Yesterday, we went to the little market near our apartment. I’ve gone four or five times during our week in Budapest – getting breads, yogurt, and even Hungarian sauerkraut. This time, we were hoping for a few pastries and breads. The bread stand was made of clear plastic, so you could see the different offerings. Most…
My cousin, her boyfriend, B, and I were on a tram in Budapest. We were standing near the doors and chatting casually in English, with our stop still four or five away. B had a plastic shopping bag with our bathing suits, my cousin’s boyfriend had a small backpack with theirs, and my cousin and…
I’m a bit hesitant to write this one, because I’m afraid I won’t be able to convey how amazing the experience was. A silly sort of fear, but this may well be our favorite experience of the first three months of our trip. Here goes. You might have noticed that our time in Italy has eclipsed…
‘Truffles’ usually makes me think of bitter, fancy, round chocolate treats, or the sweetened milk chocolate versions sold for the undiscerning masses like me. However, in Italy, we explored a different kind of truffle: the mushroom. They come in either black or white varieties, with the latter being more expensive and having a shorter harvest.…
Acqui Terme, Italy, was one of our stranger stays on this trip. It’s one of the few places so far that we have been excited to leave. In which we get our room We booked a place with a grad student in our usual way and were told that we would “meet” his mom. We…
I booked a tour of a hazelnut farm, based on a blog tip I read. After all, the region is known for its hazelnuts. Supposedly, Fererro Rocher only uses hazelnuts from the area for their famous chocolates. (Nutella, on the other hand, comes from their lesser hazelnut cousins.) Unfortunately, the tour was not quite what…
While B was being shorn, I needed to buy groceries for two dishes which I had promised to make for dinner with our hosts. They would prepare a few traditional Langhe dishes, and I would make a Russian and an American dish, to show them what we might eat at home. Back at the salon,…
The most persistent stereotype we’ve heard about Italians – especially from Americans, is that they’re lazy. They start work late, they take a long lunch, they leave early, they take a long dinner, and they chat or party into the night, right? Or do they work at all? Based on the Italians we’ve met, it…
Yesterday, we took a little tourist ferry from one town in the Cinque Terre to another. People said that the small villages looked different from the water than from land, so we opted to test the hype. (Mostly true.) We bought our tickets and headed to the boat dock, which was just a slab of…
Yesterday, we watched the World Championships of Ultimate Frisbee in Lecco, Italy. Lecco is a pretty town situated in ‘lake country’ and surrounded by blue-colored mountains rising out of fog and mist. The views are wonderful: whatever you’re watching has a backdrop that looks like a painting. There were three games, all of which we…