hoppy easter, too
Yesterday I went snowboarding... in Kosovo :)
The ski resort is called Brezovica, and it's located in a Serb enclave roughly an hour and a half's drove from Pristina. It had been over two years since I had done any skiing (well, boarding) at all, if you can even count the last attempt I made - it was mostly spent on my tush, sliding painfully down an ice-covered Whistler! Even though I didn't expect much out of Brezovica, and normally would have smiled at the concept of quality skiing in Kosovo just as I still smile at Hamilton's "mountain", I was so in need of practice that it suited me just fine. Besides, it was cheap enough at 22Euros for rentals and a lift pass. As you can imagine, though, I came out of the whole ordeal soaking wet, which was to be expected since the weather was warm, the snow was melting, and I had absolutely no ski wear whatsoever. Have you ever tried snowboarding in fleece pants? I don't recommend it!
But here's the funny part...
After a few warm-up rounds down the bunny hill and two slightly more successful attempts at one of the two runs, it began to drizzle and we opted for a lunch break. So, I admit lunch was a little leisurely because we were waiting to see if the weather would improve, but we definitely expected to head out again and squeeze in some more runs before heading back home. Instead, we stepped outside to collect our waiting equipment only to find the entire mountain deserted! Seriously, a few stragglers were still milling about, but the lifts had been totally shut down and the mountain staff had even been sent home. It had mostly stopped raining, but we figure everyone just gave up on the blah weather and decided it wasn't worth their time... and we missed everything sitting inside eating lunch :)
In the end, I did have a good time, and it reminded me to try again next season... but maybe back in Canada, where I can count on getting a full day's worth!
In a similar story, I got all excited to bake hamantaschen for Purim last week. I wasn't planning on anything fancy, like the yummy fruit fillings, but I was inspired by the over-abundance of nutella-like chocolate spreads around here... Unfortunately, though, they ended up a little pitiful. Because I can't read most of the packaging (German would be a huge help over here, for food as well as for TV!), I'm fairly certain that what I thought was baking powder was actually baking soda. To make matters worse, my oven doesn't actually have any numbers on the dial. I just guessed, and turned the dial relatively high, and the first batch came out fairly decently (except for being generally rock hard from the baking soda, but we already discussed that problem). The second batch, of course, was burnt to the point of being charred! I'm fairly certain that Grandma would have been horrified :) But I tried, and enjoyed them all the same.
Try, fail, laugh, and repeat... It’s all very familiar to me here.
The ski resort is called Brezovica, and it's located in a Serb enclave roughly an hour and a half's drove from Pristina. It had been over two years since I had done any skiing (well, boarding) at all, if you can even count the last attempt I made - it was mostly spent on my tush, sliding painfully down an ice-covered Whistler! Even though I didn't expect much out of Brezovica, and normally would have smiled at the concept of quality skiing in Kosovo just as I still smile at Hamilton's "mountain", I was so in need of practice that it suited me just fine. Besides, it was cheap enough at 22Euros for rentals and a lift pass. As you can imagine, though, I came out of the whole ordeal soaking wet, which was to be expected since the weather was warm, the snow was melting, and I had absolutely no ski wear whatsoever. Have you ever tried snowboarding in fleece pants? I don't recommend it!
But here's the funny part...
After a few warm-up rounds down the bunny hill and two slightly more successful attempts at one of the two runs, it began to drizzle and we opted for a lunch break. So, I admit lunch was a little leisurely because we were waiting to see if the weather would improve, but we definitely expected to head out again and squeeze in some more runs before heading back home. Instead, we stepped outside to collect our waiting equipment only to find the entire mountain deserted! Seriously, a few stragglers were still milling about, but the lifts had been totally shut down and the mountain staff had even been sent home. It had mostly stopped raining, but we figure everyone just gave up on the blah weather and decided it wasn't worth their time... and we missed everything sitting inside eating lunch :)
In the end, I did have a good time, and it reminded me to try again next season... but maybe back in Canada, where I can count on getting a full day's worth!
In a similar story, I got all excited to bake hamantaschen for Purim last week. I wasn't planning on anything fancy, like the yummy fruit fillings, but I was inspired by the over-abundance of nutella-like chocolate spreads around here... Unfortunately, though, they ended up a little pitiful. Because I can't read most of the packaging (German would be a huge help over here, for food as well as for TV!), I'm fairly certain that what I thought was baking powder was actually baking soda. To make matters worse, my oven doesn't actually have any numbers on the dial. I just guessed, and turned the dial relatively high, and the first batch came out fairly decently (except for being generally rock hard from the baking soda, but we already discussed that problem). The second batch, of course, was burnt to the point of being charred! I'm fairly certain that Grandma would have been horrified :) But I tried, and enjoyed them all the same.
Try, fail, laugh, and repeat... It’s all very familiar to me here.
posted by melissa at 7:20 p.m.
1 Comments:
Hi Melissa,
I've wanted to write and let you know that now that you are feeling well and getting into the swing of things I'm pleased for you. I don't know your email address, so have decided this is the only way to communicate. It is so strange that you used Nutella for homantashen. I was talking to someone who told me she'd made a fantastic discovery.....her family don't like prunes or poppy seeds and she discovered that Nutella was a marvellous filling for homantashen! Skiing in Whistler was terrific last week when Philip and family were there, new snow had just fallen, but prior to that I understand the slopes were pretty bleak. I love reading your blog and think of you often. Love Helen
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