Times like these.

This last week has been maybe a bit harder than before. Mentally I mean. Maybe I've been here now long enough for the honeymoon phase to end. I will hold the details for myself, but basicly I felt lonely, lost and miserable. Gladly, I like to think this as a good feature, I am unable to hold things inside me, so I talked to my boyfriend about my feelings. And now I feel much, much better and I believe in us even more than before (if it is possible).

We both know it will propably not get easier, it is very likely that in the future we will move to some country further away from our homes and with very different culture. But this is what we both have chosen, and I am sure that together we can overcome the obstacles. And this possibility to see world and different cultures more deeply than just from backpacker's view, is something I have dreamt of for a long time. And what could be better than to experience it all with the one you love? :)

I am a person who wants to feel very strongly. When I was a bit younger, still propably breathing fumes of my teenage phase, my "motto" was that if it does not feel like anything is not worth anything. I felt that it is better to be miserable than just ok. Nowdays my thoughts and efforts are more pointed to the direction "happiness" and I've understood that it is not good for a person to be in mental roller coaster all the time. But still I want to think the same: just ok is not enough. The point here was that these feelings that I've had lately are not unfamiliar to me, still once in a while I need some time to dwell in self-pity. This was the first time since last winter that I had to go there, and that must be somekind of a record! The reason is that I have found a person who makes me want to be happy and who I want to make very happy, and there is no space for being miserable there.

Labrinth feat. Emeli Sande - Beneath Your Beautiful

"I have found that if you love life, life will love you back."*

My writing motivation seems to be somewhere else than here now. So here's some pictures for you, maybe from them you can see what I've been up to lately...

Couple of weeks ago we went bowling. I'm no master, but it's fun anyways. :)

11th of November is the Independence day of Poland. We saw the parade from our window. Did you know that Poland has been independent since 1918, so it's actually younger than Finland.

I continued my exploring of Polish food culture by making "sernik" aka cheese cake. Pycha!

Some time ago we decided we want to have cool poster from every city we have lived in. Here is Wroclaw. :)

Finally I started a new book! And almost read half of it the first day, it's gooood. :) Oh, and then there's the stuff I SHOULD be reading. :P

Some Christmas decoration.

I wanted to make this Finnish Christmas pastry "joulutorttu". Unfortunately the dough I made was not very similar to the "real" one (from freezer). And the plum jam was also different... So when I come to Finland I definetely want some good old joulutorttu!

More decoration. Last Friday we bought all the stuff we need for Christmas tree. I know it's a bit early, we were propably the first ones, but this is what happens when you put together two Christmas fans. ;)

No Christmas without some lights. :)

Next week the Christmas market of Wroclaw will open, can't wait to see it!


*Quote by Arthur Rubinstein.

Exploring foreign food cultures.

While my boyfriend was in Madrid watching football, I had more then enough time to test my cooking skills. Only problem was that I had to eat everything myself...

I decided that pierogies, traditional Polish dish, would give me enough challenge. Pierogies are small pastries filled with savory or sweet stuff. Something like ravioli. They are boiled in hot water, so the look of the pastry is not so delicious. But the taste is what counts, right. I've also heard it's possible to fry them to get some color, I have to try that next time.

Basic ingredients for pierogi are very simple: the dough is made from wheat flour, salt, water/milk and oil. Making the dough was not very hard, but took some time. The most popular filling is something called "Ruskie": smashed potatoes, onion and "sour" cheese called twaróg. Of course this was not challenge big enough for a master chef like me. :D So I also made mushroom-sauerkraut-onion filling and for dessert a filling from berries and twaróg. What happened was that in the end I had huge, I mean huuuuge amount of fillings and I had to make more and more dough. I can remember the recipe for the rest of my life. :D Finally I was ready after six hours of pierogi making. I had to divide the work for two days...

The result was, well, 50 something pierogies. And they tasted good, at least in the beginning. :P Could be that I will never make pierogi again, but at least I tried once! (Except that I already made up some variations in my mind, like Christmas-pierogi, filled with plum jam.)

All you need for pierogi dough.

Fillings for my pierogies.

Patience, patience....

Almost ready!

There they are - my cute little pierogies! "Limaista, mutta maukasta."