christmas recipes

As promised in our last radio-program about Christmas we want to show you some of our traditional recipes.

Rosca de los Reyes

1/2 cup of warm water

1 Envelopes (2 1/4 teaspoons or 7 grams) of dry active yeast

4 cups (20 ounces) all purpose flour plus more for dusting

3/4 cup of sugar, if you want sweeter add 1/4 cup extra.

3 large whole eggs

3 egg yolks mixed with 2 Tablespoons of milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 Tablespoon orange extract

1 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened (equals 6 oz. or 3/4 cup) Plus more for bowl and plastic wrap.

Freshly grated orange zest from one orange

- See more at: http://www.mexicoinmykitchen.com/2011/01/rosca-de-reyesthree-kings-bread-recipe.html#sthash.EXchS1vp.dpuf

In Spain, and especially in Mexico, a Rosca de Reyes is served for the traditional merienda on Three Kings Day, January 6, along with chocolate caliente. The rosca (round or oval ring of bread) is baked with a special surprise inside: a small porcelain figurine that represented the Infant Jesus (today a dried bean can be substituted). The person who gets the piece with the figurine, is responsible for buying the tamales for El Día de la Candelaria, or Candelmas, February 2.

The easiest way to see how you can make this special bread is such a video:

1/2 cup of warm water

1 Envelopes (2 1/4 teaspoons or 7 grams) of dry active yeast

4 cups (20 ounces) all purpose flour plus more for dusting

3/4 cup of sugar, if you want sweeter add 1/4 cup extra.

3 large whole eggs

3 egg yolks mixed with 2 Tablespoons of milk

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 Tablespoon orange extract

1 1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened (equals 6 oz. or 3/4 cup) Plus more for bowl and plastic wrap.

Freshly grated orange zest from one orange

- See more at: http://www.mexicoinmykitchen.com/2011/01/rosca-de-reyesthree-kings-bread-recipe.html#sthash.EXchS1vp.dpuf

 

Baked Apple

In Austria and German-speaking countries we like to eat this nice dish but not only because it tastes very delicious it is also kind of healthy sweet. Moreover the whole house smells like Christmas! Just wonderful!
There are many different recipes to cook this baked apple. You can make it with honey, nuts, sultanas, oatmeal,... However, you will like it.
Here is one very easy recipe:

Ingredients:

• about 4 (depends on the size of the apple and the hole) large good baking apples, such as Rome Beauty, Golden Delicious, or Jonagold, but the best for me is Boskoop
• 1/4 cup sugar - brown is the best
• 1/4 cup chopped nuts - whatever you want
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 cup sultanas
• 1 Tbsp butter

Preheat the oven to 190°C. Rinse and dry the apples. Next you cut out the cores by using a sharp paring knife or an apple corer. If you use a paring knife, first cut out the stem area and then you can use a small metal spoon to scoop out the seeds. 

Next you should mix all ingredients (but not the butter!!) together.  Place the apples in a baking dish and fill each apple with the sugar/nuts mixture. Then put a dot of butter on the top of each apple. 

Bake at 190°C for 30 to 45 minutes, until the apples are cooked. But don't wait to long so that they are overcooked and mushy. 

Baked apples are wonderful when they are warm, but take care that you don't burn your tongue with the hot caramel.

I really love it together with vanilla sauce or even better vanilla ice cream.
Skanaus!

Buche de Noel (From France)

The first Christmas yule log cake, or buche de Noel, recipe was cleverly created in the late 1800s by a French pastry chef looking to replace and pay culinary homage to the original yule log tradition. This new, gastronomic tradition caught on in spectacular fashion, and the Christmas dessert is now celebrated worldwide. This chocolate buche de Noel recipe showcases a light-as-air, vanilla Genoise cake rolled into a cylinder with the richest, homemade chocolate buttercream frosting.

Ingredients:

• Sponge cake:
• 4 eggs (room temperature)
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup cake flour
• Chocolate buttercream:
• 7 egg whites
• 1 1/3 cups granulated sugar
• 6 ounces unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled
• 1/2 teaspoon instant espresso powder
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups plus 3 tablespoons butter, softened

Preparation:

How to make chocolate buche de noel:
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Butter a 10-inch by 15-inch baking pan with a 1-inch lip (jelly-roll pan) and line it with parchment paper. Butter the parchment or spray it with cooking spray. Set the pan aside.
Beat the eggs for 5 minutes, until they turn thick and foamy. Add the sugar, vanilla extract, and salt to the eggs and continue beating for 2 minutes. Fold the flour, a few tablespoons at a time, into the whipped egg mixture. Once the flour is incorporated into the batter, stop mixing. Do not overmix or the cake will bake up into a tough texture.
Gently spread the batter into the prepared pan. There will be peaks of batter; gently smooth over them, but do not press the batter down. Bake the cake for 10 minutes, until the cake is just set. Invert the baked cake onto a clean, dry kitchen towel and peel off the parchment paper. Wait 3 minutes and then gently roll the cake, still in the towel, starting at the 10-inch end. Allow it to cool completely. 

To make the chocolate buttercream:
In a clean, completely dry bowl beat the egg whites on high until soft peaks form. Set them aside for a moment.
In a small saucepan, bring the sugar and 2/3 cup water to a boil. Allow it boil until it has reduced into a slightly thickened syrup. Begin beating the egg whites on high speed again, and pour the hot sugar syrup into the eggs in a slow, steady stream. Pour the melted chocolate, espresso powder, and vanilla extract into the egg whites and continue beating them until the meringue has cooled completely, about 5 minutes.
Add the softened butter to the meringue, 2 tablespoons at a time, while beating on high speed, until all of the butter is incorporated into the frosting. If the buttercream becomes runny at any time in this process, refrigerate the meringue until it has chilled through and continue the process of beating the butter into the meringue. 

To assemble the chocolate yule log:
Unroll the cake and set aside the towel. Evenly spread 2 cups (or desired amount) of the chocolate buttercream on the inside of the cake and following its natural curve, gently form it into a cake roll. Cut off the ends of the cake roll on the diagonal and reattach them in the center of the cake with a bit of buttercream to fashion a “branch” coming off the main Yule log.
Spread the exterior of the buche de noel with enough chocolate buttercream to cover it and gently pull a butter knife or small, offset spatula through the frosting to give the appearance of rough tree bark. Add a Pere Noel figure and meringue mushrooms to complete the festive look.
Chill the cake before serving it, and refrigerate any leftovers.
This chocolate yule log recipe makes 14 servings.

What have we already done? What have I already seen?

Hmm.. Where should I start? Before I came to Lithuania my friends gave me a TO-DO list and I already can tick off some points:

• to bury my feet in the sand in NIDA,
• to jump on the miracle plate in front of the Cathedral in VILNIUS,
• to put a cross on the "HILL OF CROSS" - even twice,
• to send postcards to them,

but I made a lot of more wonderful, weird and enjoyable things, which are not on the list:

• cooked Kaiserschmarren for our host in KLAIPĖDA, 
• danced with a lot of people in the streets in RIGA,
• made a unicorn in KAUNAS,
• made kind of karaoke evening in a flat in PANEVĖŽYS,
• and hundreds of funny moments in our new home ŠIAULIAI!! :)

To be honest, first I was not the biggest fan of Šiauliai. It is small, not as easy reachable as other cities, not as good for hitchhiking as Panevėžys and there are no other volunteers. However I realized that there are many positive things for example we never have to take a bus, we never got lost, we have a nice flat in a safe and central part of the city and very important; we always meet someone in the streets. 

At the beginning we went to the lake nearly every day, now we don't have so much time any more but every time I go there something looks different. I am happy to have so many different pictures of the changing landscape. I think this is one of the best reasons to stay in another country for not just a short time and to see how all things change. 

Also our daily life changes. Everybody has already a kind of routine but we still explore new things, like places, restaurant, food and traditions. I think I can say that we really want to try as much as possible and that we are open for a lot of things. For example we tried:

• traditional folk dance - we really like it,
• lazy Lithuanian coffee, 
• movie evening with Turkish movie,
• "interesting" art exhibition - see other post jose ignacio davilo - by Anne Sophie
• knitting and other handicrafts,
• walking on the lake, 
• dancing Tango,
• nearly all traditional foods - Cepelinai (Liudvikas secret love) , Šaltibarščiai, Kepta duona, sūreliai, Žemaičių blynai (Anne Sophie's favorite), Kibinai, Kugelis, Šakotis, Gira, Kūčiuka,... ohh we really tried a lot :D I really can not say what is my favorite because I really like everything. :P Moreover I love the honey which I got from Julija and Marija. It is so tasty!
• update 4.feb: Thanks to Danguolė I could try šimtalapis

 

Jose Ignacio Davilo in the Siaulų Library

by Anne-Sophie Kersaho:

On Monday 8th of December, the library Šiaulių Apskrities Povilo Visinskio viesoji Biblioteka received the Argentinian composer Jose Ignacio Davila. During one hour, the painter and musician explained us his philosophy and his method to work. Actually, he doesn‘t know. Is it the music which is expressed in his painting or his spirit translated in music and painting? Difficult to answer for the artist, who said that „ for me, it‘s very hard to express myself with words, I need music and painting to show my feelings“. He proposed us two improvisations with his violin, with what we could also discover his interesting philosophy.
The Lithuanian poet Gintaras Patackas joined the meeting to present his two new books. He met Jose Ignacio Davila in Kaunas, and describes the Davila like a „wonderful artist“.



You can discover an improvisation of Jose Ignacio Davila :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZF-8G7icVwg

100 Days in Šiauliai – Thanks to all people!

Yes it is true. I am already here for 100 Days. This means 8640000 Seconds! Impressive. :P

For me it is really nice to look back to the start - when everything was so new, interesting but of course also difficult.

The first months – all seems to be so unreal.

 
There were days when everything was fine and I said I already know a lot about the city but the next day I could have the feeling that I am completely lost and alone in this city. As we say very often when we present EVS or ourselves, the first time you should just realize that now nothing is or works as you are used to have it. There are so many cultural differences, not only between Austria in Lithuania, also of course in our Spanish-French-Austrian flat, which I had to learn to accept. (Now we call our flat the "best flat ever" :P)

But after this first time when I tried to survive day after day I suddenly realize that time went by very fast and maybe it would be better to try not just to survive and change something so that you really enjoy it. :)
This sounds very easy but of course it wasn’t with all this feelings of homesickness, anger, confusion (about language, websites, public transport,…) and so on. 

Moreover we aren’t tourist but also not locals, we are strangers but not strange and I am a girl from Austria but first of all just a girl, searching for her place in a new society. Maybe you understand what I want to say. It took some time for us to feel a bit like at home but at the moment I feel really good and look forward to a nice Christmas. A lot of people ask me “Do you go home for Christmas?” 

No I will stay here. When I say that we want to experience a real Lithuanian Christmas, many people can not understand. They think Austria must be beautiful at this time of the year. Actually that is true for me but I think Lithuania will be special too. Someone even asked me very dumbfounded whether I don’t miss my family. 

Now I really have to laugh about this because of course I miss them a lot. 

Not only them, there are so many things which I really miss; 

exactly one year ago in my home

• old friends, whose understand you without talking, 
• my unique boyfriend (I think you can imagine), 
• my one year old nephew (he grows much too fast),
• my cat, which is absolutely not normal but soooo cute, 
• the mountains!!,
• the food of my mother (I can cook but never as well as she can),
• my bicycle, my bed, our kitchen, and even our bus drivers - We experienced the bus drivers and cashier often really unfriendly. 

However here I have a different kind of live and I am so happy to can try so many interesting things, from food up to dances.
I think in this 3 months I didn’t change my personality - ohhh I really hope I didn’t, nothing can change me that fast - but I think I already learned a lot about respect, tolerance, different ways to live, trying new things, and the most important how to enjoy the little things. :)

What have I done?  What have I already seen?
ohh.. there is so much to tell you so you will find everything in the next post. :)
here you can find it :)

Thanks to all the people who supported us in this time!!

 
There are so many nice people I would like to say thank you! First of all to our friends in the “Amerikos skaitykla”, who welcomed us with open arms and made us feel like in a family. Especially thanks to Roma and Jolanta. It is priceless to know that they always have time for us and we can ask them even the most stupid questions.
Because of this to wonderful women I know a lot of helpful people, interesting places, lovely books and the best - I was never bored in Šiauliai.


Jolanta even took us to her school “Rasa progymnasium“, where we had some nice lessons and worked at the project of Anne-Sophie about Stereotypes. The whole school welcomed us as “foreigner friends of the school” and the headmaster Audronė Ispiryan invited us to a happy and lovely dance evening to celebrate the schools birthday.  Thanks!



Moreover a huge thanks to a lot of people from our school.
Danguolė Kukla

Her German lessons are always enjoyable and sometimes I even learn something new about my own language. That can be a bit embarrassing but maybe normal because you never think about your own mother tongue so much. I think also for the students it was funny to see that they already now a lot about German and I really like to work together with this nice group. Especially their “Geothe- day” with poems impressed me a lot. “Faust”, “Gefunden”, “An die Entfernte” and some other poems they present so lovely that it made me a fresh crawl.
Danguolė didn’t help me just in school; she even invited me to a delicious dinner to her homely house. You can not imagine that feeling when you see a normal kitchen and such a lovely living room again. This weekend we decorated their Christmas-tree and listen to German Christmas music - balm for the soul :)

Danguolė and Katarina made me smile several times!
Vielen Herzlichen Dank, ihr seid super!

Rasa, Sonata, Kipras, Ligita and a lot of other students – Thanks to you! They helped us especially in the first time; to find everything and showed us how things work here. Even the little advices like where is the best bus stop, the libraries, museums, and such things helped us a lot. I remember the second day in Lithuania, when Kipras le Kelpša showed us the city and even though it is a small city it was really helpful.  

Ačiū to Sonata and Rasa - without you we would not even be here. They chose us and gave us this opportunity to learn so many things. Every day they spent together with us in the radio and so it is very nice that Sonata even spend the last Saturday evening together with us. We went out for bowling and everybody knows bowling is always funny but for me this was really special. :) To see this different ways of playing - unique. :P

Besides I have to say that once we had a lake in our bathroom, which sounds funny but can become a real problem, and Sonata immediately send the caretaker to our flat. He didn't understand us and we didn't understand him and why he want to enter in our flat (in the morning!!) but we were sooo happy when everything was fixed! Thanks man! 
 
Moreover there are really wonderful students like for example Akvile Kriščiūnaitė. Once she went with me to the hairdresser and last time she even asked me whether I want to celebrate Christmas with her family!! I was speechless. Thanks! :)

Thousands of thanks goes to my flatmates: Liudvikas and Anne- Sophie! I think I don’t have to write a lot about our different characters, the crazy start, the up and downs, but also the hundred times you made my laugh till we cried. Without both of you I would have quitted and would be back in Austria without reaching my goal and enjoying this year.

EVS Volunteers from other cities! I will just say “you are fucking awesome”!!

Speziell danke Alex, mein “kleiner” Bruder, vo Weißwurst – Bier – Frühschoppen bis zum ersten Wochenende in Vilnius, mit dir hobes einfach imma lustig. Danke, dassd min Dialekt vastohsch.:P

And last but not least thanks to all of you, who say “hello”, “bonjour”, “labas”,… or just smile when you meet us in the streets and recognize us – you make us feel a bit local.  

AČIŪ Šiauliai!



Ahhh I nearly forgot:
Thanks Google translator - It makes my life here so much easier, even when Lithuanian is too difficult to translate for it but without I would be lost

Thanks Mark Zuckerberg for facebook – I would never remember all the people I meet

Thanks to all other stuff like Skype, Couchsurfing,… and coffee-inn and co. for Wifi!

“How to Balance National Law and International Law: Theory and Practice”

On December 3^rd, 2014 we (Liudvikas, Anne-Sophie and I) participated together with Laima (another volunteer in Vilnius) in a training for Human rights. The exactly topic was “How to Balance National Law and International Law: Theory and Practice”. It was really interesting for me, especially because the Professor Fernand de Varennes made a great presentation. He talked for about 5 hours but somehow he managed that I was interested and awake all the time. 


About him and the whole seminare you can read here:

Record-breaking number of participants on EFHR’s training!

European Foundation of Human Rights (EFHR) had a honor to host the training seminar “How to Balance National Law and International Law: Theory and Practice” on December 3^rd, 2014. The seminar was chaired by Fernand de Varennes, world’s leading expert on human rights.

During the training participants have discussed practical issues of applying international law in domestic legal systems. Analyzing tensions between those two systems, professor Fernand de Varennes mainly focused on human rights and their implications on national law. He has also explained the nature of relation between democracy and human rights.  The activity of EFHR was presented, too.

The training sparked a huge interest. Among around 80 participants there were representatives of top state legal institutions: Supreme Court of Lithuania, The District Court of Vilnius Region, Vilnius City District Court, Ministry of Justice as well as other lawyers, members of different NGOs and students.

Unfortunately, trainings concerning human rights are really a rarity in Lithuania. According to Ministry of Justice only 27 such trainings took place in Lithuania between 2004 and 2012. However, recent researches show that there is a growing demand for trainings in this field.

All attendees received certificates, Council of Europe brochures and EFHR’s flyers.

Thank you for your interest!

6. December - St.Nikolaus

How do we celebrate it?

 

Each year on December 6 we remember the death of Nicholas of Myra with a small celebration. On this day a man dressed like “Nikolaus” and another man dressed in dark brown walk from house to house to bring some bags full with nuts and mandarins to the children.
I just remember that he always told us stories about our behaviors out of his golden book and of course all kids are always a little worried what he would tell. Mysteriously, Nikolaus had a list of our bad behavior throughout the year in this book. How could he know? :)

The whole evening was a big miracle for me. How could he know so many things about me? What will happen if I would have behaved really badly?
Because you have to know that all children are really afraid of the man next to the Nikolaus. His name is “Knecht Ruprecht” or “Krampus” and he has a big brown sack with him and if children behave badly he is allowed to take them with him.
Once, I remember clearly, he took my brother with him but just down the stairs. I was really shocked but don’t of course parents and the men who act plan everything in advance.

So every year all children promise to be good next year and recite nice poems for them. 

What does his outfit look like?

He is usually pictured with a long white beard, a bishop's mitre and a red cloak, sometimes with a sack over his shoulder and a rod in his hand. Knecht Ruprecht is dressed with a long black or brown coat and a dark beard. Sometimes he wears little bells on his clothes and carries a switch with him. But especially „Knecht Ruprecht“ is very different in other towns.

Who are they?

Saint Nicholas of Myra was a bishop in the 4th century. Very little is known about the historical Saint Nicholas. However, lots of legends and folklore surround the bishop, who is now the patron saint of little children, sailors, merchants and students. He was known as a generous man, a secret gift giver, who put coins in shoes of those who were in need, and he had a great fondness for children. No surprise, he became the model of Santa Claus.

Before the Reformation, Saint Nicholas Day was the day children received their Christmas gifts. Reformer Martin Luther didn't approve the veneration of saints like Saint Nicholas. He "invented" the Christchild, a spirit-like figure with blonde hair and wings like an angel.

It took about 200 years until the Christchild was adopted by Catholic families in southern Germany and Austria. 

So nowadays we celebrate “Nikolaus” on the 6^th.December, because Nicholas of Myra died on that day in 346. And the 24^th.December is celebrated with a nice meal in the evening and presents which the Christchild brings us. But nobody has ever seen this angel. :)

At last I should say that there many other traditions around this special day. Some families put shoes out in front of the door and the "Nikolaus" put his presents in there, other celebrate it with singing songs on a fire. In every village there are different events organized but my favorite was always the tour with the old train. When suddenly the trains stops and the "Nikolaus" rides on a horse out of the forest. Even for adults it is really nice. :)

he explains it perfectly :) really funny! watch!

Šiaulių „Rasos“ progimnazija

„Labas!!“ you can hear from everywhere while entering the Rasa School. The Children are laughing, playing and having fun everywhere. When they realize that we are foreigners they start to chat with each other and say the few words they already know in English. 

Anne Sophie started with here project about Stereotype some weeks ago and now we joined in to find some funny stereotypes and ideas to create short theaters. We met them always in small groups and soon we will make a movie together with the children. It is so amazing to see all this happy faces and all people are so welcoming.

Last Monday Jungo presented his country Japan as a part of their geography lessons. Usually the children do not like geography that much but to our surprise they were very interested and quiet while listening to Jungo stories. For the future we are planning to join their lessons more often and show our countries too. 

library-evenings - November

French Literature

Every second Wednesday we make a foreigner evening in the American corner of the library called "Šiaulių apskrities Povilo Višinskio viešoji biblioteka".
Anne- Sophie started with her presentation of French Literature on the 5th.November. 

In a kind of Quiz she tested how much we already know about French Literature. Some of us were really good but to be honest I didn't know anything. Because of that it was really interesting for me. I learned a lot and when I came home I had the desire to start reading immediately. Do you know this feeling?

Moreover we could listen her wonderful French language when she was reading out of the famous book  Ulysse from Bagdad (Schmitt Eric Emanuel).

And at the end we learned some important words which was real fun because of our horrible pronunciation. 

Thanks to Anne-Sophie that she showed and inspired us so much!!

Austrian Tradition

On Wednesday the 19.November I presented my home country Austria. We made a kind of journey through one year full of events, celebrations and also religions occasions. I had really a lot of things to tell. From "Wiener Opernball", Carneval and Easter over to Summerevents with traditional customs and "Dirndl" up to the winter which is dominated by Christmas markets, skiing and a lot of delicious food. 
A short overview you can find in another post - austrian-tradition

Japan

Every Monday people from Šiauliai meet in the American corner of the library to celebrate different events.
This Monday (the 22. November) we celebrated Thanksgiving together.
But the highlight of the evening was the presentation of Jungo about his home country Japan.

Jungo, an Erasmus student in Šiauliai, showed us his extremely interesting country. We learned about the language, food and of course the  landscapes. About landscapes, the size, inhabitants, earthquakes,... he could tell us a lot because he is studying geography.
Moreover he was even dressed in the typical Kimono (crazy in this weather :D ) 

here you can find more information in Lithuanian:
http://www.savb.lt/lt/amerikos-skaitykla2

Austrian tradition

I want to take you to a journey trough a traditional year in Austria and especially our different costums, dialects and events. 

Ball sesson

February is dominated by the peak of the ball season in Austria. The most famous ball of Vienna is the "Wiener Opernball" or "Vienna Opera Ball" in the Wiener Staatsoper, but there are plenty of others like the "Life Ball" that was founded a few years ago in the sake of HIV and Aids charities.

 

Carneval

In Austria we call it "Fasching" or "Fasnacht" and you can see processions in nearly every village or city. The most famous processions are held in Tyrol. There people wear very different masks.

Funkenfeuer

This is a huge bonfire in every village. The reason for this is to say goodbye to the winter and banish the snow away. But to see this kind of tradition you have to go to Vorarlberg or Tyrol.
On the top of the bonfires there is a witch with dynamite inside. Everyone is eating „Funkaküchle“ (different sweet breads with cinnamon and maybe apple), drinks Glühwein and is just waiting for the big BOOOMM!   

 

Fronleichnam- the Feast of Corpus Christi.

This day is every year on a different date between 21.May and 24.June and it is celebrated with processions in the villages. But these processions can look very different. In Upper-Austria for example they made it on the lakes. The processions on the Hallstättersee or Traunsee have a very long tradition.
In my home village in the west-side of Austria (Vorarlberg) we just go around in the town, wearing our traditional costumes and praying. 

Costumes

"D Juppe"

This is the oldest form of formal dress in the German-speaking country. It is a handmade costume with a lot of golden embroideries. The way in which it is made is very complicated.You can imagine that this dress is very expensive and I could never afford to buy a new one but as you can see my sister and I inherited a "Juppe" from our grandmother.

 
There are a lot of rules how to wear this costume right. You have to take care of 

• the colors - white sleeves with the red dress,
• the end of the belt must show to the left side,
• the bow of the ribbon around the neck must be on the left side,...

There are several other costumes all over Austria. Everyone has its own rules and we wear it to different occasions.
The only dress which we can wear nearly always is the "Dirndl".

Dirndl und Lederhosen

Octoberfest, Musikfest, Feuerwehrfest, Osterbock, Almabtrieb,... We have so many events where we wear the dirndl. But not only for "party" we can wear it. Nowadays it is also very popular at weddings and of course in traditional restaurants the waitresses are wearing this costume. 

 

 

Bregenzer Festspiele

This is a performing art festival held on the lake of Constance, in German called Bodensee. Every July and August there are Operas held on the huge stage over the water. This stage is very famous especially since it was scenery in the twenty-second James Bond film “Quantum of Solace” many people know it.

"Almabtrieb" 

Who has the most beautiful cow! Sounds funny but to be honest it is true. In the Autumn when the cows come back from the Alps there is a day where farmers have such a competition.

Skiing

OHH I love winter!
Skiraces, Skiing, Apres ski,... It is difficult to describe I can just say TRY IT!!

 

Christmas markets

In Austria there are many different Christmas markets. In the villages they are of course smaller but in every city with about 30 000 inhabitants you will see a beautiful market during one month. An amazing atmosphere, lights everywhere, a lot of Glühwein and Maroni (roasted chestnuts) are reasons why people enjoy this time - even when it can be cold.