.cake and friends

.today we had a small birthday party, for the closest friends only :).

Entry fee was a good mood and something to eat ;). Everyone tried his best and so boys (Igor, Stefan and Honza) brought some 'almost homemade' plum-pie, i did some spinach risotto with curry pork. But the most delicious part of the menu was still to come: beautiful cake by Janka, take a look at the photo and you'll believe me. It was really gorgeous (a little bit still waiting in the fridge)! Big thanks to the chief cook ;).
After enjoying this culinary start of the evening and degusting mexican wine started a chat about everything, full of fun and interesting information. Mixed with the music in the background, time went by really quickly. We discussed many topics, ranging from russian ballet, new possibilities for sightseeing around here (the weather is starting to be very bad and so we need to find some indoor sights), famous czechoslovak movie "Dědictví aneb Kurvahošigutentag" with brilliant Bolek Polívka to social problems in the contemporary Germany ;)... Anyway, being with the friends the topic is not that important, what's important is the relaxing effect and positive energy all around. See you next year!

.being 24

.the time is flying by as we live our everyday lives... Isn't it strange that we are the worst in witnessing the changes in our personality, tastes, appearance, etc.? Because we are with us each moment of our lives. It's quite the opposite with the people we see only from time to time. During every meeting you can hear things like: "oh, you've changed so much", "you look much older, much more serious". Yeah, we know many secrets and details about ourselves, yet we're not able to see the coarse changes in our thinking, gestures, mind...
This day (the birthday) should be special for everybody, or not? I don't know, I'm really 24 now but has something changed for me? I doubt it, still the same problems, same joys, sadness mixed with delight. Human soul is complicated and it evolves without noticing the "important dates" in the calendar...
Maybe it's better this way. Let us leave the soul problems for now and celebrate a bit, folks, cheers!!! :)

.christmas is coming!

.here it is again, still one month to go, yet all shops already have Christmas decorations and advertise myriads of commodities to buy and make your holidays even merrier than the last time...

Yesterday was an opening for Saarbrucken's official christmas market (only the weather was not very good, it rained all day). So I waited until today, knowing that there has to be sun somewhere in the sky ;). My pleads were fulfilled and at least before the midday clouds were shattered. That was a great opportunity to take a look at the atmosphere of the Santa Claus in the centre of the city.
The market is small but quite nice, full of stalls with mulled wine, ginger bread and beautiful ornaments. It was nice and inspiring. I was accompanied by Janka and we've not forgotten to take a break for some nice italian cappuccino and tiramisu (as a reward for a good squash game :), we had in the morning)...

.night drive

.this is a very quiet and boring week (as opposed to the last one), practically nothing to do. Out of this boredom we decided to do some night "need for speed like" race Saarbrucken - Luxembourg - Saarbrucken. Everything was exactly like in the game: high traffic, wet roads, some road works, except that I couldn't choose a car :(, not even tune it a bit ;)...

And now a little bit more serious version for this announcement. I was asked by a friend to drive his girlfriend (she was visiting him here in Saarbrucken) to Luxembourg, because there she could catch a direct bus to Prague. I had nothing to do, so i agreed. Another 200km done successfully :). So far I've driven 3400km! this semester (it's very close to the whole amount of not Saarbrucken kilometers).
And of course being there we didn't hesitate and tanked as much gas as possible (it's cheapest in Duchy of Luxembourg)...

.sport & cooking

.this was a beautiful Saturday. In fact I desperately needed something like this, some relax, because last week was very stressful, full of school assignments and horrible weather...
First of all, we went to play a squash with my good friend Janka. It was great, playing squash after such a long time and with such a nice girl :). I'm definitely looking forward to our next matches. After one hour of tough competition, feeling pleasantly tired, it was time to continue with our list of plans.
Because the squash wasn't exhausting enough, we decided to do something completely different, this time some cooking. We did a 'farmer's fondue', which is in fact a fondue (sauce from cheese, cream, onions, bacon, etc.), served inside of the loaf of bread. How to describe it in other words? Delicious :)! Of course, as always others were also invited, to help us with eating...
And that's still not all. Janka decided to bake us a cake. A real cake, in this city, where everybody eats only puddings and similar stuff! It was great, in fact still is, accompanying me on the table, as I'm writing this :).

.she's 17!

.yeah, it's true. 17 years ago happened something very important. Thing, act of revolt that meant beginning of the end of one era, era of socialism in Slovakia (at those days still Czechoslovakia)... I'm talking about the so called "Velvet revolution", revolution that opened the doors for democracy (and borders to western Europe and other parts of the world).

We were too young to be a part of this process, still having simple childish problems. Too young to be aware of the importance of things going on around us. Thank God, our parents grasped at this chance of redefining the "freedom". Hundreds of thousands of people in the streets, ringing with keys, firm in intention to change the system... They helped the country (as seen on current economic growth, membership in major organisations etc.), helping also themselves and us at the same time (new possibilities of travel, study abroad etc.).

This day is a national holiday in Slovakia, so celebrate with us! Because democracy is almost mature now...

More info on wikipedia.

.(funny?) Heimfest

.yesterday's night belonged to a traditional party of this dormitory called Heimfest. Students from every floor have their selling stall with different types of drinks and food and the money earned from this gig helps in buying new stuff for common kitchens, etc. This sounds like a good idea and at the beginning it also looked like one...
It started as always a little bit (an hour) later than planned. You could have seen many colourfull stands and various offers, ranging from tacos and tequila, tortillas and champagne to some more common as beer, hot dogs or mulled wine. As time went by still more and more people were coming, everybody was chatting, dancing and having fun. It was good because last few days were stressful (some deadlines for submissions of exercises from school), we relaxed quite nicely.
Of course as this was not just a common party (like the one taking place every Wednesday), it was also longer, louder and more crowded. After the midnight someone went to bed, someone has just arrived... But as everybody knows, alcohol is alcohol and some people had definitely more than they needed. It started with some violence and quarrels and ended with a fire alarm (because some idiots have used the fire extinguisher and clouds of dust triggered the fire sensors). So after police came there were some explanatory talks (was this necessary?)... Every noise finally died around 5 a.m..

.beer + chocolate = belgium

.after 3 days and more than 900km is our trip to Belgium over. We're back in Saarbrucken, tired but full of new exciting experience ;). But let me start from the absolute beginning.

It all started many weeks ago, when we decided to pay a visit to our friend, co-student from Prague, who is now studying (Erasmus of course) in Hasselt, Belgium. He invited us to come to see him as well as this interesting and very expensive european country (petrol costs 1.272 euro/liter, for example in Luxembourg you can get the same for 1.005 - that is what I call a big difference...). The final date agreed upon was this weekend.
With the hope of relatively good weather and packed with good mood we arrived to Hasselt. After the meeting with Michal and hearing some of his bizarre recollections of previous night (some nice party ended with him beaten and his bicycle hanged on the traffic sign somewhere in the city ;) ) we went to local Carrefour to shop for needed supplies (you know, the liquid and other stuff...). First thing you'll notice in the grocery shop in Belgium is HUGE number of brands and types of beer. The second sight will uncover some never seen before amounts of alcohol in belgian beer (ranging from 8 to 12%!!!, in Slovakia the normal beer has 4%). So we tasted a few pints and talked about life, etc. :)
After seeing the really nasty and bad weather on Saturday morning we decided to leave our plans of visiting Amsterdam unfulfilled and visit Antwerpen instead. This was a superb decision. Not only is this city much closer but the rain stopped after leaving Hasselt and even some sun broke through the clouds. Finding a parking place relatively easily we started our exploration of the old merchant town and harbour. City (800,000 inhabitants) of long maritime and merchant history, typical architecture (like the guild houses on the picture), tradition of diamond processing and the biggest jewish community in Europe has a lot to offer for tourists. Plenty of sightseeing beauties as well as hundreds of nice little pubs and luxurious restaurants. Everyone can spend here a nice day or two... We had a relatively good weather with periods of sun and clouds accompanied by cold wind (but you can't expect better at this time of the year, can you?). After a long and exhausting tour around the city's centre we relaxed for a while in the oldest pub they have here :). Some homemade beer was drank and with this we returned back to our home for a weekend in Hasselt.
For Sunday we planned trip to a Bruxelles, the heart of European Union because we as good Europeans wanted to see where our taxes are going to ;). Again it rained in eastern Belgium, but the capital was lit with sun (good for us). Bruxelles is quite a big city (1,019,000), with absolutely confusing traffic sign system (we're unable to find our way back from the centre for some time...). Until today I thought the worst traffic signs are in Hungary (no offense meant) but this is my new favourite :). Maybe starting our tourist route directly on the central square was not such a good idea. After seeing those beauties the remaining parts (except for grandious cathedral, on the pic) were not very inviting nor interesting. Lots of churches in desolate conditions, many gay bars, some modern banks... Of course we didn't see everything, our time was running out quickly, but from what I've seen, it's not at all as beautiful as it's neighbour Antwerpen. Yes, there is one more thing worth of mentioning, we've found here cheaper famous belgian chocolate ;) (500g are awaiting it's chance to prove it's quality on my shelf right now).
And that's probably it. I'm pretty tired (after many hours of driving) as I'm writing this. But hopefully it was worth the pain and you've enjoyed my little story... Good bye Belgium!

In case you want to see some more photos, visit this link.

.a piece of Romania

.yet another day which meant yet another party :). But this is also the meaning of Erasmus life, right?
Today our friend from Romania (Mihaela) was celebrating here Namesday (the day your name is in calendar, for those whose cultures disallowed the pleasure of another day of celebration). As usual our great kitchen was chosen as a place for this event. And so we ate some romanian specialty (something like our potato salad but with chicken), drank some wine and talked a lot. The huge exchange of cultural information took place, now we know much more about some important romanian current affairs (Vlad Drakul and Ceaucescu's palace as an example ;) ). Believe me the chat was really great, like always when you meet nice people :).
Afterwards we went to Heimbar where the traditional wednesday party was going on, only today the music choice was not very lucky and nobody was dancing... After some more chat and laughter my tiredness finally took over and signalized that the day is over for me. Good night and see you next time!

.comments wanted!

.it may seem as an unimportant thing but for every author reader's comments, critics, ideas, etc. are an useful feedback from which he can improve (or totally give up, if they are too negative ;)) his style of writing, write more about interesting stuff and so on. This blog is a window into my life but it's here also for you to share my experiences. So let us make it better together. All there is needed are some comments, folks ;)...

.slovak 'pirohy' & us jazz

.i've got a great feeling because knowledge about slovak cuisine was successfully spread among people from all over the world today :). You don't believe me? Well, that's your very own problem, you should have been here with us... To be more specific, as far as my memory is not bad yet, 'spisske pirohy' tasted friends from Slovakia (they also helped me a lot with cooking, so BIG THANKS in that direction), Czech Republic (of course), Pakistan, Spain, Great Britain, Sweden, Romania and China. Nice bunch of people, right? And they even liked it, what makes me really happy (because every cook, be it apprentice or master, is proud and happy seeing that guests like his food :P)...
So let me tell you what lies behind this huge culinary success. I've just had enough of this monotone german food (mensa throughout week with their schnitzel and pasta during weekends...). So I decided to prepare something special and typical for Slovakia. As 'halusky' were made two weeks ago, this time I chose 'pirohy'. Recipe is not a complicated one, yet the lack of major ingredients is not very good ('bryndza' can't be bought around here, so I faked it combining feta cheese, processed cheese and milk...). After some effort dough was prepared and with a huge help of friends some hundred pieces of 'piroh' were stuffed and formed. Few minutes in boiling water and it can be served (whole preparation took us some 3 hours). Although time doesn't matter if you see that everybody liked it :)...
But this was not the only big thing today. This week has here in Saarbrucken started a jazz festival. Some of the gigs take place in university's aula and with a little bit of luck I won a free ticket for today's concert (jazz bands Parallaxe and Oregon). As always on this school, not everything was working (heating malfunctioned today, so we were sitting there like in the refrigerator) but nothing could spoil my good mood and hunger for some nice music full of emotions. And really, I got what I wanted, both bands were perfect, different styles of jazz, but at the same time beautiful performances and lots of positive energy ;). Yeah, this was a fantastic day! I wish all of them were like this...

.kitchen fun

.what a strange day it was... Balancing between hunger, knowledge and fun ;). Exotic ingredients created an interesting mix. Sounds ridiculous? Then you're welcome to read more.
First there was a morning and believe me, this was a synonym of VERY COLD. With some heroic effort we got to lecture room and "enjoyed" 4 hours of absolutely devastatingly boring lectures. Worth to mention is a fact that I was very hungry (and as you probably know, hunger and concentration do not cooperate very well...).
After this dreadful experience we finally tasted some superb as always food from our beloved mensa (it's incredible but Germans can eat schnitzel with chips every day + as a dessert you can choose between pudding and, surprisingly enough, more pudding). Today was probably some national holiday because we got some indian curry meat with rice (and pudding, of course ;) ). But it served its purpose and pain of hunger was extinct.
What lied ahead was also very promising, russian conversation class. I've dreamed for a long time about attending a thing like this but never got a chance. And it's quite useful, mainly if your language skills are deteriorated after 12 years of not using it... It proved to be great, I did some progress with speaking russian :), hopefully after a semester I'll be able to speak fluently enough again, because it's embarrassing not to be able to have a normal conversation with friends (I can understand pretty everything but active vocabulary is so bad :( ).
Unfortunately hunger announced it's presence once again. So I went straight into the kitchen to cook something quick and nutritious :). However, crowds of people there took me by surprise. Some great cleaning was going on. And so I walked without intention into such an interesting process. It took some time and plenty of fun but afterwards the duty was successfully done. And nevertheless, some new relations were established as this was a good opportunity to say more than hello to some people I already knew a little. And contacts are important, bro ;).

.melancholy

.it looks like we have waved our "Good bye!" to the warm and sunny times. Starting from today temperature dropped by some 10 degrees, which means it's freezing during the nights... These news are accompanied by strong winds and rains :'(. I don't know what does it mean to you, but for me it always brings melancholy. Only for a few days (body and mind need to settle to these new conditions probably) but always...
Maybe it's symbolic that it appeared exactly on the 1st of November. The day which means nostalgia for many (at least christian) cultures. The day when we're burning candles and remembering people who are not anymore among living, among us (hopefully not only on this day but today it's more visible...). So let us pay a little respect and dedicate a few thoughts to those who cared about us...

...Thank you