Cabin trip - the real one I

You can NOT claim you have been assimilated in norwegian culture unless you go for cabin trips. FULLSTOP

As a city girl,my definition of nature involves common flowers occasionally living in my apartment, the trees at the sides of a street and city parks, animals like cats, dogs, goldfishes, city birds, snails and some insects which I prefer it if they avoid me (only a couple of exceptions on this thanks to my grandma's efforts to convince me that they are harmless). Please count also all the beaches and areas that the soil amount is higher than the concrete one but the percentage of the second is higher than 10% in total. That's nature in my comfort zone. And I had been VERY proud of myself that I never screamed aloud or other times too loud when always monstrous cockroaches invaded to my place but I was so amazingly courageous to fight them and heroically kill them! Usually even without employing the aerosol spray so that I'm consistent with my eco-friendly principles. (Sarcasm? Me? Nah)

The other nature- the real one- I enjoy in small and safe observatory doses.

The primitive part of it scares the hell out of me. 

I grew up in a glove box. I'm a specie that belongs to urban eco-system. In real nature I'm a fish out of the sea. I met a cow at my 18 and a pig at my 23. I like Trondheim because to my eyes it is almost countryside. 

My childhood outdoor expeditions was always and only in places accessible by car. If it was a non asphalt road then I was always feeling that we were deep down in the wildness. They were lovely. It is true that you can reach really beautiful places following these ''agricultural roads'' in which the car jumps up and down and the voice comes out in distorted sound waves. Magnificent places, really! But there were not real hiking trips, we were walking for 10-20 min and then we may had a picnic until we were back to car for further seated adventures....

Did I make my point clear? The background info is basically for my defense. To explain why I haven't been in a real cabin trip after two and a half years!! Coming to Norway inevitably had a tremendous effect on me when it comes to hiking and re-establishing my definition of nature. But it's a very slow progress. I'm pushing myself out of my limits and I'm becoming more and more a nature person but still .. SO very far away from a nature person! 

Nevertheless, a cabin trip is in my plans. After numerous declines my friends managed to convince me. Since I agreed I keep flirting with the idea to cancel it. Uff...

Out in the woods, no electricity, no toilet, no immediate access by car (even though the parking place is pretty close), no Internet and that comes to my mind before the 'carrying your own potable water' (!!!) and the 'make a fire to get warm' (!!!).
Anyway, if I survive it, which I assume I'll do, provided I go, I'll come back with a celebrating post full of exclamation marks, a couple of photos and being slightly more Norwegian than before. If not you should be proud of me that I was fighting a bigger monster than the monstrous cockroaches; my(inert and scared)self!

Ok, this is the only weed free fun version I found in youtube, even though those apparently mexican cockroaches seem to me a bit high. :P

PS This song has a long and interesting story check it in wiki.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Cucaracha

The ring of fire

I read at some point about a research study which showed that people who had been thinking mostly about food during a specific period, they gained significantly more weight compared to those who were thinking about sex. I guess there are many reasons for this but ...wait a minute...

Oups! One out of two posts in this blog is about food!!

Bells ringing! Bells ringing!!

Alarm! Alarm!!

For the sake of my scale... I have to fix this!! The sooner the better! 

So this post is going to be about the ring of fire as in Johnny Cash... :D

Being a foreign single girl in Norway is certainly interesting! You face almost a paradox; you know how to play but you don't know the rules... Been there done that in the past but now? Suddenly someone has changed the cipher or even worse he enciphered the rules of the game after first encoding them... Most of your interpretation doesn't make sense but you still see it works for the most around you... 

Advanced level for sure but I'm a tough one, I'll break it! I like challenges! ;D

After discussing my frustrations on the issue with a friend (oh yes, teenage years are forced back, apparently!) she sent me this fun post from an American girl who lives in Sweden. It has seeds of truth, believe me! It was such a relief and I laughed my head off! I hope you enjoy it!

''Dating in Sweden: sex, booze and mobile phones''

And just to close with a little food for thought, the extrapolation of the study is very fitting to my views. What you think or you allow yourself to think is who you are going to be! Scary and promising at the same time!
Take care of your thoughts! :)

Greek salad!

First and foremost I have to state that I really really love how much Norwegians enjoy and appreciate greek products! Feta, olive oil, ouzo...
We do,too! :) And I can't help it, every time I find similarities I feel happy!

Now that I made myself clear on this, I can continue with some criticism.
I come across again and again to the term ''Greek salad''.
Yeah, well, only that it is NOT a greek salad!!!

Would any Greek accept a salad that contains lettuce, tomato, olives, onion, pesto and feta cheese with tzatziki on top (!!!!) as a greek salad?? Damn it, NO!

First of all, tzatziki is a salad itself! Yeah, right, a separated one! It isn't a sauce and I doubt that during the almost 30 years I lived in Greece I tasted a single combination of tzatziki and feta at the same dish! Even the idea gives me chills...

Everyone is of course free to use greek ingredients to his fancy, and it is nice to let imagination and creativity wild but by all means don't call it greek! And even more don't present it as greek in your menu!! It is quite unfortunate on how many restaurants and cafes here, you meet this distracting idea of greek salad. Especially when one can easily find ALL the ingredients that a real greek salad contains!
It's insane! It isn't either that Norwegians haven't visited Greece or tasted the real thing...
I really, seriously, honestly find no reasonable explanation why this happens!!! It's simply insane and it drives me crazy!

Let's see;

• slided tomatoes
• onion (the colour doesn't really matter) in small half-moon slices
• green paprika in rings
• feta cheese, in a shape of block 8x12 cm
• oregano or thyme
• olives
• salt, preferably sea salt (&for God sake not pepper!!)
• cucumber (of course, corrected after the kind contribution of Camillaki) 
• optionally capers.

Do I forget something? Ah! Yes, a decent amount of olive oil!

Here you go! Greek horiatiki (meaning from the village) salad 1000% acceptable of any Greek around the world!

And another thing the so called tzatziki is another painful story! No, yogurt with garlic and something green inside is not called tzatziki either but I'll stop here because I have an upper time limit in nagging and Ι'm right now approaching it!

Last but not least, you can actually find real feta here! No, I definitely don't mean appetina, but there are greek brands in some supermarkets and you can find it also in Bondens marked in Torg. Once I had an excellent chat with one of the farmers when I certified that he actually makes real feta cheese and we laughed about having a label to his stand like 'Approved by Greeks'! :D

New generation :)

After last summer which is fair to be remembered as the summer of weddings this is definitely the summer of newborns! I'm so happy for all my friends!!! 

To have a little baby in your hands so fragile and so dependant. A little human being that innocent that is impossible not to love! A new life ! What a tremendous miracle and what a tremendous happiness they must experience!!!! 

Right now I'm just looking the photos my friends sent me. Photos and ultrasound images! I do it again and again. With eyes full of tears and a heart full of love for these little people I try to absorb as much as possible of this miracle! It is the first time I regret so much we live in different countries and I cannot be there, to handshake with my finger their little hands, kiss their little feet, deposit my share of love and promises that I'll take care of their well being with whatever way I can.

Is love transmitted within space without a physical presence? Words can do that but babies cannot understand words. Probably they only understand the warmth of your voice and they feel the pace of your heart. But this is not possible in my case. I hope love does!

I cannot help it but I try to understand if I am an appropriate material for mum... Maybe? At least I have really nice intentions but I am horrified of the responsibility and a bit skeptical on the philosophical idea of giving birth. Anyway there is no space for this kind of thoughts in this post! 

This post is dedicated to Anastasis, to Niki's son, to Ellen's baby, to Ntina's daughter and the Trondesk /French baby we are all expecting!!! 

I wish for all of them to be healthy and happy. To become wonderful people who are going to beautify our world with their presence as their parents have beautify my life! And I wish to my beloved friends to be healthy and happy as well! To be patient and wise, to enjoy every single moment of the upbringing and their offsprings to always make them proud!

A little post for the little gentlemen

( I tried hard to find the version of Nora Brockstedt that I like so much but it is not available in youtube so for those who have spotify please check Lykkeliten of hers)

and another norwegian post for the little ladies having or not blue eyes

Love you all!

Louisa cream

Every time that outside is cold or I feel homesick or I want something warm and sweet (which mostly happens when I feel cold or homesick! ) I make this super easy cream my mum taught me in Easter. My mum is fantastic on experimenting in the kitchen. Even though I wouldn't consider her as a great cook (sorry mama :) ), she is very creative in general and she has definitely come up with some excellent recipes of her own and some new versions of other recipes that I prefer better than the originals. At some point I'll post how to make mousaka that won't give you a heavy stomach afterwards!!!  

The idea of the cream is very simple.

First boil water and add Louisa herb leaves (Lippia citriodora), and when it is about to boil remove the leaves and add some sugar.

Mix corn flour in half a glass of cold water (the ratio is 1 big spoon to 200 ml of initial water but depends how dense you like it),  pour it in the Louisa tea and then stir it to one direction so that it gets denser. Remove it from the heat and pour it in little bowls or a big one as I do! 

It is supposed to be eaten warm so after some minutes of cooling is ready for consumption. 

I have played around with spices and herbs and I would also suggest anise, cinnamon with cardamom, and chamomile but nothing compares to Louisa which gives to the cream this lemon aroma but not the acidity. What I like the most is the elegant aroma the cream has even with cinnamon. This and how light it is!! 

I hope you enjoy it!!

As for me I have decided that I'll name my future daughter Louisa after my mum as she doesn't like her name. It always reminds me my late grandpa, too. He planted it in the garden of his summer house and now whenever I recall my times there, they have the aura of  sea and Louisa! 

Sunset at 'the spot'

Almost eleven in the evening, the sun still high, yellow,orange, pink, light blue and the clouds are reflecting the colour, dye the whole sky... so beautiful! I love that sunset lasts for so long here!
Earlier I went to the spot again.
The spot is a little flat place in the way to Tyholt looking to the town, the sky and the sea.
Spectacular view.

Today I was with a friend, we were coming back from ikea, I miscalculated once again the distance to my place so we were walking for some time before we reached it, talking for life matters and other casual things. I liked it so much! It was so different from all the other times I have been there! Usually the spot is the place where I go when I feel lonely and I try to convince myself that I'm doing fine, that I can have beautiful moments all by myself or when I feel happy and want to extend a bit more this feeling. In the first case it never fails to give me the peace I yearn for. Looking at the wonderful sunsets from there is as if you're shooting misery on the forehead! Very powerful stuff! :) When happy, it definitely enhances the feeling as pure beauty always does! 

In a way is important to have your spots in the city you live, your trees, your benches, your alley, your stones. It's a secret code between you and the town you live. You pass by with other people and you get a bit silent. It's a greeting, followed by a quick flashback of the times you spend there and the things and thoughts that brought you there and in a way you feel connected with yourself again.

And when you share parts of this code with someone, then you know that you have reached the trust that the real friendship requires! Simply wonderful as the sunset tonight! 

''Life happens''

Life seems as a chaotic dance of people moving around, relations starting and dying, feelings growing or fading, new challenges coming up to meet, situations following one another, failure and success, different places as if observed from a car window or mismatching tunes in a radio search for the best station... Inevitable swifts of reality...

and me in the middle of this dance, trying to follow or lead, trying to cope, enjoy, evolve, create roots and bones... 

Yes, yes, I know changes are necessary for life, to move on, to become better. But is it just me who suffers so much with them? I'm always in a kind of psychological inertia and mourning before stepping into a different path, independently of how good the reasons for this step are. It doesn't matter either if it is me who introduces them or the others or just life forces them. I always feel that we give up a part of ourselves, a tiny bit maybe or often times a big one. It's a split anyhow, which we go through for the sake of a better future. A new reality that nobody can secure in advance is risk-free or worth the while. It's a wonder how I find the strength to proceed with all these inhibiting thoughts, but I do and I try to be fair and justify why others do too, despite the pain they cause me.

For now what triggered this post is external so at least I'm saving myself from the doubt ''should I do it or not''. I'm probably also allowed to be as dramatic as I want... No, behave. I'm not drama queen, anyway. I'll play it cool. I cannot do anything drastic so I'll go with the flow. I wish ''good luck'', which seems a very reasonable wish even though I believe a lot more in the chances we create than luck and hope that what is built so far is solid or flexible enough to withstand and survive.