Friday, March 26, 2010

bicycle!



























bought a bicycle on wednesday and i'm absolutely hooked. vienna's pretty bike friendly; where there aren't bike paths, you just bike on the road with the cars (yes i know, this would never work in america). i always wanted to try driving in europe, and this is probably the closest i'll get! the city is now so much more accessible and i don't need a bus pass, so i'm staying here this weekend and exploring :)

Sunday, March 21, 2010

recipes!

with so much going on i haven't had the courage to tackle coverage of our awesome trip to italy, so in the meantime let me just say that i'm loving the kitchen we have here! with fresh produce from the naschmarkt, there's always something yummy to make. i'm terrible at following recipes, so here's two that i've come up with and love to make. they're really simple but


1. vEGGies

you'll need:
2-3 tsp olive oil
some salt
1/3 onion, chopped
1/3 red bell pepper
(optional: spinach)
2 large free-range eggs, whisked in a bowl with a tsp of butter and a dash of milk
handful shredded gouda cheese
3 or 4 cherry tomatoes, diced (really should be cherry tomatoes)

what to do: heat olive oil and a dash of salt in a medium pan on medium-low. once it heats up, add onion and bell pepper and wait for onion to start to brown. then add spinach if desired (highly recommended). once spinach is cooked add in egg mixture and stir. just before the eggs are done cooking, sprinkle in the gouda cheese and a little more salt if desired. when cheese is melted in, serve with tomatoes on top and enjoy :)

2. veggie fried rice
you'll need:
2-3 tsp olive oil
chopped onion, red bell pepper, zucchini, snap peas (and other veggies if desired)
1 free-range egg
1/2 cup rice
chicken broth (here we have tablets (i use 1/2 of one per 1/2 cup rice) , not sure if they have the tablet form in the states??)
some salt

what to do: heat olive oil and a dash of salt in large sauce pan as you boil 1/2 cup of rice in 1 cup water in a pot (with chicken broth to add flavor). add veggies to the pan, one at a time (onion first, then bell pepper and zucchini, peas last). when veggies are cooked, crack the egg and stir in with the veggies. add a little salt if desired. when rice is cooked, stir it into the pan and cook for 5-10 minutes (you may need to add a little more olive oil and salt as it cooks). the rice won't be very brown but it's quite good :) makes about 2 side servings.



now if i could just make gelato...

Friday, March 5, 2010

Sono arrivato a Firenze!

arrived in florence! we'll move on to rome on the 8th, and spend a night in bratislava on the 11th on our way back to vienna. more pictures to come!

Prague




Our trip to Prague was highly anticipated, and didn't disappoint. Our art teacher, "Dr. O", gave us a city tour shortly after we arrived, and we had a full weekend of sightseeing and exploring.

It is thought that Prague gets its name from the word for "steps", as the river has several places (as shown above) where the water cascades over a sort of "step".









What to see in Prague:

1. hotel evropa - we stayed in this lovely hotel in wenceslas square (named after the same king as in the christmas carol!), it's affordable and absolutely beautiful. original art nouveau style, although if they renovate it i'm sure rates will go up. it's a little dark and mysterious inside, but i loved it. the dining room served as the model for the dining room of the titanic! there's also a stained glass piece inside just above the entrance to the dining room, and i have a theory it's an original Mucha. speaking of which...

2. Mucha Museum - i'm absolutely obsessed with alphonse mucha and his art nouveau lithographs. his museum is 80 k's (about 3 euros) for students and is definitely worth a visit.

3. st vitus cathedral (of course)! half gothic, half neo-gothic cathedral of prague; tongue and tomb of st john of nepomuk, stained glass windows (one is by mucha), and of course st vitus. so much to see in this church!

4. there's a communist museum in prague that's supposed to be really interesting, but i was embittered by the 140 kronig student price so we walked the city instead.

5. the local beer is quite good, so definitely try the pilsner urquell

6. jewish museum and cemetery - the history of jews in prague is really fascinating. there's a beautiful memorial to the czech and moravian jews who were murdered in the holocaust that you really have to see. the cemetery has over 12,000 tombstones on a small plot of land, and there are an estimated 70-100,000 actual graves (several layers, as there were few places in europe that jews were allowed to bury their dead).

7. climbing the clock tower in the old rathaus (which has a fascinating and complex astrological clock) will give you a great view of the city!

8. st charles bridge - famous for its statues, go and rub the statue of st john of nepomuk for good luck! legend has it that king wenceslas threw him in the river for not telling him what the queen said in confession. 5 stars appeared around where he fell into the water (thus he is always depicted with 5 stars around his head). when they retrieved his body, everything was decaying except for his tongue. when st vitus got boring, they popularized st john of nepomuk to attract more pilgrims to prague.

9. the city square by the rathaus has a lot of street vendors offering wurstel, soups, and hot wine. if you're traveling in cold weather, some potato soup and hot wine is absolutely wonderful!