Year minus one day - still eating

Last update on the blog was on July 11 2010, I really seem to have a knack for spontaneously good timing.

So, I finally gave into the little Iron Chef in me, and got me a gas grill for the backyard.

I didn't buy it from Ikea, but I just as well might have...

After some hours of connecting the dots, it was time to get cooking.

Fantastic. I'm going to get a lot of joy out from that grill, I can already tell.

Hot and humid weekend. Got some mates to come over and fixed us some refreshing mojitos.

Then it was time to really get cooking. We fixed us a rather respectable-sized mountain of sushi (salmon rolls and bacon rolls with egg and cucumber, as well as smoked herring nigiri), while playing Epic Mealtime videos on Youtube in the background. On the hindsight, I should have taken a photo or two of that, but we were all rather hungry, and quickly getting slightly drunk, so it slipped my mind.. After the sushi, we moved outside to enjoy the brief thunderstorm brought in by the intense (for these parts) heat, and started working on the next items on our to-do list.

Beer can chicken. Ingenious. Take a whole chicken, lubricate it well inside and out with butter-spice mix, then shove a two-thirds full beer can up its ass, so it sits on top of it just as rigidly as someone with a beer can stuck up their rear-end can, and place it on the grill. As the outside of the chicken bakes nice and crispy, the beer boiling out from the can inside keeps the meat from drying up, a common side-effect, when barbecuing some types of meats. Result: the most succulent chicken I've ever tasted. (Trivia: the brand of the beer used was "Kukko", or rooster/cock. You make the obvious jokes about it keeping the bird moist all the way to the end..)

Chocolate-topped crispy bacon. Smart.

Chocolate-covered bacon-wrapped fresh strawberries. My mouth had no idea what it was tasting. Very confusing.

Ending the evening with a wee dram of the good stuff.

Cortona, Italy

Being such a slow updater, the future has caught up with me.

This week I made a useless little business trip to Tuscany in Italy, which still managed to change my somewhat gloomy opinion on the Boot Country a bit, so instead of posting pictures from Austria or Hungary, I'll just go on and upload some views from the Italian countryside.

Taking a train from Florence to a station that smelled of cow dung...

...and making my way uphill to the town of Cortona.

A nice view over the historical town from my hotel room.

And right outside the hotel front door, an utterly mind-blowing view over the countryside that Tuscany is so famous for. The lake in the distance is about 11 km away from where I stood.

Making my way further uphill to the meeting place, not minding the walk at all. The morning temperatures were close to 20 degrees Celsius, making it a comfortable stroll, but towards the afternoon the thermometer would climb unerringly to over 30 degrees with such high levels of humidity that I wouldn't dare go outside during the worst hours.

The meeting venue, a renaissance villa/castle, Palazzone di Cortona, owned by Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa.

I'm not lying, when I say that it was the nicest looking place I've ever had 2-day PowerPoint presentation marathons in.

But how on Earth are you supposed to be able to focus on an insanely boring speech after another, when right next to you are large windows with views like this?

A well in the central courtyard of the villa.

Another charming well outside the main building, getting its waters through a small waterfall connected to the other well.

Tiny lemon trees and battlements.

Less tended parts behind the palazzo.

Plenty of cats in the walled garden we would eat lunch in. Great food, by the way. The cats were constantly trying to beg/steal their part, too. :)

Walking back to the town, we were all of sudden joined by two shaggy dogs, who decided to accompany us for several hours.

Central square of Cortona. There were a lot of tourists, but for some reason a good 90% of them were from the US of A; I saw none of the usual Asian swarms during my whole stay. During the football games in South Africa a lot of people would gather in the restaurants and bars lining the square to watch and cheer, sitting down wherever they could, including all over the pavement.

Speaking of which, I had the pleasure to eavesdrop on an interesting breakfast table conversation in my hotel, as two American middle-aged couples were gulping down their strong Italian coffees and discussing the current state of American economy. The men were very worried about it, considering different ways to ward off/survive the coming economic collapse of USA, while their wives would just tsk-tsk at them, telling them to talk about more positive things on their holiday.

This was actually the first time I've heard strangers talking about the looming global economic Armageddon that seems to be growing more probable by the day. As banker and state-controlled mainstream media outlets mostly only sport headlines such as "the economy is healing" or "the double-dip depression avoided", and as the old crowd-control method of bread and circuses is today just as efficient as it was in the days of the old Roman empire, the "little people" at the moment are mostly oblivious to, or simply don't give a damn (until of course, it is too late, and they find themselves living in a freshly born third world country, possibly under military dictatorship) about the condition of the civilization around them, and so, listening to this little conversation was a very refreshing experience indeed.

Right, onward.
A big church on the top of the hill. I was leaving behind a stream of sweat, when I finally reached it. The Greek guy in our little group didn't even think it was a particularly warm day..

Me sporting my freshly-grown beard. So manly, so itchy, always getting into my mouth, a great place to hide food in.

Down the hill. Your car better have decent breaks on it, if you want to live here.

Being so hot and humid, a thunderstorm blew through the region every evening at roughly the same time.

Found this magazine in the hotel lobby. Alexander Stubb, huh.. (A Finnish politician) Inside the magazine, a page after page of hideously photoshopped bitchy-looking super models in ridiculous clothing, car and watch advertisements, and more pictures of Stubb in various attires.

So, what exactly made me adjust my opinion on Italy, then?

Three things, I guess:

Food was really fantastic. But I was kinda expecting that one.

The scenery at places was heart-breakingly beautiful. Better than I expected, surely.

The locals were actually quite nice, and certainly a lot more peaceful than the people I've endured so far in Rome, whenever I go there. Even the young people of the town were a lot more down-to-earth than their big-city counterparts. Perks of the sticks, that. Loud macho people are pretty damn high on my list of Annoying Things in the World. :)

Rome, Italy

Rome. Retard.

Ah, Italy. A country so very much incompatible with me. :) A nation living on the ruins of a great empire (which was of course based on slavery and military conquest, just like the so-called great empire of the past half a century) uncohesive, form over function, full of hot steam, void of the cool logic required to successfully run a country, corrupt.

Having to go there several times a year on business might be affecting my thinking.

And at least the food is fantastic. Best pizzas can be found in other countries, but pasta-wise, Italy certainly takes the price. Just steer clear from the tourist traps and eat, where the locals eat. We found some of the most sleaziest staff members imaginable, when we tried taking the easy way out and eating in one of the large street-side pizzerias that promised service in dozen languages. In this case some fat half-Italian, half-gypsy slimy prick of a waiter kept harassing passers-by and preying on the dining customers. If a guy would leave his lady alone even for a moment to visit the bathroom, this creep would immediately materialize behind the girl and start groping her, asking for photos, kisses and whatnot. Most of the women actually seemed delighted by the attention *giggle giggle*, though I'm not sure, how their husbands would appreciate it later, when one of the holiday photos would show a greasy-haired, mouth-breathing gigolo with a perpetual sneer on his face holding their woman, with one shovel-sized hand wrapped firmly around a buttock.

Anyway. :)

We spent 4 days in Rome. Photos.

This statue shop was so cash. (I was surprised to find out that Americans actually use expressions like that in a real-life conversation...)
Visiting the Leonardo da Vinci museum. Official? No idea, but it was nice enough. Just a tad expensive. Saying that guy was really something wouldn't even properly start scratching the surface of his genius.
Oh hell yes. Respect. :)
Colosseum. Notice the golden pharaoh standing on the foreground. I have to respect these guys' self-control; the outside temperatures to the north of 25 degrees Celsius probably mean that you could fry eggs on the shiny surface of those costumes.

Into the Colosseum.
View from the Colosseum.

Did Roman legionaries have cigarette breaks?

Evenings were nice and warm.

A pit with some ruins and about a hundred cats.

The mouth of Truth.
A view over Circus Maximus.
Visited too many churches to remember the specifics, but what the hell is wrong with this altarpiece? A skull looking upwards and above it an x-ray image (?) of someone's lower body? Nothing is too ridiculous for religions, sure, but damn.Some of the other decorations are interesting, too. There must be so many tattoos designed using this thing as a template.
This guy actually reminds me about one big church in Rome, the inside walls of which were lined up with tiny booths that had fat priests in them, ready to receive confessions from believers in various languages. I was very tempted to just walk up to one of them and order a Big Mac with fries.Using electric lamps instead of real candles. Can I make the donation in, say, bottle caps, too, then?

A nice peaceful spot.

And yet more Segways. :) Everywhere they go. Except Finland. They don't go to Finland.

Spanish Steps.Trevi Fountain. Would be a great place to sit down for a while, but it seems to be one of the most popular sights in Rome, so prepare to elbow your way around.
Tossing some coins into the fountain. Doing it the wrong way and for the wrong reasons, but who cares, I hate carrying around small change. Apparently thousands of euros worth get tossed into the water every single day.

Pantheon. Being originally a temple for every single god out there, it is more or less the only religious building in Rome that I have even a shred of respect for. Of course, the good Christians have long since perverted it into their own image, but I can ignore that minor detail. A very impressive building, really. 2000 years old and still going strong. They really don't make them like they used to, anymore. I don't think my house is going to be standing here after a mere 100 years from now.Saint Peter's Square in Vatican. Tourists, fat cops buzzing around in golf cars, Swiss soldiers dressed up as clowns, African people selling trinkets. Action never ceases in this greed capital of the world. (Well, one of them, at least. Perhaps Vatican only hands down wins the first price for the most outrageous double morals, those lecherous old farts.)Vatican Museum entrance. An excellent idea to visit off-season. Apparently the queue can reach hundreds of meters in length at times.

Broken angels. More my kinda art.

It's funny, how the Vatican is filled with references to non-Christian religions.
This painting of Eden was actually rather nice. Colors, yay.

A corridor lined with old maps. I've liked maps as long as I can remember. Warm, fuzzy feelings, etc. Other than that, the whole place is just a long succession of gift shops wrapped in excessive amounts of marble, gold and art.

Sistine Chapel was really nice, I do admit, as were many of the art pieces in the galleries and all over the walls and ceilings, but the sheer busyness of the deco made me realize once again, how much I appreciate minimalism as interior design guideline.

Big metal ball. Big. Metal. Heavy. Can be rotated with ease. Nicely done.

Inside the Vatican.
Outside the Vatican. (on Ponte Sant'Angelo)
Rainbow over Tiber River.

Perhaps one more update for this trip to follow?