Wanna be a teen girl again!

I went to Heinerfest with a very good friend of mine two days ago.

Have you ever heard of this festival? It is an annual festival in Darmstadt, Germany, believed the second largest city festival in Germany, celebrated at the beginning of July and will take 5 days. On the last day of the festival, there will be a beautiful closing firework show. This time I enjoyed the show with my friend and we had lots of fun.

My friend, she brought hopes, inspiration, wise advice and lots of laughs. She and the festival made me feel like being a happy teenager again. Best friends forever! 

No-School Island

After many rainy days, summer came back. It was crazily hot. The hot weather made me mad and want to create some mad things like this drawing of a floating no-school island.

My trip to Spain- Part 2: Toledo

Toledo was the old capital of the kingdom of Spain in medieval times, before the Spanish court was moved to Madrid. Nowadays, this city is the capital of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. In the past, Toledo was well-known because of the co-existence of Jews, Christians and Muslisms. That's why, it earned the name "the city of three cultures".

 I love this city and its very, very delicious marzipans. It's fair to say that the marzipan of Toledo is considered one of its finest food products. Making marzipans has a long tradition and it has brought fame to the city. Remember the name Santo Tome! You won't be disappointed by marzipans from this confectionery shop.

 

There is a lot of narrow passages in Toledo. As a fan of old, narrow and mystic-looking passages, I found here my heaven. This is a sketch of one passage heading to the university.

The kingdom of Spain is well-known for its Spanish inquisition in the past. Maybe, people in Spain won't like to hear of this fact as well as people in Germany feel uneasy, when we discuss World War II. I was really excited to go to the exhibition of ancient instruments of torture at the Alfonso XII exhibition hall. The exhibition hall is not big. However, it's scary enough to make you very grateful not to be born as Jews or Muslims at the time of the Spanish inquisition. These three masks of shame are the most harmless.

On the way to Puente de San Martin ( the bridge of Saint Martin), I discovered this lovely inner yard covered by oleanders and rosemary. I'm really envious of the people living there. They have huge rosemary bushes. I have a pot of rosemary at home. No matter what I do, my rosemary doesn't grow bigger. It stays tiny and weak. The lack of sunlight is the main problem. I have heard, in sunny Mediterranean area, rosemary bushes can reach up to one meter in height.

If I have a chance to go to Spain again, I'll come back to Toledo for sure, stay here longer and eat so many marzipans, that I feel like I'm going to explode.

Toledo on Dwellable

My trip to Spain- Part 1: Madrid

Happy Hippo and Iwent to Spain to visit one friend of us living now in Madrid. We stayed in Madrid for one week. Besides the capital of Spain, we also visited some cities in the proximity.

This is how the Kingdom of Spain looks like. As you can see, there are 17 autonomous communities and 2 autonomous cities (Ceuta, Melilla). If you don't have a keen interest in visiting Madrid, but Barcelona, you have to go to Cataluña. 

A she-bear and a strawberry tree (Spanish: madroño) -Arbutus unedo- are the symbol of Madrid.

I'm not sure, if this hand-made stuffed animal is a "cat", because it looks more like a little dinosaur to me. However, his creator considers it a cat. Maybe, at first, he wanted to sew a stuffed cat. The final product varies from the idea very often. Anyway, I like it.  

My friend in Madrid cooked dinner. It tasted good.

The 2nd day in Madrid was Sunday. That's why I went to El Rastro- the most popular flea market in Madrid. I like flea markets. Things are cheap here and sometimes, with a bit of luck, you can find some odd-looking but very interesting ones.
I got this wind chime, made from sea shells, as a present.

At El Rastro, I found a lot of stalls selling Spanish fans. I love hand fans of all kinds: Chinese folding fans, Japanese round fans, Vietnamese straw fans. Why shouldn't I add to my fan collection a Spanish one?
I'm not really a fan of Real Madrid. However, if there is a final match between this football club and FC Barcelona (as usual), I'm in favour of Real Madrid. 

I have heard, churros with thick hot chocolate is very popular in Spain and Latin America.
No one in my family is fond of chocolate; so am I. In my opinion, we can eat the churros without chocolate. They themselves taste already very good. Eating churros reminds me so much of Youtiao 油条, which my Mum likes to eat with rice congee for breakfast.

Street plaques in Madrid are beautiful. Have a look at some I saw not far from Plaza Mayor!

There is a lot of cockroaches in tropical countries. When I was in Vietnam, I saw them everyday. Since I've been in Germany, I haven't seen anyone. It made me think, these stinking creatures don't inhabit in Europe. I'm totally wrong. In the warm Mediterranean area, there are some of them.

While walking across Plaza de Colón (Columbus Square), I saw this artwork of Fernando Botero, a well-known Colombian artist. I don't have a clue, in which relation this statue of a naked "large" woman holding a mirrow has to Columbus.

Motives I cut from a brochure for the 28th festival "Fall in Spring" (???). What a name!

At the night of the 4th day in Madrid, the friend in Madrid and Happy Hippo gave a cocktail party.
Don't mistake this kitchen implement for a microscope. It's a juicer, comes from Venezuela and is made specially for oranges. Oranges in Spain taste very, very good.

I visited Museum of the Americas on the 5th day in Madrid. My favourite object is this vessel in the form of a guinea pig. If you google the word "Cui/Cuy", you get a lot of scary pictures of a dish made from the meat of guinea pigs. A whole baked/grilled guinea pig showing its teeth is often served on the dish.

Other objects in the Museum of the Americas.

On the 6th day, I went to Toledo-located 70km south of Madrid- for a one-day trip.

This is my dinner, cooked by Happy Hippo, with some rosemarries we got from Toledo, after we arrived in Madrid.

(Sketches from Toledo and Aranjuerz are coming soon.)

Madrid on Dwellable

Vietnam and Malaysia

It's Spring Break!
I came back home in Vietnam and later, went to Kuala Lumpur with my family.
Most of the time I stayed at my hometown, Ho Chi Minh City- the craziest city of Vietnam. For three days, I stayed in Nha Trang, a beautiful city by the sea and my childhood's place. I used to live here with my grandparents for four years.
After that, I flew with my mum, my aunt and her daughter to Malaysia.
First, we visited Genting Highlands- a famous casino-based vacation resort in Malaysia, 90 km from Kuala Lumpur and spent a night at First World Hotel, the fourth largest hotel in the world by rooms- it has a total of 6118 rooms. Actually, we were not very happy at this hotel, which was remarked by Guinness World Records. Our rooms are tiny and strongly reeked of cigarette.What I like most about Genting Highlands is its cable car, which at its opening (1997) used to be the world's fastest and South East Asia's longest gondola lift. From the cable car, the view of the tropical forests is incredible.
I like Kuala Lumpur very much. The national capital of Malaysia is clean and full with green trees. However, the heat here is unbearable. We visited the National Palace, the National Monument and the famous Petronas twin towers. Nowadays, there is a lot of impressing skycrapers in Asia; but to me, this twin towers still are the most beautiful. We had a shopping day at Suria KLCC located at the base of the twin towers.
On the last day in Malaysia, we went to Batu caves- one of the most popular Hindu shrines outside India. At last, we dropped by Putrajaya, the administrative capital of Malaysia before heading to the airport for the flight back home.
After the trip to Malaysia, I had two days to pack my luggage for the flight back to Frankfurt. Within 3 weeks, I had to fly more often than a stewardess does. Four days are all I had to relax, before the new semester begins.

(Click on the picture to enlarge)

The first three days 15-17.03.2011: Snailburger covered by betel leaves; Fried japanese silk tofu with sea salt; Salami bought in London, Cheese bought in Germany; Salad with dried tomatoes; Steamed fish served ith chinese crystal noodle; Kabayaki-don; Mixed fruit juice

 18.03.2011: Lunch at Park Hyatt Saigon: Cooked rice with tomato flavour and fried chicken; Fried banane served with coconut ice-cream; Raw oyster; Rucola salad with dried tomato and pamesan cheese; Goose foie gras; Duck sausage and mustard; Dessert set: Ice-cream, Sorbet (Lychee, Passion fruit, Strawberry), Apple pie, Mango pie, Fruit cocktail with alcohol jelly cubes

Mum's blood cockle salad recipe: You need blood cockle, lemon grass, shallots, garlic, chili, lemon, fish sauce, mint, laksa leaves, coriander, vinegar

 19.03.2011: Best friend's wedding. It's a little bit boring to go to a wedding alone. Hmmm...

 24-27.03.2011: Nha Trang- my childhood's city. Mum and I stayed at Sheraton Hotel. We booked a room on the 10th floor with sea view. On my birthday, I came back the hotel room at night after visiting my grandparents and surprisingly saw a chocolate birthday cake on the desk. It was a present from the hotel.

Grandma's chicken meat balls recipe: You need boiled quail eggs, pork and chicken meat, salt, pepper, sweet ketchup, cooking oil

 31.03.2011: My Mum, Auntie, her daughter and I flew to Malaysia. Malaysians greet guests with a hand laying on their heart.

 On the same day, we drove to Genting. Then, catched a cable car to Genting Highlands.

02.04.2011: We had a shopping day at KLCC, located in the Petronas twin towers. The twin towers were the tallest building from 1998 to 2004, but remain the tallest twin buildings of the world. It's 452-metre high, has 88 storeys and 32000 windows.

 

Hibiscus is the national flower of Malaysia. On the treet leading to the National Monument, all treetlights are designed to look like this flower. I now dream to have one in my...garden.

A weird Nepenthes (pitcher plant) fountain is located not far from the historic Merdeka square, where the Union Flag was lowered and the Malayan flag hoised for the first time 1957.

03.04.2011: Kaya Pau filled with Pandan Lotus Paste is now my favourite Malaysian food.
At the Batu Caves, there are numerous macaque monkeys. One of them tried to steal my umbrella.

I also like the chin chow (grass jelly) of Malaysia. In VN, we also have chin chow, but I prefer the one in Malaysia. Its texture is tougher and the grassy flavour is milder. In spite of numerous green trees in the city, the hear is unbearable. Probably, that's the reason for my camera's defect.

Malaysia on Dwellable

Summer Sketching in Germany

Summer went too soon. I still miss it much.