Winter winter and suddenly...almost summer!

Yes it is true. We had 0C one day and +15C the other one. Crazy!!! Last week, I think on Tue, it was +21C. But now the weather seems to be more like it should be in March/April...
Last weekend Alex came home. On Saturday first we celebrated Naroz (Persian New Year) with Handan and Hamid. Well...celebrated is maybe too much to say but Alex read about it on Wikipedia and prepared the needed dishes/things that should be present on the table during the celebration. After that we went for a farewell party to Jenny's&Johan's place. It was their and Kazuhiro's party. Manye friends there, really nice. Although a sad reason for a party - we are getting a smaller group here :(
On Sunday we went for a couple of hours to Guillem's and Sveta's place since Guillem prepared a goodbye paella for Kazuhiro.
It was such a nice day. Paella was also great! :)



Then the evening came, Alex got a ride back to the airport. The week was work, some fitness (too little), ordering some stuff on internet and still not receiving that. Short day on Friday since I went to Poland for this weekend.
It was very nice, my mom's brother with his daughter visited also. Cool! We had some fun, little bit chaotic since I had some necessary points on my agenda as well ;) Went also with my mom to a fitness place and after 1 hr on step I can feel all my muscles now - me, who thought I was so fit!!! Have to start taking some sport passes again and not only those cardio machines...

New week - it will be a short one. On Thu going to Madrid! Yuppi!

Cozy weekend

On Fri evening Tania arrived to Hamburg (after few years of me nagging she finally came to visit - great opportunity since she was going for some research EU meeting in Munich afterwards). We started preparing dinner - homemade pizza (ok the dough was ready) and in the meantime Alex arrived - with flowers for both of us. Ooooohhh ;)
We had a very nice dinner, with a good wine :)
Saturday, due to my early waking up, I went quickly to the gym, and left two sleeping heads at home. It took me while to walk to the gym since we got a LOT of snow during the night (and imagine that it was already so nice and dry and no snow until Fri night).
Anyway, the day was beautiful with sun and not so cold. So we had breakfast and aferwards went downtown. After some shopping we met Handan and Hamid for fika, and then continued with shopping. Some H&M Sonia Rykiel stuff got home :)
In the evening we went to Marrakesh - in Altona. Some friends joined and it was very very nice. On the way back home I thought I would freeze. Soooo cold!!!

Sunday was again a very nice day so we decided to go a bit to the nature - which means we went to Elbe and had a walk along the river. Short fika on the way, and we showed Tania "Alte Schwede" - a huge rock which was a gift from Swe to Germany. Don't ask me why this present...
You can see the rock behind us on the picture:


Alex left in the evening and Tania and I had a calm Sunday evening.
It was a very nice weekend and more such ones (to all of you who would like to visit - do it!).

Now sitting with the calender and doing planning for the upcoming weekends.

Göteborg

Last weekend and a bit more I was in Göteborg. Ohhhh sooo nice!
I went already on Thu and worked on Friday from there. On Fri afternoon I met Dan and Leif and we went for a dinner to Tranquilo. I must say that food was nothing special. Service was a bit bitter (OK Dan liked the waitress but that didn't help ;-). We had to leave the table around 19.30 cause it was reserved for someone else.
So after walking around Saluhallen we decided to check out Soho. It was good. Quite empty (downstairs) and not so loud so we could talk. After some wine glasses we got tired (oh yeah, we are not the youngest ones).
Saturday was a "busy" day. First quick breakfast and then off downtown for fika with Christina and Gunilla. It was so much fun to see them again!!! We sat and talked for few hours!! It was soooo nice. Then I went to help Petra and Magnus with unpacking their stuff in the new house.
When I arrived there were still our friends who helped with moving so I even managed to meet "my" dentist Calle ;-) Petra's mom prepared lunch - fish dish with potatoes, mussels, shrimps. Mums!!! And an apple cake with vanille sauce. Mums again!
It was fun to have lunch together and P&M big kitchen table had space for everybody. By the way - the new kitchen is great!
When everybody left, we started unpacking. My responsibility was a sprit cupboard. My God! So much alcohol! And sooooo many wine glasses! Not mentioning Petra's old inherited servis.
When our blood sugar got low we went downtown for dinner. So cool cause we managed to get place in a palestinian restaurant. Leif joined us as well. It almost felt like old, good times :) Good company, nice place, good food and wine. But after dinner we went home.
Sunday was a short round in the city in some shops and then off to the airport. 1 hour delay in Amsterdam though due to strong wind. Oh well. Part of travelling "pleasure" ;-(

Anyway, I want to be back to GBG!!! Hope next year latest!!!

Weekend in Gdynia

This weekend was with my parents in Gdynia. On Fri evening we went out for sushi for dinner. Yum!! Then we got some good wines and had a glass at home. Saturday was my health-treatment day: massage which I need to heal my slipped disc. Then we went to my cousin and together with her and her little boy we went out for a dinner. Nice place with some typical Kashubian dishes. Although my pierogi with wild svine meet were a bit too big and heavy ;)
It was a very nice evening.
Today we had a walk in the forest. My parents live 50m from a forest and right now there is like almost 1m of snow all over. Amazing!!! And I though we had snow in HH... this is nothing! The walk was good! It would be great to go cross country skiing although now the snow is a bit too hard and icy...
Then lunch and off to the airport.
1hr delay but it was bearable. The flight lasts 50 min, then the bus from the airport to HH almost 1,5hr..Hmmm..
Tomorrow Monday and the new week. Good it is a short one. Thu evening - Göteborg!

Catalan fish dish

Finally we made it!! Guillem was always so proud of this special dish and we decided to make it on Saturday. Alex arrived on Fri evening. Saturdays started with doing groceries for dinner. We started cooking around 15.00. Guillem came home with 2 kg of mussels, 2 kg of different fish. Monica brought I think 2 kg of shrimps and even more fish. MY GOD! The whole kitchen was like a fish market ;)
We had to support the chef so some white wines got opened, incl. Hungarian dry Tokaj which was sooooo good. Handan got the job to fry the fish. I got a task to clean a squid (oh yeah I forgot - there was also this big squid). It was a tough job to clean it but I made it!!! :) Below turning the squid inside out - like a sock ;-)



Kazuhiro joined as well (with mums chocolate from Spain). Dennis and Aga missed the whole cooking session but they joined for dinner.

We had to make some breaks during cooking (especially when onion with tomatoes sauce steamed for ca 2 hrs!!!). During breaks we ate mussels in tomatoe sauce which Monica made, I ate half of the squid, we had some good bread. Everything yummi!!!



Fish:


Crowd in the little kitchen:


Seafood after frying:


Handan in action:


When the main dishes were done, Handan made Monica's cake. Soooo good. Together with dark chocolate it was great.
We had also a good speed of wine drinking. I can count 9 empty bottles of wine and one half opened. Hmmm... that explains headache of some of us on Sunday ;-)

Mums cake!


Dinner was great; from time to time filled with some Bregovic or gypsy music ;-)

Sunday was nice and sunny and we went to celebrate our Swedish friends' daughter birthday. A different kind of party with many kids around ;-)
So it was a nice Valentine's day.
My apartment still smells some fish. I hope I cleaned everything and there are no leftovers anywhere...

Budapest (2)

Time passes by fast...when you check out the blog ;-) So I need to make update about 2 weekends. In the beginning of Feb I was again in Budapest. I was hoping for a better weather than last time but nope sorry - even more snow. But it wasn't so cold this time. On Saturday we went to a big park close to People's square (I think this is the right name...). There is a castle in the park and also some kind of "fair" - many stands with people selling everything! And there were many people over there. Despite the crappy weather.













On Saturday evening we were invited to Alex's colleague's place for dinner. It's a pair actually from Hamburg who work now in Budapest. We had a nice dinner with some good white wine.
Sunday was lazy but we went for a walk to the castle again. But this time saw more of the whole area.
I'm actually looking forward to seeing this city in spring. I guess I'm "done" with winter ;-)

Winter winter.... #4??

The most common topic of conversations nowadays: WINTER.
This year I think winter will finish in April. Anybody taking bets?
And I'm sooooo tired of it! Don't get me wrong - I love snow but in the mountains. While skiing. Not in a big city, snowing, melting, snowing, freezing, ice skating on sidewalks and streets, breaking legs, bike, sliding car, "blask" etc etc.
Anyway, on Sunday Handan, Hamid and I were brave and walked to Alster (in half melting, half freezing conditions). The weather was bad but it was good to get some fresh air.
Alster - man-made lake - pride of all Hamburgers - was totally frozen so there were thousands people walking around.





After the walk, we had fika somewhere nearby and then had to walk back... I was exhausted when I got home in the evening ;-)

Anyway, the coming week - again trip to Budapest. Hope landing and leaving will go smoother than last time. Meaning - no fog or snow storms. Pleeeeeaaaase!!!