Sunday, September 30, 2012

Having a younger brother - priceless

He thinks he is cool :D

This short post is all about my "little" brother Toni. Yes, yes he can be taller than me (even when I put my high heels :D) but he will always be my little bro.

I hope he will not kill me because of putting his pictures here (ohh yes, he can`t since I am thousands of miles north :P ).

I just want to wish him a safe trip to Varaždin and successful academic year on his studies there. 

You can do it Toni! 
Enjoy your time in Varaždin, enjoy in your awesome 332 room in the Student dorm and eat as much as you can in our students restaurants: "Park", "Raj" and "Elektron"!

Marta, do you remember this picture? :D

See you in Croatia in January or later on the webcam! ;)

P.S. Enjoy in our mom`s amazing meals and kitchen today since you will not taste it till Christmas again!





Thursday, September 27, 2012

Visit to Härnösand



Greetings! 
I hope you are all doing great and have fulfilled days like me these day. 

Today, September 27th 2012. I had some kind of celebration because it's been a month since I came to Sweden. A month? I still can`t believe but it seems I survived the whole month here in Sundsvall despite the coldness, a little adventure in Alno island, missing the door, the Internet and broken kitchen pipe. But everything turned out well in the end and I am looking forward to my next Swedish adventures!

Sundsvall flowers
On Tuesday I finally met lovely Janet Harling, Art professor from Härnösand (in case you don`t remember, Härnösand is the second campus of Mid Sweden University). We spent such a great afternoon in Sundsvall, had fika, talked about her visit to my home University a year ago and her Croatian experience and so on. Janet is so cool! :) She even showed me where I can buy "my famous Vegeta", great mixture of spices we use in Croatia (and I am finally completely satisfied with the taste of my food :D).


Marino and I with Janet in front of our apartment 16D in Nacksta (yes, that is Vegeta in my hands :D)
Janet invited us to her home town and since we had a day off today, Marino and I decided to visit Härnösand. We were so lucky I suppose since the weather was great and sunny all day (not typical for Sweden for sure).


Welcome to Härnösand


Härnösand reminds me on Varaždin so much. It has about 25 000 people and it is situated on the island so you can see the sea (water) everywhere. 

With Keith (Janet`s lovely husband) on the top of the Härnösand

Spectacular view
Before I told you more about my art experience today, I must say that I also met Keith, Janet`s husband today. Even though we never met him before, he was so kind and nice to us and showed us Härnösand`s library and took us on the top of Härnösand (I can`t remember the name of that place) but it was such a nice panorama viewing point to the whole Härnösand. The view was amazing! And as you notice on the picture above it was pretty windy there. That is why Keith showed us the windmills (three windmills) and we actually saw them right in front of us. They are so huge and you really feel so small under it. 


One of the windmill in Härnösand
The library in Härnösand is even bigger than the one here in Sundsvall. I like it even though I find it too much noisy since there are a lot of coffee shops and restaurants there as well as people since it is not just the university library but it is also open for public and local people I guess. I will show you some pictures from there (I am sure my dear friend Jelena Jelinić would have a great time there. Hello Jelena! :) )

I think it is enough to say that you can use a lift, so much space in there!
A cosy spot! :)
The view on the entrance I think.
I also had couple of creativity hours today since Janet invited us to her art lecture. It was so FUN and like I told her I don`t remember the last time I had such fun day at school (maybe in primary school :D). I also think my sister Marta would enjoy there since she is in love in painting, drawing and all those creative work. I thought about her all the time I was there. ;)

Preparation in progress





Are you ready?
Creativity day
So we needed to draw a naked man - in silence, in group of 5-7 people we don`t know, no talking, in 4 minutes. We were allowed to laugh though :D. So I will show you our masterpiece in the beginning and in the end. More or less we were pretty satisfied!
We even met few international students from Germany, Turkey and Holland who study in Härnösand. You can see some of them on the following pictures.

Work in progress...
Naked man
Naked man with the company (the moose)
Naked man with the moose in the universe
After the lecture we spent some time in Janet`s office and really had a nice time. 

Janet in her office
Time flies when you are in good company as usual. 

Dear Janet! 
       Dear Keith! 
                    Hvala Vam! 

Thank you very much for a great day we spent in Härnösand today. You were so kind to us and those were moments to remember. 

See you soon! 
You are more than welcomed to come and visit us in Sundsvall as well as in Croatia! Maybe your next holiday you should finally come to Croatia (Istria or/and Dalmatia) instead of Greece! ;)

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Eat, pray, love

Home made so called "burek" (pie with meat)
Hello my dear readers! 
I am back and this time I will tell you more about my culinary adventures here in Sweden. Since they don`t have student`s restaurants here in Sundsvall like we do in Croatia, I really need to cook and prepare food by myself more often then ever before. 
People who know me for years, especially my mom, dad, brother and sister, they know ... well ... let`s say cooking is not something I enjoy doing every day. :D Making sweet things, cakes and cookies yes, but otherwise it was just not my cup of tea previous years. BUT I think I fell in love into cooking since I came here in Sweden! It is just incredible and I am pretty successful in it I think (shy::). Of course I have my mom`s great recipes and her help over skype and phone from time to time (online instructions rulzzz), but the point is that I can make actually edible food and not just me but even my guests like it. Weeee! It is a such good feeling and I am pretty proud of myself! (shy::)

In addition - this is a big step for me but small for mankind! :P


Pizza with vegetables


Anyway before I show you the meals I have prepared and cooked so far, let me just inform you about Croatian student`s restaurants, student mensa or as we call it in Croatian just "menza". 
It was so normal for me to eat in our mensa in Croatia every day. "Park" (park), "Raj" (heaven) and "Elektron" (electron), three mensas in Varaždin were there from the first day I came to study in Varaždin and most of the time I really thought they were supposed to be there by default. 
And ... ahhh ... students (even me) were complaining most of the time about the food and so many details in our mensas (we are just humans after all I guess) but I must say that they really have good and delicious food. 
My Croatian friends and colleagues know how easy is to come to one of those three mensas after your hardworking day at University and just choose the food you want to eat, take a seat and eat. And it is not expensive at all! You pay for the meal somewhere between 5 and 10 Croatian kunas (cca 5-10 sek) depending what you are eating. But in addition you can have the soup, the main dish, some kind of dessert (little chocolate, a piece of cake or even sometimes fruit) and something to drink for max 10 Swedish krunas (I don`t think you can buy anything here in Sweden for that amount of money. Maybe in IKEA I saw some sausages but ... that is a rare thing). 
It is so cheap because all Croatian students have special student cards called "Xica" and Croatia as a country covers some part of the costs.

My own Xica
Having student mensa around me for the last 4 years of study in Varaždin was great, easy, simple and cheap way of eating but preparing the food on my own now is also fun and something I needed to learn sooner or later since my student days are nearing their end. After all I will remember my days spent in Sweden also as a place where I finally started to cook. Funny but true!

So take a look at my "gallery" of gastronome photos. And taste?! Well, you have to try it some day! 

Bon apetit or in Croatian "Dobar tek!"! ;)


Peas with vegetables and meat or as we call it in my family "Graškići"

Paprika stuffed with mincemeat, vegetables and rice with potatoes

Homemade soup of veal
Veal meat with roasted potatoes 

Home made bread 

"Uštipci" - don`t know English word (nor Google translate), sth sweet. You can eat it with Nutella or marmelade
Baked rice with vegetables
Hamburgers with vegetables and stewed mushrooms
Zucchini with paprika, onions and ham topped with egg and cooking cream
Roast veal meat with potatoes
Fried zucchini
Chops with mushroom and sauce
Rhapsody of vegetables
The cooked beans

P.S. Speaking about food - here at Mid Sweden University they have microwaves in the hallways outside the classrooms. So cool! :) And really people bring their own food prepared at home and just warm them up at Uni and eat during the break. Awesome! I don`t think any Croatian Uni has microwaves inside its walls.

The proof - microwaves at MidSwed ;)
One of the first lunch at the Uni

See you!
Greetings from Sundsvall! :)


Sunday, September 16, 2012

A Day To Remember

With my dear English professor Andreja from my home university

I like surprises!
That is why I was so happy when I found out that my English professor from my home university will come to Harnosand. So my dear professor Andreja Kovačić came to Sweden for a week as a part of her Erasmus program for teachers and of course we needed to see each other. After busy week and lectures we finally met in Sundsvall and spent the amazing Saturday.

Well known spot for taking pictures
A fantastic thing was that professor Andreja also like taking pictures just like me so we made a lot of great photos to remember this day and moments forever. ;)

In Kulturmagasinet
We first went to "Kulturmagasinet" which is a huge building (actually few buildings on three floors if I remember good) and each of them is connected by charming bridges. I think they like building bridges in Sweden because I have already seen so many of them at my university and in the town. 
I love it!  
"Kulturmagasinet" is the city library and the museum at the same time. It is really nice and comfortable inside. I will put one photo of professor Andreja in front of the blackboard and with chalk (I hope she doesn`t mind :)). It seems that those scenes in Sweden schools became a past of memory since they have it in museum (Swedish people, feel free to correct me if I am wrong). We still use them in Croatian schools though.


A blackboard and a chalk
We enjoyed in the city library, too. It is very carefully decorated and it is very cosy in there.

Speaking about library I think this is the right time to show you some pictures from Mid Sweden Library (I have already told you that I was amazed by it in those first posts I wrote). 

Repetitio est matter studiorum
Yeahh, I like books and spending my time in libraries. Maybe I should stay and live in them during the real winter here in Sundsvall (-30 degree gives me the creeps brrr) since you (almost) have everything you need in there :D.

Here are the pictures from the Mid Sweden Library. Enjoy!


"The view"
Let`s find Croatia!?
Wohoo - Zagreb ;)
Third floor I think
"The view" from another perspective
Cosy place
Everything you need is here
"The view" from bird view
Look at this!
We also visited Tourist Information center in Sundsvall. Tourist employee was so kind and told us a little story about Sundsvall history, about the fire, the dragons and about famous Swedish people using cool multimedia (pictures, videos, QR codes). It was really interesting! Although Marino and I heard it before we were happy to restore the memory from the last few weeks when we had tour the town organized by Student Union.

The story about Sundsvall history
Famous Swedish people with QR codes on the bottom - impressive!
After visiting "Kulturmagasinet", Tourist Information center, Mid Sweden Uni and its Library we went to our apartment in Nacksta and had lunch.


Going to Nacksta using shortcut ;)
How often you have a chance to cook for your professor?
After lunch we went to town and continued our little tour the Sundsvall. We were discussing so many things and recalled the past memories. (What a coincidence that my first presentation at my home Uni at my first year of study was a presentation from English lesson whose lecturer was professor Andreja. I told her how nervous I was at that time and that I actually prepared that Power Point a week before the deadline and was practicing in front of my mirror and roommate (Greetings from Sundsvall Alenka :)) And the funny thing is that I never thought I would tell my professor this because I wanted to stay "cool" :D. 
Under the birch
After sightseeing and walking we decided to go on FIKA (prof. Andreja`s first association on this word was COFFEE - really it is similar and means almost the same).
Of course we went to FIKA
I also got my loooong network cable from CIP guys from FOI (thank you Gašo!) but it turned out that our second wall plugin for the internet doesn`t work properly. You can not have everything, right! :P But we will figure it out somehow (dear Mitthem service you have to come to our apartment ASAP).
Time to leave
Dear professor Andreja thank you for your visit, for FIKA and your nice words and advices! 
I really enjoyed a lot and this was definitely a day to remember. 
Take care and have a safe journey to our warm Croatia! ;)

See you soon!