twinga

Cuba part 1

Here´s a quick travel report. So far we spent three days in Varadero, Cuba, to get used to the climate and sleep off our jet lag. Varadero means all inclusive resorts with tourists from all over the world. It´s not too busy though, definitely less touristy than Cancun, Mexico and the likes. Either way, I don´t think people who come here actually venture out to see the real Cuba. The real Cuba for instance means not getting whatever food you like at this very moment. 

 

So we spent the first day sleeping most of the day as it was very windy outside (our guess is the weather was part of the tropical storm Ida). The next day was the perfect beach day. Crystal blue-turquoise waters and an almost white sand beach. Beautiful. And then we took off with a bus to Trinidad, where we are now.

 

This town is really something. Hardly any cars (and if so, then the old American ones you see on TV), even less motorcycles but lots of horse drawn carriages and pedestrians. Very fascinating. We are staying in an historic "casa particular" with a very nice old couple who makes breakfast and cooks us dinner. House dog and cat included :-).

 

Right now we are in the state owned Internet facility and I´ll better finish up this post before I lose it - one never knows ;-). Hope everyone is well! Viva la revolucion! :-) (There are tag lines with communist content everywhere and the book shops are full with Marx, Che and Castro books ... ).

My grandmother's wedding day

It is my grandmother's 87th birthday today. A few months back, I got her a book that's called "Oma erzähl mal" - basically "Tell me your story, grandma". It contains questions about family, life lessons, and simple things about daily life back then, and you are actually supposed to fill them out by hand.

Now, as I said, she's 87, and she gets very tired when she has to write these days. So today I took the book and started asking her some random questions, filling it out myself.

For better understanding: My grandma grew up in the German part of the Czech Republic before World War II, so she was German, but actually didn't live in Germany. She wasn't on the Nazi's side of the story either ... which at some point almost got her in trouble. But that's another story. So when the War was over, she, her parents and her grandma got kicked out of the Czech Republic by the Czechs and they were taken to a small village in Bavaria, with nothing but their suitcase and the clothes they wore. For a few years, her and her husband (my grandfather, who is a full blood Czech, he died more than ten years back) lived in a 10 square meter room on a farm.

They could only get married after they had left the Czech Republic and finally got married in Bavaria. Their wedding day: Mass in the morning and their only wedding gift: Flour, eggs and some meat from the farmer lady they were staying at. When I asked her about her honeymoon she laughed and said: One walk around the cow stables! :)

What a different world we live in today, preparing for weddings as if a life depended on the color of the table decoration. Ridiculous in comparison!

A few other highlights:

• I always knew that my grandfather had lots of siblings, but I never knew that there were 3 real brothers and another 10 (!) half-siblings. Wow! I was trying to imagine my great-grandmother preparing dinner everyday...

• She said it was love at first sight when she saw my grandfather. He came to her house as he and another Czech guy were checking for animals who might have been left behind by Germans who had already had to leave the Czech Republic, and so he knocked on her door. She wore a red dress and was ironing clothes! :) Cute!

• Her advise for life: Always listen to your heart :)

Soon all the contemporary witnesses of the time around World War II will be no longer with us... Time to ask more questions!

Tadka Dhal and Chicken Vindaloo OR A whole day of cooking

I'm no passionate cook. At most, I cook one dish a week, the rest of the week T has to cook or we go out. A bad habit that I nurtured in San Francisco. Actually, I guess the amount of times you cook doesn't correlate to how much you like it. For me, cooking is an art, it's creative. And as much as I don't feel like taking photographs every day, I don't feel like cooking every day. I guess cooking is also a necessity most of the times  - but today was only fun. I thoroughly enjoyed what felt (and kind of was) a whole day of cooking. It's almost 10 p.m. now and we just finished this great Indian meal with - guess what - some tasty chai. We started the whole thing by thinking about what Indian dish to cook, then making a list, going shopping, and then started marinating and soaking and preparing what needed to be preapared before you could actually heat the many pots and pans we needed.

Without going in to too much detail, let me just say that these two videos here should be followed exactly as instructed and you'll get the most amazing Tadka Dhal (Manu, what does Tadka mean?) and Chicken Vindaloo. Really, I mean it. The way it turned out, we could have served it in an Indian restaurant in India. And I know what I'm saying! We could officially be an Indian cooking help now, he he. :)

So here are the videos, and this is the link to the chai recipe.

Dhal Tadka:

Chicken Vindaloo:

Chicken: How To Make Chicken Vindaloo

And this is how ours turned out:

In memorial of Michael Jackson, The King of Pop

I have to say I am so glad I got to see one of Michael's concerts. I will never forget having waited for hours to get a spot that was still about 100m from the stage. I was 17 back then. It was the best concert I've been to - ever. The show and his performance was just amazing. RIP Michael. Here is my favorite song, the one that ALWAYS got me dancing as some of my friends will remember. :-) The video is from the History Tour concert in Munich, 1997. Maybe you can spot me ;)?

Fingerfood

Last night we were invited to a housewarming party and were asked to bring fingerfood. The reason I'm posting this is mainly because I found the preparation very appealing from a design point of view. Well, it also tasted good of course :) So here goes ... our mini hot dogs in flaky pastry and spinach-goat cheese-garlic in flaky pastry.

Maybe next time we'll try Empanadas de Pollo, a recipe from our favorite cooking blog, kochbanausen.de :)

Bon Appetit!

Just wanted to say...

... that we are still running regularly. The idea with the regular blog posts was a great thing to get me started, but turns out I'm much better at the regular (on an average every three days) runs than the regular writing about it. Well... I guess it's better than the other way round.

Also, there really aren't that many curious incidents while we are running. I actually find myself total spacing out, almost like meditating. Sometimes I feel very lazy but T usually manages to drag me out - and once I'm out there I'm glad I did it.

Besides, German summer, the trees, the flowers, the river and the bright fresh colors of everything need to be enjoyed!! :)

So, now all there's left to wonder is whether we are going to buy a grilled chicken to go with the veggie bulgur I made today or heat the Debreziner sausages. Hmmm. Either way, not a low calorie meal - but who cares, I'm going to run it off again :).

Another run!

Wow, I haven't even blogged as much as I've been running - almost. So, I'm proud to report to have run another 4.5km today. Thought of today: Need to watch my pulse, especially in "couch potato circumstances" aka resting pulse rate. It's always been high, but with the level of training I should probably be careful. Feeling totally normal though and pretty good about getting fitter! Yeay!

Running again!

Today is beautiful. Sunshine, warm but not too hot. T and I took the bikes to Siebentischwald, a nature protection area in Augsburg. We left the bikes at the Northeast entrance of the park and started running from there to Stempflesee and back (the link shows a path around the forest - we actually were in it ;) ). I made it 4 km without a break while still being able to talk a bit. Really fun. So, what was the curious incidence of today? Actually, nothing much. Just enjoyed the weather and did some yoga exercises on a small bridge in the end. Happy weekend everyone!

Will I last?

So, here's me and my brand new pair of Saucony Hurricane running shoes after the first run along the river Lech today. I had to visit two running shoe shops to find a pair that fits. Everyone who knows how much I like shopping know that's a big deal ;)

I'm new to the whole running business - well, let's say I tried it in the past and never really lasted. The last time due to some health stuff. So here's to a fresh beginning! I guess T will make sure it happens anyways ;).

The plan is to go running twice a week. I will keep posting about my progress here and will also mentione one curious/mundane/interesting/funny thing that happened or that I thought about on each run.

Today's is: I saw a guy that looked just like the character from the movie Sideways and he was running as slowly as I was. Maybe I should cut down on my wine consumption ;).

San Francisco to Hood River - Trip photos are up

I finally managed to upload our trip photos. Sorry to my lovely friends in Dubai. I know you can't access Flickr but there are too many pics to post. One more reason to come see me in Germany - so that I can show you all the photographs ;) Pictures are here.