memories of parma: bikes! and un panino di pesto cavallo.

last september, i spent a weekend in charlottesville, a place that i love.  the weekend was full of concerts, good food, good friends, and the beginning of incredibly crisp fall weather (!).  cville visits are always full of memories that make me terribly sad college is over.  however, since returning from italy, one of my favorite things about visiting cville is chatting in italian with one of the best bartenders on the corner, N, and invoking a whole different kind of nostalgia.

last year, N spent some time in parma, italy, playing for the parma panthers football team.  i know it sounds strange, an american football league in italy?  have you read john grisham's playing for pizza?  well N lived the life of the main character in the book - he played for and also coached the panther's football team.  in his spare time, he was hanging out in parma! lucky for me, he had a lot of free time during the day and his stay in parma overlapped with our spring break from school.  so before our epic malta adventures, V and i ventured to parma.  hanging out with him in cville brings back wonderful memories of our visit so enjoy a much-overdue review of our trip to parma in spring 2011!

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parma was an amazing surprise. the people must be very interested in keeping their little town a secret, because i haven't heard nearly enough rave reviews about the city.  being just a short train-ride away, it often gets overshadowed by the historically famous university city of bologna.  i haven't been to bologna myself, so i can't offer a comparison but i loved the quaint charm of parma;  it was beautiful, and just bustling enough to feel alive.

i arrived before V and spent an evening strolling the cobblestone streets with N and his football friends. similar to other small italian towns i've visited, people were spilling out of bars and cafes and flooding the streets.  it was a clear night and the streets were filled with light and weekend city noises - i was in heaven.

V arrived the next day and we only had the afternoon to explore before heading onward in our spring break journies.  thanks to the preferred method of transportation in the city, we were able to cover a lot of ground in a little bit of time.  

everyone in the city bikes, which i LOVED.  thankfully, N had 2 spare bicilette that V and i were able to borrow.  N was an excellent tour guide and led us on a speedy tour past all the sights.

we started at the duomo which was rather plain on the outside but incredibly beautiful inside.  this is unusual in italy as many of the churches seem to be competing with their neighbors to see who can have the most magnificent display.  it was refreshing, actually, to see a church that was so humble from the outside.  it seemed as if it was saving the beauty for the true visitors who ventured inside -- why waste all the effort on the half-hearted tourists who didn't bother to enter? 

after the duomo, we continued on our bike tour by the river, over bridges, and through a gorgeous park with lots of ruined things.  

then it was lunchtime.  N led us to a tiny alley that was full of parked bikes and people having lunchtime conversation - our hole-in-the-wall destination seemed like the place to be!  N assured us that we were getting something authentic to parma. 

we walked in and N ordered for us, "tre panini di pesto cavallo per favore"

knowing he was still just learning italian, i offered to help.  "hey, N? you just asked for some horse, what did you mean to say?"

nope, he ordered correctly.  we were about to receive a sandwich with RAW horsemeat.  the thing to eat in parma? who'd have thought?

the preparation

the finished product

in addition to the raw horse, the sandwich had grilled vegetables and some sort of white condiment.  and oh MAN was it good.  the horsemeat was very light - not too filling (which was good because it was piled on) and the crunch of the veggies went well with the texture of raw meat.  the bread was that perfect soft and flaky italian variety and it was just all perfect.  you could tell it wasn't their first time creating the masterpiece.  

as we left, it was a bit unsettling to see the horses trot by pulling carriages... but i would definitely eat the sandwich again.

after our raw horse sandwiches, the only thing left to do was buy postcards to send our friends telling them that "we ate raw horse!!!"  no other tourist attraction was going to top lunch.

the whirlwind day in parma was magical. beautiful weather, wonderful friends, bikes! and raw horse (?) - what more could you ask for?

xx

hello, nostalgia!

just to get those memories flowing, here's a pretty cool video of trieste that a friend sent me from the internets.  it shows trieste in absolutely impeccable weather conditions (which almost never existed in my real life there) and i want to go back now. 

Trieste from Andrija Kovač on Vimeo.

x!

reentry.

i'm alive.  yes, i've been MIA from the blogosphere for quite some time now (i believe my last post was in october? oops), but i'm back now.  i've just settled into an apartment in the ballston area of arlington, va with a lovely view of interstate 66 and i start teaching 3rd grade full-time on monday.  yes, as my sister says, i'm becoming a grown-up lady (sort of).

i got back from italy in late july, 2011 and have been flitting about the globe (of course) since.  i visited some friends in new york, california and then i took a road trip through alaska and canada.  in early october, i embarked upon an epic southeast asia adventure with longtime friend, A.  i was gallivanting 12 time zones away for 6 weeks and returned just before thanksgiving.  

and i've been in the states ever since.  that means i've been in america for 62 whole days - the longest period of time without leaving the country in about a year and half.  and oh man, am i still adjusting.  here is a short list of some things i haven't quite gotten used to again in the past 62 days.

my iPhone: in italy, i had a cell phone.  but only about 10 people had my number and i worked with all of them which meant there were very few reasons to actually call or message me.  that communication situation is drastically different than my current situation where my sister sends novels via text message (complete with pictures) and my mom likes to talk on the phone once a day.  apologies abound because i'm just not used to people calling me!  also, when i do use it, my usage skills are mediocre at best.  i'm almost certain that it doesn't reach its full potential.  i did have an ipod touch in my travels last year that i used quite well but something about adding the telephone capabilities have blown my mind.  i DO, however, have a neon yellow case for my phone, which makes me love it.

grocery stores: now, i love the grocery store.  i usually take a list with me but don't consult it very often because i love to go up and down every aisle and check out the selection.  when it comes to actually putting something in my basket, however, the anxiety sets in.  WHY ARE THERE SO MANY OPTIONS?! i've started reading the ingredients in everything for comparative purposes, thus, adding to the amount of time i need on each aisle.  and it doesn't really help me choose what to buy because almost all the labels include some chemically-sounding something that i have never heard of and couldn't try to pronounce if i wanted to.  do i really want to eat that?! so i usually end up choosing something that i'm less-than-thrilled about consuming and then i'm just unhappy.  now you're probably wondering how i have time to go through this process every time i need to buy some food.  i don't!! and i'm rarely completely satisfied with something i've bought, so it's not like i have go-to items that i can run in and grab.  i just don't know what to eat anymore.  for the record, comparable anxiety hits me in similar stores such as CVS, walmart, and target. it's awful (anecdotal tangent: my first day back in america last july, i was in target trying to buy shampoo.  i left the store in tears - and without shampoo - because i got so stressed out.  very traumatic).   

driving: i'm not totally sure what the problem is here but i know that i didn't used to dislike driving as much as i do now.  i've told you before that driving is not my preferred method of long-distance travel, but now i just don't like it ever.  i'm annoyed by needing to drive my car anywhere.  if i'm going somewhere close-ish, i want to walk; but people don't do that here - everyone drives everywhere.  it's nonsense.  this is more a cause of annoyance than something i'm not good at (not to say i'm an excellent driver, let's be serious).


in the coming weeks, as i'm continuing to adjust to life in america (and so close to the nation's capital!) and settling into my pseudo-grown-up-lady life, i'm going to be updating this here blog with things i left out of my travels last fall and even last year while i was in europe.  it will be all kinds of nostalgic to reminisce about travels and life last year especially as the weather here is so, well, january.

so, get excited because it's going to be fun!

x