#but i’ve been wanting to cook more czech food for a while now

[unbound-space-trash]

finally found and ordered a copy of the czech cookbook my mum has so that I’ll be able to try out more recipes

[darylandbethfanforever9]

Devil’s Backbone

Devil’s Backbone

Chapter 6 

Story Rating: Explicit, 18+ 

Warnings: Smut, violence, past flashbacks of sexual assault, descriptions of torture, racial hate and forced abortion. Not Tony Stark friendly.

Relationships: Bucky/OC, Steve/Natasha, Billy/Wanda/Grant, past Clint/Laura. eventual Clint/Yelena and Frank/Karen.

Summary: In the aftermath of the Blip, Bucky struggled to find his place among the world and the Avengers. However, when he is sent on a mission to Madripoor to investigate a young woman, he starts to realize that maybe his past isn’t too far behind him. Co-Written with WalkingPotterGirl14

"It was amazing, you guys. Absolutely." They had been on a video call with Bucky for about fifteen minutes now, starting to get some intake on his trip there and how everything had been going. But up until now, Steve had waited with a raised brow as Bucky described everything he had seen. "That sounds great, Buck," Steve chuckles a bit. "But there was a point of this mission." "Right, uh-" Bucky rubs the back of his neck a bit embarrassingly, chuckling. "Sorry. Sharon just knows what she's doing. I've never seen so much art and so many fancy people all in one sitting. But you're right. Sharon did direct me to the young woman that supposedly took up the Power Broker position." He pulls up photos and splays them onto the screen so they could see it. "I got some of these pictures last night before she left." Steve crosses his arms against his chest, shaking his head. "I can't believe this." "She looks just like Anastasia," Wanda remarks lightly. "See, you think that, but that's not her name – at least the one that she gave me isn't Anastasia. It's Maria Kapitonova. Interesting alias, but if it is her, she's certainly taking a different route than what I'm doing." "Did you learn anything else about her?" "Nothing that we didn't already know," Bucky states quietly. "Sharon told me that she is the one who's taken over the city, but she's dangerous, just as we suspected. She has morals and has laid down some rules but hasn't stopped herself from killing those who against them. Sharon said she's ended at least three so far. Something did sort of stand out to me for a moment though. I was talking with her and she said she moved to Madripoor to escape the cold from somewhere. If she WAS in Siberia, that would make sense." Sam rolls his eyes from where he stood. "There are a lot of cold places in the world, Bucky." "I know, I know, but it's curious, is all I'm saying." Steve sighs but nods. "Alright, at least we have that. You said you'd see her again?" "Yeah, we ah…kind of hit it off, in a way." At Steve's questioning response, he responds quickly. "Not like that, I just - I mean it seems she's willing to meet with me again outside of a party, so it'll be easier to get info." "Right," Steve chuckles, although a bit of him was curious. "Remember that this is a mission though, Buck." Bucky rolls his eyes. "I know, you don't have to remind me. I'll get the info you guys need." There was a loud meowing off screen and Bucky chuckles. "I gotta go. Alpine is being a little minx and wants some food." "Tell him that I say hi!" Wanda says, smiling. "I will," Bucky snickers before nodding at them. "I'll talk to you soon." They wave goodbye to him and he signals off the call, leaving them alone.

Ana lets out a soft sigh of content as she cooks up some dinner. While she did have someone that could cook for her, she preferred to cook her own food – usually for safety rather than convenience. She knew that there were several people who would most likely pay a chef to put poison in there. She wasn't about to let herself go down like that. As she starts to plate up her food, however, she pauses when she suddenly hears a crash from the living room. Quickly, she reaches into her cutlery drawer and grabs a knife, approaching quietly. "Hello?" She asks. No response.

She keeps her guard up as she ventures into the living room to see if anyone or something was in the living room. There was nothing aside from a card box having fallen on the glass coffee table. Luckily, it hadn't cracked the glass. She suddenly saw movement from the corner of her eye and picked up a gun that was in a drawer. Ana started cautiously walking down the hallway where the dining room was, when someone suddenly lunged at her. She moved out of the way quickly as the man jumped at her with a knife directed at her throat. She dodged out of the way as the assassin slashed at her with knife, but Ana used her ballet training to avoid being stabbed. Grabbing her by the hair, she threw him into the wall to slow him down slightly. The man glared at her disdainfully, sneering at her as he pulled out a knife that looked like it could slice her to pieces. "This is called a serbcutter, little girl. My ancestors used this knife to kill enemies of Croatia during World War II," the man taunted cruelty, lunging at her again. She kicked him in the chest, gripping her own knife and stabbed him in his left shoulder. She heard him yell out in pain, as she wrapped her legs around his neck, but he kicked her right knee, causing her to hiss in her own pain. Ana backed away from him as she saw two more of his friends had joined him. They must have come from the back garden to get into the apartment. Damn it. "Three on one…that's hardly fair," she remarked coldly, keeping a fighting stance as she kept an eye on where all of them were positioned. And then, she ran, all the way down. And they weren't that far behind in following her down into the streets.

After feeding Alpine and falling asleep, Bucky woke up to the sounds of fight from across the street. He quickly got dressed before grabbing his gun and his Da Lai knife that Steve had given back to him. It had been his when he'd been with the Howling Commandos. After locking the door, he walked quickly across the street to see what was going on. When he did find what was the cause, Bucky was stunned to see Maria fighting four people, one of whom had a knife and another man that he recognized as Diego, a Flag Smasher. "Hey, isn't four on one an unfair disadvantage?" he called out dangerously, pulling out his knife. His voice caused Maria to turn in surprise, and he sees a slight smile come over her lips at him suddenly showing up. One of the assassins tried to gut him. He kicked him in the face, causing the man to stumble back at his nose breaking from Bucky's kick. "You're pissing off our boss, Kapitonova! She wants Madripoor to be like how the country was before you arrived and started putting down all of these stupid rules for us to follow!" Axelle spat contemptuously, lunging at her with a hunter's knife. He saw Maria sigh in annoyance before punching her hard across the face, using a pair of batons that glowed dark red. They were similar to the ones that Natasha used, only hers glowed blue and not a dark crimson red. He knocked out the remaining one as Maria came over with a slightly bruised face. Her lip was bleeding, and she had a tear in her t-shirt that had blood on it. "What do you wanna do about them?" He asked quietly, nodding at two of the surviving assassins. One of the women was dead. Maria had stabbed her in the throat, severing her carotid artery and causing her to bleed out. "I'll question them…thank you for helping me," she answered cautiously, glancing up at him. He nodded and watched as she picked up their weapons off the floor. He discreetly checked to see if any of them had any identifiable scars or tattoos and got lucky. The woman had a tattoo on her back that had the words 'Elite Hunters' with roses on either side. It looked like it had been branded into her skin. He felt his blood run cold but took a photo and sent it to Steve. Maybe, they could find out who had sent them to kill Maria and why?

Steve had gotten Bucky's message and the attachment of a photo that showed a tattoo. He'd never seen that tattoo before, but Billy, Clint, Natasha, Yelena and Grant were staring at the tattoo as if they'd seen a ghost. "Do any of you know what this tattoo is? Because I've never seen it before, and I've seen my fair share of tattoos," Steve asked curiously. Natasha was the one who answered his question, surprisingly. "I do, and so do the others. It's the tattoo of a secret organization called the Elite Hunters who prey on people by luring them to holiday hotels and spas in countries such as Italy, Czech Republic, and Iceland. They revel in dark fantasies such as murder, cannibalism, and torture of many forms that include fetish pornography and amputation. Only wealthy people run the organization, and it was very secretive…until 2013," Natasha explained gravely, her face showing her disgust. No one in the room could speak. They were all horrified by what they were hearing. Wanda looked like she was going to be sick. Scott had stopped eating his slice of pepperoni pizza, while Sam looked disgusted. "Just gonna put that down," Scott mutters, lowering his slice. "So, what happened in 2014, Romanoff?" Tony asked, causing Natasha to ignore him. Steve shook his head, shocked at the revelation. "After I dumped all of S.H.I.E.L. D’s secrets, the Elite Hunters were discovered by Fury. A lot of victims that had escaped or survived killed the Elite Hunters in revenge, or they committed suicide rather than go to prison for multiple murders," she explained quietly. Clint then took over. "At least three of them escaped and went to hide in Madripoor. These are the only surviving Elite Hunters," he said gravely, as he used his iPad to pull up the images. Three images came up on the large plasma screen. One of a man with light brown hair and cold blue eyes. The next two were of another man who had blonde hair and emotionless hazel eyes that caused Wanda to shiver at his disturbing, twisted smile. The final image was of a blonde-haired woman who looked like she was a model, but she had a demented smile, one that made Steve know instinctively that the woman was dangerous. "Do we know who hired them to kill Maria?" Steve asked concerned. Before she could respond, a furious Thaddeus Ross stormed into the conference room. His hands were balled into fists, as he glared at where Steve was sitting. "Who authorized Sergeant James Barnes to go undercover as a Russian arms dealer in Madripoor!? I made it perfectly clear that the woman was to be terminated as soon as you acquired her location!" Ross shouted infuriated, causing Steve to speak up for his team and Fury. "With all due respect Home Secretary, the young woman has shown no threat to us. I personally believe, as do many of the others, that she is perhaps more like Frank Castle," Steve argued, causing Ross's face to turn an interesting shade of purple that resembled an eggplant. "You overstep yourself, Captain Rogers. As from now, you are no longer the leader of the Avengers due to your behavior as of late and your recklessness in allowing Sergeant Barnes to go on a mission without being cleared by me. As a result, Tony Stark will be leading the team," Ross said harshly, a cruel smile appearing on his face. Tony's expression was one of arrogance, triumph and smugness. "Sir, Steve did the right thing. Who else could he send undercover?" Natasha argued firmly, causing everyone aside from Clint and Sam to stare at her in surprise. Ross's lip curled, as he looked at the young woman who sitting next to Yelena. He wasn't impressed or bothered by her question.

"He could've sent you, Agent Romanoff, or Belova." Natasha's shoulders fall. "Barnes knows Madripoor far better than I ever could have. And he knows Sharon better than I ever did. He was logically the best choice for this mission besides maybe Sam, but even then, he has his duties here. Barnes didn't have further missions that were outstanding that were blocking him from going. I did, and so does Belova." Ross lets out a huff before shaking his head. "Your missions could wait for something like this – either way, it was a bad decision to send Barnes off on this. If it were up to me, I'd bring him back instantly. But that's Fury's area." He glares at him, who doesn't give a proper response, just shrugs his shoulders. "Even so, Steve's lost jurisdiction. Tony, it's your job now." He shakes his head almost in disappointment before storming out, closing the door. Steve feels himself glare at where Tony was. "You just couldn't keep your mouth shut, huh?" "Oh, stop. You're being dramatic. This is what's been going on for ages," Tony states, crossing his arms against his chest. Steve shakes his head and sits down, quieting himself as Tony started to talk, changing the screen at the front. He glances at Nat and nudges her side, to which she glances over at him. "Thanks for standing up for me, Nat." The young woman nods in response, glancing at the ground. He could see she was still uncomfortable with something sitting inside of her. He wished there were a way he could see inside her head and wonder what the hell was going on. But hey, if she were standing up for him, that had to mean something good, right?

"Wait, what happened?" After the big fight with Maria out in the streets, Bucky had instantly gone back to his apartment to tell Sharon over the phone. And she had understandably listened and been surprised when he told her about everything. "It was insane, Sharon," Bucky says, running a hand through his hair. "There were four of 'em up against her. They really wanted her gone. She ended up killing one of them but the others…think she dragged them back to her place to interrogate them." "What did you say the tattoo said?" "Elite Hunters. Don't really know exactly what they are but got a feeling that whoever sent them wants her gone." Sharon sighs from the other end of the phone. "I'll be sure to look them up and find some info – I'm sure you've already talked to Steve and the others?" He nods. "Of course." "Good. Just keep an eye out." There was a beat of silence. "Maybe you should go out and check up on her. This might be the best time for you to figure out more about her. Vulnerable and shit." Bucky raises an eyebrow. "That's a bit manipulative." He could almost her hear shrug from across the phone. "You gotta do what you have to do. Might be your best option right now." Bucky sighs a bit. She wasn't wrong. It was an option. And right now, it really was one of the best he could lean towards. "Alright…you rest up now." "See you, Bucky." He hangs up the phone after that, glancing outside. It seems that she wasn't that far from where he lived. Maybe he could walk around until he found where she lived. He saw the direction she had gone. Maybe Sharon was right. Maybe it was the best time to do it.

The sound of a knife slitting across skin was loud enough for anyone in her penthouse to hear. The scream that followed was enough to make someone cringe. But Ana didn't care. Ana wanted answers. "Now," she says lowly, pushing the man close to her. She could see it was Diego, one of the Flag Smashers from before. "Either you tell me who sent you here, or I can make your time a little more terrible like your friend over there." She points to the other hostages that were now passed out. "I'm…n-not gonna s-say shit!" He stutters. She grabs her knife and stabs it deep into his arm, to which he screams out in pain before dragging it right back up to his elbow. The blood spurts out as tears start to evade his eyes. "No, you gonna play nice?" "It-t's Melina!" he yells out, his voice shaking. She pauses. "She sent us – p-please, we were only doing our j-" She instantly brings the knife up and slits his throat, watching as he bleeds out before falling to the ground. He was no innocent man. This wasn't a job. She knew what Diego had done prior to this. The same with these two. And now, it was done. Melina…god, she was going to murder that bitch. She wipes the blood away, letting out a soft sigh before grabbing a towel to wipe the blood from her face. Before she could start wondering what to do with the bodies, however, there was a beep that came from her intercom. Her brow raises before coming over. Who on earth would be here this time of night? "Yes?" She asks as her finger hovers over the button. "Who is it?" "Miss Maria, you have a gentleman visiting you," her concierge stated from below. "A Mr. Yakov?" She had wondered why he had come out to help her like that. Seems he was a bit more than she had originally thought. But he did aid her in getting these goons…maybe he wouldn't be opposed to helping her now. "Send him up," she responds back, glancing at the mess of bodies below her. She wondered what Yakov would say to this.

She heard footsteps heading up the stairs as she grabbed a towel and wiped the blood from her face. She didn't enjoy killing people, far from it, but she was pissed that Melina Vostokoff had tried to kill her for putting down some moral laws. She was well aware that no one in Madripoor was innocent, but she wasn't going to stand by and allow rape or trafficking or any of that shit. Just because Madripoor was keeping it's lawless ways didn't mean that she was going allow the sickest people to get away with hurting people. Shaking her head, she started getting the cleaning products out to deal with the blood on the floor. She heard Yakov coming up to her soundproof room. And as soon as he walks in, he whistles at the sight of the blood before looking up at her. "Maria, what the hell happened?" Yakov asked concerned, his eyes scanning her over for any sign of injuries. She smiled faintly at his own concern for her, but she gave him a reassuring smile. "Someone wasn't happy with how I run Madripoor with a moral code…so she decided to send three Elite Hunters and a Flag Smasher to kill me. I questioned the Flag Smasher, and he spilled his guts to try and save his life," she said coldly, glaring down at the body of Diego with no emotion.

Over in Bucky's head, he felt his heart pound at her words, as his mind processed what she was saying. Someone, a woman, had ordered a hit on Maria to kill her in a violent manner, but she had fought back and killed all of her would be killers. She was definitely trained in the Red Room. He could tell that she had been trained in that facility. He just had a feeling that she had been raised in the there. God, he wished he could remember more of his time during that period. "Do you know who it was that ordered the hit on you, Maria?" he asked curiously, keeping his voice concerned. The last thing he wanted to do was to make her suspicious of him in any manner. "Melina Vostokoff, that old bitch…I was hoping she died when the Black Widow and Crimson Widow destroyed the Red Room. Well…she doesn't know if I'm dead yet and I intend on sending her a gift," she answered forebodingly, her grey eyes cold as ice. Bucky showed no emotion but privately, he knew Melina's days were now numbered. "Can you help me out here?" She asks him lightly, trying to move the bodies off of the carpet, to which he does. "You know, for someone I just met, you've been quite the helper tonight." Bucky shrugs a bit and smiles a bit at Maria. "I'm not about to let someone who's trying to at least do some good in this city die like that." "Well…thank you. That means a lot," she says genuinely. "But I don't want to drag you into this. This is my fight." Oh, he was already dragged in so deep. But for her, he could at least play it off.

[suckitsurveys]

Do you have a common first name?   It’s more common now than it was when my I was born. I never met another Hannah until high school.

Do you like your middle name or your first name more?   I like them both but I wouldn’t want to go by middle name.

What year would/did you turn 21?   I turned 21 in 2010.

What was popular when you were a kid?   Barbies, Beanie Babies, jelly sandals…< we were kids at the same time so yeah.

Do you wear more rings or necklaces?   Necklaces, but if my wedding and engagement rings fit I’d wear those every day.

Have you ever been engaged?   ^

Can you see your veins through your skin?   In certain spots, yeah.

Do you have a certain song you sing aloud often?   Tons. Tik Tok has ruined my brain haha.  

Do you concern yourself with what’s in?   I mean, I usually keep up with stuff because of Tik Tok haha.  

Do you worry about having good grammar online? I don’t worry about it, it just happens naturally?

Do you know anyone with a lazy eye?   Yes.

Did your parents let you have pets when you were a kid?   Yeah, not til I was 8 though.

Would you rather live in an apartment or a duplex?   Neither.

Have you ever seen Boondock Saints?   No.

Do you like spicy chips?   Yeah. 

Do you have any ‘different’ keychains on your keys/purse?   What would be considered “different”? 

Do you collect pins?   Sure.

What band was on the last band t-shirt you wore?   Fleetwood Mac.

Do you wear more pink or yellow?   I guess technically Yellow. I have a yellow purse and a bag with yellow sunflowers I carry to work daily.

What’s the last movie you watched at a friend’s house?   The last thing I watched at house that wasn’t mine or my family’s was a John Mulaney stand up special at Sarah’s house in Boston in August.

Have you ever been out of the state you were born in?   Oh yes.

Do you have any tattoos on your arms?   Yes.

Have you ever owned or known someone who owned a black cat?   I have a black cat! Her name is Friday the 13th.

When was the last time you felt jealous?   I mean, I am jealous of people who own pools.

What’s the last thing you bought besides food/drink?   Jojo Siwa tickets lol.

What album is the last song you listened to from?   I forget what song I listened to last.

Do you know what the word lumiere means?   Isn’t it “light” in French?

Do you own a tea pot?   Yes, and an electric kettle.

Who scheduled your last doctor visit?   I did.

What’s the last video game you played?   It’s been a while. I’ve been thinking of getting a switch though. I wanna play animal crossing.

Do you have anything on your wrists right now?   Aside from a tattoo, nothing. I had a hair tie but I just put my hair up a few minutes ago.

Do you have any holiday theme’d socks?   Yeah, several.

What kind of accent do you have?   A Chicago one.

What’s the last funny movie you watched?   I haven’t watched a movie in a long time honestly.

Can you remember your parents’ birthdays?   Yes.

Is there anyone who you just absolutely cannot STAND being around? YES MY FUCKING BROTHER IN LAW.

What is the design on your shirt?   I don’t have one. I am wearing an olive green shirt and a grey hoodie.

Do you know anyone who just flat-out fails at life?   Uh huh.

Are you a Ghoulscout?   I’ve never heard of a Ghoul Scout, that’s really a thing?

Do you know someone who’s just always wrong about everything?   Yes.

Do you make fun of people often?   We all have our moments.  

Do you read your friend’s surveys?   I keep up with a couple people on here.

If you had to get a tattoo tomorrow, what would you pick?   More bats surrounding the bat I already have.

How do you feel about band tattoos?   I’d like one for Vampire Weekend.

Do you know anyone with a glass eye?   I don’t think so.

How much are you willing to pay for a pair of sunglasses?   No more than $15

Did you have a GI Joe when you were a kid?   No.

What is the origin of your last name?   Czech.

What piercing do you like most on the opposite sex?   Eh.  

What brand of hair dye do you prefer to use?   Pulp Riot/Privana Vivids or whatever it is.

What county do you live in?   Cook.

Did/do you ride the bus to and from school?   In elementary I would usually get driven to school and take the school bus home. In high school I’d be driven to school and sometimes would take the public bus home.

Do you prefer beef, chicken or steak?   Chicken.

What is your salad dressing of choice?   Bleu cheese or creamy garlic

Do you know anyone who’s a really funny type of weird?   Sure.

Do you make faces at certain people?   I mean, I have? It’s not like a thing I do?

Is there something you won’t let one of your friends live down?   No.

Are you any good at applying make up?   No.

Do you know anyone who’s hair looks like a wig?   No?

Do you misuse commas?   No.

Have you ever bitten your dentist?   No.

Are you someone who likes to make simple things difficult?   No?

Who makes you laugh the most? My husband.

[onceuponawildflower]

some nice little updates and dreams

my partner and i are looking to build a house in the next five years, and we'd like a modern cottage. my big thing is making it as energy-efficient as possible, while maintaining french cottage aesthetic, big windows, and a relatively modern floor plan. i want enough room in the back to have a potager and also an outdoor reading and eating together.

ideally, my partner and i would like space to entertain. i'm a trained cook and baker, and my partner is working their way into getting their sommelier certificate. we love good food, good drinks, and great company.

eventually, at some point in my life, i'd like to pursue landscape design. i already have experience and knowledge in environmental geography, conservation, horticulture, organic farming, biodynamic farming, and design, so combining all of those together to make beautiful landscapes is a big passion project for me (outside of writing my own book about food).

i think we'll lead a pretty awesome life together. our hobbies are independent of our current occupations, but those occupations will also help us get the life we want for ourselves. maybe some day in that five-year plan, we'll also have a kid or two. i've been pretty scared about having kids or thinking about having kids rather bc i was pretty sure i was going to end up alone, exploring, and living with three dogs (nothing wrong with that imo, clearly!) but i didn't think kids would be in the plan. not because i didn't want them, but just because i didn't really see that paving out for me (which would have been okay honestly! i'm someone who thinks life has the capability to be absolutely fulfilling with or without kids).

but anyways, we've talked about this too, and it's nice to dream up a life with someone. i feel like whenever i think too far ahead, something tragic and awful happens. but so far, that hasn't happened. plus this relationship, unlike others, is built solidly on trust and honest communication. no guessing. just speaking up and coming together in honesty and openness and vulnerability and understanding. it's quite nice. i'm allowing myself to feel happy in this and allowing myself to dream about future plans again.

we're both largely eastern european in ethnic descent, them more than me, but still we both hold strongly to our heritage. when i asked them what they'd like to name kids if we had them (we'd have two so the one wouldn't get lonely and would hopefully both be balanced by each other), the names they offered up were strongly czechoslovakian (yes i know it's two countries, czech republic and slovak, i was just grouping the etymological descent together) and polish. i'm also french, irish, british, scandi, and german, on my mum's side, with a particular affection towards french culture (i did study it in college after all, and continue to practice it to this day), so i love french names. my top picks for kiddos would be: miren, beatrice, willa, agne, and agathe. their top picks were ilari and ludmilla (milly for short). we both bonded over frances (frankie for short). it's sort of curious how i am utterly surrounded by friends with boys, and a little nephew, but for some reason, i could only think up girl names. same with them. gender doesn't matter that much to me, and obviously i can't control that portion, but it looks like we may have to come up with some more unisex or boy names. who knows what the future may hold.

that's sort of the long and short of it. i am living with my partner now (officially) and we have a lovely place in the city and honestly i sometimes don't believe this is my story. i feel very blessed to have found someone weird and lovely and intelligent and kind and artistic and logical and just at the right time too. life works out that way sometimes. especially when you don't think it will.

anyways, hope all of you are well.

cheers xxx

[citylightsbooks]

5 Questions with Megan Fernandes, Author of Good Boys

Megan Fernandes is a writer and academic living in New York City. She is the author of The Kingdom and After (Tightrope Books 2015) and the new book of poems, Good Boys (published by Tin House). Her work has been published or is forthcoming in the New Yorker, Tin House, Ploughshares, Denver Quarterly, Chicago Review, Boston Review, Rattle, Pank, the Common, Guernica, the Academy of American Poets, and McSweeney's Internet Tendency, among others. She is a poetry reader for The Rumpus and an Assistant Professor of English at Lafayette College. She holds a PhD in English from the University of California, Santa Barbara and an MFA in poetry from Boston University. She reads from her new book Good Boys with special guests at City Lights Bookstore on Tuesday, February 25th.

***

City Lights: If you’ve been to City Lights before, what’s your memory of the visit? If you haven’t been here before, what are you expecting?

Megan Fernandes: Of all the places I’m reading this Spring (and it’s probably not politic to say this), I am most excited to read at City Lights. I’ve never been, but I understood at a very young age that the bookstore symbolized possibility, spontaneity, digression, lostness, community, etc. As a teenager, I read a lot of Beat literature, my favorites being Dharma Bums, In the Night Café, and everything Ginsberg. I was compelled by their portraits of America’s expansiveness. And I also just think as an immigrant kid not born in the USA, the Beats gave me some sense of American geography. I went to Colorado for the first time last year and I had this memory of my first impression of Colorado as a place described in On the Road. When traveling across the country, I often have Ferlinghetti’s feverish, twitchy, carnivalesque poetics in my head. I also think in this indirect way, Beat literature shaped some of my thoughts around feminist thinking as I was conscious of my orientation as outside certain privileges of the “male, womanizing adventurer” often romanticized in Beat lit. I had to interrogate what it meant to feel intimacies with Ginsberg and Duncan who were destabilizing masculinities and cultural logics of hate. 

And so what I learned from City Lights and Beat lit is really something about the relationship between myth-making and counter-culture communities. I’m understanding the truly expansive network of the movement in so much more detail right now while reading an advanced copy of a fabulous new book called The Beats: A Literary History by Steven Belletto. 

What are you reading right now?

I’m reading a book called Dapper Dan: Made in Harlem, co-written by Dapper Dan himself and my good friend, Mikael Awake. It’s a history of Dapper Dan’s iconic work in fashion, of course, while being really intimate. And it’s just as much a history of his family’s internal dynamics and, through his family, New York City at large. In particular, 1970’s NYC is so vividly, brilliantly wrought in this book.

There’s this one section where Dap is at Iona College at a lecture on protohistory and the professor, a Czech immigrant, tells the class that “In order for man to have survived during those ancient times… he must have had powers that he doesn’t have now. The only people that could possibly still have these powers today are the black and brown people on the planet” and when Dap hears this, he is transfixed. He says: “This is one of the most esteemed scholars at Iona College telling a packed lecture hall that black and brown people were the only ones on the planet who still had spiritual powers. How come this was my first time hearing about that? I looked around. I was the only black student in the class. I wasn’t tired anymore. He had my full attention… I said to myself, This is what I need to know. This is how I need to formulate myself.” I’m loving how the book captures these intense moments of transformation. I love that word choice: formulate. What poetic agency is modeled in that word? I needed that word the moment I read it. 

Recently, I’ve also read Samiya Bashir’s Field Theories and Edgar Kunz’s Tap Out. Samiya wrote this legitimately weird and imaginative book that feels like it’s made out of the time-space continuum. Some cosmic materiality is really showing up in that book. I remember this line: “A body. A zoo. A lovely savannah. Walls of clear, clean glass” and I’m just on a ride with the musicality of her shifting assonance. Plus, I know that writers like June Jordan and Toni Cade Bambara are operating influences/specters of the book and you can feel that energy. Edgar’s book is more narrative and quieter, but so devastating. I sort of get what makes his speakers tenderize if that makes sense. I think it’s the same phenomena that tenderizes me, too.

Some of my favorite novels of recent years includes A Questionable Shape by Bennett Sims, The Small Backs of Children by Lidia Yuknavitch, Sonora by Hannah Lillith Assadi, and very recently, The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead.

What book or writer do you always find yourself recommending?

I think Jean Toomer’s Cane is the most beautiful book of the 20th century. I remember just being blown away by its call and response, the repeating imagery of sun and smoke and pines. That book is so stunning. Other astounding work that I always recommend includes Mebvh McGuckian’s Captain Lavender, Anne Carson’s The Autobiography of Red, Evie Shockley’s The New Black, Franz Wright’s Walking to Martha’s Vineyard, Eleni Sikelianos’ Body Clock, Jorie Graham’s The Errancy, Bhanu Kapil’s The Vertical Interrogation of Strangers, The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats, and Galway Kinnell and Hannah Liebmann’s translations of Rilke. Those are my hard-hitters. Those books are why I became a poet. 

What writers/artists/people do you find the most influential to the writing of this book and/or your writing in general?

You know, I collected poems while I was writing and editing this book. And I think those specific poems created a kind of constellation around me, almost protective, that kept me writing. Some of those poems include “The Long Recovery” by Ellen Bass, “A Matter of Balance,” by Evie Shockley, “What lips my lips have kissed, and where, and why” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, “I am Not Seaworthy” by Toni Morrison, “Becoming Regardless” by Jack Spicer, “A New Bride Almost Visible in Latin” by Jack Gilbert, “To the Young Who Want to Die” by Gwendolyn Brooks and many, many others. Definitely O’Hara as well. He never leaves me. The most important poem of that little self-curated archive is Frank Bidart’s “Visions at 74” where he writes: “To love existence / is to love what is indifferent to you.” I remember reading that line and just losing it. I have been guided by so much of Bidart. And maybe my book is a little bit about how to sustain rage in the face of that which is indifferent to you, what cannot love you (both personally and abstractly). How do you sustain rage so as to not fall into despair?

I also listened to a variety of music while writing and editing. A mix between contemporary sad kid hip-hop, old school jazz and blues, gospel, 80’s bands, pop culture queens, 1970’s hypnotic modal vamp, classical Spanish guitar, electronic pop, really pretty varied. A few names that come to mind: KOTA the Friend, NoName, Vince Staples, Travis Scott, Miles Davis Quintet, Bessie Smith, Sam Cooke, The Knocks, Solange, Archie Shepp, Pharoah Sanders, Alice Coltrane, Big Mama Thornton, Miriam Makeba, Kamasi Washington, Thompson Twins, Misfits, Bowie, Talking Heads, Tears for Fears, Cher, Whitney Houston, Portishead, Goldfrapp, Memphis Slim, Dinah Washington, Alberto Iglesias, Gustavo Santaolalla, Holychild, Blood Orange, etc.

If you opened a bookstore, where would it be located, what would it be called, and what would your bestseller be?

My grandpa played violin on a ship that sailed between Tanga, Tanzania and Goa, India. I never had the chance to meet him. He died when my dad was sixteen, but I always thought about what that journey might have looked and felt like, its many hardships, but also the wonder of gazing out at the sea playing strings. For that reason, I’d love to open a bookstore that focused specifically on Indian Ocean diaspora and sold books exclusively by authors working, uncovering, or investigating the literature of that oceanic rim. I think there is something rich in thinking about books not necessarily focused on nation-statehood but thinking more about a kind of social-imaginary with a literature that is messy in its conceptualization and crosses, migrates, misses, and mythologizes across many cultures over generations. You could have sections on food, underwater exploration, piracy, long-distance intimacy, trade routes, empire, transnational feminism. I like the idea of a bookstore that is anti-genre and instead, organized by associative thinking and imagination. It would be a logistical nightmare. You would never find what you were looking for, but you might find something you didn’t know existed.

So yes, I’d vote for a little homegrown network of bookstores in India, East Africa, and actually, maybe one of them in Lisbon which is a city that has a long (and problematic) history with the Indian Ocean. I’ve spent a lot of time in Lisbon the past eight years of my life, spending time visiting family and researching the history of the Portuguese empire especially as it relates to my family history (my folks are third generation East African Portuguese colonized Indians). I have a lot of conflicting homelands which is a way of saying that there are times when I feel like I have nothing but a rootless present. That’s something I investigate in my work, that weird (a)temporality. And I’m drawn to the particular light of Lisbon which is quite unusual. I’d call the bookstore “Malaika” which means “Angel” in Swahili and is the favorite folk song of my parents who grew up in Tanzania. I like the idea of a bookstore in Lisbon with the name in Swahili run by a Goan-Canadian-American woman. That’s the world I grew up in… one of multiplicities. 

[kissmejae]

GET TO KNOW ME LOSERS! 😔✊💖

I was tagged by @sweatae​, so here’s your a+ opportunity to creep inside that sexy brain of mine and see who i am! tagging @97boi @bfjooonie @joonsjeon​ @taesjpg @kooksluv please do this sooner or later, i loooove reading these

How tall are you?

172.5

What color and style is your hair?

Caramel brown, shoulder length and messy bangs! I try to style my hair everyday by using mousse and hairspray, bc naturally, my hair is super straight, but i want it curly, so I sleep with a tight bun!

What color are your eyes?

Green/Hazel

Do you wear glasses?

Yeah, occasionally, e.g. when I watch TV, or have to look at the whiteboard at sch00l

Do you wear braces?

Nopeydope

What’s your fashion sense?

Oohohoh...... All over the place, mostly scandinavian street style tomboy goodness! I prefer wearing white, black, blue and beige, and I often wear semi flared jeans in black or dark blue (Row Jeans from Weekday), and i pair it with a black turtleneck, a white tee, or a sweater. Weekday is my faaaav brand! I also like men’s shirts, linen summer clothes, wrap dresses and blazers. I like to shop online on Yesstyle. If you have Pinterest, you can see/follow my fashion board right here. Finally, my fav shoes are my black Docs, my white Nike AF1, my Adidas Superstars and my black Arizona Birkenstocks! So uhhhh yeah I’m very into fashion. ps. i like simple earrings and golden necklaces

Full name?

Dagmar F********n-B***e

When were you born?

23rd of July 1997 on a very hot summers day

Where are you from and where do you live now?

Aarhus, Denmark born and raised, and I still live here (I love it)

What school do you go to?

VIA Film & Transmedia, I study Multiplatform Storytelling & Production (MSP for short)

What kind of student are you?

Everyone thinks that I do my homework, but I rarely do it hehehe.. AKA I’m pretty smart and philosophical, so I seem diligent. I’m very organised though! And a huge nerd..

Do you like school?

Yes!!

Favorite subject?

From high school or..? We don’t really have subjects at my current school, but in high school I loved Classical Studies (ancient Greece and Rome)

Favorite tv shows?

Waaaahhh.... So hard.. True Detective (season 1), LOST, Stranger Things and Twin Peaks???

Favorite movie?

Well I’m literally studying to become a filmmaker, so I’ve seen a fucking lot!! Like, 600+.... But my favs are A Single Man, Amelie, Romeo + Juliet, Inglorious Basterds, Fight Club, Pulp Fiction, Coco and My Neighbour Totoro! I could talk about this for years probs

Favorite book?

Demian by Herman Hesse 4eva and always

Favorite past time?

Wasting hours upon hours on tumblr, youtube, pinterest and instagram, cooking and baking, taking care of my plants, shopping for food (esp at my local farmer’s market), playing games, reading while having my breakfast

Do you have regrets?

Uhmm.. I wanna say YES!!!!!!! But at the same time a lot of my regrets really just became regrets afterwards so I couldn’t have known at the time right? And mistakes help you grow. But my heart is pretty heavy, and sometimes it hurts a lot. I guess it’s all about learning to speak you mind at the right time without hurting those that love you. It takes a life to learn.

Dream job?

Obviously something within film/media, but i don’t know yet, maybe art director, set designer, producer or editor

Would you ever like to be married?

...... when it comes to love i need to meet the right person in order to know how i really feel about relationships and marriage, bc right now i’m very sceptical about the whole “love” thing

Would you like kids?

look above. If I end up alone in my mid 30′s I would consider being a single parent!

How many?

One, maybe two! I don’t have siblings myself, and it has its up- and downsides

Do you like shopping?

Heck yes, but not if it isn’t a nice place.. If there are too many people? No way.

What countries have you visited?

Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Czech Republic, UK, France, Spain, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Germany, Iceland, USA, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Vietnam. Most of the European ones I’ve visited numerous times, as well as USA and Malaysia, and I’ve been in transit in Turkey and Thailand, and driven through Austria, The Netherlands and Belgium.

Scariest nightmare you have ever had?

Ugh can we not!!!!! I’ve had so many ugly ones, but I remember something with boiled human demon heads 🤮 on the more emotional side i dreamt that jaebum tried to rape me and that seriously fucked me up for a long time

Any enemies?

i used to have one yeeeeaaaars ago, but we we’re like, 14, so it’s settled! I’m honestly a very chill and undramatic person

Any significant other?

-_-

Do you believe in miracles?

I guess? Mayhaps?

How are you?

Emotionally all over the fucking place and probably depressed at times, but i have many, many reasons to be grateful so i try to remember this at all times! i’m a lucky person

[anisimelle]

57 Facts Tag

oh my god. i mean, i’m pretty self-absorbed, but 57 facts about myself might be too much ever for me. anyway, i got tagged by the LOVELY @phoenixfg so i might as well try :)

i’m a vegetarian.

i find dairy and eggs disgusting, but i sometimes eat cheese with wine.

i only drink water and alcohol. tea sometimes. no soda, coffee etc.

i chew gum 99% of the time.

i don’t eat sweets.

my not so guilty pleasure is white wine.

when i’m stressed, i bake. watch me bake 30 cinnamon rolls and not eat a single one.

i have two small nephews. 

i’m czech.

my favourite song on the face of this earth is this one. (it’s not in english)

i can’t sing or dance but i do both every single day. 

i go to a lot of concerts and festivals all year round.

my favourite colour is yellow, but i look best in red.

i have a big family, most of which is not blood-related.

i strongly dislike wearing shoes.

if i try to wear high heels, chances are i will literally die within two hours.

my favourite time of the day is between 4AM to 6AM.

i love autumn. i could literally live in eternal autumn.

i speak french. really bad french.

i once spent a month in belgium and met a guy in a full on napoleon suit in a pub. i even have a picture. we had the best drunken conversation and it was probably the most french i have ever spoken in one sitting. 

i celebrated my twentieth birthday this july.

i work in frontend development.

my native language is czech, but whenever i drink too much, i prefer speaking english. it confuses the hell out of my family.

one of my deep-ish secrets is that in high school i had a crush on a teacher and took it a tad too far.

i have two moms.

my favourite thing to do is skiing.

i get nostalgic real quick.

i love christmas - the food, the togetherness, the music, the atmosphere... and i wish you all could see prague during christmas. it’s breathtaking.

my favourite movie saga is star wars. (han and leia ftw)

i’m a drama queen in real life. it’s always all or nothing with me.

i don’t really cry about big things, but i cry over every single minor thing.

i dislike my calves.

i suck at texting. like, hard. i never answer texts like a normal human being. i prefer calling.

right now, i’m realizing i am not interesting at all.

i love brooklyn 99. i’ve watched the entire thing like five times.

i can’t run. i hate running.

i like taking pictures of my friends when they don’t know i’m taking a picture. i like it when people don’t stare into the camera.

i love babysitting my nephews. they make me happy. but seriously, i don’t remember growing older... when did they????? 

i’m not really fond of love stories. 

i like shitty poetry.

i used to write a lot a couple of years ago. then i just... stopped.

i love coding and i’m extremely grateful to have the job i have.

i think that living in a big city is cool because vegan pizza.

i think that the countryside is cool because alcohol since 8AM.

arguably the best thing i’ve ever experienced was flying in an ultralight over the countryside for three hours.

my favourite way of travel is by train.

with flying close second.

i’m writing this thing while procrastinating on a project i should be doing. it will bite me in the ass sooner than later.

i wish i could spend more time with my friends.

i love receiving and writing letters.

when i was in bruxelles, i walked an hour and a half by foot to the cheapest grocery store almost every day instead of taking the bus so i’d save money and could buy more beer. beer in belgium is like 8€, whereas in czech republic it’s 0,5€.

i have a love-hate relationship with food.

i always complain no one chats me up, but whenever someone does, i literally leave. last time i told the guy i was married and had a baby.

i can’t tan. every year i spend the entire summer outdoors, and i never tan. ever. i’m always white as hell, only in winter i get slightly whiter.

i’ve been toying with the idea of cutting my hair to my shoulders. it’s to the middle of my back now.

i almost never taste the food while cooking.

i have blue eyes.

thank god it’s over. this was exhausting :) i’m kinda thinking that instead of an about page, i’m just gonna link this post if someone wants to get to know me.

i tag ANYONE that wants to do this. 

[raygirlramblings]

~~~MERRAY CHRISTMAS 2017!!!~~~

It’s been a rough and turbulent year for many, but I hope that everyone who sees this can have some peace over this holiday season.  Spend time with the ones you love, enjoy some yummy food, open and share gifts, just have some time for you.

And if you really want to, celebrate Christmas with whatever traditions you hold dear!  The more unusual the better.

This year the Rayman family are celebrating Christmas with some unique and unusual traditions from around the world.  Had a lot of fun reading up on some of these traditions and their origins, and then deciding which character would best represent each tradition.  It seems fitting considering how many wonderful friends I’ve made from around the world through this iconic game series.  And here’s hoping to meet many many more in the coming year!

A full list of what each character represents is under the read more ;)

Going clockwise round the tree, starting with Rayman: Rayman: Yule Lads - Iceland Christmas isn’t christmas without a little festive mischief, and in Iceland they have a whole team of mischievous mythical chaps to cause mayhem called the Yule Lads.  These include folk like Askasleikir (Bowl Licker), Stekkjarstaur (Sheep-Cote Clod) and Pottaskefill (Pot Scraper) but Rayman is specifically dressed as Gáttaþefur, the Doorway Sniffer who uses his big nose to sniff out tasty baked goods :)  Finally Rayman gets to put that nose of his to good use XD Globox: Traditional St Nicholas - England/Germany Actually struggled to find the accurate origins of this version of St Nicholas.  Before CocaCola decked Santa in red in the 1930’s the jolly present giver appeared in a variety of different costumes including a green robe and a crown of holly.  Credit should also be given to the Ghost of Christmas Present from Charles Dickins A Christmas Carol who wears the same outfit.  Really Globox represents the non-commercial depictions of Father Christmas! Uglette + kids: Christmas Pudding & Silver Sixpence - UK The Christmas Pudding is a popular traditional stable of the Christmas dinner in the UK, and there are a few traditions associated with preparing it.  One tradition states that each member of the family should take a turn stirring the pudding mixture from east to west (which considering the size of the Globox family could take some time!).  Another tradition is the inclusion of a Silver Sixpence, which is placed in the pudding mixture before baking.   Whoever receives the sixpence in their pudding portion gets to keep it! The Globox Kids: Mari Lwyd - Wales Probably the creepiest Christmas tradition I found was from Wales, and it was particularly bizarre since I’ve lived in Wales for 3 years and have never heard of this XD  A horse skull decorated with ribbons and trinkets is attached to a stick and draped with a white cloth (to cover the person ‘wearing’ it), and the Mari Lwyd is lead from house to house to sing and perform dances for the residents.  It’s a little like Wassailing, bringing round joy and holiday cheer to neighbors.  Raymesis doesn’t seem to appreciate Mari Lwyd’s song ;) Raymesis: The Krampus - Germany If you’ve been naughty it’s not Santa you should be afraid of, as Mr Krampus is a LOT more horrifying.  A demonic creature who accompanies Santa and punishes naughty kids, the Krampus has gained popularity in recent years inspiring people to make their own costumes and parade round as him.  Also everyone should watch The Krampus movie, it’s great :D Voodoo Mama: Christmas Spiderwebs - Ukraine/Eastern Europe Considered to be the origins of Tinsel, the Christmas Spider is a tale about a hard working arachnid who helps decorate the tree of a poor family in time for christmas.  When the first sunlight of christmas day fell on the spiderwebs they turned to gold and silver, and the family were never poor again.  Such a sweet story, and considering the prevalence of spiders in Rayman’s world this seems like something the Glade residents would celebrate. Sssam: Hanging Stockings - Europe/America While the official origins of this tradition are unknown the concept of hanging stockings by the fire for Santa date back as far as the 1800’s.  The most famous story is of St Nicholas leaving gold coins in the stockings of three poor sisters, which were hanging by the fire to dry.  Nowadays stockings are elaborate and often personalised.  Can you guess who the stockings Sssam is wearing belong to? ;) Lac-Mac: Gävle Goat - Sweden In Sweden the Yule Goat is a popular and beloved Christmas creature, a friend to Santa on par with his own reindeer.  As part of their Christmas celebrations the town of Gävle erects a giant straw goat in the town center, which has become a popular tourist attraction.  But unfortunately it’s not just the size that makes it famous (despite the fact it’s a Guinness World Record winner).  The Gävle Goat has the unfortunate curse of being vandalised or set on fire by random people to the point where it’s become a tradition to see if the goat will make it to New year.  Probably a good idea to stay away from open flames, Lac Mac ;D Murfy: The Christmas Pickle - America/Canada While a lot of cultures enjoy eating pickled foods around Christmas time, the Christmas Pickle is an oddity as while people believe it started in Germany it’s actually an American/Canadian invention based on a pickle tree decoration!  In some homes the family will hide a pickle ornament on the tree for the kids to find.  But real, edible pickles are good too and better to share with friends :D Betilla: Befana the Witch - Italy Santa isn’t the only deliverer of pressies to kids.  In Italy the kindly witch Befana flies about on her broom filling the shoes of good children on the Feast of the Epiphany (Jan 6th), and will even sweep your floor before she moves on!  I figured Betilla would like playing the part of a good witch bringing kids joy :D Barbara and Holly: Roller Skating to Mass - Venezuela On Christmas day it’s not uncommon for the cities of Venezuela to close their roads and open them only to the people, hurrying to Mass services on roller skates!  Seems like the Holiday Princess has managed to rope one of her interdimentional cousins to skate with her, and Barbara is a little out of her depth XD The Teensie Doctors: Three Kings Night - Spain Much like Befana the Three Kings/Wise Men of the Bible are responsible for filling the shoes of good Spanish children on Jan 5th.  The Teensie Doctors seem to be taking their work very seriously…for the most part… Romeo Patti: Shoe Throwing - Czech Republic Normally a tradition performed by women (but Romeo is all about breaking the norm!) the idea is to toss a shoe over your shoulder while facing the front door of your house.  Depending on how it lands will determine if you’ll be married that year, though I’m not sure the prediction is accurate if you hit your friends in the process. O_O Ly: KFC Mascot girl - Japan While many families will traditionally sit down to a home cooked meal at Christmas, in Japan KFC does gangbuster business with families ordering their seasonal chicken bucket meals months in advance!  Ly is dressed in the clothes worn by the Japanese KFC promotinal girl…though now I’m looking at it maybe I should have dressed her up as Colonel Sanders.  She could have easily rocked the white suit! Tily: St Lucia - Scandinavia Decipted as a young woman dressed in white with a crown of holy and candles, St Lucia is a symbol of light and comfort bringing food to the hungry.  She is often shown carrying bread and sweet buns to distribute to the poor.  Funnily enough I know I’ve seen someone draw Tily as St Lucia in the past, so that inspired her appearance in this picture!  

[restless-in-paris]

Jojoba in my hair

and other rituals for self-care…

One breezy morning, towards the end of my first month after moving back to Paris (September, 2019), I noticed that the dandruff in my hair was starting to get out of hand. My hair was severely dry and badly in need of some nourishment. Which is why, a certain Friday evening, I went to a store in Gare du Nord - the Indian/Sri Lankan neighbourhood of Paris - to look for some hair oil. I entered this particular store called VSCO Cash and carry - if I remember correctly. The store was full of people, full of familiar and not-so-familiar sounds, smells and skin tones. I spent some time just making my way through the crowded aisles just to get a gist of the place initially, before finally looking for what I actually came there to buy. In the second aisle, towards the corner, I finally found a shelf with a variety of hair oils. The regular ones - coconut and almond - as well as more exotic ones - tea tree oil, cactus and jojoba. I started doing a little pro/con, SWOT analysis in my head to decide which oil I should get and how much of it. I often go into deep pondering states like this while shopping, to be REALLY sure of my choice. Which is why I prefer to shop alone I guess. After much thought and deliberation (and some ad-hoc googling) to choose between the regular Parachute oil and a new, Vatika jojoba oil that I hadn’t seen before, I went with the latter. I bought two bottles of it. While at the cash counter, I made sure to follow my instilled french étiquette of wishing bonsoir and bonne soirée. All this while the khayali pulao in my head was seasoned with sounds and syllables from Marathi, Tamil and Mandarin by the other people waiting in the queue. I stepped out of the store, and took the metro back to place de la Nation.

That night, before going to sleep, I opened one of the small bottles of Jojoba oil to massage some of it into my hair and let it stay overnight. There was a sweet, rich smell that emanated from the chartreuse yellow liquid. I took some in my palm and rubbed it gently into my scalp and the roots of my hair. My roommate asked me what the smell was. He didn’t seem to particularly like it. There are some people in this world who have different tastes, and then there are some who don’t have any at all. I replied it was the oil, and he asked me to open the window to let the smell dissipate. I did so.

The next morning, I washed my hair with some egg shampoo, dried them and put some oil back again. It felt nice. It seemed as though my hair had been thirsty since a long time and that now their thirst was finally quenched. I stepped out into the Saturday morning air and walked towards the Carrefour store near my house. As the wind blew over my hair and by my face, I felt grateful for that moment. And for all the million moments of self-care, repair and reflection that living in this city allowed me.

After a week or so of applying the jojoba oil to my hair, my dandruff had virtually vanished! I was amazed at how effective it was. And that’s why to this day, every morning or night, I rub a little jojoba into my hair to keep them nourished and healthy.

Self care ritual #2 Cooking with love, eating with gratitude

In a couple of months, I have progressed enormously in terms of what I cook, and how much attention I pay to what I eat and how I make it. Being inspired from the international environment that I get to live in - whether it’s seeing a spanish girl using ‘Laurier’ leaves as a seasoning, or seeing my Czech friend Markéta make a zucchini tarte - I have started experimenting and creating recipes of my own, combining Indian cooking techniques (the little that I know thanks to my mother) with local ingredients that I find here. Last year I posted about my Poha made with hazelnuts. In this section I’ll take you through some of the other food I’ve been cooking for my meal prep routines.

#1 Pulao with laurier (bay laurel leaves) and échalotes (shallots)

This was a pulao that I made where I just replaced the onions with french shallots and bay leaves (tejpatta) with laurel. The result was this rich and flafourful rice with a beautiful harmony between hints of European and Indian tastes.

#2 Pâtes Gratinées (Gratin of pasta)

This was a gratin of pasta that I had made because I didn’t want to make regular, lazy student-pasta. Making a gratin is a rather french cooking technique in which you cover something with béchamel sauce and top it with a layer of cheese and then bake it. Undoubtedly, a gratin of anything becomes very filling and acquires a rich creamy texture (along with fats, but that’s okay as long as your portion sizes are humble). And this turned out to be a very successful experiment because this was literally the first time I was even using an oven. It tasted pretty good and the persil (parsley) added just the right kind of seasoning it needed. The next day when I made my boss taste it, he was visibly delighted as well and commended me on having upgraded my cooking to a new level. Ah the little joys of life.

#3 Tarte aux légumes du soleil (Tart with vegetables of the sun)

This one is partly a combination between a recipe I found on marmiton.org (a french recipe website), a recipe by my friend Markéta (from the foyer where I live) and my own taste. I made this quiche with a combination of vegetables known as ‘légumes du soleil’ (vegetables of the sun) for some reason. This includes zucchinis/courgettes, bell peppers, aubergines and tomatoes. It might be interesting to find out why it is called so. Perhaps because these vegetables are grown in sunnier parts of Europe? In any case, the resulting quiche again made for a nice, creamy and fairly healthy meal. My own twist on the recipe was to add oregano seasoning, mozzarella cheese and replace the aubergines with mushrooms.

Self care ritual #3 Mental and emotional self-care

When you move to a new place, no matter how much you love it and how eager you are to integrate yourself, there are some emotional and mental bumps that you need to take care of along the way. Currently I am working on creating mental and emotional self-care routines to deal with these. Different people have different coping mechanisms for managing their emotional and mental health. Some people meditate, others do drugs, alcohol or other substances, some people might binge-eat, indulge in social media, have boyfriends/girlfriends, exercise, or engage in a hobby and so on. This year, I have decided to engage in writing, exercise and introspective walks to create new self-care mechanisms for my emotional well-being. Along with talking to friends of course. Which goes a really long way.

One of the mental bumps I’m currently facing is dealing with the phenomenon known as french "humour". The french sense of humour seems to primarily rely on a sort of irony that’s always expressed with an extreme poker-face and is intertwined deeply with the language itself. This makes for some tricky situations at work with a colleague of mine who is particularly adept at this sort of humour and prides himself in it. The key difference between this kind of humour and the anglo-saxon and indian influences on my sense of humour is the almost complete lack of self-deprecation. Using techniques such as ‘second degré’ which is the french term for speaking ironically, french wit seems to consider itself as a sort of verbal jousting where the objective is to bring down the opponent with pointed and nonchalant sarcasm. Whereas a more Indian/American (?) approach would be to invite someone in ridiculing a third-element, a situation or a circumstance, instead of targeting one another. I’m not sure if describing this difference as the same as ‘laughing at someone’ vs ‘laughing with someone’ would be completely correct, but it does seem to be the case a lot of times. To illustrate with an example, say, you’re walking on a street with a friend and they accidentally step on some dog poop. Now, a typical french reaction to this incident would be to say ‘Oh no, watch out, I’m gonna start smelling irresistible now’. You see the kind of extreme lack of self-deprecation and an abundance of the opposite that I’m talking about? Following this, how you react to this phrase will be key in judging your ‘frenchness’ of sorts. And mind you, it’s all the more difficult to process sarcasm and absurdity when it’s in your second or third language. Maybe a decent reply, following the guidelines of french humour, would be to suggest to your friend to give away his bottle of Dior perfume to you since he doesn’t need it anymore?

Does this sort of explain the subtle, verbal back-and-forth that I’m talking about? Now the reasons why this is creating some mental hang-ups for me are: 1) Personality dissonance In English, I’m used to being fairly (somewhat?) quick-witted and funny. Or maybe I’m not. Who am I to judge? Anyhoo, my personality in french is yet to catch up to the one I have in English. Which makes for some dissonance and angst when I am not able to express or react as effortlessly as I would in English. But, at the end of the day, this is just a matter of time and patience I guess.

2) Integration Anxiety As a fresh, new immigrant (am I allowed to call myself that yet?), I am extremely eager to integrate myself culturally to the fullest. Which becomes kind of counterproductive because of the self-doubt that this eagerness creates. Counterproductive because, being french and being funny in french seems to be all about being EXTREMELY confident in oneself and bringing the other down with shade that would be considered dad jokes by anglo-saxon standards, but a heritage of Molière by french standards (which kind of makes sense given he’s considered the dad of the french language. Like father, like son). This sort of bring-the-other-person-down attitude doesn’t work too well with my kind of self-deprecating humour and also because I’m a nice person okay? who likes to laugh WITH others and not AT other people :p. Anyhow, the point is, I need to be patient and appreciate this attempt of understanding the french funny bone that I’m currently doing. Maybe my knowledge of shade-throwing, which I’ve been blessed with as a gay man might be of help? I just need to figure out how to translate this shade-sense into french. Another crucial thing I need to do is to believe in myself and my abilities, and NOT let this dissonance and anxiety affect my sense of self because you are worthwhile and adequate regardless of the language you speak, and just the way you are. I think I have reached a point in this article where my rambling has sort of stepped into the incoherent territory. So I’ll stop here for now. Sorry for the abrupt ending but don’t worry, there’s some more exciting writing planned for this page. Keep an eye out, my few dear readers and feel free to let me know if you have any ideas for what you would like to read about.

Until later!

AJT

[laraimaustria]

How the $%&@ Do Czech Crowns Work?: Weekend in Prague

I just got back from our weekend trip to Prague! For some reason I always wanted to go to Prague, so I was really looking forward to our weekend learning about and exploring the city. We left for Prague by bus around 8:30 in the morning. Buses here are not like buses in America, aka not gross. The bus was a double decker and the seats were pretty comfy, plus there was a bathroom on board. I was pleased to discover how not terrible the bus ride was because I will be spending 17 hours on one this Friday when Courtney and I go to Paris. But that’ll be another post. :). The weather forecast predicted rain, but when we arrived around 2:00 in the afternoon it was all sunshine. The hotel was a short walk from the bus station, and honestly it was pretty much the classic hostel experience, as in kind of sticky and way too little personal space. But we weren’t in the hotel for long as we left right away to go on our first tour of the Old Town.  First we stopped in  Wenceslaus Square, where we saw the outside of the National Museum (unfortunately covered in scaffolding) and saw a memorial for two students who set themselves on fire in protest of the communist regime. Hearing the professor who acted as our guide talk about life behind the Iron Curtain was interesting. It’s hard to believe that former communist countries had a vastly different standard of living and experience of government, and I can’t really imagine having something like the Cold War as a constant looming threat. Prague definitely seems like any other Western industrial town now, but every once in a while we saw something a little more run-down and were reminded that not too long ago the situation here was very different.  After leaving the square we stopped in a market and all tried some Trdelník. (Don’t ask me to pronounce it). Oh how do I describe this dessert. Basically they take a long piece of dough, wrap it around a spit and then cook it over a grill until it gets crispy on the outside and nice and soft on the inside. Then they roll it in sugar and slide it off the spit so that it stays in a cylindrical sprial shape. After this you can eat your dough cone plain or get it filled with chocolate, cream, or even ice cream. I’m not kidding when I say that this is probably one of the best desserts I’ve ever had. Dare I say better than churros? We ate one all three days and I don’t regret it at all.  Old Town Prague is OLD. Most European cities have districts where the old buildings have been preserved, but entering old town Prague feels like stepping straight into the Middle Ages or the Renaissance. There are old Gothic towers and cobblestone side streets everywhere, and it would have been perfect despite all the tourists. Millions and millions of tourists, all trying to get the perfect shot of the famous buildings and crowding around the famous Astronomical Clock (which was pretty cool.) After the tour we were free to eat wherever we wanted for dinner, so we decided to eat some authentic Czech food. Czech food is HEAVY. We had pork with red and white cabbage and two kinds of dumplings, along with some Czech beer. Czech beer is supposed to be some of the best in the world but I’m sorry, it all just tastes like wheat that’s been urinated on. Is everyone just pretending to like beer? Can we stop? There are many many better drinks that don’t taste like yeasty trash water. We were all pretty tired after eating the heavy food and walking around all day, so we just headed back to the hotel for some rest.  After a pretty nice free breakfast in the hotel Saturday morning we set out for our second tour of the lesser part of the city across the Moldau river. To do this we walked across the famous Charles Bridge, which has been standing since medieval times. This was one of my favorite parts of the weekend, walking across this huge old bridge with the sun shining on the river and a view of all the old buildings on either side. Again, there were thousands of tourists, but it was still really cool. On the other side of the river we walked past the Lennon Wall, which is a wall dedicated to John Lennon (I guess he visited Prague during the communist times) and is covered in graffiti, mostly created as political protests or statements. Then we saw the baroque church of St. Nicholas, which again would have been one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever been in if not for all the scaffolding in side. I’m not kidding when I say almost every old building was under restoration and was at least partially covered by scaffolding. The exception to this was St. Vitus cathedral, and the inside literally took my breath away. All around the cathedral were the most beautiful stained glass windows and high vaulted ceilings. The time it must have taken the medieval architects to build this massive church is astounding. I got some good pictures on my phone, but they would have been even better if my CAMERA BATTERY hadn’t DIED. Guess who forgot to bring the charger? After touring the cathedral and less impressive palace, we separated again until it was time to meet up for the Laterna Magica show, a famous form of Czech theater. The show was a combination of dance, pantomine, and film projections onto a background screen. It was....odd, and kind of like something out of a Tim Burton film, but still very entertaining and interesting to watch. 

After the show we got some dinner and Courtney, Justine, and I tried to go to one of the biggest night clubs in Europe. There are five stories to the club, all with different themed music. It probably would have been really cool, if we had shown up after 11:00 pm with enough money to actually buy more than one drink. The thing about the Czech Republic is that they don’t use the Euro, they use crowns, but everyone accepts Euros anyway. The problem is a lot of the time they’ll give you change in crowns. One US Dollar is equal to about 25 Czech crowns. It was super disorienting to see food that cost 179 and remember that this is actually a pretty reasonable price. But anyway, we didn’t want to end up with a bunch of crowns that become useless after you leave the Czech Republic (the conversion is so weird that you won’t get very much converting them back to Euros) so we were very hesitant to spend our cash. Besides, we didn’t want to stay out too late because we had another tour today at 9:30am. 

This morning we toured the old Jewish quarter of Prague, which was the Jewish ghetto during WWII, but also the Jewish part of town long before that as well. It was nice to see different synagogues through different time periods, as well as a graveyard that hasn’t been used since the 1700′s. However, the whole experience was a little eerie because in one of the synagogues they had the names of every Czech who died in the Holocaust, as well as a collection of pictures made by children in one of the concentration camps. So while touring these beautiful buildings you know that so many of the people who lived here died in the most terrible way. The synagogues, however, truly were lovely, especially the Spanish synagogue which was my favorite. We didn’t really have enough time to go to a museum or anything after our tour, so we went back to the food market, got some very yummy and very garlicky noodles, our last dough cone, and then relaxed in a coffee shop until it was time to get back on the bus. All in all I would say that Prague is a stunning city, and I’m so glad that I got to go and see it. It’s interesting because on the way back to my host’s house all I could think was how comfortable Vienna seems now, how familiar, and how I was even a little relieved to see signs in German again. I guess it’s good that I’m so comfortable in Vienna, it’s nice to have an anchor when you’re spending four months on a continent with hundreds of languages and money that makes your brain hurt. Also: dough cones are the best and it’s a crime that they aren’t on every street corner in the United States. 

[bakerbattle46-blog]

Where to Eat and Stay in Columbus, Ohio

28

Feb

Where to Eat and Stay in Columbus, Ohio

I recently explored a city that I’d truly never even considered as a travel destination… Columbus, Ohio.

After several fun days eating my way around the city, I’d love to share my thoughts on where to eat and stay in Columbus.

When I was invited to attend a food blogger’s press trip hosted by Experience Columbus, I didn’t know quite what to expect.

I love food, and love to see new places, so I happily agreed to see what Columbus had to offer.

As a west coast girl, I guess Columbus had just never been on my travel radar.  If you happen to be in the same boat, I’m going to tell you now… you need to add Columbus to your travel wish list!

I was truly blown away by the beauty of the city, the variety of food experiences available, and I was reminded again just how fun it is to explore somewhere new!

Join me for a little “virtual” tour of Columbus, and then check your calendar and see when you can add a real life tour of this fun city!    

The home base for our group while in Columbus was the beautiful Hotel Leveque.

Hotel Leveque is located in downtown Columbus in the historic Leveque tower.  The building was built in 1927 and is just brimming with Art Deco charm.

The hotel itself has actually been fully renovated very recently and the marriage of modern details with vintage styling is a match made in heaven!

If I didn’t love my family quite so much… I would have been very tempted to just move in to Hotel Leveque!

After settling into our beautiful hotel, we began our foodie tour!

We kicked off our tour of Columbus with an incredible meal at The Kitchen.

The Kitchen is a beautifully charming space featuring hardwood floors, exposed brick, vintage inspired lighting… and most importantly delicious food!

The Kitchen is not a traditional restaurant, it’s a participatory cooking experience where guests are guided by professional chefs and help prepare the meal.  It’s a mini-cooking class, an ice-breaker, and a delicious meal all in one!  Such a fun setting for a group!

The Kitchen hosts all kinds of events from weddings to team building, to drop-in events like Taco Tuesday!

The next morning our group was in for a fun and food filled morning!

Local blogger and food tour guide, Nick of Breakfast with Nick took us on a breakfast tour I will not soon forget!

Our morning included not one, not two, but FIVE breakfast stops!

Our first stop was Kolanche Republic.

Kolaches are a traditional Czech pastry I’ve never had the opportunity to try before.  This little shop makes all kind of delicious sweet and savory versions, perfect to grab and go, or sit and enjoy the quiet neighborhood vibe.

Next up was Fox in the Snow.

This beautiful cafe is somewhere I would visit VERY often (maybe too often) if I lived in Columbus!  We enjoyed pretty cappuccinos, the most incredible breakfast sandwiches, and several pastries I still find myself day-dreaming about!

All three photos below are from Fox in the Snow.

Our third breakfast stop was at The Market Italian Village.

The Market is not only a nice stop for breakfast, but as the name suggests is actually a beautiful little gourmet food and meat market.  A perfect spot for a casual breakfast, lunch or dinner… or to find some beautiful ingredients to take home.

Next up was Buckeye Donuts.

You can’t quite have a breakfast tour without donuts, can you?

Located just across the street from Ohio State University, Buckeye Donuts has been a Columbus fixture since 1969.

If you love fresh, classic American donuts you don’t need to check the shop hours before you visit… because they’re open 24 hours a day, every day of the year!

The final stop on our breakfast tour was at The Table.

A beautiful restaurant filled with perfectly mis-matched furniture, gorgeous natural light and a menu you’ll want to come back for every meal of the day to enjoy!

The Table is definitely a place I’d love to come back to and enjoy a full meal with friends and family.

After our incredible breakfast tour it was nearly time for lunch!

I’m not sure anyone in the group was actually hungry after all of the incredible treats we’d already sampled, so luckily our next stop required a little drive out of the city.

Our lunch destination was in a beautiful country setting… the property of Rockmill Brewery.

We spend some leisurely time enjoying the beautiful patio and yard, while learning about (and sampling) a variety of Rockmill Brewery beer.

The chef prepared a beautiful assortment of fruits, cheeses and crackers to pair with the beer selections.

Rockmill Brewery would be a gorgeous location to host a party or wedding!

Yes, there was still one more meal to enjoy on our first full day in Columbus…

Dinner was at the Watershed Kitchen.

After a tour of the Watershed Distillery and sampling their signature spirits, our group enjoyed a meal that included fried brussels sprouts, braised beef short ribs, roasted cauliflower, and an espresso panna cotta dessert.

The menu at the Watershed changes seasonally, so there’s always something new and delicious to try!

The next morning our group was ready to explore even more of what Columbus had to offer!

Our second full day started at the beautiful cafe and studio space, Flowers and Bread.

Now as an ex-florist, and now baker… this gorgeous business was right up my alley!  I practically wanted to move in!

Flowers and Bread is a beautiful cafe that serves breakfast and lunch.  Additionally, Flowers and Bread offers classes in their gorgeous bread kitchen, as well as in their airy studio space, where classes include floral design, painting, wire pairing and more!

If I lived anywhere close to Columbus I would be a frequent customer!

Flowers and Bread would be a simply perfect place to host a baby or bridal shower, ladies craft night, or simply meet a friend for morning coffee and a gorgeous pastry.

Our lunch destination (and activity) included a visit to the vibrant North Market.

The North Market is filled with vendors showcasing food of almost all kinds…. from Hot Chicken to vegetarian cuisine,  beer, cheese, soft pretzels and desserts.  In addition to the variety of delicious prepared food options, there are also vendors selling everything cooks and food lovers need (and love) including fresh produce, spices, olive oil, and fresh flowers.

The North Market is a “must stop” for any foodie!

As a dessert lover, one of my favorite stops in the North Market was Pistacia Vera.

Anytime I can enjoy a gorgeous, fresh macaron, I’m a happy girl!

In addition to their booth in the North Market, Pistacia Vera also has a beautiful cafe and bakery location in the German Village, a charming section of Columbus I spent a bit of time exploring on my first afternoon in town.  Definitely a beautiful neighborhood to walk around!

After our tour of the North Market we made a stop I’d be looking forward to all day…

A visit to Jeni’s Splendid Ice Cream!

I’ve heard lots of amazing things about Jeni’s ice cream from friends around the country, but I had never gotten to experience it myself… oh how I’ve been missing out!

Jeni’s ice cream is truly the ultimate indulgence!  Incredibly high quality ingredients are source from around the globe to create the most amazing, creamy, rich and flavorful ice cream ever!

See the ice cream pictured below?  Yep, mine is the bowl with FOUR scoops!  =)

Dinner that evening was at a beautifully quaint Italian restaurant, Basi Italia.

We enjoyed their outdoor patio and were treated to an incredible variety of fresh Italian dishes.

Italian food is one of my very favorites, and the dishes we enjoyed at Basi Italia are really in a league of their own!  Fresh and flavorful, and much different from the standard bowl of heavy pasta you might expect.  One of their signature dishes is Zucchini Pronto, and it was easy to see why it’s a favorite!  Every dish we enjoyed was fresh and delicious and presented beautifully!

Our final morning in Columbus our group capped off our foodie adventure at Katalina’s.

Katalina’s is a cute and edgy little restaurant that serves delicious soups, sandwiches, many Mexican inspired dishes, and they are famous for their Nutella-filled pancake balls!

Such a perfectly SWEET way to close an amazing trip!

In just a few days it was easy to fall in love with Columbus, Ohio!

When you combine food and friends it’s always a winning combo… and Columbus truly has something for everyone to love!

Here’s our adorable group of bloggers from around the country…

(back row L to R) Me, Brenda, Phillip, Michael, Jen

(front row L to R) Lindsay, Laura, Allie, Erin, Joanne

Thanks so much to Experience Columbus for helping me discover (and enjoy) this mid-west gem!

ExperienceColumbus.com is the perfect place to start when planning your Columbus, Ohio adventure!

Disclosure – This trip was organized by Experience Columbus and my food and accommodations were complimentary.  I was not required or compensated to write this post, and I paid for my flight to Columbus.  All images, text and opinions are my own.  I had a wonderful experience in Columbus and was happy to share this city with you!

Sweet Travels

5 comments

 /  leave a comment &raquo

Related Posts

Blogger Refresh Retreat, Carmel Valley California

Mexican Riviera Cruise with Princess Cruises

Real California Milk Farm Tour

Cookie Con 2012

Source: http://www.glorioustreats.com/2018/02/where-to-eat-and-stay-in-columbus-ohio.html

[eggnogdoubt38-blog]

Reading Recap: August 2018

At the end of every month, I take a look back at my reading journal and share the books and my thoughts on them here. The comments below are excerpts from my full reviews on Goodreads; you can always keep up with my reading in real-time over there.

My Goodreads goal for the year was 71 books, and I hit it this month! So I’ve increased my goal to 91 books—this is the most I’ve ever read in my life, and I’m loving it. After being a guest on the What Should I Read Next? Podcast, I decided to start treating my love of reading as a hobby. Prior to that—for reasons I can’t articulate—I just didn’t see reading that way. It was something I did around the edges of the day, but it wasn’t a primary activity.

Since we moved to Prague, that’s changed. I watch only 1 hour of TV each day—and don’t read that in a snooty voice! I pass no judgment on TV-watching; I love TV-watching. I just like reading more. By the by, we usually work our way through a series, one episode per day until we’re done. Just finished season two of Riverdale, and I love it so much OMG. So campy and over-the-top. LOVE! I cannot wait for season three. Give me more Cheryl!

Anyway… back to reading. I deleted Twitter and my RSS reader from my phone so I don’t get sucked into the vortex. I always have my Kindle in my purse so I can take advantage of unexpected bench-sitting time or a long line. I listen to audiobooks and literary podcasts on my daily walks. And I read every night before bed, sometimes at lunch, and sometimes for 30-60 minutes in the morning, if I wake up before 6:00 a.m.

I am thoroughly enjoying this book nerdiness.

Pachinko byMin Jin Lee | 3 1/2 stars I really wanted to love this book, but for me, it was good, not great—which makes me feel kinda dumb because it received so many prestigious accolades. I respect it, but it didn’t touch my heart. To be fair, I’m beginning to think that sprawling family dramas are not for me. I prefer to be really connected to a smaller cast of characters in an atmospheric setting. There were so many people in this book and the way I thought of them was “the one that owns the pachinko parlor,” “the one that wants to be a scholar”… they never moved past 1-liners into real people for me. (My Goodreads review provides more detail, but also spoilers; proceed with caution.)

This book’s biggest strength—and it’s significant—is the way it brings an unknown-to-me part of history to light. I was only vaguely aware of the events leading up the U.S. Korean War, and it was fascinating—and sobering—to learn about the tensions and discrimination between the Korean and Japanese people.

Favorite highlight: “People are rotten everywhere you go. They’re no good. You want to see a very bad man? Make an ordinary man successful beyond his imagination. Let’s see how good he is when he can do whatever he wants.”

The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter  by Theodora Goss | 4 stars Just as Pachinko helped me realize multigenerational family sagas aren’t really for me, this book reinforced how much I love stories about found families. Set in Victorian England, this romping adventure includes not one, but FIVE plucky heroines, and I am here for it. If you enjoy the Veronica Speedwell series—A Curious Beginning, A Perilous Undertaking, A Treacherous Curse—then you will probably enjoy this one, too.

I don’t want to give too much away because the surprises are fun, but this story includes Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, the danger of poisoning, literary references, a traveling circus, an insane asylum, potentially evil nuns, and family secrets. What’s not to love?! (I also treated myself to the sequel European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman because it’s described as a “madcap romp” and the action takes place in Paris, Vienna, and Budapest.)

Favorite highlight: “No wonder men did not want women to wear bloomers. What could women accomplish if they did not have to continually mind their skirts, keep them from dragging in the mud or getting trampled on the steps of an omnibus? If they had pockets! With pockets, women could conquer the world!”

I’d Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life by Anne Bogel | 5 stars It’s no secret that I adore Anne Bogel’s podcast What Should I Read Next? so I had high expectations for this collection of essays. On her podcast, Anne is just the kind of person with whom you’d want to discuss books: opinionated but not pushy, insightful, relatable, and quick to laugh—all of that warmth and intelligence and sheer book love comes across in these essays. I read it over the course of a month or so, dipping into the essays between the other novels I was reading to cleanse my palate and to revel in the book nerdiness of reading.

I sometimes have a difficult time talking about my favorite books, or even really sharing how much reading means to me as a human—it feels too personal, makes me vulnerable in a way I’m not really ready for. But reading this book made me realize that there are legions of us out there: People who find friendship, solace, adventure, challenge, grief, joy—the whole gamut of human emotions—in the books that we read. And sometimes, they’re just damn fun.

I’d Rather Be Reading is just like that: lots of feels and damn fun.

Favorite highlight: “Old books, like old friends, are good for the soul. But they’re not just comfort reads. No, a good book is exciting to return to, because even though I’ve been there before, the landscape is always changing.”

Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel | 4 stars Food, love, magic, and passion color this luscious family saga set in a Mexican border town around 1019, so the intimate story of the family is played out against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution. The tale reads like a family legend that’s been passed down through generations, and it centers on the forbidden love of Tita and Pedro. As the youngest daugher, it’s Tita’s fate to forsake love and to care for her dominerring mother Mama Elena until her mother’s death. But Tita and Pedro fall madly in love: When Tita felt Pedro’s gaze on her “she understood exactly how raw dough must feel when it comes into contact with boiling oil.” To be close to Tita, Pedro marries her older sister, and no one’s life remains untouched by this flawed decision.

Tita’s life is spent in the kitchen—both a gift and a curse to her—and her cooking is infused with deep emotion and magic. To Tita, food is life, and each chapter represents a month of the year, opening with a recipe that intertwines with the characters’ lives. Tita’s tears wept into wedding cake batter induce a devastating sense of longing in the guests who take a bite, and a delicate sauce made of rose petals inspires dangerous passions around the dinner table.

As the plot traces Tita and Pedro’s lifelong love, we see its impact on the rest of the family and the village: Tita’s sisters, a kindly doctor, bouncing babies, and Mexican revolutionaries. It’s a delightful—and sad—story of family obligation, the things that feed us, and a passion that could not be extinguished.

Favorite highlight: “When the talk turns to eating, a subject of the greatest importance, only fools and sick men don’t give it the attention it deserves.”

Jamaica Inn by Daphne du Maurier | 3 stars I went into this novel expecting a dark gothic adventure—thanks to previously reading Rebecca https://amzn.to/2BVakpp—and that’s exactly what I got—for better and for worse. Our heroine is definitely a damsel in distress, all muddle and forbidden love and quivering fear. I think I would have loved this book if Mary had some spunk, but instead, she kind of just bounces her way through the story. I found I enjoyed giving daily updates to my husband about what was happening a lot more than I actually enjoyed reading it. But for pure camp, it’s great: creepy isolated house, desolate moors, shady characters, an is-he-or-isn’t-he love interest, locked doors, a big character reveal, and plenty of stormy nights.

Favorite highlight: “The driver, muffled in a greatcoat to his ears, bent almost double in his seat in a faint endeavor to gain shelter from his own shoulders…”

Prague Spring by Simon Mawer | 4 1/2 stars Yay for British release dates: I got to read this book in time for the anniversary of Prague Spring on August 21—it’s available for pre-order now in the U.S.

This books examines what people are willing to risk for freedom and love. And if you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to accidentally get caught up in a potentially dangerous spy mission, this is the book for you.

It’s the summer of 1968—the summer of love—even, for a while, in communist Czechoslovakia. As tensions rise between Moscow and Prague in the background, this story follow the misadventures—romantic and otherwise—of two groups of people: an on-again-off-again British couple who cross the Iron Curtain on a lark as they listlessly backpack through Europe, and a group of Czech youths—eager to test the limits of the Czechoslovak “socialism with a human face”—who find themselves in an unexpected friendship with a British diplomat.

There are also world-famous musicians, bugged rooms, larks into the countryside, and secret meetings. The various threads of this sort-of spy story come together in a satisfying, heartbreaking way. There’s plenty of intrigue, interpersonal sparks, romance, adventure, and irresistible descriptions of Prague, as well as a cast of characters you won’t soon forget. (I also LOVED another book by Simon Mawer: The Glass Room.) http://meljoulwan.com/2018/07/23/reading-recap-june-2018/

Favorite highlight: “You haven’t lived here long enough,” Zdenek said. “No one can live in this place for long and still believe in reality.”

FIND ALL THESE BOOKS AND MORE IN MY AMAZON STORE!

Source: https://meljoulwan.com/2018/09/03/reading-recap-august-2018/

[pickyperkypenguin]

of mushrooms and recklessness

I ate a mushroom today.

You see, I’m from a mycophilic kind of country, so it’s a pretty normal thing, ingrained deeply in our cuisine, especially when it’s season for them and I like mushrooms. They taste great and they make a very good ingredient.

We have lots of kinds of mushrooms here, and lots of names for them. I always feel so emptyhanded, when I have to reiterate to Latin, when there is no equivalent common name for a particular mushroom in English. Oh, those mycophobes (please, imagine this said with Bobby Farell’s voice, the same way he speaks at the end of ‘Rasputin’)

But, back to the mushrooms eating – they’re a food not worth sparing a thought when they’re champignons. Grown (hah, and I’m already missing a word covering ‘the place where champignons are grown by people in a controlled environment’, pieczarkarnia) on a mushroom farm, they are as safe as they’re bland. I can eat them and not even think of Caesar or shamans of Syberia.

But then I’m sometimes offered handpicked mushrooms, and I usually stop to think. Do I know if the person who picked them knew their skill? Do I trust them and my fate today? Do I trust fate at all, because even the most experienced (and another word missing, grzybiarz, plural: grzybiarze) people who pick mushrooms are sometimes wrong, and sometimes it’s just bad luck, or the mimicry and similitude especially intense that day? You never know. And so you sometimes trust, like me, or don’t trust at all, like my mother (funny thing that it’s the only thing we’re completely reversed in the putting trust matter).

Sometimes, though, it’s not really your friend or family who offer you this autumnal gift – sometimes it’s just you who saw giant caps of parasol mushroom (kania, a homophone of milvus milvus or milvus migrans, apparently called red kite and black kite. Funny it’s also a homophone in English too) in your favourite greengrocer, and, unfortunately, forgot to ask where did they come from.

Were they picked in the forest? Were they grown on a mushroom farm? Do you even grow a parasol mushroom on a farm?

A note on a margin – how nice that parasol mushroom does have a name here. Also, the answer to the question above is: no, there are only two kinds of farms, for champignons and pleurotus, or boczniak as we call it. Boczniaki are super tasty and I love them especially.

Yesterday I was so full of energy that I made a soup, a batch of ginger ale, and baked a pie – all in a span of one afternoon, right after coming from my internship hours full of sending emails, running to the post and doing an exhibition inventory in a dark basement, and after that eating some brief meal at home and grocery shopping. So, after that, things couldn’t go to waste, ‘cause some vegetables are just not made for laying around too long, also I would like to eat sometimes, so cooking it was. I was a bit tired after all that, and I didn’t really spare much thought on how I did not ask the lady at the greengrocer where the hell those mushrooms came from.

So, that day went around without me caring about a single mushroom (also because it came out I didn’t have yeast nor sourdough starter, so I had to cease my plans that involved making some savoury pastries with champignons, onion and meat inside them, on top of all the cooking I done that day). The next day, though, which is today, to be precise, my eyes spotted two big caps of parasol mushrooms that were laying on the kitchen counter since yesterday, and I was immediately enlightened with a vision of them fried like cutlets. It’s a traditional way of preparing kanie here. Well, here as regional here, I’m pretty sure Czechs and Slovaks would prepare them the same way.

I did as I thought, and I took a first couple of bites of my deliciously looking mushroom posing as a cutlet – and I felt it tasted bitter.

Now, after all that, I read somewhere that it can happen after frying, particularly if it was an older mushroom – but then I was aware of two things: that either I prepared it wrong (which isn’t exactly correct, but I was indeed not aware that the preparation can make it bitter and that the cap I tasted was probably older, so, this assumption is much more correct) and that the lore passed by XIX century polish villagers states that bitter mushrooms are poisonous.

Now hold on a second, while I will explain: there are two kinds of my reactions to basically everything, one when I have sufficient knowledge or information, and the one when I don’t. It was the second version this time, I have never handpicked a mushroom in my life except for some puffballs growing in my backyard when I was a kid. My practical knowledge of mushrooms is exceptionally scarce. I have no idea if I would be able to identify correctly a fungus in the wild, or in the less–wild of my kitchen. I had also been blissfully submerged in thoughts and daydreams when I was preparing my parasols for cooking and my observation  of their appearance was perfunctory at best.

Don’t get me wrong, I have a pretty good photographic memory, and I can usually recall a pretty detailed visual image of things I’ve seen, even if not focused on remembering them. But when you’re trying to identify anything by its looks, it’s pretty important to catch every detail. Especially when it’s so easy to mistake between species and end up eating the very wrong one.

Why had I panicked so fast? Well, as I said, I had no experience nor sufficient data to extrapolate and reach any valid conclusion on whether or not the thing I was eating was any good, and all I had in my head were scraps of oral tradition. And as reliable and rich with experience of generations as it is, it has its moments of rapid clashing with modern knowledge. And medicine.

Of course, I immediately googled what kania can visually resemble and what can it be mistaken with, and I was just about punched in the face, because it can be – by some – mistaken with not only amanita pantherina (panther cap), chlorophyllum rhacodes/macroleptiota rhacodes (shaggy parasol), but also lepiota especially helveola and chlorophyllum molybdites (green spored parasol), and if you’re unobservant enough, with amanita phalloides (death cap).

The only one among them that is mostly just diarrhoea inducing is the shaggy parasol, and even this one is not entirely safe. The rest...? Let’s say, there was a reason why a dish made of amanita caesarea with some addition of its less friendly cousins sneaked in was a good way for ancient Romans to, ahem, get rid of their chosen fellows that hindered their businesses. And why Henry Winter was so bent on having a mushroom stew for dinner with Bunny Corcoran.

Seriously, I went from happily chewing on a mushroom cutlet to panicking about possible poisoning in about three and a quarter seconds.

After I looked and compared carefully the mental image of not yet coated in egg and breadcrumbs cap of my supposed parasol mushroom with the ominous images from the Internet, I came to a conclusion, that it is, most likely, a goddamn honest and innocent kania.

But I was not about to eat any more of it. I was too scared, that perhaps I’m wrong. As much as I hate, literally hate, to throw out any food (again, a culture thing and an uprising thing, I guess. When I compare how much more some western nations are throwing out food, I feel like I’m getting hives, cold and a rash all at once just from looking at it. One does not throw out food, unless it’s spoiled. Then you can. And better don’t let it spoil, do something with it before. Sorry, rant over) I just had to throw out on a compost pile my perfectly fine two fried parasol mushrooms. I couldn’t let my father eat it, just in case, my mother wouldn’t anyway, so, safe from that angle, and I went through too much nerves over those stupid caps. At least they weren’t overly pricey.

I have also preventively made some steps to be sure I won’t get a poisoning from all this, and let me just say, it really wasn’t pleasant. I vomit very rarely, even after excessive drinking – there were literally three of those occasions in my life and I remember every single one in a painful detail – so it’s not the favourite way for my body of getting rid of toxins, and as it comes out, despite having an upchuck reflex, it is not so easy for me to provoke actual results. Also, I tend to feel like I already died after.

But I did what I had to, and went on with my day, promising myself to stick to black tea till tomorrow. Well, maybe I will eat something for supper, I’ll see.

Why am I even talking about this?

Well, except for the want of sharing a NEar dEAth EXPERIENcE!!!11! and talking about mushrooms, which I wanted to talk about for some time, it was one of the situations when I remembered again, that I kind of want to live.

Sometimes I’m in such a floaty thinking places, where all borders and world itself doesn’t even seem real, everything is fluid and kind of bad, and kind of boring, kind of not worth anything and especially not suffering, and I can’t really remember what I was even doing here, on this earth? Was I having fun? Was I enjoying something? Was I living, really? What were my interests? Did I had any goals? Was I just drifting through space? Am I an entity with a meaning or am I a speckle that nobody would notice, if not for obvious consequences of my existing?

I don’t think of suicide. Never did, never want to. I was just thinking of not existing, and not as a thing that I would want to actually happen to me. Those are very abstract thoughts for me, those of nonexistence, more of concepts, and they occur only when I’m not sure if I am, well, whatever I am, and when I’m letting my thoughts loose and free to roam. They’re more academical in nature.

What is more personal in them, is this – I never wanted to live a ‘meaningful’ life. I can fully accept, that life might not have have any meaning (or it can, I don’t particularly care). Or that it might be incomprehensible for me. Or that everybody makes the meaning of their life, and that meaning belongs to us, the entirety of us, our identities with all our bindings and horizons that allow us constructing our visions – and that this is the way we can give the meaning to our life.

All those concepts I find sound and valid. All possible, and more of them. I just don’t really have the universal or objective truth as a valid concept in my world view. So I don’t have to believe in any of them, and I don’t have to choose. They’re all tales we spin for ourselves, or that are spun for us. Co–spinning would be a more correct term for this, I think.

The older I’m getting, the more choices I’m having – or the more responsible for them I become – I’m starting to get, not intellectually, but in my heart, the fact, that I can literally do anything I want in and with my life. With some limitations and consequences, of course, but you get the gist.

I wasn’t so sure of that before. Theoretically, I knew, but having less responsibility for myself (It was a different kind of burden, when I was trying more to appeal or appease someone who held my responsibility for me than to actually bear that responsibility) I had less choices to make. That’s the correlation, that’s the thing I’m discovering now.

So, I felt like that, even before, that I wasn’t sure if I was living. I didn’t really had a lot of situations to feel it, living the privileged and, let’s not be afraid of that word, sheltered life I did, that was reinforced with my tendency to take as little risk as it is always possible. I just didn’t, and still I don’t, make rash choices. I think all things through and through. I plan, I analyse, I extrapolate. I beware all potential dangers, I hate surprises.

I’m not spontaneous. The last spontaneous thing I did was buying a bunch of radishes on sale, even though I didn’t plan to. What a wild life.

When I had my mandatory field practices back in the first and second year of my studies, I was putting myself in a different mode – open to everything, not planning much, simply because I wasn’t able to, mostly. It was not depending on me. It was all dictated by my surroundings, opportunities and situations. I had to deal with it, there was no other way around.

And I managed. Quite well, I’d say.

I remember one of those field practices: it was an abhorrently hot July, with weather enhanced additionally by the proximity of power station, notabene influencing the whole ecosystem it was built into. The asphalt was a pan, and I was walking on it, thinking if it was possible for the soles of my shoes to be melted by the contact with the almost liquid black.

I was marching on the side of the road to the next village – there were no other methods of transportation, unless one had a bike or a car. I had neither. I was in this out–of–touch state, when my mind bored to the bone with the long walk and uneventful landscape was doing whatever it wanted, and my emotional state back then was leaving much to desire, too. I was thinking of not existing again, of all its possible outcomes and consequences, in a remote, abstract way – when I suddenly noticed I was walking a viaduct without any sort of pavement, not really even a footpath. I think I missed the road sign of ‘no pedestrians allowed’, because I was so disengaged and distracted.

There were a lot of cars. Thankfully no police, though.

Then, after the string of quite fast moving cars came a string of about three or four trucks.

You don’t really think about how big a truck is in your daily life, or just how monstrous is the idea of a puny human piloting a beast made of metal and capable of killing you by accident.

I think life was on my side that day, and I was not even honked at, but I was awfully close to more–than–five ton trucks and the sheer wind, the movement of air induced by them that sort of, well, not pushed, but encouraged my body to get closer to the railing, was enough to make me vividly aware how fragile my life is, and how easily would it be not exist by pure chance.

In that same moment, I’ve had another thought.

I wanted to live, definitely. I wanted to keep my existence on this earth, as I was most certainly not done.

I didn’t really know what I wasn’t done with, or when I would supposed to be accomplished and if after that it would be acceptable to go – I just knew I needed more time to do stuff here.

Right now I’m on the path, hopefully, of figuring out what is that I actually want to do. Maybe it will somehow happen. I don’t know, I’m just so happy to know that I want to accomplish something. That I want to do something. I wasn’t really sure before, and I’m sometimes not sure now, but most of the time I feel like it would actually change me somehow – which is actually what this whole thing is about, a proof that I exist.

I hope, too, that I will find the will, the power, the willpower for it, for finding and pursuing and carrying on, and for the results – or a graceful acceptance of re-evaluation of my goals during the way, if I find it necessary.

I got yelled at by my friend at Monday, and I think he wanted to tell me about some of those things too. That it’s not about some kind of worthiness, that you can just do things. And that they have an outcome and an impact. That it can be felt.

Speaking of feeling, I felt very cared for, by the way, thanks to that yelling, because that’s how my friend shows he cares – if he finds a person worth being annoyed with, it is because he wants the person to not fucking suck and self-sabotage, as he sees their inherent value as much more. Aggressive caring sometimes really works on me, here mostly because his yelling was very constructive and I could draw useful conclusions from it.

So, concluding all that I said here: if my hitherto way of careful living did not bring me much, perhaps a change would be good, even though it won’t be easy at all, and pretty sure it’ll be painful in some ways, and that I will have to overcome a lot of my habits and maybe even things that lay deep in my personality. Basically, that some recklessness, spontaneity and adrenaline high tasks would be healthy for me, probably. Oh dear.

Maybe if I find the courage for the openness, for not being ashamed of who I am as a person, and instead I will hold my ground and make my own mistakes, decide on some things, I will feel better. This way, I will be able to own those things, and make myself –– an author.

[karlosharrison-blog]

Over the past few decades, Poland has risen to take its rightful place as one of the premier tourist and traveler destinations in Europe. This is no mean feat considering how it was left after the Second World War, and now its vibrant cities and stunning countryside are attracting visitors from far and wide.

Scenic Krakow city.

Poland’s landscape draws many outdoor enthusiasts, while places like Krakow, Gdansk, Wroclaw, and Warsaw are cultural and culinary hubs with a buzzing nightlife scene. The fact that it’s considerably cheaper than its western counterparts only adds to the charm. 

And yet there are so many more destinations to explore here that perhaps don’t get the same attention as those aforementioned cities. One such place is my hometown of Zagan in the southwest of the country – where I was born and raised. It might not be on everyone’s bucket list, but it is most certainly worth a look – not least for its Polish culinary excellence and history, and great Polish Christmas traditions. Read on to discover what you can see, do and – of course –  eat in the region.

Where is Zagan?

My hometown is located in the southwest of Poland on the Bóbr river, some 60 kilometers from the German border and 160 kilometers from Wroclaw. It has a small population of just over 26,000 inhabitants and is the capital of the Zagan administrative district in the historic region of Silesia. Interestingly, it is thought that the name of the town means “place of the burnt forest,” referring to the removal of woodland by the early settlers here.

The town was first mentioned in records dating back to 1202, while the whole Silesia region has seen its fair share of ups and downs through the years, a culturally rich part of the world with corners in the Czech Republic and Germany. With its position on the Bóbr, Zagan was an important trade route, and the area is blessed with many natural resources. But it is perhaps most famous for being the location of Stalag Luft III – the German prisoner of war camp that housed allied airmen during the Second World War.

Colourful townhouses in Zagan

We shall return to this fascinating story momentarily. 

How to Get to Zagan

The nearest major airport to Zagan is located in Wroclaw, but you might also consider flying into Dresden in Germany – which isn’t that much further away at 169 kilometers. Flights depart regularly from most international airports. At the time of writing, trains from Wroclaw run four times a day and it will take you anywhere between two to three hours to arrive. Check the schedules before departing. Buses are possible but they don’t stop in the town center and can be irregular.

I and Cez visiting Zagan by car. We went to explore my neighbourhood together.

The best way to get to Zagan is by car, as having your own mode of transport will afford you the ability to explore the surrounding area and visit the sights with ease. Failing that, don’t forget that Poland is a very hitchhiking friendly country and ridesharing is also extremely popular. Points of interest in the region are often a distance apart, so having your own wheels is highly recommended.

Getting Around

Even if you do have your own vehicle, I would most definitely suggest exploring the town by bicycle. Zagan is a very bike-friendly town given its relatively small layout, and you can rent one from the tourist information office right next door to the Ducal Palace. 

What to See in Zagan

While having its own particular charm, the town itself doesn’t have many sights to speak of – certainly not when compared to Wroclaw or Dresden for that matter. But what it lacks in physical attractions, it more than makes up for in history, food and hospitality. That and its number one tourist draw – Stalag Luft III POW camp and museum.

Stalag Luft III Prisoner Camp Museum

The regions undeniable highlight is, quite rightly, extremely popular. So much so that people flock to the town from all corners of the globe just to see the former POW camp, with many visitors being inspired to come because they had family members or friends imprisoned here. It was constructed in March 1942, and it became an infamous detention center for captured airmen. But it was the daring escape attempt by 200 men in 1944 that really captured the world’s attention, and most notably Hollywood’s, when they released the 1963 film The Great Escape.

Although the Steve McQueen flick is a stone-cold classic, it’s quite different from how events actually unfolded here. The camp today is a faithful reconstruction of what it would have been like for those who were “guests” during the war. 76 airmen managed to break out through the famous “Harry” tunnel – a mock-up of which you can visit. Of those, only three actually made it back behind friendly lines. The rest were either recaptured or executed on Hitler’s orders. The camp is a sombre but fascinating memorial to those brave men and should not be missed during a visit to Zagan.

When in Zagan, you can’t skip visiting Stalag Luft III Prisoner Camp Museum.

The Ducal Palace and Park

Located in the center of the town is the beautiful baroque Ducal Palace, built on the site of Piast Castle in the 15th Century. The palace has an eclectic history, changing hands several times during its existence and at one time being one of the most famous palaces in Europe being visited by a great number of dignitaries. Designed by Italian architect Vincenzo Boccacci, it has been adapted and improved down the years and has a year-round program of events and exhibitions on site.

The pride of Zagan – the Ducal Palace and Park.

It’s set close to the leafy, serene and relaxing Prince’s Park – which is where you’ll find many a local hanging out when the weather is good. Tickets for entry to the palace need to be bought in advance at the tourist information office at the entrance.

The Abbey of St Augustine

With roots back in the 13th Century, this monastery complex is an especially sacred site in Poland and is named as an official national historic monument. It has remained almost intact since it was built, making it a very interesting and noteworthy attraction in our little town. It has this really cool feature called the whispered vault, where the acoustics are just so that even if you speak a whisper, someone will still hear you across space.

When in Zagan, go for a stroll across the city centre. It’s so much to see and do there.

The church itself is very beautiful and the library and museum are well worth a visit. Be advised though – you need to book a sightseeing tour a day in advance if you want to see it, but that means its real advantage is that it’s never overrun with tourists.

11th Armoured Cavalry Division Exhibition

If you haven’t already guessed, Zagan has a long-standing military history, and today it is home to the 11th Armoured Cavalry Division – which traces its roots back to operations in 1945. There is a small museum at the barracks, including a display of tanks and armoured vehicles, uniforms and documents and other interesting exhibits. American tank divisions are also stationed here and are on constant rotation through the town. Located a short drive out of the center, the exhibition is a must for anyone interested in the subject.

What to Eat in Zagan

Ahhhh, now we come to a topic that is very dear to my heart. Polish food! As far and wide as I’ve traveled, I always love to return home for some traditional, hearty and comforting cuisine – usually cooked by my mom! Zagan has some wonderful places to sample Polish delicacies, but we’ll get to that in a moment. First, let’s take a look at just a taste of what you should be ordering here.

Rosół

A delicious yet simple chicken soup that’s famous in these parts, we would usually have it as part of our Sunday dinner. It’s perfect for colder weather or any time you’re not feeling well.

What’s for Sunday dinner in Zagan? Rosol!

Polish chicken soup is simply the best in the world – but I might be a little bit biased.

Bigos

This is a mouthwatering dish made from shredded sauerkraut and cabbage, mixed with mushrooms and diced sausage. It’s the kind of meal where the only downside is that it will have to end at some point.

A plate of delicious bigos is waiting for you!

If this is on the menu (and it will be) you need to give it a try – it is our national dish after all.

Pierogi

Perhaps one of Poland’s most famous dishes internationally, pierogi are thick dumplings that come with a variety of fillings.

A plate of Pierogi (Polish dumplings).

You can take your pick from beef, sauerkraut and mushrooms, cottage cheese and boiled potatoes, or even seasonal fruits, such as strawberries and blueberries. They’re often imitated around the world, but there really is no taste like home.

Łazanki

Another hearty and filling dish (most Polish food is), this is made from homemade pasta, fried cabbage, shredded carrots and onions, and well-done diced pork.

Yummy lazanki – you must try them in Zagan!

Sour cream is often served as an accompaniment and it’s also a popular dish in Belarus and Lithuania.

Polish Croissant Cookies

For those with a sweet tooth and something for dessert, try these puff-pastry cookies. They’re usually filled with jam and they’re really easy to make. Perfect as an after dinner treat – or a treat anytime!

Where to Eat in Zagan

My hometown is teeming with awesome restaurants for you to try all the culinary delights that this region offers. International cuisine is also available if you would prefer, but you really must try the local dishes to get the full experience here.

Domowe Obiady 

This is a great place for cheap eats as it’s more of a takeaway vendor. Still, the food is delicious and very traditional. All the usual dishes are on offer, and you can even buy produce to cook for yourselves at home. The name of the establishment literally translates as “home cooked lunches”. I want to order myself some pierogi right now!

Kepler

If you’re looking for sit-down eats but still want to sample traditional Polish cuisine, head to Kepler – which is actually the number one rated restaurant in the town. Conveniently located in the heart of Zagan, this place serves a full menu of Polish classics, as well as delicious apple pie and ice cream (jabłecznik z lodami) which – although available the world over – is also a Polish speciality. The waiting staff speak very good English here, too.

Antonio Pizza

If you’re going to eat Italian while you’re here, you might as well head to Antonio’s Pizza.

Pizza time!

There are a lot of pizzerias in Zagan – Polish people love making and eating the Italian dish just as well, but they can often be hit and miss. This one is probably the best in the town.

Bar U-Waga Smak

Don’t be confused with the exterior of this place – it’s not actually a “bar” as you might know it. U-Waga Smak is one of the famous Polish “milk bars,” where many Poles will go to dine on hearty, traditional food that doesn’t cost the earth. Set in a cafeteria style, you’ll be rubbing shoulders with the locals – which can be an entertainment in itself. A milk bar is a must visit when you’re exploring Poland – it’s an institution.

Take Me Home Country Roads!  

My old stomping ground of Zagan is a very special place for me as it holds a lot of cherished memories. I always love returning to visit after great lengths of time trotting the globe. There is nothing quite like visiting mom for some home cooked Polish treats, and although the town doesn’t have the tourist draw of other cities in the country, it has a certain charm that I would still recommend experiencing. There is, after all, no place like home.

Would you pay Zagan a short or a long visit? And what would be your favorite thing to do there?

The post Things to do in Zagan, Poland appeared first on Etramping Travel Blog.

[djseaward]

the best souvenirs to bring home

among the online travel community, souvenirs are sort of a divisive issue. there are those who would never even touch a souvenir and feel like they are a waste of money and not an accurate representation of a place, and then there are the people who can't stay away from those touristy shops with knick-knacks and bags that say the city's name all over it (made in china).

while i don’t like knick-knacks (clutter!!!), i do love a little bit of shopping on a trip and almost always regret not picking up something. over the years, i have developed and refined my stance of souvenirs -- often there’s not a whole load of room in my bag and normally, i’m on a smaller budget when i travel. but! that does not stop me from bringing home really meaningful souvenirs that i can use in my everyday life back home. that's the key thing you want to aim for -- useful. not anything to sit on a shelf.

so here's my tested guide of the best things to take home from any place -- for yourself or even as a gift. above all, when you don't know what to buy, always lean towards the edible.

1. woolen goods, especially socks!

in many places, especially in northern europe, this is really a get! socks are an affordable way to get yourself a little something (#selfcare), keep yourself warm in the colder months, support the local economy, and enjoy a traditional product. (the more wool in my winter wardrobe, the better)

above, some spoils from a past iceland trip!

2. tea or coffee.

when i say i am a tea person, i'm not even fooling around. i take home boxes when i go abroad at all, no matter where that is. i love picking up local icelandic herb tea or pukka herbs tea when i go almost anywhere, or whatever the local favorite tea purveyor is. conversely, my friend ginny is a complete coffee nerd, taking home sometimes 6 bags from a trip!

hot tip for taking tea home: break down the box the tea comes in so it packs flat and put all the tea bags in a ziploc bag - you can re-form the box when you get home (if you want it). another space saver is purchasing only loose-leaf tea which ends up lasting much longer than bagged tea.

3. sweets, snacks, jarred food products or liquor

once again, you cannot go wrong with the edible! when you visit a place and try loads of snacks and sweets, why not take home your favorites? last time in iceland i did not buy enough tritlar when i left and i had regretted that ever since. this time i tried a new sweet (lindar buff, it’s no tritlar, though).

 i’ve also taken home local honey from switzerland, lebkuchen around the holidays from germany or austria, and rhubarb jam from iceland. even if i can get jam and honey here, it sort of gives me warm fuzzies thinking about where it came from and keeping a connection with that place.

please note that one is not permitted to take meat products out of the european union, even in your checked baggage. (eat your black forest ham while you can!) wine or liquor is a great souvenir (also makes a great gift), but pay attention as there are maximum amounts permitted. i wouldn’t recommend flying with beer in your checked bag, but i’ve seen the desperate do it -- more often, people purchase beer at the duty-free at the airport and get to bring it with them in the cabin.

4. prints or art

when you can't get enough of your favorite place, put it somehow on your wall! we still have a print that i've been waiting for frame for want of a good framing shop in budejovice (local friends: advice accepted regarding a frame shop!).

5. a cloth shopping bag

this, i tell ya, is the cheapest yet most useful and meaningful souvenir for the money you can take home. i doubt it costs more than a dollar, but every time you go to the grocery store in your normal daily routine at home, you'll remember all those stops are your favorite supermarket that you made! it's always a fun conversation piece.

6. clothes

i'm not just talking about raiding the high street primark (which, cool, if you want to, i won't judge) but picking a unique piece from a place to take with you. perhaps, a locally-designed rain jacket, a silk nepalese skirt, a dress from your favorite clothing store that you could otherwise never afford the shipping for but lust after for months? (just me?) this is the time. perhaps the most expensive of all my souvenir options, but if you save and budget for it, it will become an unforgettable souvenir you may have for even decades.

7. a book or an album

so many books and albums, too little money! but if you see something that strikes your fancy while you're away, don't wait -- you'll regret that more! i don't actually buy too many books even though i love them, but recently i picked up an english/german duo reader book as i know they're harder to find here in the czech republic and i regret it exactly zero percent. while in iceland, i wished i had picked up JFDR’s new album which... get this... was sold in an om-nom matcha flavored chocolate bar. now that is a next-level willy wonka situation. nobody regretted picking up a book or an album!

8. spices or salts

i always tell alex we'll go back to budapest when our sachet of amazing smoked paprika runs out. (it looks like that could be within the year, so you know what that means!) i love picking up some local spices or salts (whatever the specialty is) to use in my cooking back home, and it also makes an amazing gift. recently i've picked up some herby salt from iceland (above) which has bits of crow and juniper berries in it. be still my herby heart!

9. yarn

this one is for my knitters out there -- what could be better, especially if you're visiting a country famous somehow for its wool and wool products, than picking up some for your next project? i am such an amateur that i have no idea how many skeins i would need for a certain project, so i personally prefer to have my source near me so i can easily obtain more, but if you already know, there you have it! icelandic wool is famous for its waterproof qualities, making it one of the most prized wools in the world.

(above - my current WIP/yarn stash - unfortunately, i am possibly the slowest knitter ever and need to get a move on!)

10. holiday decorations or ornaments

i adore my precious ornaments i've brought from past wintery trips and cherish them so much every time i un-box them to put them on the tree! also fun is hanging decorations. kind of funny, isn’t it, because if you saw these ornaments every month of the year, you’d get tired of looking at them, but putting them away for eleven months and taking it out is like remembering your trip all over again!

and one bonus souvenir, because i can’t help myself....

11. shower or bath goods

i tried the sóley organics line from iceland on my second trip and adored the fresh herbal scent and, honestly, the fact that these products are made with plants and herbs from the icelandic countryside as well as the pristine glacial water. whenever i use these products now, it takes me back to those smells and images (like in the banner image at the top) of the sweeping landscapes, deep gorges, hours spent laying in icelandic moss as a light rain started to fall, or traipsing through the long grasses on the way to glacier or waterfall hunt. anything that i use almost daily that brings back those memories and feelings is absolutely worth it!

the main takeaway here is that all of these are everyday things you will eat, look at, use, or see everyday. i think those, far and away, make the best souvenirs, regardless of price tag.

what do you tend to buy the most when you go on a trip or holiday? anything i’m missing?

ps, you might like how i travel often on a teacher’s budget or unique czech gift ideas.

[bisexualqueenreyna]

five times the charm

I promised I wouldn’t fall down the rabbit hole with this show but,,, well Hitler promised he wouldn’t invade czech republic, welcome to the real world, susan.

also hance are the softest, klance found dead in miami

Title:  Fives times the charm

AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/10873920

Couple: Hunk/Lance

WC: 2266

Four times the Voltron gang didn’t realise Lance and Hunk were together (and one time they did)

1.      Keith

Even though he had never been the best one with emotions and understanding concepts like love or best friends or whatever, even Keith could see that Hunk and Lance were way closer than anyone else on the ship. Even closer than Allura and Conrad, who literally had spent 10,000 years only in each other’s company.

Like right now for example.

Like every morning, the black-haired boy had gone training by himself in the training room for one varga. Then he had quickly hit the showers, before going to see if there was anything edible in the kitchen. And that’s where he found them.

Hunk was whistling to himself as he flipped something that looked a lot like a pancake and mixing something in a bowl next to it. And Lance was sitting beside him, swinging his legs from the kitchen counter, with a plate full of those pancakes on his lap and a shirt that could only be Hunk’s – or Shiro’s. He had a strange expression on his face as he was looking at Hunk, something Keith couldn’t quite place.

Since neither of them had heard him coming in, Keith cleared his throat loudly and waited for them to turn around. Hunk turned around with a smile, while Lance looked startled for a moment. “Morning, Keith!” greeted him the yellow paladin.

“Hey,” answered Keith, sniffing the air. “Are those pancakes?” he asked, already moving a hand to take one from a plate he presumed was Hunk’s.

Before he could even touch the pancakes, Lance had already reached out with his hand and smacked Keith’s away with a sharp glare. “My pancakes!” he stressed, putting Hunk’s plate closer to himself.

The other guy rolled his eyes. “Come on, Lance-”

“If you want pancakes,” continued the dark-haired boy, as if he hadn’t heard him, “you can make your own.”

“I don’t see you moving your lazy butt to make anything.” Interjected Keith, arching an eyebrow.

This time, Lance gave him a cocky grin, putting his head on Hunk’s shoulder. “Well, I can.”

Hunk snorted, while Keith rolled his eyes. “That makes no sense.” He decided, even though he made no other attempt to get the pancakes again.

“You make no sense.” Whispered Lance, before turning his attention back to Hunk.

The strange intensity with which he was looking at the other boy kind of made Keith uncomfortable. It wasn’t like he was glaring at him. He was more just looking at him with a strange kind of fondness that Keith was more used associating with Shiro or Hunk himself.

By the time Keith finished making his own breakfast, it was clear the other two had forgotten about him completely. Hunk had made Lance try the strange sauce he had been stirring in the pan and had blushed when Lance had all but moaned in appreciation.

Quietly, Keith left the kitchen, wondering if this was what real friends treated each other like.

2.     Pidge

“Hunk pass me the cable.” Said Pidge, trying to speak around the torch in her mouth. What really came out was ‘Hnk pash me te cabl’, but the bigger boy seemed to understand her nevertheless.

They had been working like this for about 7 hours uninterrupted- which normally wouldn’t have been this hard. Except that today they were trying to make quick mainteanance work after the fight with Zarkon. They had been lucky to be able to ran away with a quick wormhole trip, but the castle had taken the worst of the battle.

Pidge was fried and so was Hunk, and honestly, the only reason they were still going on was that they didn’t want to go and see the aftermath of the huge fight between Keith and Allura.

The door of the room opened, and they both looked up, the aroma of fresh bread and something spicy yet salty entering the room.

Lance smiled at them, two plates of food in his hands. “This gives me Garrison exam revision cramming sessions flashbacks.” He told them, passing one of the plates to Pidge and sitting next to Hunk with the other.

Pidge arched an eyebrow. “Uhm, you were the only cramming, my boy.” She told him, biting into the bread and sauce without even questioning it.

“Were you or weren’t you present, Pidge?” he asked, picking up a spoonful of food and aiming it at Hunk’s face without even checking if the boy had noticed or not.

Pidge didn’t even bat an eyelid at that. This was something that gave her flashbacks. Even during the sessions, her and Hunk had, where they tried helping Lance with his seriously lacking engineering knowledge, this had been something they always did.

Lance would try and answer all of Pidge’s questions and quizzes while feeding Hunk, and Hunk and Pidge would try and explain the content to Lance while Hunk was feeding the boy.

Sometimes, Pidge felt kind of jealous of the friendship between Lance and Hunk. She too wanted a best friend who would just come in and feed her every time she was too busy to do it herself.

Even now, Hunk was moving around the room, muttering to himself and Lance was patiently following him, listening to what he was saying and putting spoonful of food in his mouth every now and then.

Man, she just wished to have a friend like that one day.

3.     Shiro

Waking up in the middle of the night had become the norm for Shiro. Nightmares of his time back with Zarkon and the Garla kept him awake several times in the middle of the night.

What was unusual was finding someone already in the kitchen, washing up some plates, while a fresh batch of cookies was sitting on the table.

“Can’t sleep?” he asked, startling the younger boy.

Hunk shook his head. “Nah, just got nervous and started stress baking. Which then I meant I had to stay awake until they were all cooked. Which I guess does mean I can’t sleep. Uh. Go figure.”

“What are you stressed about?” asked him the Champion, filling a glass with water.

Hunk bit his lip. “I mean, we are so far from Earth? Things change. People- people change. Feelings, feelings change too. What is the point of saying that you love someone to the moon and back if the moon you know is so far you might not even see it anymore? Or if there are so many different moons, it could either mean something very far and something very close too. You can’t know what the person is thinking, you know?” Shiro just stared at him, perplexed and Hunk huffed. “Of course you don’t know. Lemme just-” he started, putting some biscuits on a plate and leaving the rest on the table.

Shiro was a little confused. Was Hunk just homesick? Did he have a girlfriends and he missed her? What had brought out this sudden panic?

Hunk noticed his worried gaze, and smiled. “Hey, Shiro, don’t worry. I am just being silly. Oh, and don’t tell anyone anything that I’ve just said. Especially not Lance. He’d kill me for even thinking this.” He finished chuckling a little.

Shiro mimicked zipping his mouth and throwing away the key, before pointing at the plate in his hands. “Who’s that for?”

The yellow paladin smiled. “The person who always wakes up last but still would throw a tantrum if they found out I made biscuits and they got none.” He answered, shaking his head and leaving the kitchen.

***

When he went to check on Hunk later that night, Shiro was a little confused to find him lying on the bed with a sleeping Lance on him. Confused, definitely, but not surprised. Honestly those two were like twins or something.

4.    Allura and Coran

Allura tapped her fingers on the main control quietly huffing and puffing at the screen. She knew she was being unreasonable and a baby, but honestly, she was bored! Shiro had taken some paladins with him to the space mall, while Coran had forced her to remain behind at the castle with him. Life was so unfair!

“Princess, if you keep making that face, it’ll get stuck like that.” Warned her the Coran, merely sparing her a glance.

Allura was about to sass him right back, when she heard giggling from the door, right before it opened.

Hunk was snort-laughing, while Lance was laying on his shoulder laughing and punching him on the back. “Let me go, you brute!”

The yellow paladin gasped. “Me, a brute? How very dare you, mr McCoy? I am the most loving partner anyone could ever ask for!”

“We are talking about you, not about me, Hunk.” Said the other boy, cheekily.

“The various scratches and hickeys on my torso say otherways, you adorable freak.”

“What are hickeys?” asked Allura, tired of the other two not acknowledging her.

Hunk chocked on his tongue and Lance looked up – or upside down, whichever you think is more appropriate – at her, before his usual smirk reappeared on his face. “It’s like a bruise that doesn’t hurt.” He replied easily, grinning at her.

The princess appeared confused. “A bruise that doesn’t hurt? How is that possible?” she asked. “Can I see?”

“Absolutely -”

“NO. NO WAY.” Answered Hunk, somehow finding voice between chocking, his face brittle red.

Lance shrugged. “Sorry, princess. Hunky Pie is somewhat shy.” He said, earning a slap on the butt at this. Normally this wouldn’t have hurt, but today made Lance audibly yelp.

“Are you okay, Lance?” asked Allura, looking at the blue paladin.

Lance smirked, trying to squirm his way out of Hunk’s embrace. “Don’t worry, princess, just a bit… ah, sore.” Hunk chocked on his spit again, much to the two Altean’s concern.

Coran frowned. “Hunk tired you out with training?”

“Training?” asked Lance, his eyes twinkling mischievously.

Coran pointed. “You are both very red and sweaty, you said you’re sore, you’re breathing heavily and your hair is surprisingly messy.” He pointed out.

Lance started laughing even harder than before, while Hunk audibly groaned, hitting the wall with his head. “Ah yes.” Said Lance, still chuckling. “I love our training sessions, Hunk. The way you move your hands when you hold my sword, or that funny noise you make when I attack you in that particular spot. Or when you tell me how flexible I am or help me see how much I can bend over and-”

Hunk let out a strangled noise, before shaking his head. “That’s it, we’re getting out of here.” He decided, starting to walk away.

“You totally should join us at one point, Princess!” called Lance, laughing even more before the door closed behind them.

Allura glanced at Coran who looked just as confused as she felt. Damn Earth people and their strange ways.

+1 Everyone

The team was all assembled for breakfast in the main room, when Allura walked in, a smile on her face. “Hunk, you’ll never guess what happened!”

Hunk looked away from where he was talking to Lance and to the princess and titled his head to the side. “What happened?”

“Morning to you too, Allura.” Muttered Lance, rolling his eyes and fixing his fringe. And Allura squealed.

Everyone looked in concern at her, but she was already advancing towards a perplexed Lance. “Your nails! They’re so pretty, I adore these colours.” She glanced momentarily at Hunk. “Your girlfriend just sent us a message telling us of how they’ve just helped another planet raise up against the Garla empire. But back to Lance’s nails-” she continued, sighing, while Hunk mouther girlfriend in confusion.

“It’s the bi pride flag.” He explained, smiling down at his nails.

Pidge looked up at him, frowning. “Bisexual pride flag? Why that one?” she asked, curiously.

Lance gave her a deadpan look. “Because I’m bisexual?”

Keith’s fork slipped out of his hand, while Shiro paused on the way of putting food in his mouth. Even Coran and Allura were gaping at him. Pidge was the one to ask. “You’re bisexual??”

The paladin rolled his eyes. “Don’t assume I’m gay just because I’m dating Hunk.”

The knife slipped out of Keith’s hand too, while Shiro chocked on the piece of food still in his mouth. Hunk looked at them, half confused and half concerned for Shiro suffocating before his eyes.

“Since when were you two dating?” finally managed the black paladin, looking lost at the two of them.

Hunk looked at Lance bewildered, glad that his boyfriends seemed just as confused by the team as he felt. “Uhm, since a week after starting Garrinson?”

Pidge shook her head in amazement. “How did I not know till now?”

Suddenly all of it made sense in her head, and in the heads of the rest of the team.

Keith looked confused for a few more seconds, before standing up. “In case anyone else was confused, I am gay.”

This time no one was confused. “Yeah, we knew.” Said Allura.

“No one is shocked here, son.” Decided Coran smirked.

“Confusion? Where?” wondered Pidge.

“Sorry dude, it’s kind of obvious.” Told him Hunk.

“My gaydar went awhire when I first met you because of much gay you were.” Joked Lance.

“Well, sorry for being so gay, then!” said Keith, offended.

Lance snickered, putting an arm around his shoulder. “Come on man. You should have known! I guess you always heard of the gay best friend that you’ve forgotten about me: the bisexual worst rival.”