Food Diary Amsterdam

Hello everybody :)

As Lena and I have been to Amsterdam from Friday until today we decided to blog about the food we have eaten there. We were really excited to try some traditional Dutch food but unfortunately I didn't find anything vegan except fries. However, you can check out Lena's post to see what she has tried :)
We went by train and left on Thursday evening. On Friday morning we arrived in Amsterdam so I will start with lunch on Friday.


Friday, 27.03.2015

Lena has known from a friend that everyone eats fries all the time in Amsterdam but we weren't prepared to see a fries stall every four meters wherever we went. So of course this was the first thing we tried and they were way better than those at McDonald's ;)

In the evening we went to a little Italian restaurant. I had Spaghetti Puttanesca which are Spaghetti with tomato sauce and olives, artichokes, asparagus, paprika and capers. The dish was really good but the portion was quite small and therefore also priced too high with nearly 12€.

Later that evening we went to the Happy Hour at our youth hostel and decided to try out a typically Dutch shot called Dropshot. This is a shot of liquid liquorice. We didn't know that before however, because if we knew I think we wouldn't have tried it! It didn't taste that bad actually, a little bit like Jägermeister.





Saturday, 28.03.2015

We had breakfast at our hostel and there was a large buffet with quite a wide range of food to eat. I actually had two more slices of bread and a cup of tea after the serving you can see here but forgot to take a photo :D
I ate the slices of bread and the roll with strawberry jam, apricot jam, Zwergenwiese Paprika spread which I had brought from home and the last slice I buttered with margarine and sprinkled with chocolate sprinkles, which was my vegan version of Hachelslag.

For lunch we just bought a snack in a supermarket because we weren't that hungry after the huge breakfast. I had bulgur with chickpeas, radish, leek, raisins and goji berries. And yeeees, this is a spork! :D I was delighted when I found one in that supermarket!

Between the meals I had an apple and raw bite cacao bar while strolling through the streets of Amsterdam.

For dinner we went to a small Dutch cafe but as I said before, they didn't have any traditional dish that was vegan. So I ordered a tomato soup and a potato salad. The soup was delicious and also the bread tasted heavenly good.





Sunday, 29.03.2015

We had breakfast at a youth hostel again, a different one however, as there were no beds available for another night at the first one. I had toast with strawberry jam and raspberry jam, a cup of black tea and a glass of orange juice. I couldn't eat more because we got up really early to get into the Anne Frank museum and I can never eat much when I have to eat before 9 o'clock in the morning.

For lunch I had a big focaccia with tomatoes and spinach and a cup of tea because it was freezing cold. We bought this at a really nice restaurant and shop called la Place.

In the evening we went to an Italian restaurant again. I had ravioli ai funghi con tomato sauce and a chamomile tea. Again the Italian dish was pretty expensive, I think I paid about 10€ for it.






Monday, 30.03.2015

On Monday, our last day in Amsterdam, we had the same breakfast as on Sunday. I forgot to take a photo so I'll just show you that from yesterday. That time I helped myself to two more slices with orange jam as it was already half past nine :P

When we walked through the famous street market I couldn't resist this delicious looking (and tasting!) smoothie. It was a smoothie made of spinach, bananas, apples and oranges.

Later we had a quick lunch at an vegetarian fast food place called maoz. They had fries and falafel sandwiches there. Lena took the fries and I had a small falafel sandwich. These were definitely the best falafel I have ever eaten! I could choose between a white and a whole wheat bread and then there was a big buffet of vegetables and sauces I could put into the bread, without any limits. I ate a whole wheat sandwich with falafel, tomato and onion sauce, lettuce, carrots, cucumber, cauliflower and some unidentifiable violet vegetable.

Soon after that we already had to go to the railway station to catch our train to Düsseldorf. At the train station we had to wait a little bit so I bought some yummy grapes.

On the train I ate a muesli bar while reading Stolen from Lucy Christopher :)










Once we were in Düsseldorf we had to wait two hours until our train to Vienna arrived. We went to McDonald's where Lena had a salad and I ate this focaccia with olives that I brought from la Place in Amsterdam.

After that we had tea at Starbucks. I chose my favourite tea: Earl Grey with soy milk. Yummy :D





So that's everything I ate in those four days in Amsterdam :)
I hope you enjoyed reading and looking at the pictures. 

Have a nice evening,
Larissi ♥

Amsterdam Food Diary

Hi guys!

How are you? Hope you had such a nice start into your easter holidays as I did - I was at Amsterdam with Larissa and just came back today :) For this reason we both decided to do a food diary for our "I speak food" blogpost.

As we left on Thursday afternoon and just arrived Friday in the morning, our first real food (except cereal bars and buns we had taken with us^^) was lunch on Friday:

Friday, March 27




As my roommates were in Amsterdam just some months ago they told me
about fries stands being typical in Amsterdam. But even if we knew we didn't expect to see soooo many in just one single street! So we decided to eat fries with ketchup for our first lunch :)







As it was very cold in the evening and we were almost starving we just went into the first restaurant that looked nice - which was an Italian restaurant. There I ate one of my favourite foods: Spaghetti pomodoro :)



Saturday, March 28

On Saturday we had breakfast at our hostel. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo, so I'll just describe what I ate :D As it was a buffet you could choose from various things: ham, eggs, cheese, jam - almost everything was there. I ate two slices of bread with jam and a bun with butter. I also had a cappuccino and some orange juice :)

As we weren't that hungry we decided to just buy some snacks at a supermarket for lunch. I had a tomato mozzarella wrap which tasted really nice!








Not really having eaten a lot for the whole day we were really looking forward to our typical Dutch dinner we had planned. So we went to a small cafe which was said to serve typical Dutch food in our guidebook. As we already were in a Dutch restaurant I thought I had to eat something typical Dutch: Pea soup. It is not a soup as we would define a soup, it's more like a hotpot, with mashed peas and meat in it. It didn't really look that tasty, but actually it tasted better than it looked :D It's definitely not gonna be my favourite food but it's okay^^ I also ate a mixed salad and drank some sparkling ice tea (which I haven't ever seen in Austria up to now).



Sunday, March 29

We had breakfast at our hostel again (although it was a different hostel as there were no two beds available in the other hostel for that night^^). I had a slice of bread with jam, one just with butter and a cappuccino again.








As we already did the days before we just had a snack for lunch and went out for dinner. We bought a Focaccia with tomatoes and basil on it in a supermarket and ate it immediately as it just tasted so good :D







For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant again as the two of us simply love Italian food. I had a Pizza Margherita and a cup of tea because it was freezing cold :D





Monday, March 30

Again we had breakfast at our hostel - I ate almost the same as on Sunday, so I didn't take a picture^^




As it was really cold we just had to grab some coffee at Starbucks :D I just had a simple Cappuccino - so nothing really to talk about.










As it was our last day in Amsterdam I thought it would be nice to eat some fries again, this time with garlic sauce though :)








Our train back home left at 4:30 pm and we arrived at Graz the next day at 1 pm, so we bought a lot of snacks to eat on the train. As it wasn't enough we had to buy something in Vienna at the train station again :D

Thanks for stopping by! wish you all nice easter holidays :)
Lena

Who am I?

For those who don't already know, since I've been around ITAT for quite a while now already: Hey, I'm Martin, 26 years old, about 6 feet tall and 143 lbs. heavy (which I suppose is rather skinny for that height).

As a person, I'd label myself a "fun-loving dirt bag" all in all. That doesn't necessarily mean I feel particularly comfortable when not having showered for days, yet it occasionally happens when being on tour with a punk rock band. And the "fun" aspect of that definitely outweighs the hygienic one in most cases. (Hey, at least you may still brush your teeth at weigh stations and clean yourself a little with baby wipes in between shows) :)

For the majority of the day my head is filled with music. I'd see it as a universal language with little to no room for potential misinterpretation (as it might occur when two individuals engage in chatting online e.g). Even allegedly simple things such as chord progressions on the guitar could get me in a melancholic, contemplative mood, but also fuel my enthusiasm in order to face certain challenges of life. (Like focusing on university tasks) All this happens without me even hearing the lyrics, which eventually just add to the whole picture by giving the song a more distinctive meaning.

Moreover, I'd consider myself to be blessed with a very bad sense of humor (graphic, immature, but hopefully not as offending and annoying as I see it myself at times), tendencies of martyrdom and a big potty mouth. Even so, I also try to be considerate when it comes down a serious dialogue or debate, since I'm really interested in communication between people.

So please feel free to leave comments about my posts and call me on my shit. I will most definitely call you on yours too if I strongly disagree with your opinion.

I've attached some pictures from a UK tour I've participated in two weeks ago as well as a song by the amazing Ani DiFranco here in order to give an overall impression of "who I am, what I do and what I say. If you like it, let me be. If you don't, please do the same" :)

Cheers and beers! (Photo: (C) Irena Udovič from the Slovenian DIY network/record label Giljotina)

Who am I?

Well, since I made this Friday a “homework-and-blog-writing-Friday” I can finally present you my introduction post! ;)

My name is Monika (no one calls me MONI – I simply don’t like it), I am 23 years old and I have one older sister and two younger brothers. They all study at the University of Technology in Graz.  I was actually born in Bosnia and Herzegovina but I am Croatian and I’ve been living in Austria, more precisely in Carinthia, for nearly 23 years. I was born in 1992, which indicates why my family came to Austria. At this time the Yugoslav War was going on and so my parents decided to search for a better place to live, which was Austria in their opinion. Their decision proved true and so the small country in the middle of Europe became our second home country. 

I was raised bilingual and during my childhood and my education I learned German, English, later on French and at last Italian. My father always used to say that languages are “extremely important” and “the more languages you know, the better it is for you, your education and your future”. I always agreed with him on this point! However, I never quite knew what I would like to do in the future regarding work and earning money. In my last year at school I wanted to learn Russian but unfortunately there weren’t enough students interested in learning this language. So, I think at this point I finally decided to study Russian and English in Graz. 

Okay, what else is there to say about me...let me think... When I’m not in the kitchen baking cupcakes, you can usually find me sitting in my room and learning, walking over the main square searching for some cozy pubs (having one or maybe two drinks ;) ) or being at home and watching One Piece with my brother. Damn! I nearly forgot to mention that I love metal music, especially ManOwar!!! :))

Tony Tony Chopper - character in the anime One Piece

Like many of you, I like travelling to different places too and every time I visit a new city, I buy a key chain which has the name of the city on it. Most of them are from Italy as you can see on the picture below. This summer however, I want to travel to Prague, visit the most beautiful sights and try some Czech beer. 

I hope there will be more soon :)

I hope you enjoyed reading! :)

Btw, this is my personal blog, if you want to have a look. I will try to post on a regular basis: http://smonin.blogspot.co.at/

 

Who am I?

Hello everyone!

My name is Catherine and I am actually French. I came here to Graz as an Erasmus student for two semesters so I will normally stay here until the beginning of July! Why did I choose Austria? Well, I wanted to go to a German-speaking country in order to improve my German (not an easy language!), and since I am interested in translation, ITAT seemed to be a good option for me. An other thing that is maybe particular about me is that I was born in France indeed but my parents are actually from Poland so I had the chance to grow up in a bilingual environment. Thanks to this fact, I have probably developed my taste for foreign languages and my curiosity to discover new cultures.

Polish traditional costumes

the French stereotype

Apart from this general information I would like to tell you a bit more about myself. I love travelling. I really do! Actually I have been travelling quite a lot since I arrived in Austria! Graz is really a great location to travel from as it is surrounded by so many different and attractive countries! So I travelled at first around Austria and then I expanded my excursions to foreign countries such as Slovenia, Germany, Italy or also Czech Republic. But many countries still remain on my wish list! In fact I am already planning other trips during the Easter holiday to Croatia and Hungary as well as other places in Italy and in Slovenia! I am really looking forward to it! Yes, I am a travel addict ;) And of course, since I love travelling so much, I am always taking my camera with me to make hundreds of photos and to then have memories for my whole life! :) Here are some pictures I took during my numerous trips, enjoy!

The Golden Gate in San Francisco, USA

Yosemite Park, USA

Sunrise in Wuhan, China

The Wudang Mountains, China

Barcelona, Spain

Venice, Italy

Who am I?

Hey there!

So the new semester has just started and I think all of us are surrounded by a lot of people we’ve never seen before. Since quite a lot of you probably don’t know me, I’d like to give you a quick overview of who I am! J

My name is Stefanie, but most people call me Steffi. I’m 18 years old and I’m a family person, really animal-loving and addicted to chocolate (out of all the addictions that exist probably the best one, right?).

Gai

In October 2014 I moved to Graz because I decided to go to university here. Living in such a big city was a huge change for me, because I spent my entire life up until now living in a small village called Gai where there’s absolutely nothing but meadows and cows. Oh wait, there was a gas station once – but it was closed a few years ago. This may seem horrible to people who are used to living in the city, but the older I got the more I appreciated the beauty of my hometown. Actually, I think I’m pretty lucky to have been able to spend my childhood in such a beautiful place. But Graz isn’t that bad either, and I’m getting used to it.

My hobbies aren’t really exceptional. First of all, I like movies. My preferred genres range from thriller and action movies, to fantasy and drama movies. As some of you may remember from our first English class, my favourite movie is Lord of the Rings. I’ve seen it about five times by now and I could probably watch it 50 times without getting tired of it. Secondly, I really like music, especially rock and metalcore music. You can’t imagine how excited I get when one of my favourite bands finally announces a show in Austria. Lastly, what I absolutely love is travelling. If travelling was for free, I probably wouldn’t do anything else ever again (though I’d have to find a way to take my cat with me). Exploring foreign places and cultures is so fascinating. The world is so diverse and it’s wonderful!

Well that’s it for now, time to read your posts. I’m really looking forward to getting to know all of you!

Hello, everyone!

Hey there! 

Before I start to publish several blog posts about my interests and about what is going on in my life, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Jasna and I am 20 years old. I am sure that the most of you haven’t heard about this name before. It is a Slovenian name and it fits for me, since I grew up bilingual in Carinthia in Ludmannsdorf/Bilčovs. At home we are speaking Slovene but most of our surrounding is German-speaking. That means the majority of the people in Carinthia speak German, the TV is mostly German, the documents are mostly German and so on. But the Slovene language isn’t dying out yet, because we are all eager to keep our mother tongue alive. At least my family and friends, because unfortunately there are some people who aren’t that open-minded and strongly decline the Slovene language.

Back to my name. When I meet other people who don’t know the name “Jasna” they almost always understand it wrong. Sometimes this can be annoying, but mostly I take it with humor :) Once the dialogue at a party sounded like that: “What’s your name?”, “Jasna.”, “Jasma?”, “No, with an ‘N’”, “What, Jasman?” :D You see? That kind of situation is always very amusing. Anyway, I like my name and wouldn’t change it.

To tell you something else about me, my hobbies are:

• learning languages (mostly English, German and Slovene. In the past I also learned Italian for five years and Russian for two years.)
• drawing (I draw to forget the troubles of everyday life and to bring my visions to paper. Usually I continue drawing until I am satisfied with the result.)
• travelling (Up to now I was already in Berlin, Hamburg, Rome, Brighton, London, Barcelona, Bratislava, Budapest, Macedonia, Croatia and several other places in Austria, Slovenia and Italy. I am already looking forward to fly to a different continent as soon as possible.)
• reading (The next English book I would like to read is ‘Gone Girl’ from Gillian Flynn. My expectations of this book are really high and afterwards I will also watch the movie. Of course in English and maybe I will also post a blog about it. ;))
• sports (jogging, roller skating, Hip Hop)
• doing handicrafts
• watching movies and series
• and of course, relaxing

I hope this text gave you an impression of me. Below are some pictures which relate to the text. If you have the same hobbies like me, ever heard my name or simply have something you want to tell me, feel free to comment. Have a nice evening. – J

Ludmannsdorf / Bilčovs

on our way to the Seven Sisters (Sussex)

Barcelona

Bratislava at night

handicraft - mosaic picture frame

A Short Introduction

Hello strangers!

I am Hannah. I am originally from Graz but I went to school in Linz for two years. After finishing my education in tourism and leisure management, I worked seasonal jobs in several different places such as Tyrol or even Spain. For a while I was working as a bartender which was a lot of fun. I met a lot of new people and heard many interesting stories. I generally love travelling and getting to know other cultures and I have done so myself by travelling to many different places all over the world. For a few years now I have been living in Graz and I feel like it is really nice to settle down and have my own apartment. Even though working seasonal jobs in many different places was a lot of fun and diverse I never really felt at home. Currently I am studying Russian and English at university. Russian language and culture has always fascinated me and in the past 2 years I even had the chance to visit Russia twice; once for an internship and then at New Years to reconnect with my Russian friends. In my spare time I enjoy reading, meeting my friends for game nights or concerts or doing sports. I love volleyball and snowboarding but unfortunately I don’t have the time anymore to do sports as much as I would like. I also really enjoy playing the guitar and I just recently got a little kitten. She is really small, cute and pitch black and her name is Momo. I hope all of this gave you a small idea of who I am and I am looking forward to reading your profiles and to getting to know you guys better as well. :)