This evening was fruit night. The kids running this hostel sometimes decide to give foreigners a chance to taste exotic local fruits. They were in the mood for that tonight and we were invited to try 6 different kinds of fruits, all which I've not seen in my life before. Instructions were given about how to handle the fruits to make sure that we cracked them open correctly.

The first one we tasted was "Jambu", which looked like a pear but didn't taste like one at all. It had a mild taste and was very fresh. It was somehow very good to eat. Then we got to "Buah Duku", which was a small and sweet fruit. "Longan" was next and it looked like a small potato on a stick. Longan was very sweet. "Rambutan" was a pink and very hairy fruit. It was not exactly tempting because there was a small spider in mine! However, when I finished peeling the skin off, rambutan tasted very good. Everyone was pleased with the taste. "Mangosteen" was the next one and here it is called the Queen of Fruits. You are supposed to squeeze it until it breaks and eat what is inside of it. The flesh tasted sugary.

The last fruit we tried was "Durian" which was as big as a pineapple and had hard thorns everywhere. You're not allowed to take this fruit with you on the subway because it can hurt people if it falls on them. Interesting! This dangerous fruit! Durian is called the King of Fruits and people often have to taste it a few times before they like it. The faces of the kids who tried it tonight didn't look good when they tasted it... Maybe it was because the fruit smelt horrible. We heard that there was once an airplane which was stopped from flying because the crew thought there was a dead body on board. In the end, it turned out that the smell was coming from this fruit which was on board. Well, I thought durian tasted ok, even though many of the other kids complained.

It was very fun to do something like that when you're meeting people for the first time.

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(ORIGINAL ICELANDIC VERSION)
Avaxtakvold:

Eg heiti Erna og er fra Islandi. Eg er buin ad vera herna a hostelinu The InnCrowd i 4 daga. Mjog gaman og madur er alltaf ad hitta nyja krakka...i kvold var avaxtakvold en krakkarnir sem reka hostelid taka stundum upp a tvi ad leyfa utlendingum sem dvelja herna ad prufa skrytna avexti. Tad var stemmning fyrir tvi i kvold og okkur var bodid upp a 6 tegundir af avextum sem eg hef aldrei sed a afinni. Tad voru alltaf reglur um hvernig atti ad medhondla avextina tvi annars mundi eitthvad hradilegt gerast....Fyrsti sem vid smokkudum var Jambu sem lytur ut eins og pera en bragdast ekki eins og pera. Svo fengum vid Buah Duku sem er litill og satur avoxtur. Longan leit ut eins og litil kartafla a trjagrein mjog satur a bragdid. Rambutan er bleikur avoxtur mjog lodinn og ekki beinnt freistandi tar sem tad var kongulo a minum en tegar tad var buid ad pilla af honum ta var hann mjog godur....en voru allir sattir med bragdid...Mangosteen var nastur og er kalladur her drottningaravoxtur, madur atti ad kremja hann i sundur og borda innihaldid og tad var eins og ad borda sykurledju.....sidasti avoxturinn var Dunian sem er eins stor og ananas og er med harda gadda allstadar. Tad er bannad ad taka hann med i lestar herna tar sem hann getur storslasad folk...ahugavert...en tessi avoxtur er kalladur kongaavoxtur og folk tarf oftast ad bragda nokkrum sinnum adur en tvi likar hann. Svipurinn a flestum bodadi ekki gott tegar vid bordudum tetta enda lyktar hann hradilega, flugvel hefur verid stoppud herna vegna tess ad tad var haldid ad um lik vari ad rada en ta var tad bara tessi avoxtur sem var med i farteskinu....en mer fannst hann bara allt i lagi ta ad margir kvortudu...en allavegana ta er gaman ad gera einhverja svona hluti tegar madur er ad kynnast folki.

Newton Circus