me when I speak Swedish, but finds it problematic when our Swedish friend speaks Swedish. At the same time, there are Danish people whom I don’t understand at all – there have been people speaking to me in Danish and I would only get a few words here and there.

When it comes to the written language, then Swedish and Danish are really close and there are no problems in understanding it.

Danish Music.

As I mentioned earlier, I’m starting to get hooked on Danish. So just imagine my happiness when I found a playlist with 122 Danish songs. Oh yeah!

February It Is

Time flies. I have been in Slovakia for over four months, the winter has almost passed. The snow is gone, the rain is delighting us with its presence.

Existentialist doubts have invaded me, driven by some sort of melancholy. I don’t know where that melancholy stems from – maybe from the knowledge that this too shall pass? There are so many things making me happy; the people around me, the things I’m reading, the nights out, the walks around Bratislava, the songs and the laughter. And deep down inside, I know this too will change. People will come, and people will go. All of this will turn into memories. Maybe that is one of the hardest lessons to learn in life, now is now, what’s now might be gone tomorrow.  It’s something that must be accepted, and appreciated.

Lately I have spent a lot of time thinking about Spain. How wonderful it was to wake up at seven, go to the gym and have breakfast with Åsa. The palm trees, the orange trees. The general atmosphere. But then again, on the other hand, I have all these memories from a lot of places. Sometimes they are overwhelming, but at the end of the day I should be thankful for actually having all these great memories.

On Saturday mornings I love drinking coffee and finding random Hungarian music videos on youtube. In a while I need to turn my focus to the European Union and tonight it’s party time again.

The other day in the pub (the perfect place for learning Slovak), I heard this on the radio and could not help myself. This is so funny (and Czech, in case someone is wondering)!