Gingers Do Europe

I am still amazed by the fact that so many of my friends made the long journey over to Croatia for our wedding. Despite intense fears of flying, high costs of flights, and not enough vaction days, my loves made it to share the love with us on our big day. One of my besties had the plan from the start to put together a video of their Eurotrip and I can't believe she already put it together! It is amazing and I absolutely love it. These are two of my best friends in the world, the ketchup heads to my mustard, and (sorry T-Slav) but they are great loves of my life as well! I love my ketchup heads so much! Check out this fabulous video Morgan made below:

I love them both so much!

Szmingus Dingus

Happy Easter Monday! Here in Eastern Europe, today is a National Holiday as it is the second day of Easter! In Poland, it's called Szmingus Dingus and on this day, everyone throws buckets of water at each other. I'm not really sure about the history behind this but I know that when we spent Easter in Poland (when I was a kid), it was one of the most fun days ever! My sister and I and all of our neighbors in our Grandparents little village ran around like crazy filling buckets in the well and soaking one another. We had to change a million times but it was a blast. I love this tradition, as crazy as it is! Today, it's a little too cold for a proper Szmingus Dingus in Zagreb. At least it's sunny though!

Easter weekend has been really great!

My Traditions:

 

 

 These pictures are blurry but I love this girl too much not to post them. And the only reason they're so blurry is because we were getting our Rihanna on so hard! Thank you to the cafe/bar Kic for being so friendly and welcoming to us crazy girls!

T-Slav was talking about baking our own bread for our Easter basket but instead I went for these butter biscuits that remind me of one of my old college roommates who is a great cook and baker!

 

 My Carrot Ginger Soup was requested by Tomislav to be at Easter Sunday dinner so his family could try it. It was a huge hit, even with his Dad (!!) who officially gave me his blessing after realizing that I really can cook! Thank you T for doing all the peeling ;)

 

So excited to be making my first ham!

 

Pretty little hammy

 

 Beer and pineapples - the best thing to ever happen to ham! It came out absolutely PERFECT, so juicy and delicious! (T was SO thrilled to be eating meat again!)

Croatian Traditions:

 

 Dying eggs by putting onion skins in the boiling water so they get a nice red color

Most of mine stayed pretty brown but some of them looked redder!

 The Easter basket is both of our traditions since our Polish custom is to get our Easter baskets blessed on Saturday before Easter. The Croatian way is to have plenty of green onions and radishes on Easter Sunday. We also had the biscuits, eggs, salt and pepper, some of the freshly baked ham, and chocolate eggs. The blessed food is the first thing you eat on Sunday morning.

At Tomislav's parents house we had these baked potatoes and cabbage salads

 

Of course, more green onions and radishes!

 

Lamb

 

And finally these awesome glasses that Tomislav's parents both got 2 pairs of (each) recently!

They are the glasses you get for free (with insurance) and in true Croatian fashion, once I get health insurance, I'm totally trying to get a pair. They're cuuuute! T's parents look adorable in them!

  

So if you're somewhere warm today, I encourage you to throw a water balloon, or even just a splash of water on someone in honor of Szmingus Dingus :D I know how I'll be waking T up today!

Нови Сад, Novi Sad

Last summer marked my first ever trip to Serbia. Tomislav and I were about to embark on our 2 week Eastern European Road Trip which began in Zagreb and the goal was to get to Albania. We ended up visiting Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, Montenegro, then went back through Croatia (with a bit of Bosnia along the way!) It was an amazing trip! My first stop ever in Serbia was the second largest city, called Novi Sad.

 My first Serbian experience was at Tomislav's Aunt's house where she fed us so many delicious things!

 Behind us you can see the Petrovaradin Fortress overlooking the Danube River. Up there is where the world famous Exit Festival is held every summer!

Up at the Fortress with Tomislav's Aunt - Can you see what's wrong with that clock?



Loved seeing this reminder of the Jugo or "Yugo" car which EVERYONE used to drive back in the day ;)

 We went for a hike through the National Park Fruska Gora (which was beautiful!) but I had to take a picture of this smart summer refrigeration system the Serbs came up with for their picnic!

  The party scene in Novi Sad is FANTASTIC. Not only is it affordable to go out in Novi Sad, the people really know how to party! It's a great city to bar hop in because there are an incredible amount of cafes, bars, and clubs all within walking distance of one another. Even the most diverse group of friends will be able to find a place they like in Novi Sad!

  Tomislav's cousins Tea, David, me, and Tomislav at a British themed pub!

 Tomislav and I got really good at Cyrillic on this trip. In Serbia they write in both Cyrillic and Latin letters on their road signs so we thought we had really gotten a handle of it. Once we crossed the border into Macedonia and the Latin letters disappeared, we knew we were in for it!

 Close to the Serbian/Macedonian border - Tomislav's cousin told us about this unbelievable cevapi place. Here I am enjoying a "Niks" beer (ok, ok, it's actually Nikšićko)

It is literally the best Ćevapi (spicy, grilled minced meat sausages) with Kajmak (delicious creamy, cheesy dairy spread) I have ever had. The bread (lepinje) is so incredible, it really makes cevapi even better! I would LOVE to visit this unassuming roadside spot again. Oh yeah, and you HAVE TO eat onions with ćevapčići, it's practically a law.