When I was living in Norway I met many amazing people. One of these people is Emma. I met her in Tromsø where she was very active, for example for the local animal welfare organisation Dyrebeskyttelsen as well as for NOAH, Norways biggest animal rights organisation. And when I asked her, if she’d like to help with a vegan bake sale and later with a presentation about veganism in Tromsø, she agreed on the spot.
It’s a while since I posted a recipe (or wrote in general) on my blog. However, while writing my bachelorthesis which goes along with spending a lot of hours in front of the computer I decided to take a break and do something practical: Cooking. And after travelling I’m in parents’ kitchen where I know what to find where, so let’s spend some time in the kitchen and relax a bit. Yes, you read right, for me cooking is mostly relaxing, if I’m not stressed :)
I decided to go for ratatouille. To make a bit more interesting, but still not too complicated or too time consuming, I decided to make a ratatouille-tarte. Ratatouille comes from Nice, a city in Southern France. That’s why the ordinary ratatouille we know today was formerly called ratatouille niçoise.
It’s a perfect summer dish due to the lots and lots of colorful and delicious vegetables. I know, it’s not summer yet, but if you just returned from Norway like me it feels a bit like that :)
It’s a around 1,5 years ago when I moved out of my shared flat in Germany. 1,5 years! It feels like it was only a couple of months ago. But it also feels like it’s ages ago and I seemed to be a different person that time. I think I did change in the past eighteen months. And that’s good.
Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.
(George Bernard Shaw)
There are quite some things I learned while being abroad which I’d like to share with you.
You might think that I can present you a few traditional recipes from Latvia after living several months there. Well, better don’t look for that on my blog. But I wanted to do a bit better with traditional Norwegian dishes, so I was looking for a recipe to veganize. Not that easy. You have to imagine: The cooking books often have the categories fish, meat and desserts. Vegetable dishes? Nope ;) And vegan alternatives like vegan margarine, tofu and stuff like that are not that easy to find in Norway, but I found something: I ended up with a recipe for cardamom buns (Cardamom boller). You can find cardamom in many dishes here anyway… which is not that bad as I like cardamom :)
I have been living in Latvia and Norway the past year. Two countries I have never been before, two very different ones, two very different lifes I had. And shortly before I went back to Germany, I was thinking. A year abroad changes you, in my case it actually changed my life and my views on some things even more than I expected.
So I decided that there are some things I’d like to do different, some “good resolutions” for my time back in Germany. I have to admit, I’m already a month in Germany when I’m writing this now… So I hope I haven’t already forgot some of my resolutions ;)
It’s a while since I heard about Lívance for the first time – to be exact it was when I was in Trondheim and visiting the Trondheim Vegan Fair. When I was in that nice city a girl from the Czech Republic who did her erasmus semester there hosted me. She is a really good cook dreaming every now and then about working in a vegan café. Her cooking skills would definitely allow that.
One dish she made was Lívance. Lívance are Czech pancakes. I usually don’t really like pancakes. And I actually don’t understand why everyone loves pancakes. But Lívance are different, I really liked them! (Actually a pity that I found pancakes I like, not that good for my body shape ;))
But what makes Lívance different from normal pancakes?
People write about their experiences abroad – I saw that a lot of times. But a lot of people who lived abroad just stop writing when they’re back home. Do they just continue living like before? It feels difficult for me. Probably because I always was the type of person who is not good at letting things (or people) go.
You decided to travel to Tromsø? Congratulations, you decided for one of the most beautiful cities in Norway! (Okay, am I allowed to say that after only visiting Oslo and Trondheim (the other places don’t count as cities)? Plus I lived in Tromsø and loved it, so I’m a bit biased =P)
Neverless, I think Tromsø is so worth a visit! Here are my top things to do there:
I think many passionate activists (no matter if human rights activists, animal rights activists, …) would love to work for an NGO where they can spend even more time to fight for their cause… and even get paid for it.
During my time in Tromsø I met several animal rights activists, one of them was Jeanett. Like me she also belonged to these persons who’d love to work professionally for animal rights. And guess what happened? At the end Jeanett left Tromsø even earlier than me because she got a job offer as activist coordinator from NOAH, Norways animal rights organisation. I’m really happy that she could make her dream come true and that she decided to tell us about it today :)
Yes, I admit, I’m not really active when it comes to my blog at the moment. But I still sit in Tromsø and enjoy life :) Planning (a lot of vegan) events, discovering the beautiful Norwegian nature, still meet lovely people while I have to say goodbye to some other wonderful people, … Life is going on.
But as I seem unable to capture my life or anything which could be interesting for you in words at the moment: Pictures say more than thousand words!