SocialErasmus event: The soup festival

The fourth year of soup festival in Košice took place on the 12th October 2015 in Kasárne Kulturpark, the place which hosts many cultural events. Like last year, our Erasmus students took part in it and by preparing national soups they presented their cultures. There were three teams of Erasmus students to represent their countries at the festival: Turkish, which prepared a soup called „Mercimek corba“; Portuguese one, which served „Sopa da pedra“ and finally French team with their „Soupe au pistou“.

The festival day didn’t begin very nicely. It was raining in the morning, but it stopped by the opening of the festival. However, it was still cloudy and quite windy too. The temperature was about seven degrees of Celsius, so many people wanted to taste hot soups quickly. But organisers were very strict and uttered not to serve soups before official opening time, which was set to 2 p.m. But it was worth waiting: nice and big French flag was made by our French team just at the opening time. Portuguese stand was also covered by their national flag and Turkish guys have decorated their stand with their typical carpets, so each stand looked very well.

As the festival was officially opened, each stand was enjoying the popularity of hungry visitors, who wanted to discover different cultures. Erasmus students managed to serve hot portions to many people. Apparently, visitors liked all of these three soups because there were big queues in front of each stand. That was a reason why soups were quite quickly eaten. Only French team resisted at longest within five other stands, because they have prepared a great quantity of soup.

To sum up, this multicultural festival (Mongolian, Chinese, Armenian and other nationalities that live in Košice took part too!) showed that also students are capable of cooking great soups and are proud to promote their countries. By this event, Erasmus student met Slovak people and helped to promote the consciousness of Erasmus program. Even the weather was not the best one, everybody spent a nice day because hot soups warmed icy people in one of the coldest days in autumn in this year.

Author, ESN Košice member: Matej Tvrdoň
Photos: ESN Košice