A new post? Is it a mirage? Well, maybe… we will see :D

Ingredients for Spenót Gombóc:

• 450 grams of spinach or spinach puree.
• 1 egg.
• 1.5 mug of grated cheese.
• 1/2 mug of flour (or 1/4 mug of flour and 1/4 mug of semolina).
• 1/4 kg cottage cheese.
• 1.5 garlic teeth.
• Sour cream.
• Salt.

Directions for Spenót Gombóc:
If instead of spinach puree you are using fresh spinach, use a blender to triturate them. Then, in a bowl, mix the spinach with the egg (that should be whisked), the flour, half of the grated cheese, the cottage cheese, the garlic (mashed) and some salt.

After it’s been mixed, let it rest for 10 minutes, and then make small balls with the mixture. They have to be between 3 and 4 cm. in diameter, so, you should be getting around 15 balls with the amounts specified before.

In a big pot, put water to boil, and introduce the balls. When they are ready, they will let you know, because from that moment they will begin to float in the water.

For serving the balls, put them in a plate, and cover them with sour cream and the rest of the grated cheese.

And… that’s all for now :)

Maybe, one of the few things you don’t want to hear while traveling to Stockholm, is “Mr. Hernandez your luggage is at Amsterdam”. Anyway, this kind of things happens sometimes, and you have to cope with them.

While hearing this, I was also handed a survival kit from the Stockholm-Arlanda Airport. By the way, I don’t think I’m as big as for getting a XXL t-shirt, but…

The kit contains the following:

• A blue bag containing the rest or the items.
• A white t-shirt.
• A pair of blue socks.
• A comb.
• A safety razor.
• Shaving cream.
• Moisturiser.
• A tooth brush.
• Tooth paste.
• Deodorant.
• Make-up remover.
• Laundry washing liquid.

It surprises me that the pack doesn’t include any kind of briefs. But at least it has the nice detail of including liquid for doing the laundry.

Fortunately in my hand luggage I was carrying clothes for 2 days (like always) and anyway, they brought my luggage from the airport to my new home that same night, at 23:00.

Maybe soon, I’ll explain also how to deal with a completely unusable bed. It was like that when I arrived, I promise, it has nothing to do with the XXL t-shirt :D

By the way, I’m already in Stockholm… neat beginning, eh? :P

Well, this is not the only video I recorded from Amsterdam , but also the only one from my trip to the Netherlands, so, enjoy this not at all unique view from that country :P

The video was recorded, as its name says, in the Dam Square , where the Royal Palace and the National Monument -built to memorialize the victims of World War II- can be found.

Amsterdam Impressions:

• mrithail.com: Amsterdam: Impressions.
• mrithail.com videolog: Dam Square, Amsterdam.

Last update: 2009-08-14

Fast forwarding since the last trip, I arrived to the Netherlands to visit my friend Craig (the author of the Espanish Tribute, which was created during these days), who showed me some cities of that marvelous country.

Amsterdam is located in the west of the Netherlands, on the shore of river Amstel. Aside from being the capital of the country, it’s also the largest city, with a population a little bit over 750,000 inhabitants. In it, you can find the oldest stock exchange in the world.

The first settlement in the area appeared around the 13th century, as a fishing village that grew around a dam that was built across river Dam. Since then, the city became more and more important in time. It even became the wealthiest city in the world during the 17 century.

The houses of Amsterdam reminded me a lot of the ones you can find in the downtown of Copenhagen (Denmark), with plenty buildings with just 3 or 4 stories, very colorful and a typical architecture you can find in the north of Europe.

The presence of water in this city is quite important, and you can see plenty of channels spreading from the main river that crosses Amsterdam from one side to the other.

The weather I could find in there during my stay (in mid January) was quite irregular. Some times you could find the sun shining, and five minutes later a heavy rain. Anyway, most of the time it was cloudy, and not as cold as I was expecting it to be.

The people in there was nice, although I didn’t get to talk too much with people born in Amsterdam (I’m sorry Craig, but you are from Scotland :P ). As far as I’ve been told they’re kind and helpful… let’s check next time :D

I liked the nightlife and the party places. But surprisingly, most of the ones we found were closing really early… at least for my standards, but you know, I’m from Spain :P

I think that Amsterdam is a really interesting city, with plenty of places to discover and to enjoy, and for sure it’s worth a visit. I just hope that the next one (because there will be a next one :D ) I can stay longer.

P.S.: I’m having a problem uploading pictures to flickr… I’ll hope to be able to post pics both from Milan and from Amsterdam soon.

Update 2009-08-14: Finally I managed to upload the pictures from Milan and Amsterdam :D

Amsterdam Impressions:

• mrithail.com: Amsterdam: Impressions.
• mrithail.com videolog: Dam Square, Amsterdam.

Related links:

• Wikipedia: Amsterdam.
• Official site: Amsterdam.

Another book, and I’m almost up to date with the list of books I’ve already read :)

Original title: Lord of the Flies.
Author: William Golding.
Year: 1954.
Genre: Fiction, Allegory.
Language: English.
Read in: English.
Publisher: Faber and Faber Ltd.
Pages: 225.
ISBN: 0-571-19147-9.

Plot outline
During the Fifties, a plane crashes on a desert island. The only survivors are a group of children, who get together and try to assemble their own civilization while waiting to be rescued and taken back home.

Comment without Spoilers
The narrative rhythm is quite constant, but maybe not as fast as I would like. I think that the whole novel is too slow, and it took it a long time to trap me. Maybe it’s just that I’m used to faster books, but for example, Mrs Dalloway’s rhythm was even slower and I really enjoyed it.

The story is really interesting, and I think that the beginning point is an excellent idea that could lead to many different stories. However, I feel that the author could have achieved more with it, and that it ends too soon.

The characters in the book are very well depicted, and we can see all their motivations, feelings, thoughts and complexities that led them to behave the way they do all throughout the story.

Thanks to the descriptions offered in the novel, you can make a really clear image of the island in your mind. The same happens with the different fauna and flora that can be found in the mentioned island.

The edition published by Faber and Faber is quite nice, although not excellent. The quality of the paper and the printing is good, as well as the material of the cover. However, I don’t like the cover at all… maybe it’s just that I find it too colorful for the content of the book.

So, it took me a long time to read this book, because I didn’t really enjoy the first 2/3 of the novel, as its development was really slow and I felt almost as if nothing was being told. It’s as if the beginning was those 2/3 of the novel, the middle part the other 1/3 and the ending just the 3 last pages. Fortunately in that last 1/3 it improves a lot, raising the overall impression of the novel, but anyway, and contrary to the generalized opinion of the whole world, I’m still not sure if I would really recommend this novel to everyone.

Warning, SPOILERS

As I said in the first paragraphs, this novel left me a really sweet and sour taste, because after such a slow development of the story, once it was becoming really interesting, getting into the dark side of the human psyche with the hunting of Ralph by the wild boys, the author suddenly ended it with the appearance of the rescuing ship.

I don’t know, but I feel as if Golding wasn’t enjoying the path the novel was following, so he just decided to give it an end and send it to the publisher, not to loose the effort put in his work. And it’s a pity, because I think that he could have added at least 100 more interesting pages.

End of SPOILERS

Related links:

• Wikipedia: Lord of the Flies.
• Wikipedia: William Golding.