Pakistan, Pasu – November 2016
Here are some shots from a trek we did in Pasu and its amazing surroundings.
China, Karakul Lake – October 2016
Yaks and the stunning Karakul Lake in Xinjiang China.
China, Cooking with Tusunjan and Kaule in Subaxcun – October 2016
Tusunjan and Kaule were so kind to host us for a night in their home at Karakul Lake. We cooked Chinese food and shared a water melon 🙂
China, Kashgar Bazaar – October 2016
A short impression from the bazaar in Kashgar.
China, Xinjiang Tian Shan Highway 216 – October 2016
This video shows some views from a scary drive on the Tian Shan Highway 216 reaching a pass that is over 4000 m high.
China, Xinjiang Urumqi – October 2016
A big thanks to Kevin, Alim, Merzhat and all their other wonderful classmates that invited us into their school and introduced us to traditional Uyghur dancing and singing!
China, Song & Dance – October 2016
An impression of the wonderful dancing and singing culture in China. The clips are from Xi’an and Urumqi.
China, Qingdao – October 2016
A big thank you to all the Chinese friends we made on WeChat. We had great fun meeting you all and loved how many of you came up to talk to us. We had a great time visiting China, mostly thanks to all of the wonderful Chinese people we met during our travels. 谢谢!!
To sing along:
C F C F
You’re so pretty, you’re so tall,
C F E7 F
Can I take a photo in the shopping mall?
G
And then, once again.
C G
The three of us. Who have never met.
C G
The three of us. Who’ll never forget.
C F
The three of us. Who are already
G C
friends on We Chat!
I love your country. I’ll never forget.
I got lost for hours, when I read about it on the Internet.
But then once again, I lost my vpn. C
Bridge:
C G C
And in the subway, I felt too shy
C F G
Too simply ask you, but I had to tryiyi
C F C F
So I took my phone, and in selfie-mode
C F C F
When you didn’t look, from down below
G G7
I took, your photo
I want your photo. But I’m too shy.
You won’t notice. I pretend that I don’t even try.
I take a picture with the three of us….
China, Beijing – September 2016
Walking around Beijing lakes with our couchsurfing host Mike, we stumbled across a musical performance. They do it not for money but just for fun!
China, Beijing – September 2016
Between Lama Temple and the Hutongs, we randomly filmed at a Zebra crossing.
China – September 2016
Street Food in China
In this video we gathered different impressions of street food in Beijing, Qingdao, Xián and Urumqi.
China – September 2016
Chinese Food with Mia 青椒炒土豆
Green pepper fried potatoes
2 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and sliced
2 green peppers, cut into bite sized pieces
3-5 cloves of garlic (often fried whole, can also be sliced)
A few spoons of oyster sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
Mushroom curry 咖喱杏鲍菇
500 g of your favorite mushrooms (we used a mix of king oyster and enoki, but you can use any mushrooms you like)
1 smallish red onion, halved and sliced
1 green pepper, cut into bite sized pieces
We used a ready made curry, but you can also make a Chinese-style sauce with a mix of soy sauce, ginger, chilli, garlic and sesame oil.
Mongolia – August 2016
This video shows some impressions of landscape and animals in Mongolia.
Aktash Altai Mountains, Russia – July 14 2016
Tea & Mushrooms
Collect herbs and mushrooms in the mountains and enjoy the beautiful view and sents. Herbs should be dried at least for a week before stored in a tin or plastic bag. Mushrooms should be prepared the same evening.
500 g potatoes, peel and cook in wedges.
Mushrooms (as many as you found), cut into pieces and place in frying pan.
4 small or 2 big chopped onions, placed on mushrooms in frying pan.
Chopped fresh herbs from the garden (parsley, celery leaves, dill, wild garlic leaves).
500 g sour cream.
100 g cheese.
Boil the potatoes. Fry mushrooms with onions in own juice until cooked. Add sour cream and cheese and finally also herbs. Serve the potatoes with some of the fresh herbs and some butter.
Boil water for the tea and leave in for about 10 mins. Sieve the tea out. Then for several times pour the tea out of the tea pot and back into the tea pot (important for the taste and Russian tradition).
Chemal, Russia – July 08 2016
We participated as volunteers in the Aaple language camp in Chemal, Russia. This is a small video, we made together with the other volunteers.
Kiev, Ukraine – May 30 2016
Kiev, Ukraine – May 29 2016
Recipe from Sonya:
Ingredients:
1 glass of Water
1 tbsp salt
5 glasses flower (400 g)
1 egg
45 ml Sunflower oil
1 cabbage
Slice the cabbage and fry with the oil in a pan. Add a bit salt. Make a soft dough out of the other ingredients. Roll out the dough about 5 mm thick and stamp out round shapes with a cup. In the round shapes fill one spoon of cabbage and close like a half moon. Cook in boiling water until the Warenyky swim on the surface of the water. Serve with roasted onion and sour cream. Enjoy!
Chitcani, Transnistria – May 20 2016
Transnistrian Borscht Soup Recipe from Nadia:
Ingredients
• 3 beetroots, grated
• half a cabbage, thinly sliced
• 3 carrots, grated
• 2 -3 potatoes, diced
• 2 large onions, sliced
• 1 glass of diced tomato paste from Nadia’s garden
• 1 bunch dill leaves from Nadia’s garden, chopped
• 1 bunch of parsley, chopped
• 2-3 garlic cloves (optional)
• half a cup of oil
• salt to taste
• water
Preparation:
1. after grating beetroots, fry them together with the sliced onion and maybe garlic.
2. in the meantime when the beetroots are cooking, chop the carrots, potatoes and cabbage and keep it ready
3. chop the dill leaves and parsley
4. add the chopped potatoes into a big pot of cooking water, add salt.
5. add the cabbage to the beetroot stock in which our potatoes are cooking
6. add the chopped carrots
7. add the grated beetroot and tomato paste
8. thoroughly mix the stock with all the ingredients, 15-20 mins,
9. add the herbs only in the last 2 minutes of cooking
10. season with salt in the end
11. Optional: serve the vegetarian borscht soup hot with sour cream
Romanovca alias Rohrbach, Moldova – May 18 2016
We visited the small Moldovan village, where Linda’s grandfather Opa Erwin grew up and made a short documentary there.
Orheiul Vechi, Moldova – May 16 2016
This video shows the old town of Orheiul Vechi in Moldova and its many colorful inhabitants.
Rachitele, Romania – May 12 2016
Recipe:
– Cow
– Bucket
– Empty bottles
– Some technique and/or a patient cow
We would go by Abraham in Rachitele every day for fresh milk, to which he not only invited us in for a Palinka, but also to try milking one of his cows. You can read more about our stay in Rachitele in our blog post: “Vampires and more Palinka”.
Zagórz, Poland – 25 April 2016
This is the place where you can find the best Pizza from here on east!
Krakow, Poland -April 22 2016
Recipe from Justyna: The recipe is easy – use raw mashed potatoes (we used around 1,3kg for the three of us), chopped raw onion, 3 eggs, salt and pepper and 2-3 spoons of flour. Mix all ingredients together. Use a spoon to pick up the dense mixture and drop on a hot frying pan. The mixture should shape small pancakes (like the American ones). Fry until the side is light brown. Then flip it over and fry the second side. The frying process will last around 5-6min. Eat with anything you like – meat goulash, stew veggies etc. In Poland, we usually eat it with cream.
Krakow, Poland – April 21, 2016
We practice our travelling style in Krakow :-).
Quakenbrück, Germany – April 12, 2016
We cooked Strudeln together with Linda’s grandfather. It is an old recipe from his mother from Bessarabia. We loved, when she cooked it as children:
Ingredients:
For the Strudeln:
500 g wheat flour
250 ml luke warm water
1 egg (leave out if you are vegan)
1 tablespoon salt
½ cup Oil
What else:
500 g potatoes
2 big onions
250 g lamb, pork or beef with some bones and fat (leave out if you are vegetarian)
500 ml water
salt
3 tablespoons tomato paste
big frying pan with lid(should be quite high)
Preparation:
For the Strudeln dough, mix salt and flour. Then add the other ingredients. Only use half the oil for the dough. Knead the dough thorougly and then set to rest (at least half an hour). The dough should be kind of fluffy, if it is not, add some oil and water. In the meantime you can start cutting the onion and meat. Put some oil into the frying pan, wait till it’s hot and then add the onions and meat. Fry on high temperature, so the meat can build a crust. When meat and onions are a bit golden, mix salt water and tomato paste and add to the frying pan. Boil for about an hour on low temperature, add water, if the water reduces to much (meat should be well covered).
Peel the potatoes and cut into quarts. Then take the dough and seperate it into even parts (approximately the size of a small womens fist). Roll out the dough thin and spread with oil using your hands – this makes it far easier to pull the dough. By pulling the dough over the back of your hands or over the edge of a table you should make it very, very thin (one should be able to read a newspaper through the dough!) Fold the dough loosely to form a Strudel and put to rest on a tray or on the table.
Add the potatoes to the frying pan on top of the onions and meat. The potatoes may not be fully covered in water. If there is too much water in the pan, take it out and save to use it for the sauce later on. Put the Strudeln in spirals on top of the potatoes. They should lie on the potatoes but not touch the water (otherwise they get slimy). You now build your own steam pot: Put one or two slightly wet kitchen towels around the top of the frying pan. Add the lid. On top of the lid add a heavy pot bottom up. On top of this pot you can add another heavy item (be creative!). The water should boil quickly, so choose a high temperature, you can reduce this when the water starts boiling. Don’t open the steampot during the cooking process. The Strudeln should be ready after about half an hour. You might also be able to smell this, as the water reduces so much that it could start to smell a bit burned. Then the Strudeln are definetely ready! Take all ingredients out of the pan and put into pots or bowls. Add the remaining water to the bottom of the pan to make some sauce. Enjoy!
Kijkduin, Netherlands – April 9, 2016
A visit with Jeroen and his grand mother “omi” to the beach at Kijkduin. The furthest to the west we’ll get on our trip. From here on, we’ll only be going east.
Quakenbrück, Germany- April 11, 2016
Our trailer with a slight touch of irony!