Holiday in Graz and Goulash

Yesterday was a National Holiday here is Graz. It is to celebrate the different groups of the Allied forces leaving at the end of the Second World War. To celebrate everything is closed, including the University! So we were invited to E and P’s house for an afternoon of baking. We made lots of ‘Traditional Austrian Food’. We started with a bread called Stritzel, it’s a braided bread with sugar on top, that is usually eaten on All Saints Day and Easter. (All Saints Day is also a vacation here!) While E, M and P’s mom were making the Stritzel, P and I worked on the Goulash. It was awesome to see how they make ‘traditional’ goulash cause it is very different from our ‘Canadian’ goulash, or at least the goulash we make at home. Man was that fun! I may not have mentioned this before so I will say it now, the whole afternoon we were trying to speak German. I did finally break down and start speaking English, but everyone else says I did ok, so I’ll take their word for it. Back to the food, for the Stritzel, it being a braided bread and all, we had to braid it. By that time A (from Finland) had shown up and we got to watch a video explaining to us how to make the bread. That was a whole bunch of laughs! (It all was actually) But then we were done. We then got to do the most fun part of the evening which was eat our food! It was all delicious! But of course we couldn’t be done there! P wanted to make Tofflen Taches, which are kind of like cream cheese filled pastries but there isn’t really a Canadian equal to Toffeln, so it’s kind of hard to describe. Those were also delicious (both M and I had them for breakfast this morning).

And because it was the national holiday, we got to learn the Austrian National Anthem, thanks to E. We also got to watch the President’s speech on the TV. And I actually understood some of it! The rest E translated. It was a pretty awesome speech. After the speexh, we determined that M was the best Toffeln Tache maker, so we let her do that while P and I worked on the cupboards in the kitchen. It was fun!

When we got home, we cut my hair, and helped M with her version of the Post-it-Notes that she will be putting on her wall. I dont think there will be any Post-it-Notes on hers though.

Tiny

P making a game plan. (It didn't really work out that way!)

Me Chopping onions (it wasn't fair they all took pictures of me crying)

The Goulash and the Noodles (I can't remember the German name)

Trying to figure out how long to make the parts of the braid (we had 6)

The Toffeln Tache (I ate the one in the top right corner for breakfast lol)