My hubby and I love food. We love to look at it, smell it, taste it, savour it and gobble it down. We also like to try as many different things as possible, so it’s probably not surprising that we often share food or go halvsies when we go out for dinner.
But it can cause problems.
When someone’s celebrating an occasion in Austria (birthdays, someone’s last work day etc.) and keeping it low key and easy, they might simply invite a few people over for a bite to eat, or in the case of a work environment, bring something along to share with colleagues (including the mandatory prosecco, of course, because we are in Austria). Quite often there will be cakes, pastries and other standard things you might expect. But there could also be something you were not expecting: a giant pretzel sandwich.
Damn I love aeroplane food.
I always have.
Admittedly, the taste isn’t always the best and the offering isn’t always what I’d choose. But somehow, just the fact that I’m going to have a small tray of goods delivered, each in their own separate compartments, direct to my chair, is too good to be true. Not only that, usually there’s a choice of two different mains, and there’s drinks, often alcoholic, to go with it. Now, I know I’ve paid through the nose for the flight, but somehow it still feels like free food and drink, and it gets me every time!
Returning after a holiday always leads to a multitude of questions: How was it? What did you do? And you answer: Yeah, it was awesome! We did heaps of cool stuff! But where do you go after that? How do you pick out just a few notables that that particular person might be interested in hearing about?
Well, I just spend a month in Australia. And it was awesome! And we did heaps of cool stuff! And if you really want to know more, keep reading!
It’s no secret my life revolves around food. And my husband is, thankfully, exactly the same. So it’s no shock that our recent Indian trip involved a lot of eating. For me, curry is rarely bad – even a mediocre curry is not terrible – and in India – where the spices are always flavoursome, well, it just doesn’t seem possible!
Southern India is not as hard core as northern India – it’s slower, safer, friendlier – the poverty is not as confronting – the dogs and cows are better cared for. Naturally there’s rubbish everywhere, the hygiene and toilets can be questionable and the feeling of being unclean never seems to quite leave – covered in sweat, sunscreen, mosquito repellent and just the humidity that clings to the air like a limpet.
From last week’s post I’m continuing my southern India posts with some more details of our adventure.
You can probably figure out the translation of Schnitzelwelt… that’s right – Schnitzel World.
Sounds like heaven, right?
Summer in Austria equals festival time! On any given weekend there’s usually something going on, be it a small, local event or a bigger, region-wide festival that completely takes over.
I have visited a number of town festivals over the last few years and although some of the bigger ones are a lot of fun, there’s nothing better than simply walking the 10 minutes to the Wolfsberg city centre when it’s our turn. Everyone in town turns out to crowd the streets, catch up with one another and party the night away. But no matter the size or the occasion, there’s definitely common elements to all.
I love Ireland and I’ve been there twice but I’ve never quite managed to get to Scotland. Luckily, Thomas is a big fan of Scotland so for our main trip in 2014 we spent 2.5 weeks in the UK. I was very much looking forward to all the ‘normal’ food I would be able to find there as well as exploring old country towns and castles.
It seems appropriate to write about home-sickness now since it’s been quite a dominate presence these last few weeks.
And I know it’s not the worst thing in the world and it’s not really going to hurt me and I’m not going to die… but when it hits you… quite frankly… it just sucks.
an aussie in austria 