Tuesday 30 August 2011

August 20th disaster

i know this is a bit late to comment on since August 20th was a while ago but i still feel the need to say something about it .
On August 20th in Hungary we have a national holiday where we celebrate stuff ( i wont go into it ) anyway every year its this big event in the city but they managed fabulously to ruin it. The one The thing i used to look forward to was the Red bull air race and the 'lovely' organiseres cancelled it now for the second time in a row so i thought this air / water parade might be good lets go down and watch it . when it started 3 helicopters whent by then nothing for 15 min then 3 planes whent by. meanwhile random boats where zig zagging down the Danube and i guess that was the water parade. we had to wait another 30min for the thing to start in which we saw like 4 planes who whent by 2x (i think to make it look like there where more) the only thing that was actually worth watching where the planes that did loop the loops.
Now there was also this so called street of taste which had a few tents with like massive quese and they all sold like one kind of food.
The fireworks where also pretty disapointing they had the same thing down the whole Danube, and silly me was looking for something spectacular since they said they spent twice as much on it than last year. And the music OMG the radio that went the whole day seriously sucked.
too sum up the day the most interesting thing was a paper bag that flew past us in the sky while we where waiting for some planes to fly bye. and lets just say probably for the next few years i wont be going in to watch the August 20th celebrations .

Wednesday 17 August 2011

Jam tarts

For the past couple of weeks i had these cravings for jam tarts i have absolutely no idea why. so in the end i gave in and made some, and i thought I'd share the recipe (i got the quantities from here : http://britishfood.about.com/od/eorecipes/r/jamtarts.htm )

ingredients :  100g butter or margarine
                      250g Plain flour
                      a pinch of salt (seriously just a pinch mine where to salty)
                      3 tbsp cold water 
                      aaaand any jam of your choice



pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and grease out the wholey tart mould.

Put the butter, flour and salt into a big bowl and using your fingertips start mixing and working in the butter till it resembles fine bread crumbs.

Then add the tbsp of water and start mixing it with a knife. if it isnt coming together then add a tsp of water to it and keep mixing if it still isnt sticking and another.

When the dough starts clumping using your hands work it into a ball then wrap it in clingfilm and put it into the fridge for 15 minutes or more.

On a flat surface using the rolling pin ( put a bit of flour on it so the dough dosn't stick) roll the dough out till it is about 5 mm thick (try not making it to thick because some of mine started tasting like scones )

Using a round shape cutter or cup cut out circles but make sure its bigger than the tin. and then place them into the tin.

No scoop the jam into it but try not to fill it to the top because in the oven it might overflow.

put it into the oven for 15mins or till there golden brown. when you take them out be careful because the jam stays hotter longer than the pastry bit.

and now enjoy.

if you liked the recipe or if theres something you think that will make it better please comment :)

Monday 15 August 2011

Youtube bloggers

I have to say watching Youtube bloggers is my new obsession.  I have no idea why but it simply makes me feel good to watch other people do stupid things or talk about there own lives. and it is simply such a good way to waste time. here are some of my favourite channels that you have to watch :

1.  Charlie is so cool like. (he is my absaloute favourite, he does the most weirdest stuff like eat a load of wine gums and wrap himself up in wrapping paper , he also has a Doctor who obsession like me :) )

2.  Kingsley Bitch. ( ok he mostly complains but its totally worth watching his channel )

3. Kevjumba. ( i actually found him by mistake. a song of his just came up on the recommended by  Youtube bit called nice guys finish last .)

in my whole Youtube blogger obsession i felt that i should give making a video a go. thinking it cant be that hard i mean a load of people do it lets give it a try. well lets just say that, that video is never ever going to be seen by anyone it is soo embarassing. I seriously have no idea how these people do it. its just so weird to talk to your computer and meanwhile you see yourself on the screen and it simply distracts you with "does my face seriosuly look like that." but you know just because it didnt work out for me you should try giveing it a go.
here are some useful tips that would of helped me:
  •  Find an interesting topic to talk about that others would whant to watch or just do something stupid (but not to stupid) :P
  • Have an editing programme so you can cut out your umms and aaaa's
  • try not to get distracted by your own face on the screen.
  • sometimes invite friends to the video to make it more interesting
well have fun watching or making videos :)

Thursday 11 August 2011

Dear internet void

well i'v just been checking my stats and i have just realised this blog is pretty much being written for you internet and me of course as no one has viewed this blog in ages. but you know what hell with it i know its not a good blog and it has no exact topic and its not funny or interesting and my writting is weird but you know what i dont care (ok i care thats why im writting this :P) I find  blogging fun  even if you internet people like it or not. The void can just swallow it and no one will realise but i do not care im going to keep on writting my random posts even if it is only read by the internet.


HA!

Day 7 : Hallein

On our last day we visited the Hallein salt mine. Which used to be a Celtic salt mine so there was a Celtic village next to it that you could visit It was like the the Halstadt salt mine but much better. This time it wasn't the guide who talked it they took you from video to video . There was also a boat that took you across the huge salt lake and we got to ride on the train twice (in and out) there was also a slide but this one wasn't as fast as the last one. The mine also took us over to Germany underground :) In the hotel we went down for a last swim where i managed to sustain some serious ingeries  as usual ( this is seriously becoming a habit every time we go there) just some advice don't go down with four people in a water slide holding each others legs.

Day 6 : Hiking


We decided to go hiking that day which was a bit of a mistake cus it started raining the moment we started on the path up. ( this is the path i was stalking about on day 1 with the waterfall and stuff) we wanted to see the squirrels (there's a bit of woods near Bad Gastein where there are a load of squirrels that you can feed) but we where unlucky and there where none by the time we got there. everyone was really annoyed  by the time  we got to Bad Gastein  from all the rain and about how slow we walked and how late it is. The little ones where complaining that they want to go swimming. So the group got on to the soonest bus and headed back to the hotel and we went over to the swimming pool.

Day 5 : Salzburg

We visited the city of Salzburg. We unlikely made the decision to visit the natural history museum which to me was a disappointment since i was expecting something like Nemo in Amsterdam. the whole museum would of been interesting but it was packed with kids, only half the signs where translated to English as well and we where on a tight schedule. in the end we where there for 3 hours and only managed to see an hour of the city which wasn't much. I now really regret going to the museum and not deciding to go with the other group who went to see the city. i could of then gone to shopping as well and i wouldn't of had to look at stuffed animals for 3 hours. Actually there would of been 1 interesting bit about space and astronauts but we rushed through the whole thing. we didn't get to go up to the castle either so the day was a bit of a disappointment. Next time i definatly wont choose a museum over sightseeing.




Monday 8 August 2011

Day 4

well day for was a relaxing day we spent it in the swimming pool soo thats that :)

Day 3 : Halstadt





I am now writing this post for the second time as the first one got deleted so this will probably be shorter as i cant really be bothered to retype the whole thing. Halstadt is a Salt mine. We went up in cable cars and we luckily had great weather that day so we got to see the view of the lake beneath us. The path leading up to the mine had a lot of information on the miner cemetery which was close by and the archeological dig taking place there. We had to put on these horrible green protective suits before going in which made it quite exciting :) the tunnels where pretty creepy as there was this voice that kept whispering something and it kind of felt like i was going to my own death.
 thinking once you go in you never go out. But they had an awesome slide which they made out to be much more dangerous than it really was. and they took a picture at the end without warning us so everyone had a really messed up face on it. A mining train took us out which was i think the highlight of the whole tour. After we went into the town were i wouldn't have minded staying a few more hours and we got to see a skull room.( the room was full of skulls and they where all painted with symbols depending what the person was like)



Note: the pictures for some reason don't look that good on the blog the colours somehow don't come threw when i put them on so you have to use your imagination a bit :)

Sunday 7 August 2011

Day 2 : Grosseglockner


 
The day after our arrival we visited Grosseglockner which is the highest point in Austria (3,789) and has a ice glacier You can go all the way to the top with car. and there are sightseeing stops and restaurants to the top. The first place we stopped at i was pretty surprised as there was snow in the parking place and it was about 1 degrees Celsius and i had decided to wear a blouse and forgot to bring a jumper ( who needs a jumper in summer?) and all i had was my rain coat which didn't really help much. Anyway our first stop had a great exhibition on the Mountain and about its wildlife and geology which was actually pretty interesting. We where there for a bit hoping the fog would clear so we could see something. We where lucky as we crossed to the other side of the mountain the fog cleared up and it turned into great sunny weather, and the view was amazing.

When we reached the glacier
we managed to see some marmot who are local residents of the mountain :) there was also another exhibition about Grossegluckner on the top and of course a gift shop (yeay!) it was pretty windy and cold and half of our group decided to hike down to the glacier (i for some reason was one of them even with my unsuitable clothing) which turned out to be longer that we thought because the cable cars stopped working 2 minutes before we wanted to use them so (just our luck). It was a 1 hour journey down on a huge rocks and stones.  After a while we started reaching signs that said the glacier used to be here in .... which started getting really depressing after a while when you saw that in 2 years the glacier withdrew like 10 meters and it started to get me thinking on the whole global warming thing which just got me more depressed because even if we want to admit it or not we're all responsible even if i do take public transport , and i do recycle but i still have a fridge i still buy products shipped over from a different continent. and its also my fault as well that this glacier has shrunk. and that the only way we can conquer this is if there's a world solution and everyone sticks to it.  Anyway while i was thinking these depressing / saving the world thoughts we reached the bottom and i saw that i was standing on ice. The way up was pretty tiring but it was quicker (maybe because we where all extremely hungry and cold and just wanted to get far away from the place as possible) and this climb would of been soo much more easier had the glacier not have melted that much we could have saved a couple hundred meters and a few hours. All in all the day wasn't bad except when we wanted to stop to have a hot chocolate all the restaurants where closed after 4 so keep that in mind if you ever decide to go.




the dieing glacier

Austria: Day 1

 Summer holidays are here and like every year we go somewhere.This year we visited Austria and stayed in a village called Badhof Gastein. Badhof Gastein is a small ski village and it has a nice homey feel to it like all ski villages. It's situated in a valley and is surrounded by beautiful huge green mountains which (depending on the weather) have small drifts of cloud settled on them which gives them a look of mystery and grandness.  We stayed in the hotel Norica which had a great heated underground tunnel which connected a few other hotels to the big swimming pool and spa. This is a great place to go and relax. You can go hiking as well, there was a route on one of the mountains which wasn't too tiring and had rest stops. It takes you on a path with a wonderful view and you even takes you through a cave that goes behind a waterfall. The path leads you to the village of Bad Gastein. And if you ever go there you'll notice straight away how clean and fresh the air is all my allergies disappeared for that week. :)