Too Sweet To Bear

There are 39 brown bears and 20 European grey wolves in the bear sanctuary of Veresegyház, a one of a kind establishment in Central Europe. Both the bear and wolf enclosures can be walked around in approximately half an hour and one can feed the voracious bears with honey through the wire mesh fence with a huge wooden spoon. At the end of the procedure, both the bears and me were covered with sticky mess…

Easter Fair

The Easter Fair on Vörösmarty Square is organized as part of the Budapest Spring Festival. Throughout the weeks before Easter, one can enjoy craft and produce stalls, performances and dance lessons. I purchased all the Eater cards there from the Budapest-based Bomo Art and had a "light" lunch of pompos (Hungarian pizza) and a mug of mulled wine. Well, the extra energy is absolutely needed when the clocks are advanced an hour ahead at the beginning of the Daylight Saving Time (here it is 28th March) and an hour of precious sleep is lost, right?

Red Berry Jelly aka Rote Grütze

I cannot wait for the summer. So, I faked it with some Rote Grütze made of frozen red berries (red currant, black currant, blackberries, raspberries and strawberries). I followed the traditional recipe and cooked the fruits with some red juice, a glass of wine - just for the heck of it -, and sago and touched it with just a hint of sugar (your Grütze should not be overly sweet). I served it with some vanilla sauce that nicely complements the slightly tangy taste of the fruit base.

Seeing Through New Eyes

Isn't buckets of fun to see old things through new eyes? On a stroll through my hometown, I took some photos and even I was surprised how different certain scenes could be if one tries to capture them from a different perspective. On the wings of imagination, I flew to an isolated Scandinavian village with only a town's church in sight, a baroque Austrian town, and the wildly romantic and rugged Scottish Highlands.

There is a song sleeping in all things
that dream on and on,
and the world begins to sing
if you only find the magic word.

/Joseph von Eichendorff/

Milky Way to Russia

I love dairy products and the Russian specialties are truly one of a kind. I paid a visit to Arbat, a Russian deli in Budapest and bought two types of ryazhenka (traditional Russian milk drink baked in an oven until it gets a caramelized, toffee-like flavor) and some Túró Rudis that taste a lot better than the Hungarian original. Приятного аппетита!