Eastern Europe

After leaving Prague, we drove through Slovakia to get to Budapest. Slovakia has pretty much no forms of life. See picture left. We spent the entire time looking for any form of life. We once saw a bag blowing in the wind and got excited because we thought it was a bird. Slovakia was also really windy because I believe there aren't any animals to block that wind. The roads started to get nicer and smoother. The grass turned green and the sky became bluer. Turns out we were in Hungary. While in the border control, we noticed all the slovakian truck drivers squatted outside their trucks. From there the slav squat was born.



Budapest


Budapest is a city I would go back too. Budapest was actually two cities(Buda and Pest) divided by the Danube River. When we first arrived we went to a look out point with a fort and freedom statue, that ironically looked like it was made from the soviets. We had some goulash and then did a night river walk. We went to this famous bridge for a photo op, and ended up taking a picture with random people sitting in the park. Pretty nice for a first night, I think.

On the morning of the second day we say the Hungarian Parliament, which is based from the West Minster in London. On the way there we saw a homeless lady picking trash out of the trash can and from there the gypsies were born. After the parliament, we went to the St. Mathais church and climbed up for a great view of the city. Went to a dive bar for lunch and got this great typically stew dish and drinks for a total of six euros. When we finished lunch, we met back with Rotex, and we climbed to the highest point in Buda. From there, we drove 45 minutes into Pest to this famous spa complex, Szechenyi Furdo. It was a relaxing day in the sun with a few saunas thrown in.

On the morning of the third day, we went to our last stop, A Budapest market. Things in Budapest are surprisingly cheap, really cheap. I found that I liked Pest better than Buda. Buda is on the left and Pest is on the right side of the river.

Vienna


Going to Vienna was one of the best feelings because we can finely speak german again and understand the locals, a little. We got into Vienna and went first to the 100 water house. That night we got to our hostel and then went to a sports bar, which was also a great first night.

We only had one day in Vienna. We started at the Schoenbunn Palace. It was interesting. After that we went into the city to a market. Then saw some of the city. Esther, our Rotex tour guide for the day, took us to the city center and we received free time there. After free time we went to dinner and had schnitzel because it is originated in Vienna. There were also spicy peppers at dinner, and I was able to eat more than a mexican. No one else would try. One of the proudest moments of my life.

On our way back to the hostel the group of exchange students lost Rotex in the subway station. As they were walking to the wrong exit, I noticed it wasn't right, so that James, Jack, and I turned around and headed to the other exit. We found Rotex hiding in a platform entrance. Then as the group of exchange students started to come back we ran up the stairs to the platform to hide from the others. It was crazy night, running threw the station hiding for the giant group and then meeting them out front because they didn't remember how to get back to the hostel.

I wish I had more time in Vienna because it was a pretty chill city, that I would have liked to see more of. It was also a beautiful city. Here are all the exchange students in front of the Schoenbrunn Palace.

I Didn't Forget About The Blog yet...

I have been gone for the last three weeks touring Europe. An experience that brought us as exchange students closer together as one giant family, and was the greatest vacation of my life,  I am not sure how I will split up the cities because there are 11 of them, and I am sure it will too long for one blog post.

I didn't go with my Rotary club on their Deutschland Tour because I wanted to the Europatour, and I didn't have the money for both. (The Deutschland Tour was 800 €; so don't get crazy Frau.) I kind have wish I did do the Deutschland Tour, after becoming closer to people I only knew threw Rotary weekends. Europa Tour was a 22 day Prague to Paris roller coaster of an adventure.

So that brings me to Prague. Prague was one of my favorite cities. In fact I loved eastern Europe in general. I thought I wouldn't like as much as western. There was one thing that I thought was weird about Prague. You are not allowed to drink on the streets, only in bars/restaurants.

After driving the 13 hours from Duisburg to Prague, Prague was exactly what I expected it to be. We pulled into a parking lot under an expressway in a ghetto part of town. After walking a few minutes, we found our hostel in the heart of the old city. Our hostel was in the strangest part of town. It was a completely safe part of town, but next to the hostel was a smoke shop/ liquor store, next to that was a strip club, and on the other side of the street were bars and souvenir shops. The economy from Prague pretty much thrived on Tourist shops.

On what was left on our first day, we got stopped by German Embassy security guards after a ballon went of the fence of the embassy. The best part of that was seeing the male security guard jump more than the female when the balloon popped. Then we did the Czech Parliament.

The second day was my birthday. As we met in the courtyard that morning, Rotex (our tour guides) made me stand on a flower bed while everyone sang, and then they gave me a Czech T-shirt and a card everyone signed. It was a cool way to start the morning. After being shown around the city a little, we got 5 hours free time. We ended up going to a communism museum that was actually pretty interesting. After that we found a beer garden behind the Museum that had two euro liter beer. On our way back to the meeting point we saw this girl literally strip to her bra and panties and strut down the Carl's Bridge. That night Rotex took us to a bar to celebrate my birthday. It was a pretty chill night.

My only regret with Prague, is that I didn't try absinth. I Think I will just do a city a post for now on because they are pretty long. Here's the skyline of Prague.

Going on Vacation.

I will be taking a three week vacation and don't believe I will post in that three week period.

I will be going three weeks on an Europa-tour with my Rotary Club. We will start on 23.03.2012 in Prague, and then go to Budapest, Vienna, Padua, Venice, Rome, Florence, Pisa, Nizza, Monaco, Avignon, Geneva, Paris, and finally back in Muenster on 13.04.2012. I don't think any other spring break will be as good as this one.

Schnelle Küche: Tortellini Surprise

Cook time: 25 min.   Servings: 4-6

Ingredients:

500 g. (1 lb.) Tortellini (meat, cheese, or whatever you prefer)
2-4 Tbsp. Tomato Paste
2 c. Heavy Creme
1 Tbsp. Salt (plus for pasta water)
200g. (~3/4 c.) Ham, diced

Directions:

Bring a medium pot of water to a boil and add a little salt to the water.

Cook the Tortellini according to the packaged directions. When the tortellini are cooked, then drain the water from the pot. Slice the ham in a small dice. Add the tomato paste, cream, salt, and ham in the pot and bring to a boil. Turn the heat down and let cook for 15 minutes, or until the sauce has reduced into a thick consistency, like mac and cheese.

Kind of a Nerd

This week I went to CeBit, twice. CeBit is like CES but with more software and less hardware technology.  CES is the annual Consumers Eletronics Show in Las Vegas. CeBit is the Consumer Electronics Trade Fair in Hannover. Both hold the record for World's Largest thanks to the fancy name play.

CeBit was huge. There were 26 different halls to go in, on a 5 acre campus. Tobit was there with the best Booth. They were next to google. They set up a bar that looked like Offsite, Tobit's bar in Ahaus. The bar/booth even included a robot DJ with pole dancers.

To continue with the nerd theme. Albert this week tried telling me that the 6th star wars movie was the best. Everyone knows the 4th (1st) movie was the best. The Fifth had Luke's ugly face when he finds out that Darthvader is his father, The first three were too computerized, and the last had weird tiny animals. I am not a stars wars fanatic, but everyone knows the 6th movie was the worst.

My Observation of this week is that Germans will only go through one door of a double door way. At my school kids will wait to go through one door for two way traffic, when there are two doors available. At CeBit everyone would file in through one door instead of opening the second. It's a little weird, but it's whatever.

Schelle Küche: Pasta with Mushroom Creme Sauce

Servings: 6   Cook Time: 15-20 minutes

Ingredients:
500 g. Mushrooms (Simple white button Mushrooms or Champions)
1 Tbsp. Butter
1 Tbsp. Oil
200 g. Sour Cream
220 g. Heavy Cream
100 ml. Water
1 1/2 Tbsp. Steinpilz-hefebrühe (I couldn't find anything similar in English except Porcini Powder and Yeast flakes mixed)
1 Tbsp. Cornstarch
1 Tbsp. Salt
1 tsp. Pepper
500g. Pasta (Short, Curly Pasta works best.)

Directions:

In a pot of boiling salted water, add the noodles and cook following packaged directions.

Slice the mushrooms about a half inch (2 cm.) thick. In a warm pan add the oil and butter. When the oil and butter start to simmer add in the Mushrooms and sauté until golden brown, and the mushrooms have reduced by half, about 5-8 minutes. Add in the Sour Cream, Heavy Cream, Water, Steinpilz-Hefebrühe, Salt, and Pepper. Let the mixture reduce by half, about ten minutes. When the sauce has reduced, add in the cornstarch and let thicken, about 2 minutes.

Mild Temperatures are Killing Me

This week I was curious to find out which US State had the most exchange kids in Germany, as of Today, Illinois has the most with 10 kids. I believe it would be fair to say that district 6440 has the most kids per district with 4, Impressive for a tiny district in northern Chicagoland.

This up-coming week, I have 2 finals Bio and Geography. I wish my Geography class was as easy as Lakes, where the kids just learned where the countries were and then made food from that country. Now I need to learn economics of developing countries and how tourism effects a country's development/ deteriorates the culture.

I am going to die when I get back to the US. I am not saying it's super cold here because we actually had a warmer winter than Chicago, and we never received snow. Today is 14℃ (mid 40's), and to me that was T-shirt weather. I am going to die in the summer heat.

The US needs to use the metric system. It would make my life a lot easier. When everyone else in the world uses the metric system, doesn't it make sense to adopt a system that everyone uses, so that we are globally compatible. I understand the creator of "Fahrenheit based it off the human body temperature, but even he was wrong, and the human body temperature is 98.6 and not 100 like originally stated, making the Fahrenheit system invalid. But we are Amuricans, and we are the ass of everyones jokes because we are as stubborn as one.

Schnelle Küche Recipe this week: Peasant Lentil Soup

150 g. Lentils
4-5 Medium Potatoes
4-6 Strips Bacon
1/2 Medium Onion
1 Carrot
1/2 Leek
1-1 1/2 L. Chicken Broth
1/2 Tbsp. Pepper and Salt
1/4 c. Sugar
1/4 c. White Wine Vinegar
1 c. Chopped Bologna like sausage.

2 Tbsp Curry*

Dice the bacon, onion, carrot, leek, and potatoes, and then cook them in a medium pot until the bacon is crispy, and the onions are translucent. After that pour in the Chicken broth(and curry, if using), scraping any brown bits off the bottom of the pot. They add flavor. Add the lentils, potatoes, and leeks and bring to boil. Turn down heat and let reduce until the lentils are plump, and the potatoes are fork tender. After add the sugar and vinegar. They are added in equal portions, so that you can play around with the combo until you find one you like. Let cook for one hour. Before serving add sliced bologna and enjoy.

*I add curry but the wasn't part of Petra's original recipe. Also this recipe is made by eyeball measurements. These are not exact but a suggestion.

Schnelle Küche

Petra's Schnelle Küche recipe this week.

Ham wrapped Endives in a Hollandaise Sauce

Servings: 4  cook time: 10-15min

Ingredients:

4 Endives
4 slices Ham or Prosciutto
2 cups (250 g.) Hollandaise Sauce
1 cup Cheese (Gouda, Mozzarella, anything that is good for melting)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 180℃ (350℉)
Cook the endives in salted boiling water until they before fork tender. Next put the four endives in a baking pan. Wrap the sliced ham around the endives, and then pour the hollandaise over. Cover with cheese and bake until brown.

-normally we eat this as a main dish, but it would also make a good side dish.

Karneval!

Duisburg is a city that I could give or take... give. I went there Wednesday with a my Art Class on a field trip to a sculpture museum. Driving into Duisburg, is the same as driving into Milwaukee. There's nothing special going on. Homeless people in Duisburg have a funny way of saying hallo, "Fuck you guys, and your moms too. I'm not Joking!" 

The Museum itself was a 1960 disaster. I don't know what it is about the 60's/70's, but they had some of the ugliest/unpractical architecture...

Now that the I'm done with the boring stuff, here's Karneval.

Karneval is probably one of the coolest things I have ever been too. Köln has the best Karneval in Germany to be followed by Düsseldorf. I am not 100% sure, but I believe Berlin and Hamburg do not celebrate Karneval. Karneval is a 4 day event, Thursday through Monday. I have already forgotten the names of each day, but they aren't important. 

Thursday is the ladies day. The girls go around and draw on guys faces, and everyone goes out drinking.

Friday is something, I don't remember, but it involved drinking.

Saturday... Drinking. I arrived in Düsseldorf on Saturday, but Rotex wouldn't let us go into the city.

Sunday is when the real partying starts. We started off the day with go-kart racing. I have always been a good go-kart racer, and I had the best lap time, from what I saw. Then we went into the altstadt for 5 hour free time. 

If anyone has been to New Orleans during Mardi Gras, then they will know what I am about to explain. Karneval, unlike Mardi Gras, is all ages and starts around 11 in the morning. It was funny seeing parents pull a wagon with their alcohol and kids in the back. There were also a ton of drunk old people (60+) waddling through the altstadt with the younger crowd. Everyone having a good time. Mardi Gras in New Orleans is a couple streets, from what I have seen. Karneval in Düsseldorf is the whole altstadt (a few square blocks), and every street is packed. It's like a combo Mardi Gras and a rave. One of the best parts was when it started to lightly hail and everyone was dancing in the street. Rotary wouldn't let us stay out after 6 because I am sure it only got crazier then. 

After the hail was done, I was able to get this picture of the Rhein and important tower, that every German city seems to have in Düsseldorf. This was the only photo I took with my camera.

Monday is the day everyone dresses up. You look stupid if you aren't. The whole weekend is a costume weekend, but most people do it on Monday. Düsseldorf had a parade at 12:30, but most of us went back to the Altstadt because once you have seen one parade, you have seen them all. I did see a few floats from the parade and got an unwrapped muffin thrown at me from a float. 

The U.S. needs to start celebrating Karneval because it is one of those things, that you will never forget.