Currywurst, pigs and crazy Hungarians

Now that the dust of travel has had time to settle I feel I can get back to writing a regular blog. It's not just the travel, Dad is making a recovery but until recently he has not been able to either travel or climb stairs which essentially has meant that he has been resident in our lounge for a month. Not a problem in itself but in a three bedroom house, seven does not go too well.

I am still writing about the Serbia trip, there is so much to capture and so many great people and encounters that I feel I need to spend as much time as I can recording the detail I remember before referring to notes and voice recordings.

I am pretty excited about my next upcoming trip, for more than a few reasons. Primarily, I will have the opportunity to hook up with an old buddy of mine and someone who I credit to setting me on the road to realising my own potential, hopefully I will also get the opportunity to meet his family too, it's been eight years so it is going to be so good to catch up. Secondly, Matt, that's the guy, has put me onto the trail of the currywurst. I mentioned this to an ex-army colleague without thought and was surprised at his reaction. Evidently currywurst is still a staple of the British Army catering menu, in much the same I guess as 'babies heads' are for the Navy. With currywurst having particular interest for the British Forces I looked into things a bit deeper. Matt had supplied me with some invaluable information about the controversy surrounding the creation of the sausage, which I won't go into here as there would be no point in buying my book. The crux of the matter, and the real focal point of my chapter on the subject is that there is an intense disagreement between Berlin and Hamburg as to which city saw the birth of the currywurst. I have an ingrained distrust of all that comes from capital cities and as such have thrown my hat into the Hamburg camp (camp Hamburg?). I am so looking forward to an urban safari in pursuit of the true, and wurst, of the wurst.

Still on the subject of sausages, whilst in Shetland Barbara expressed an intention to complete a course on bacon, that sounds a bit odd but believe me after looking into the subject the curing of bacon is no trivial matter. Again the gears started grinding and the result was that I realised that any book on sausages could not be complete without a chapter following my education on pig, slaughtering, butchering and subsequent sausage and bacon related creation activities. A swift Google moment followed and several courses presented themselves, many were up North but a few were nearby. The accompanying factor that Barb had told me would be the case was that in order to slaughter and butcher a pig the temperature needs to be reasonably low. I had not considered this but looking at the dates of all courses it was clear that after May there war none until September, Barbs comments were concrete. I know my choice of course will make many think that I am utilising the venue as a means to add colour to the book but please believe me when I say that the venue, date and indeed recommendation have coloured my choice rather than fame and popularity. The 'Pig in a day' course is booked for May at Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's 'River Cottage Farm' ticked all the boxes and will hopefully prove a colourful addition to the book.

I left Serbia over a week ago and have almost run out of Rakia. That in itself is a tragedy but what is worse is the surprise from all I have spoken to in the UK since my return at the amazing, perfect time I spent there. The perception from anyone who has not experienced the country recently is depressing. I saw a vibrant, welcoming, self-suffienct nation and would encourage anyone to take the time to get to know Serbia better, to experience the country and look beyond the prejudice and disdain generated by two decades of Western European media attention. OK they have great sausages and they have great Rakia but given a choice I would return to Serbia tomorrow. Serbia, as a landlocked country, is surrounded by several countries:

Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Montenegro and of course the disputed Kosovo. A country with so many borders and so many neighbours with their own cultural identities has no choice but to absorb and accommodate these into their own. Turija, in the North, has a definite Hungarian influence and one which I experienced with the sausages. The Hungarians I met at Kobisicijada were great. They were amongst the few founding members who sat over Rakia and Palinka charged glasses twenty-eight years ago and conceived the idea of the sausage festival in Turija. They took me to their hearts and have invited me to their festival in Bekescaba this October. I am about to drop theses crazy Hungarians an email.